Well yeah, there’s not really much of a unified support system (some distros do have support, be it free or paid, though). But there isn’t for windows these days either.
I can’t speak to whether you can contact Apple and ask for help.
You can absolutely contact Microsoft (or Apple) for support, plus basically any computer store will happily charge a small fee for basic tech support, or you can call the computer manufacturer or reseller. On the Linux side, unless you bought from something like System76, the chances of you finding an official support network that an elderly person would find usable and accessible are pretty slim.
Microsoft support is essentially dead.
And the computer store example applies for PCs in general, not just windows ones.
You can get support from your distro, not just hardware sellers.
Support networks for Windows is useless for anybody, nevermind old people. They absolutely do not have usable and accessible support.
