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If it was so easy for someone else to offer an alternative service, there would be dozens of them

There are dozens of them. By no means a complete list:

GotoMeeting

Webex

Yuugu

TeamViewer

Mikogo

CrossLoop

I have used crossloop for a long time. Simple download, works with mac and windows. From my system as the viewer, I was able to get it to work after some fiddling with it using wine. It makes an outbound connection from the end user, so you don't have to worry about punching a hole in the typical end users router. They also have advertising facets on their website where you can list yourself as a professional in certain areas and people looking for help can connect to you for support that way too (I never bothered to list my services there, so I don't know how well that portion works). http://www.crossloop.com/index.jsp

I'm 2,500 miles and two time zones away, so I can't exactly troubleshoot things from here

Assuming the problem that needs to be troubleshot isn't network related

In no particular order of preference
TeamViewer
LogMeIn
Techinline Remote Desktop
CrossLoop (I hadn't heard of this one before searching just now but it looks interesting)
Radmin
RemotePC
There are a lot of remote support options. Some good ones are even free.

My personal suggestion is Splashtop. It isn't a remote support tool but it has client's for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and BB 10/PlayBook OS2 so you could log into your mother's PC from your tablet and fix what needs fixing. It's also a one time cost opposed to a subscription.

At some point your mother will need to do something the tablet cannot do. You can still get an inexpensive tablet for her.

I see TeamViewer mentioned a lot. Another proprietary but free as in beer alternative is CrossLoop: http://www.crossloop.com/. I have no experience with TeamViewer, but I am very happy with CrossLoop, which is also free for personal use, very easy to use (start it, and read a name and twelve digit code over the phone), automagically punches through NAT routers and firewalls, and is based on VNC under water. They don't have a native client for Linux, but the Windows version runs fine under Wine.

CrossLoop is apparently good. Not sure about the recording stuff though.

http://www.crossloop.com/mktg/learnmore_free?affid=xl&src=hp

http://www.crossloop.com/

I had the same struggle with VNC. I tried remote desktop over hamachi, but that was just as bad. I stumbled on CrossLoop and haven't looked anywhere else. As the tech guy, you install a small local client and create a login. Those you want to help download and run a small stand-alone file, then tell you the "access code" prominently displayed in the window. You enter that code, and you've got access.

Okay seems like everyone and their brother has a different idea and since this interests me I tried to roll up as many of the interesting looking ones as possible into one posting :-) Did I miss any?

http://www.teamviewer.com/

https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

http://www.copilot.com/

http://skype.com/

http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html (reverse VNC)

http://www.crossloop.com/

http://www.mikogo.com/en/

http://showmypc.com/

https://www.ntrconnect.com/

http://www.zolved.com/remote_control

http://www.wippien.com/ (VPN)

http://code.google.com/p/gitso/ (reverse VNC)

Crossloop is free and is so easy a caveman can use it. http://www.crossloop.com/

I think they will likely take the same position that Crossloop takes.

http://www.crossloop.com/VNC.html

Then they don't need to show you anything and can ignore your request - especially if the ShowMyPC program and VNC "communicate at arms length, that they are not combined in a way that would make them effectively a single program." On their page they don't say it is a GPL program, but based on open source programs. ShowMyPC should have a page like this that explains how they do not violate GPL http://www.crossloop.com/VNC.html What's most relevant to this topic is probably this. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#TOCGPLInP roprietarySystem I'd like to incorporate GPL-covered software in my proprietary system. Can I do this? You cannot incorporate GPL-covered software in a proprietary system. The goal of the GPL is to grant everyone the freedom to copy, redistribute, understand, and modify a program. If you could incorporate GPL-covered software into a non-free system, it would have the effect of making the GPL-covered software non-free too. A system incorporating a GPL-covered program is an extended version of that program. The GPL says that any extended version of the program must be released under the GPL if it is released at all. This is for two reasons: to make sure that users who get the software get the freedom they should have, and to encourage people to give back improvements that they make. However, in many cases you can distribute the GPL-covered software alongside your proprietary system. To do this validly, you must make sure that the free and non-free programs communicate at arms length, that they are not combined in a way that would make them effectively a single program. The difference between this and "incorporating" the GPL-covered software is partly a matter of substance and partly form. The substantive part is this: if the two programs are combined so that they become effectively two parts of one program, then you can't treat them as two separate programs. So the GPL has to cover the whole thing. If the two programs remain well separated, like the compiler and the kernel, or like an editor and a shell, then you can treat them as two separate programs--but you have to do it properly. The issue is simply one of form: how you describe what you are doing. Why do we care about this? Because we want to make sure the users clearly understand the free status of the GPL-covered software in the collection. If people were to distribute GPL-covered software calling it "part of" a system that users know is partly proprietary, users might be uncertain of their rights regarding the GPL-covered software. But if they know that what they have received is a free program plus another program, side by side, their rights will be clear.

Ok, just from the top of my head or a quick google:

Shared Whiteboard: http://www.imaginationcubed.com/LaunchPage
Talk to the guy: Skype / IM / regular telephone
Demonstrate a computer environment: VNC / http://www.crossloop.com/ / https://www.iremotepc.com/ / many more

And as for other things like calendar and task management - there's a deluge of those.

Anything else? The internet has most likely got it covered! Face-to-face time is only really needed these days for those who get some sort of warm, fuzzy reassurance from it.