“I did not write this to say that people who do not know much about computers need to be told what to do, or to assert that Windows is not a good OS for casual users, but rather to point out that Linux is a great choice for this. Advances in desktop Linux have made it a perfect choice for casual and beginning users who don’t necessarily have to (or want to) put up with Windows. Whether this is done for ease of use, to save on licensing fees, or to be able to make the best out of an old computer, it makes sense.”
…is the OS that their friends run. Because, it’s going to be those friends that get stuck answering the countless questions during the first several weeks.
In this case, it looks like the son has taken it upon himself to be the system administrator for his parent’s PC. Or, more accurately, his parents have perviously put him in the posititon of administrator for some time.
Fundamentally, I disagree with forcing a Windows-to-Linux conversion on a friend, family member, or other acquaintance. I use it 100% at home, but this is a choice that the owner/user of the PC should make.
Granted, in this situation, perhaps it will be the better solution, all around. There should be less admin hassles, once the transition/adjustment period is over, it seems that the writer is more comfortable being a Linux admin than a Windows admin.
I think that this specific example is more of an exception than the rule. At least at this point in time.
Well if he, (like me) ends up doing all the suppot for the machine for free, it will be his time wasted farting about on crappily configured windows PC’s bought from some high street store. The cost of doing it professionally would probably cost as much as the PC.
In that sense, if they want the computer support for nothing, I see him as being perfectly justified in making th echoice for them, especially as he says he had a very good idea of their requirements.
Its starting to piss me off these days taht I use Linux almost all of the time at home myself, yet everyone elses computer that I have to “fix”, is enevetably windows.
…is the OS that their friends run. Because, it’s going to be those friends that get stuck answering the countless questions during the first several weeks.
This is so true. A friend of mine, who’s not into computers at all, used mine for a while until she got an ibook. I use XFCE on mine, and she thought that was easier, and there were more “clear lines” than os x. Me I suspect this was mostly because of habit, and it illustrates how people don’t like to switch to something else once they’ve got used to something. This also applied to me, cause I had to be the admin of this machine for a while, and for a GNU/Linux guy OS X is not always that easy to figure out (fx the weirdo folder-structure… I still don’t get it).
No. The best OS is the OS that the guy who fixes their PC runs… Their friends will get to hear the questions, but their techie will be providing the correct answers (hopefully correct at least).
If you’re “genius computer whiz” down the street runs Windows, then that’s what you’re stuck with. If you’re proficient enough to learn new things on your own, you’ll do fine asking your Linux questions in forums; but most people I’ve met seem to be so afraid of their computer that they need someone to sit down with them and help them in every way.
Now, when I said most, I mean most of the ones I’d call beginners. There’s also a large group who are very willing to learn, but they’ve only got so much time.
Linux adoption will take time and effort. And that’s fine with me.
I hope his parents do well with Mandrake. I’d be nervous about recommending Amarok though, it’s been pretty consistently buggy. I’ve used about 4-5 releases of it, and only the most recent hasn’t crashed on me more than 10 times. The bugs are at least predictable, but still.. Rhythmbox was always much more stable for me.
No. The best OS is the OS that the guy who fixes their PC runs… Their friends will get to hear the questions, but their techie will be providing the correct answers (hopefully correct at least).
If you’re “genius computer whiz” down the street runs Windows, then that’s what you’re stuck with. If you’re proficient enough to learn new things on your own, you’ll do fine asking your Linux questions in forums; but most people I’ve met seem to be so afraid of their computer that they need someone to sit down with them and help them in every way.
Now, when I said most, I mean most of the ones I’d call beginners. There’s also a large group who are very willing to learn, but they’ve only got so much time.
Linux adoption will take time and effort. And that’s fine with me.
I hope his parents do well with Mandrake. I’d be nervous about recommending Amarok though, it’s been pretty consistently buggy. I’ve used about 4-5 releases of it, and only the most recent hasn’t crashed on me more than 10 times. The bugs are at least predictable, but still.. Rhythmbox was always much more stable for me.
