For those who barely know how to operate a computer, getting into anything at all, regardless of what it is, either takes "hand holding", teaching, sharing, answering questions, OR it takes someone with the initiative to read, learn, try, make mistakes, read more, and learn.

For most people who are NOT technologists it's practical to have a guiding hand; I still think if someone wants to get GOOD at anything, it takes a lot of their own initiative, but it is possible to create some appliance-like software systems that can automatically or semi-automatically perform certain tasks. For those of you who have seen kiosk devices, these are examples of devices with limited, specific functions.

It's possible to create something CLOSE to a kiosk device that performs perhaps anywhere from one to ten tasks and these can be programmed into either a simple menu or a toolbar with buttons to perform these operations; one of those operations can be an icon to turn it off.

I think it is helpful for a "casual" computer user, such as an older adult, to install a very configurable system for them, and as you do so, gently ask them what they would do IF they use a computer?

I did this with my mother, and I also did this with a fifty something gentleman who lived across the street from me. In both cases, I used a Linux distribution called "antiX" for several reasons:

1) It uses resources very efficiently, so it doesn't need a new computer; neither person had a new computer.
2) It has tools that a veteran can easily use to create a highly customized system.

What I created for my mother was not the same as what I created for the gentleman because while some of their needs and interests were basic and common, other interests were quite different. The antiX tools made it easy for me to create an efficient system for each of them.

My mother's laptop was given to her by my nephew. My oldest sister, a retired teacher, is VERY adept at writing clear instructions, and she created some EXCELLENT instructions for my mother to use her laptop with Windows - I think at the time it was Windows 7. She'd eventually bury those notes under other things, and then she couldn't figure out how it worked. INSTEAD, I ASKED her specific questions to figure out what she'd actually use, and I set the system up to AUTOMATICALLY boot to an extremely easy desktop, with just a few icons on a toolbar; I made those icons one click access to the things she indicated that she used and I did the same with the other gentleman.

This DID NOT turn them into computer experts, but it DID make it possible for each of them to actually use their systems and at least for a while they had a way to use their computers.

Specific interfaces for specific users can make Linux, UNIX, or Windows usable as long as they can be configured to simplify (instead of complicate) turning on the computer and getting it to work. The antiX distribution, while not the only one capable of creating what I made, did make getting into their computers something less challenging; the very same distribution can do much more involved tasks for those who are interested in creating all kinds of different systems and workloads.