Similar experience for me with my mom. I set her up with a desktop machine running Pop_OS! with automatic updates. I did some minor hackery to get Windows' FreeCell working on it because she cares a lot about that.
I installed tailscale for remote support, but haven't had cause to use it.
In general it's working fantastically.
The only issue is that the USB WiFi adapter drops out rather frequently. So my one hardware concession will be to replace it with one known to be more reliable under Linux. [0]
[0] I know sometimes this can be fixed by choosing a more appropriate driver and/or Bluetooth device settings, but it's not something on which I want to spend a lot of time or headspace.
I installed tailscale for remote support, but haven't had cause to use it.
In general it's working fantastically.
The only issue is that the USB WiFi adapter drops out rather frequently. So my one hardware concession will be to replace it with one known to be more reliable under Linux. [0]
[0] I know sometimes this can be fixed by choosing a more appropriate driver and/or Bluetooth device settings, but it's not something on which I want to spend a lot of time or headspace.