On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 12:09, Derek Smithies wrote: > Hi, > For the sake of the discussion, I will use the phrase, "my parents". > In fact, I am referring to a potential new linux user, who maybe > any age. The reason I ask, is that I have had this conversation with > many people, and wondered what the consensus is. > My parents have a win 95 machine, that is loaded down with avg etc etc, > and cannot send email. > > what do you think would best suit my parents. > semi computer literate. > long term exposure to windows 95 > notion of folders/directories is a bit vague > > they need a)email, b)webbrowsing, c)office. " > > Here is the sticky bit: > However, given that > a) they are in Invercargill > b) cannot be bothered with joining a *lug group > c) expect to have something that "just" works. Like everybody else has said: "Get them a Mac".
While it's my belief that Linux is sufficiently user friendly for anybody to use. I will also agree that Linux can be somewhat picky about the friendships it makes. > Let me explain the requirements. > They are in Invercargill, so a support trip is not easy. No, but in the ultimate unfortunate situation a portable 'puter can make a support trip with the help of a courier company. [ ... ] > When you buy an appliance from the store, you take it home, plug it in, > and it just works. Breadmakers, video recorders, cars take minimal effort > to get going. > Why is the same not true of computers? 1) The 'average pc' is vastly more complex than the appliances you mention. 2) The major software production house does not want their offering to 'just work' because that would remove them from the radar screens of the general public. Commercial disaster. Look at apple, vastly superior product. Sales figures still hidden in the grass. 3) Effort expended producing new products and features produces upgrade sales, whereas effort spent fixing bugs yields no commercial result. If the idea of a Mac does not appeal, I'd suggest a ThinkPad. The idea of having a complete backup of the Windows o/s ready to re-install at the press of a button is just brilliant. So to get rid of all the viruses and crap you just save your work to a usb memory stick drive and press the blue button. Yes literally! As far as Linux is concerned, IBM ThinkPad hardware is fully supported. All the newer ones - 600 and later - are just 'install and go'. ( even the winmodems ) [ ... ] > I wiuld try ubuntu, it gives them a straight up sensible defaults for > browsing (firefox) , email (evolution) and it has OOo. They do not need > to choose between konqueror, mozilla and firefox, nor between kmail, evo > and mutt, nor between abiword, lyx and OOo. I agree with the Ubuntu idea. In many ways the easiest and most pain-free install I have yet to experience. Am I personally going to switch to it? No I'm not 'cos Gentoo fills my needs exactly, and I'm now to old to change on a whim something which works well for me. Get one of the newer release disks which are currently floating around. The pre-release version needed to d/l about 170 megs of updates. > Its the sort of thing areat would require a newer computer if they bought > their last one with w95. Its also the sort of thing that you'd want to > spend the weekend with them installing and explaining, but they should > be able to grok firefox, evolution and OOo if they have used the MS fare. > > Are guis ever going to change? No. > apart from getting prettier, the point. > click, drag concept has been pretty constant for a while now..... The current GUI designs are now so well entrenched that the're not going to change until it's possible to control your computer reliably by talking to it. -- Sincerely etc., Christopher Sawtell