Apple successfully provided a bridge to System 9 applications by including an emulator since the very first version of OSX. And I think that is the key to success in converting Windows users to Linux. Wine is the ovbious first choice, since it’s free and doesn’t require a licenced copy of Windows. Even though it’s vastly improved over the last couple of years, it’s not without its quirks. Many of those quirks are not the fault of the Wine developers, but for us to be successful in luring people away from Windows, we should try to find a way to run some of the software that doesn’t have a native Linux equivalent. Another option would be Win4Lin, but that’s not a free option, and I have no experience in configuring it. But without a bridge to things like iTunes, RealPlayer, and other media players that are not available for Linux, we’ll hit a wall and acceptance of Linux on the desktop will stall.
I can not speak for iTunes or other Media Players however, I use Real Player on my Fedora system all the time. As I understand it Rea Player is based upon Helix (the Open Source Media Player from Real Networks).
http://www.real.com/linux?pcode=rn&src=freeplayer_partner&opage=fre…
But RealPlayer for Linux doesn’t support their music service, either the store or Rhapsody. Windows users will miss it and the others like iTunes, MusicMatch, etc. Just suggesting that it will help to draw Windows users away from the dark side
Just a quick correction, but there is a RealPlayer for Linux. As far as media players, I use MPlayer the most under Linux. Even though it’s not perfect, it does work really good when listening to my XM Radio online.
the last people on earth i would have convert is my folks. Experimenting on them is not something i would do personally. My folks have both been using Windows for years and there have been very few times i needed to do anything with their windows installs. I setup antivirus and showed them how to update it and how to update Windows. Their current XP install is going on 2 years old and it still runs fine and has been trouble free.
Same thing here. Windows XP is perfectly good when you do a little bit of education.
Replace IE and Outlook with FireFox and Thunderbird as the default navigator and e-mail client.
Setup AVG-Free Anti-virus to auto-update, use the included firewall in XP-SP2 and MS AntiSpyware.
It’s alot of things to add to the OS, but in the end, it works quite well and I don’t have to teach a new OS to my family. I got this kind of config on many PC and they simply work with no crash.
AND, I don’t have to tell them that iTune is not supported on Linux, that MS Office has to be replaced by OpenOffice, that their favorite photo editing software will be replaced by Gimp, and so on….
Windows XP is a very good OS once well installed and secured.
To be fair, linux is okay for some people,but not me,
i like my xp/98/98se/machines.
Replace IE and Outlook with FireFox and Thunderbird as the default navigator and e-mail client.
Setup AVG-Free Anti-virus to auto-update, use the included firewall in XP-SP2 and MS AntiSpyware.
Jeez. I thought linux was the one that was supposed to be harder to use……
“or to be able to make the best out of an old computer”
Right, because OpenOffice.org and Firefox are so much lighter than MS Office and IE, yeah? And Gnome and KDE eat up much less memory than the Windows desktop?
I have no idea where this line comes from. Linux desktop stuff is almost invariably more weighty and slow than its Windows equivalents (although sometimes better).
Or you’re going to give some newcomer Fluxbox, Dillo and Siag office? Yeah right…!
They can be lighter. It’s close, but my opinion is that a minimal install of Gnome in a distribution like Arch or Gentoo which doesn’t offer a highly integrated (read: bloated) default desktop is a bit lighter than Windows. I built two almost identical K8T890, S939 1.8Ghz, 1GB dual channel PC4200, and discreet Nvidia 6X00 video cards recently. One runs Arch Linux with Gnome for my parents, the other is a Windows XP Pro file server at work. It’s obviously just my opinion, but the Gnome UI seems slightly more responsive, especially in menus.
And Gnome and KDE aren’t the only fairly familiar options. XFCE and IceWM are both easy interfaces to use, XFCE being quite a bit faster than Gnome, and IceWM being very, very fast. There are also programs like Abiword, Gnumeric, and Sylpheed which are perfectly functional and much lighter than Microsoft apps or the OpenOffice (where applicable) alternatives. In fact, in almost every instance I’ve installed such alternatives I’ve been returned reports of appreciation that the apps did what the person needed without the endless complexity and misplaced ‘helpful’ automation.
