the most basic OS

[Dave Hall]

On Sat, 2009-06-13 at 06:35 +1000, David Johnson wrote:
> Hi all
> I have been using Ubuntu only for a few years and love it even though I
> struggle sometimes.
>   My dad is a stubborn old farmer who holds only contempt for technology
> and computers. I would like to know if there is an absolutely basic
> reliable low interactivity OS  that I could put on an old computer so I
> can lure him into the world of internet etc through things like weather
> sites live cattle sales or other things that might interest him.
>  any suggestion along these lines would be appreciated 

Microsoft Bob ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob

I am with Daniel, but would go one step further, GDM (the gnome login
screen) allows you to set a user to automatically login as, I would
enable this, and set firefox to autolaunch on start up.  

I would reconsider using really old hardware,  Anything below a PIII
with 512M RAM can be painful, a P4 can double as a room heater in winter
but isn't the most efficient CPU.  My experience has been supplying old
outdated hardware to family isn't such a good idea, invest a bit in a
whitebox and a modern LCD and they will get more out of their
experience.  My mother in law started off with a PIII, 15" CRT and dial
up - she rarely used it.  Now she has a AMD X2, 19" WLCD and ADSL, she
uses it a lot more for surfing the net and managing her 1000s of photos.
Modern desktop hardware will allow them to grow.  You should probably
consider a decent quality printer too.

Cheers

Dave