Hello everyone,
My mum uses her computer mainly to browse YouTube on Firefox, read emails with Thunderbird, print PDFs, and browse photos. Those are basically the only things she does on her computer.
She was on Windows 10, and since support ended, I installed Fedora 43 with KDE instead.
Does anyone know how to make Dolphin (the file manager) look and behave more like Windows Explorer?
I know this might trigger some Linux purists, but my only goal is to give my mum a Linux system she can actually use comfortably. Right now she’s a bit lost because Dolphin doesn’t look or behave the same way as what she was used to.
Also, I’d like to more generally start a discussion about how Linux could be more “Windows-ready” from a usability point of view. I’m thinking about default keyboard shortcuts like <code>shift + super + s</code> or <code>super + v</code> for example
Why isn’t there a desktop distribution that ships with this kind of Windows-like configuration by default?

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A user seeks advice on making KDE's Dolphin file manager look and behave like Windows Explorer to help their mother transition from Windows 10 to Fedora 43 Linux. The user questions why Linux distributions don't ship with Windows-like configurations by default, including familiar keyboard shortcuts, to improve usability for non-technical users migrating from Windows.

Windows-like Linux for mums?

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on Linux distributions but I believe <a href="https://zorin.com/os/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://zorin.com/os/</a> is specifically designed to feel comfortable to Windows users. ZorinOS actually hit over a million downloads in a single month when Windows 10 ended support. Might be worth a look.

As far as I can recall, mint was created to be new to Linux friendly., might worth a look.

From what I understand, Zorin is supposedly about as close as you can get to Windows “feel”

It’s always a matter of opinion on what Linux distribution is most “Windows-ready”, because different users value different features differently. For me, I would be most happy about two things.
<ol>
<li>The taskbar has to look exactly and behave exactly, including all features, like the original Windows 10 one. I still use an open source implementation of it on Windows 11.</li>
<li>Multi-monitor setups simple have to work, without additional setup beyond moving around screen orientation, etc.</li>
</ol>
One last thing I would need Linux to be able to do, to completely switch as an end user OS, is Support for Windows based kernel-level anti-cheat, without the game banning me for “cheating”, i.e. using Linux.
If you ask others, they will tell you other priorities and preferences.

I’m sorry to be the dissenting voice, but if that’s all your mother does with her computer, then Windows being out of support really doesn’t matter… Installing Linux on someone who doesn’t understand why it’s necessary is counterproductive, in my humble opinion.