Recently my parents’ old Dell started to go out on them. They couldn’t dial their modem in Windows, and I couldn’t get a display output booting the Windows CD. I could both install Arch Linux and the modem worked. I just quickly installed and configured a Fluxbox desktop to do all the things my parents need. They had no problems acclimating, and my father actually mentioned that he preferred it to the complexities of Windows.
But that didn’t last. I knew the computer was dying so I built them one of the aforementioned Athlon 64 rigs, this time spending some more time and tayloring a Gnome desktop to their needs. My mom loves how it reminds her of our oooold Mac (the first one branded Macintosh), and they both appreciate the to the point yet powerful interface.
Despite them both having such long term experience with computers, they’re very much limited in knowledge, never extending beyond just using the tool, often poorly. They seem to take a lot more interest in learning the tools now, though.
Since I a the one who people turn to, I have most of them running Linux.
It is easier than the people running Windows.
I got my first call last week from my sister with a Linux issue.
She has been running it for over 3 years doing email, Printing photos, using , using KOffice, and xmms for mp3’s, not to mention NO FEAR in opening any email for FEAR of Viruses. ( I know there are a few for Linux).
With the Windows users, Phone call after phone call. Virus, adware, system crawls after registry been modified from all those websites and downloads.
Yup… Linux is a GREAT Choice.
Windows is too, but I think you need to be more of a Power user for Windows to operate it and keep it up to date.
Just my 2 cents…
My baby sister is the only one still living at home with my mom, and neither of them is terribly great with computers. My sister absolutely has to have IM to survive (if you believe what she says). My mom is kinda the same. Neither really had any barriers to using Linux other than lack of familiarity. About a year ago, every single MS internet program stopped connecting to the internet. I could get Firefox and some FTP software to work, but I couldn’t get any of the MS products or any third-party IM products to work. I couldn’t find the problem regardless of how long I searched. So, I suggested a fresh install of Windows. My mom told me that she would prefer any other option (don’t really know why). That’s when I decided to give them a dual-boot setup.
They are just fine with Linux. They have the option of using Windows, but there isn’t any real reason for them to do so. There is a perfectly good alternative for everything they need in Linux. The bonus for me is that Linux is a whole lot easier to take care of if they have a problem.
Linux is good for newbies. I think we got it by now.
How many more articles about how “my grandmother”, “my mohter”, “my sister”, “my girlfriend” all using Linux do we have to see? Although in the authors defense he mentioned parents and not just his mother.
I’m in the happy position that I had the very rare chance to see somebody who had really ABSOLUTELY NO experience in computers to “grow up” with Linux from the very beginning. A good friend of mine, and my housemate for over 2 years, had really never ever to do with computers. She never owned one, she wasn’t interested in them at all, she didn’t even have email. Well it happened that she got used to my computer in my room, which ran and still runs Linux, I explained her how it works, and she became used to it very quickly, and she spend more and more time in front of my computer, until she decided she wants to have one for her own. I helped her buy one, a mini barebone, installed Linux for her, and she has eve been happy with it. No problems at all. Since she never came in touch with computers before, and didn’t really know about Windows or any other OSes, she even didn’t know about virus, spyware and stuff like that for a long time and was actually very surprised that such things exist in this other OS, because she never ever had to care about such things.
Well, from this experience and some others, I can tell that Linux is definitely ready for “noobs”, people that just do things like browsing, mailing, listening to music, or writing&printing a letter from time to time. There’s no need to invest money for Windows for such people.
Tom
Very nice story.
It also shows exactly my problem. I do not find somebody, who is able to install Linux correctly for me. No kidding.
Find a Linux Users group in your area and ask around.. Someone will be more than happy to help you out..
Find a Linux Users group in your area and ask around.. Someone will be more than happy to help you out..
Clearly, you’ve never lived in remote or rural area.
Tell me more about the nearest LUG for Austin, NV or Kramer Junction, CA please.
My parents where having difficulty learning to use Windows XP, because of its crowded screen and inconsistencies that confused them and so on (I don’t fully know why they didn’t find it easy).
So I moved them over to GNU/Linux Fedora Core (GNOME) and my parents found it much easier to use. Especially the already setup desktop switching, and they particularly like the copying of text by left-click highlighting then pointing and pasting with middle mouse button, which they often use when chatting on GAIM.
