Making the switch easier fo newbies

[Amedee Van Gasse (ub)]

On Thu, March 18, 2010 16:43, Amichai Rotman wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I sometimes go to my friends and family for a visit and they take
> advantage
> of my PC Tech skills to fix all those pesky errors, slowness and Spyware
> they get on their 3 yeard old (or older) Windows XP PCs....
>
>
> I would like to be able to convince them to switch to Linux (namely
> Ubuntu).
> As we all know - humans fear any change....
>
> So I was thinking it could be nice if I had a little free app I download
> to
> their Windows PC. This little app would scan their PC for all apps
> installed
> and the Web browser's History (after displaying the proper disclaimer, of
> course) and then produce a list of suitable Linux distributions for the
> specific needs of that computer user.
>
> Maybe even generate a selections list we can use to install using apt-get
> after a vanilla Ubuntu install, in effect - creating a 5 click Migration
> Assistant...
>
> Any of you know of such an app in existence?
>
> Imagine the following scenario:
>
> I go to my Aunts house, run this little app, it even downloads the proper
> ISO, I burn the ISO to disc and  use it to revive her slow, buggy PC...
>
> Thanks!

*snip long signature*

A word of advice.
Start with replacing all their illegal copies of MS Office with
OpenOffice. Install Firefox. Thunderbird. Gnucash. The GIMP. VLC.
etcetera.

Do *not* force them to use Linux. Don't even mention the word Linux. Let
them come to you. Don't preach.