Easier said than done. I love my parents and ultimately I do want to help them when they’re stuck with stuff, and I know if I the situation were reversed they’d do the same for me.

Are you actually good at Windows 11? Are you really helping them as much as you could be that way?

I don’t think I could help somebody set up modern Windows. If I help someone with a computer, I’m telling them I’ve got it into a reasonably usable and safe state. With all the spyware built into a modern Windows system, I don’t think I could be confident there.

I mean, I'm not "good" at it exactly, but a lot of the old Windows XP terminology still applies (e.g. "run", "dxdiag", "device manager"), and I have a bit more intuition about computers than they do, so I can usually brute force a solution to their problems. I don't have any non-virtualized Windows computers in my house, so it is always me figuring it out, but I generally am able to figure stuff out quicker than they can.

I agree with your point though, and I've tried explaining that to them; if something is broken on your Linux box I can get you to send me a tmate URL and I can likely fix any problem you have quickly just because I am much more used to it. At some point I probably should try doing the ultimatum.

My little imaginary quote had a “good luck” at the end which made it look really flip. But, really, I think “I’m getting less and less familiar with Windows as time goes by” is more of a… gentler… way of putting the ultimatum.

You are assuming they're not doing it deliberately.

A lot of old people have figured out that you can get other people do do stuff for you by pretending you don't understand it yourself.

I genuinely do not think they are doing it deliberately, at least not at any conscious level. I guess I don't know their inner psyche but I genuinely think that when they ask for help it's because they feel like they need help.

It might not be the case for you, but people generally like to help their close family members.

It seems like they actually are having trouble supporting their parents on Windows, based on their other comments.

I mean this is basically the ultimatum idea, but presenting it as an unavoidable limitation rather than an arbitrary unwillingness to help.

I didn't think it was so bad. It's a valid response.

I mean, it is my comment; I wouldn’t have made it if I thought there was anything wrong with it. But, I’m really struggling to see anything objectionable in it at all.