C A B B A G E

The right answer is “yes”. Some cash in the moment is a nice thing to do, and will alleviate an immediate want or need potentially.

Donation to an organisation that will help the problem long term is a worthwhile thing to fund.

Why not give a man a fish to eat while you’re teaching them to fish for themselves, if you’re in a position to do so?

You could have asked him what he wanted first, if anything at all?

It smacks of elitism, that’s all.

The OS is simply a means to an end. If Linux offers a way to do what they want in a way that is less hassle, and it meets their needs, then that’s a good thing.

customizable and configurable

Whatever you think of OPs proposed use case is definitely falls under the above.

It’s this kind of 1337 h@xor approach to the OS that makes people feel like it’s unapproachable when that’s so far from the reality these days.

My great uncle left a load of masonic stuff but my dad returned it to his lodge before I could have a rummage through it.

My parents are religious and took a dim view of it.

Some of that stuff was pretty cool - it was a part of my great uncles life I would have loved to asked him about and I didn’t find out about it until he passed. Sad stuff.