•  Hirom   ( @Hirom@beehaw.org ) OP
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    7 months ago

    If they don’t know what they’re going to use it for, I’d focus on practical things most non-technical people use laptop for:

    • Fair battery life to carry it around.
    • Operating system that does auto-updates, needs little to no administration.
    • SSD so the thing feels fast, and starts quickly. May not need a large storage capacity.
    • Built-in webcam for video calls with relatives, etc.

    The rest can be done on the software side:

    • To browse safely, install security tools (antivirus, browser extensions like privacy badger) and verify auto-udate is on.
    • Install an office suite (et Libre Office). Even if they don’t write documents, they’ll probably need to read them.
    • If using Windows, tweaks settings to disable abnoxious things like ads, telemetry.
    • Backup software. Ideally with automatic remote backups. Window’s built-in backup sucks.