[ubuntu-uk] Why some people will never switch

Stephen Garton sheepeatingtaz at gmail.com
Fri Dec 21 10:50:02 GMT 2007


On 21/12/2007, Mark Allison <home at markallison.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi there
[snip]
> 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?
>

Something I have come to realise is that some people don't care
enough. They just want things to work. My Dad (50) isn't particularly
techiy, but uses his computer. He mainly uses his machine for a few
games (freecell/solitaire) and the internet, and managing digital
photos. The software that came with his camera is bloated, but he
taught himself to use it as it is what came with the camera. All
credit to him, he uses XP, mantains his software firewall, anti-virus
and anti-spyware software religiously. It's what he knows how to do.
I've offered to put Ubuntu on for him, but he's not bothered. He
doesn't mind doing what he's doing, and sees no reason to teach
himself all over again.

On the other side of the coin, there's my mother in law (61). She uses
her machine for Internet (firefox) and e-mail (webmail) with the
occasional 'Word' document. I moved her to Ubuntu about 9 months ago,
and she hasn't looked back. She hasn't really noticed the difference,
as all she used was firefox! She had complained in the past the Word
(and OpenOffice, which, in her logic is still 'Word'! :S )"Tries to
help too much". She doesn't want auto-correct, or magic bullet points
that try to guess what you are trying to say (or centre align, she
likes spaces!!). I've moved her to Google docs now, and she loves it!

To summarise what has become a mammoth post, some people aren't
bothered, and that's their perogative!
-- 
Steve Garton
http://www.sheepeatingtaz.co.uk



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