On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 02:19:02PM -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?
This would be a tough situation regardless of the OS chosen. If she
really only knows how to press the "on" switch, then the first thing she
needs is a detailed set of /written/ instructions of how to get online.
>From past experience I can tell you that she won't understand the
instructions to begin with, because there is a lot of inherent knowledge
we all take for granted that she will not know, including what a "right
click" is, or how to click through to follow a path like
"System->Applications-> <program>", etc.
And as competent as I was with computers, when I made the transition
from using Windows to Linux full time, I found that difficult. When
using a computer, the first step in accomplishing any task is knowing
which program to use to do that task. Then you have to know how to set
that program up for doing it (email accounts don't automatically just
showup in an email program). Then you have to know /where/ in the menu
to find that program. Right off the bat, all /three/ of those things
are something she's not going to know. And that's only for getting her
email. And then there's passwords.
But when the person that would be training the intended recipient isn't
familiar with the OS either, the problem gets a bit bigger. It's
frustrating enough to learn how to use a completely new system for
yourself -- it's much harder to try to learn a completely different
system for the sole purpose of teaching someone else how to use it.
That's the "blind leading the blind."
> 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?
You're going to have trouble finding answers from people that all moved
to broadband ten years ago. You need to figure this out as best you can
and come up with some written instructions.
> 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?
Explain that you didn't understand all of the support issues that would
have been required to follow through with the suggestion.
> 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.
The hardware is old, of course, which makes using a Linux distro
attractive for that reason... but very unattractive when it comes to the
required support needed.
> Any suggestions on how to proceed will be passed on to my father. Thanks!
I suggest you give your dad the choice.
1. Learn how to use Ubutnu or a similar Linux distro, both so that
he can use it as well as support it for others
2. Contact MS for a code to load XP onto the box, and deal with the
obvious headaches of occasionally having to reload it if/when it
gets infected with virii/malware/etc.
Choice 1. is (to be honest) a big headache in the short-term, but a
pleasure in the long-term. Choice 2. is much easier in the short-term,
but has a far higher maintenance support cost (in man hours) in the
long-term.
I had to go through all of this with my parents, BTW -- so I know
first-hand how difficult this is. Because they were only familiar with
Windows, they always choice it over Linux when I gave them the option.
When reloading Windows became too painful and it became obvious even to
them that something had to change, they finally relented and I loaded
Debian Stable (at that time it was "Sarge", I believe), which is what
they've been running since (now "Lenny", obviously). The transition was
not easy, and there is still some confusion here and there -- all of
their friends use Windows and so will often try to give them advice as
if they were using Windows, or tell them they should be on Windows...
just because. Or they'll be given "these great programs" on a CD that
is meant for Windows. Etc.
What I suspect your dad will do will be to choose to load Windows to
ease the short-term support headache, try to run Ubuntu for himself to
learn it, and bail back to Windows. This is generally normally how this
goes, and it's what I did too. If he's tenacious enough, he'll
eventually learn how to use Ubuntu, and that's the point at which he'll
be able to support someone else using it.
-- Chris
Chris Knadle
[email protected]
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