They like the fact that when a CD or SD-card is inserted, it naturally appears on the desktop without bringing up any strange notices etc, and they can easily drag and drop the stuff they need, and view photos from the file browser in whatever chosen size.
Anyhow, they’ve now moved over to a Mac mini. They certainly found Windows difficult to use with actions not at all obvious to them, this indeed did surprise me.
This wasn’t a bad read, but it didn’t really say anything new.
It is getting to a point where a pre-packaged distribution can be easily used by newcomers, and that is a good thing.
But I do find it suprising that some people wish to suggest that everything in Linux is better than in Windows. Take for example this quote from the bottom of page 3:
The VNC connection worked better than in Windows and was another success of the move
VNC, either the client or the server, are almost 100% identical across platforms. I fail to see how Linux vs. Windows could make much difference. (Sure things like remote desktop differ, but that isn’t comparing like with like).
Only a minor point, but it does spoil the credability of the article a little.
I did the same thing over a year ago when the blaster worm was killing all my friends PC’s. It killed my mothers, my brothers and my girlfriends! So I moved those three over to Linspire 5 and click and run! They love it. Even my younger brother cause he has not had a single problem since we got it all set up.
My daughter now uses Edubuntu and my best friend wants me to move her old PC to Edubuntu for her child after her Windows XP machine got all hosed up with spyware for the (And she got tired of paying me to fix it)
I am not saying that Linux is better then Windows. But it’s a fact right now that you DON’T have to worry about Spyware and Malware. And yes there are linux viruses but nothing like Windows. I don’t have to worry about my computers as much!
Plus you can’t beat the price! (of Edubuntu)
… I’m giving my parents my 2nd computer. It’s got a P III and 512 of ram, DVD reader-CD writer combo… that must be sufficient for their intended use.
I’m installing Linux with customized desktops for all users:
– my dad (with bookmarks to sites about classical music, and health issues, etc)
– my mom (the Vatican’s site as home page in all browsers, a religious wallpaper, fewer icons added to the main panel)
– one for visitors (like my sisters, brother and all nephews and nieces. These will have icons for direct access to a music player, video player, browsers, skype, bookmarks in all browsers for The Cartoon Network, etc)
– and of course, one for me, for when I drop by.
I’m setting up some kind of remote access for easy diagnosis, since we live about 1,000 apart.
This will be the first time some of them will be exposed to Linux, so I’m doing my best to give them a good first impression. 🙂
For Windows users, they can look for hardware first before they decide which version of Windows to install.
For Linux users, you must make sure the Linux distros have hardware drivers before you buy the hardware.
Many first time Linux users learn the lesson the hard way
and end up with hardwares that cannot be use because the drivers are not availiable.
Linux seems fine until they find out any software they can buy in the store probably won’t work with it. Games for my little suster, Software for my Dad liek tax software, etc. Yeah I am sure I can emulate it all in Wine but its just easier for me to use Windows. I threw on Anti Spyware software and Anti Virus and I am done. Haven’t had to reformat it yet. The system is set up to scan itself at a certain time it does so and cleans itself up. If they have trouble I just do remote assistance and walk them through it.
I have to admit with the article… People that use linux eventually drop windows… I’ll tell you why.. With linux you can actually USE your computer productively!! Without worrying about defrag, scandisk, antivirus, spyware, licensing agreements if you run a home network.. The only fault that linux has on some projects is documentation and installation… Linux still has no EASY method of installation… YaST in SuSE and the Synaptic setup in Ubuntu are pretty good and autopackage is nifty as well…. But until there’s a setup.bin to click on with all the neccessary libs included or improved UNIVERSAL dep checking regardless of distro.. Linux will not really move forward rapidly… BTW even MY mother uses linux and she’d been a die-hard bill fan for a while! 😉
Linux its just curiosity.. If you have windows stick with windows why bother switching…
Virus,Trojans ect.. only need this things:
FireFOx
Ad-Aware
Avast!
Sygate Personal FireWall( Windows own FireWall is not a FireWall thats my though)
And thats it…