I would put Windows 98SE in it because you don't need a key to install it in a new machine.
It is a question of time before she shoots herself in the foot With Ubuntu. Have her store all of her data on a flash drive. If you did go with Ubuntu, just set her up in a user account that can't add and remove packages, and disable things like checking for upgrades when he is away. She might not get it to go online at all. Besides, Linux is a broadband system and it might be hard to find a distro that still has a five cd set. You might find one in the third world. There are people who who put a pirated copy of Windows in it. Being as she is going to be doing dial up, she won't install the upgrades anyway. But that's illegal (No kidding!) Remember who didn't tell you to do that. You can configure Linux to look like Windows. This laptop is virtually indistinguishable from Windows because my wife isn't computer literate. You can reduce the multiple destops to one, eliminae the top taskbar, install a theme like Mista, etc. On Fri, 2010-07-30 at 14:19 -0400, Phil M Perry wrote: > My father is trying to set up an old PC (10 or 12 year old Compaq > Presario tower) to give to an elderly friend. She will be mostly doing > email and a little Web surfing, and cannot be depended upon to keep OS > and AV updates current. The box had Win 2000 on it, and he installed Win > XP, but it refuses to fully boot up (apparently needs a new activation > key from MS -- I know the disc has been already used 2 or 3 times). At > my suggestion, he downloaded and burned a CD for Ubuntu 10.4. He says it > (live CD) boots up OK and seems to work, but is frustrated finding > things (he uses Vista himself). Does it sound like a good idea to use > Linux (specifically Ubuntu) in this situation? He's a competent user but > not terribly computer savvy, and she can turn the power switch "on" and > not much beyond that. He can provide "local support" only about 5 months > out of the year, at most. She's in a very rural area with probably no > Linux geeks nearby. I'm too far away to give hands-on support to either > of them. > > To add to the misery, she'll be only on dialup, and I'm guessing that > the built-in modem is a WinModem. Does Ubuntu 10.4 have a cleaner way of > configuring and using dialup than the 6.06 I last used dialup with? That > is, GUI-based configuration and either autodial from Firefox or at > worst, an on-screen dialer icon? Any of his old printers he gives her > are probably WinPrinters. I know he could look up what's compatible > online, but he's already complaining enough about how hard it is to find > things with the GNOME screen. Should I gracefully withdraw my suggestion > of using Ubuntu? I suggested using it because he wouldn't have to buy > any Windows copies (the hardware probably won't support Win 7 or even > Vista, anyway), and it could probably survive a year at a time without > OS and AV upgrades. Regarding AV, the big problem is that her emails > need to be checked for embedded nasties, so that she doesn't spread them > around when she forwards things (apparently not all her friends run AV > to check incoming mail). I'm open to suggestions on which AV to use > (AVG?). The machine has something like .5GB RAM and 20 or so GB of disk, > so it's a shame to send it to the dump. > > Any suggestions on how to proceed will be passed on to my father. Thanks! > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Aug 4 - Samba > Sep 1 - BOINC > Oct 6 - Creating Firefox Extensions -- Robert Mark Wallace 60 Delaware Road Newburgh, NY 12550-3802 Telephone: (845) 566-0586 Visit my Blog, Mark Wallace Following Christ, at > http://markwallacefollowingchrist.blogspot.com/ > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Aug 4 - Samba Sep 1 - BOINC Oct 6 - Creating Firefox Extensions
