What exactly? Plugin an USB then opening Firefox on youtube and watching a video, then try to print something? Is this more work then reinstalling Windows, do all windows updates, reinstall all the apps, restore the data , each time something fishy starts happening and you are not sure if the computer was infected?

Installing Linux on your parents' computer and then having them give up and get support from a local store is less work for you than properly teaching them to use Linux before installing it on their computer and then providing support whenever they have issues.

It depends, i would not recommend this for all cases, as the article mentions it worked because this following things applied

1 you were already wasting your time when visiting the parents on fixing the computer

2 the parents were transitioned to the Linux cmpatible applications like Firefox,Chrome, VLC,

3 all the parents workflows were accounted for and were met by Linux

4 the switch is done to Ubuntu LTS and not some exotic distribution

5 training is done on how to accomplish the new workflows

If the conditions above do not apply then you should not attempt this, send them to a repair shop to format and reinstall their OS.

For some workflows that most parents do Linux is good enough, my parents only use the browser,FB and YT apps(on a tablet).

Regardless of whether these conditions apply, teaching your parents to use new software is more work than doing nothing.

It depends, if they only use a browser,solitaire,image viewer and video player then the Linux equivalent are very similar or better. If they use some exotic software then I agree with you.

But keep in mind that there are people that will have no idea that you changed the software, I was called by a neighbor to check why his laptop has no longer sound, somehow he muted Windows without knowing(maybe he hit some keyboard shortcut). With this low skilled people there is o retraining cost because their skill is already close to zero

If it's not always more work to retrain people with no tech skills than to not do it, will you retrain every such person in the country? You're already not doing it, so this won't increase your workload at all.

I am not a person that converts people to Linux, the entire thread was about when it is right to help a family member by installing Linux on their broken system, see above the conditions i think are the right one. The fact I could convert a random person to free software is not valuable enough to me to was 1 hour of my free time(yeah I am selfish).

That's my point. It takes an hour of time to convert someone to Linux. It takes 0 time to let them get their tech support from the local store. 1 hour is more than 0 work, even for a family member.

You also have to account for the fact that other people might think you're lazy or self centered because you don't want to spare some time to at least try to help them. Not saying that you're a bad person for refusing to provide free tech support, but your math is not entirely flawless.

Unless having a reputation for being lazy and selfless leads to more tech support calls, I think the math still works out on this being the least amount of work to get rid of tech support calls.

Whether this is a good idea or not is a separate question. Personally, I help my friends and family when I can.