my $0.02 ad aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php) helps too
-Daniel On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 9:31 AM, Kimball Larsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Apr 23, 2008, at 7:16 AM, Dennis Muhlestein wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > Does anyone have any suggestions for a good light weight, easy to use, > easy > > > to configure, easy to manage, desktop oriented OS for someone in the > > > situation? > > > > > > > > > > Here's my .02 > > > > Keep her on Windows 98 and purchase a linksys (or whatever) > firewall/router to set between her machine and the Internet. As long as you > train her not to run email attachments I think she'll be fine without > protection on the machine itself. > > > > I've tried to get Grandmas (or others) to run Linux in a similar situation > but my experience has been: > > 1) You become their support person and whether or not you like to do that, > you're stuck with it forever. > > 2) When older people are used to something, change is hard. She's been > using 98. No matter how much better (and I don't think anyone will argue > that pretty much any linux distro is better than Windows 98), She'll want to > know who to do things that she was doing the 98 way and it will be difficult > to teach and accomplish. > > 3) Nobody else knows how to use the machine either. At least in my case, > my Grandparents have lots of children/grandchildren/friends etc whom all > have a bit of computer advise when they visit. They mess with > settings/hardware and everything else. At least with Windows, they all can > keep the machine on the Internet and functioning (all be it they do a pretty > bad job of it sometimes). With Linux, they're bound to break things. See > #1 > > > > -Dennis > > > > I second this opinion. I would do whatever it took to leave her > comfortable user interface alone, but provide a working, firewalled > connection to the internet. > > I would only add that in my experience, Avast! antivirus has been MUCH > lighter weight than Norton and it's ilk (and, it's free for home use!), but > I do not know if it will run on 98 this old. > > Good luck. > > > - Kimball > http://www.kimballlarsen.com > > > > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
