[ubuntu-uk] Why some people will never switch

[Mark Allison]

Hi there

My Dad bought a new PC last week, and me being the family geek, was asked to
set it up for him. He has been using XP for the last five years or so and is
reasonably happy with it, when it works.

When I arrived to configure his new machine and move all his email,
documents over it turned out that he had Windows Vista Home Premium
installed. He was complaining a lot about it because he couldn't find things
where he was used to looking for them, his scanner didn't work, and some
less popular applications that he uses won't install on Vista either. So, I
wiped the machine and at that point was tempted to offer Ubuntu to him, but
at the same time I realised that the best OS for him was Windows XP. If he
was getting lost in Windows Vista, what hope was there for him if he moved
to Vista or a nice new iMac? So, I installed XP Pro and he is now very happy
- the machine is a lot snappier as well.

I know that he could spend some time learning a new OS, but a man in his 60s
that uses the computer occasionally for the odd document, email and web
browsing just doesn't want to invest the mental effort required to switch to
a more stable, perhaps better quality OS.

This scenario must be fairly common in that lots of non-techie people are so
used to Windows that given a new OS, will simply find it too much hard work
to learn its features, no matter how much better it is than Windows. I
personally use Ubuntu, Mac and Windows and am happy in any of them - I use
Ubuntu Server for backups, proxy, firewall, web filtering; Macs for the
family (and I did flirt with them for a while); and Windows for me on the
desktop. All OSs all have their strengths and weaknesses, but for some
people it's just not worth the effort to switch to something unfamiliar.

What do you think? Have many of you managed to get older, non-techie people
to switch happily?

Mark.
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