ubuntu for a neophyte?

[email.listen at googlemail.com]

Hi Colin
On Sun, 4. February 2007 12:39:23 Colin Brace wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I neighbor of mine recently acquired her first PC, an Acer laptop. She
> is vaguely aware of the malware issues, and  has asked me to help her
> get online.
>
> Since my experience with Windows is mostly limited to running v3.1 in
> a window under OS/2 back in the receding haze of the previous
> millenium, my first impulse is to wipe clean the HD and install
> Dapper.
>
> However, this would make me de facto technical support. However, if I
> help her get online via Windows, I would probably end up getting calls
> from her anyway, and I have zero interest in dealing with XP issues.
>
> Has anyone had any experience installing Ubuntu for people without any
> PC experience, ie, your grandmother? And I mean absolutely zippo.
>
> I can think of various reasons pro; just wondering what the cons are,
> what potential problems I should try to anticipate.
 
I would say that it depends on the knowledge of her social environment 
precisely the people aound her (and in a acceptable / reachable distance). 
(And also a little bit a matter of age. Due to my experience the youger 
people are the more there is a tendency to give up when problems show up.)

For a totaly beginner it should make no difference which OS she will choose, 
Widows and Linux are a new world to her. So whatever she will use she has to 
learn a lot and by this she will have a lot of questions.

So I would ask for which OS and which applications she will get more and 
better support by friends, neighbours, relatives, adult eveing classes, Linux 
Gebruikers Groepens...

If your neighbour belongs to those who prefer to learn in a group and not 
alone for herself a local NLLGG [1] or LUG [2] might be a good starting point 
to make new friends, and experiences of course. May be one of the LPI self 
study groups is of interesting to her. 
So choosing Linux will give her a chance for social interaction, meeting new 
people, ...., IMO much more than windows does.

So in the end it is a matter of her social environment and her social skills 
(e.g. likes to make friends) not of the OS or the applications. 
It will be a _very_ _bad_ idea to install Linux on her laptop and leave her 
alone in the wild afterwards. 

[1] http://www.nllgg.nl/
[2] http://nl.linux.org/community/lug.php
    URL of LUG Amsterdam http://liga.osc.nl/ seems to be down...
    
regards,
thomas