Some feedback: my girlfriend, mother and friends.

[Nano]

Lex Hider Wrote: 
> On Tue, 2004-12-14 at 13:15 +0100, "Mariano F.co Benítez Mulett" wrote: 
> > Some more feedback: my mother.
> Great timing with this thread, I was about to start a similar thread.
> 
> I would love to hear any experiences other people have had with Ubuntu
> and mothers, girlfriends and other computer-clueless acquaintances.
> 
> 
> 
> The ultimate test for desktop Linux is really if your mother can use
> it.
> And the ultimate test for an OS is if the novice mother can happily use
> the same OS as her nerd son.
> 
> We got mum a new computer this time last year and went from win98 to
> Windows XP. The first thing I did was install Thunderbird and Firefox
> and *FORBID* the use of Outlook and Internet Explorer. This was due to
> their being superior apps as well as having an eye to converting to
> Linux at some time down the track. After transferring her old email and
> favourites this was fairly painless, especially considering both apps
> were 12 months before a 1.0 product. I got yelled at more [yes my mum
> yells first at the computer and then at me] for the differences between
> XP and 98's search app even though we went from crashing often to
> occasionally.
> 
> Now my mum uses:
> Thunderbird
> Firefox
> MS Word & Excel
> illegal mp3 downloading stuff
> iTunes [to listen to mp3s but mainly to burn music CDs from the mp3s].
> 
> It would make my life a lot easier if I could finally rid that computer
> of that buggy piece of Microsoft crap and run Ubuntu.
> 
> Here's my plan. When I'm home for Christmas, I'll install OpenOffice
> and
> encourage it's use over MS Office. This will be a learning experience
> for myself as well as I have only done the most basic things in OO
> spreadsheets. If this goes well, I'll probably try the switch at
> Easter.
> 
> Other thoughts
> --------------
> 
> I don't condone illegal piracy so I'm not too concerned with the p2p
> stuff. There probably are solutions out there.
> 
> The irony is that iTunes may be the hardest thing to replace on the
> move
> from XP to Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't do audio CD creation too well yet.
> I'll either leave the switch until a gnome solution comes up or
> consider
> trying to teach mum k3b. At the least the large similarity in interface
> between iTunes and Rhythmbox should ease the transition.
> 
> My only other concern is setting up the printer. I haven't had one in
> ages, but I'm hoping that configuration has improved some.
> 
> Are there any good fax apps for Ubuntu?
> 
> Lex.
> http://www.autoq.org
> 
> PS - Our local radio station has a weekly computer help talkback
> segment
> and I reckon about 80% of the time is taken up with: viruses, spyware,
> Internet Explorer & Outlook problems. It would be great to largely
> eliminate these troubles. And my usual solution for fixing Windows
> gremlins is a clean install.
> 
> PPS - I am betting that I'll have to revert nautilus to browser
> behaviour over spatial due to familiarity with Windows Explorer but
> I'll
> see what happens.
> 
> PPPS - I think three of these is too many ;)
> Are there any good utilities for creating CD jewel case inserts for
> printing. This will also be an important consideration. As stated
> above,
> mum really only uses computer for half a dozen things.
> 
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
Well, I have to say I cheated since my mother works with computer so
she's not a newbie in this field.
However, many people is still not ready to make the jump to Linux and
when I tell them "Dude, at least don't use IExplorer and Outlook" they
say that they don't have "time to learn a new program" and things like
this.
I ignore them and install Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Gaim, etc
and if they complain yellin "What have you done to my computer!?" I
replace the icons of the programs with the ones of Iexplorer, Outlook,
etc and they're happy again :)

Office working some times is so fun :)


-- 
Nano