The same with my wife. She knows how to power on my computer, but then she needs time to get used to all the icons and the desktop every time she uses my computer. She has a laptop with Windows 11, but she doesn’t use it. She’s only typing on her iPhone. 
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I bought my wife a Dell 9700 series Laptop, way more computer than she needs. dumped Windows and installed Linux Mint on it. I didn’t tell her it was Linux, or this or that. I just showed her how it works, and to call me if she has any questions. That was two years ago!
When she does call me, I just ask her if she turned on the wifi, fixes 90% of all issues. Plus, I installed Rustdesk on it, if I am away, I just remote in and fix it. Maintaining Windows for her was three times the work!
And that my friends is how you do it! 
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Nice work; glad it is working out well!
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Does Mint handle kernel updates for you in a virtually invisible way?
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@userx I don’t know the answer, but it probably IS possible, and possibly automatic because Linux Mint has used a lot of package groups in the past, so if they have a kernel group package that’ll catch a new kernel.
I’ve used both Liquorix and Zabbly+ kernels recently and both have kernel metapackages; since moving to Zabbly+ I’ve gone from a 7.1 kernel to the 7.2.6 kernel with updates in between.
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They aren’t invisible per se. Those updates are performed as normal for any Debian package.
As far as I know, Mint has no element of its core OS which is “SNAP” control, and their approach suggests that they never will.
I also checked about Flatpack and they don’t have any Flatpack-based kernel components either, even though Mint is pro-Flatpack.
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Mint’s programmers, led by lead developer, Clement “Clem” Lefebvre, has dropped support for Ubuntu’s Snap software packing system. […] So, what’s not to like? Well, a lot, thinks Clem. As he wrote in July 2019, the idea is fine: “When snap was announced it was supposed to be a solution, not a problem. It was supposed to make it possible to run newer apps on top of older libraries and to let third-party editors publish their software easily towards multiple distributions, just like Flatpak and AppImage.” But, he said, “What we didn’t want it to be was for Canonical to control the distribution of software between distributions and third-party editors, to prevent direct distribution from editors, to make it so software worked better in Ubuntu than anywhere else and to make its store a requirement.”
Continues:
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I agree with Clem; I have NOT liked snaps or flatpaks at all; the only alternate format besides tar variants and package management formats I’ve used is AppImage; that works well for browsers like Ungoogled Chromium but not as a widely used tool, just for a few select programs.
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I agree with that one … even though it does drives bloat!
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My main system has enough memory (16 GB), enough actual storage space (476.94 GiB) and enough CPU power (bogomips: 86242) to handle anything I choose to do. The only thing I don’t get too carried away with is compiling REALLY large things, such as Web Browsers or system kernels. My system has the capacity, but it’s a laptop and it tends to run pretty warm - hot to the touch on the inside, blowing warm to hot air through the ventilation. The biggest program I can compile without getting uncomfortable is GNU Emacs; I compiled Version 31.1 from scratch not very long ago and it does that fine. I’ve compiled some smaller editors and it can handle those in a minute or two at the most, so the machine is capable; I just feel more comfortable building kernels and Web Browsers from a UNIX or Linux server rather than a laptop; even a reasonably powered DESKTOP would be adequate in a pinch; Lenovo laptops, good as they are, tend to run really warm and I don’t want one to burn up, which IS possible when too much load is applied; don’t want to go anywhere near that possibility!
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Yes I also use two, avidemux for video editing and balenaEtcher for writing OS’s to a USB drive. I agree I don’t want flatpaks or snaps. I use .deb if I can find them, but a lot of software is going to just appimage.
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