Digital cameras a problem in Linux?!? Always been plug and play in my experience. Ipod support is pretty good too. As for most mp3 players, they just mount as a usb disk. Printers (as Linux uses Cups) is a breeze 9.9 times out of ten with no searching for drivers online and all that rubbish. As for scanners, my mates get me to hook their scanners up to my Linux laptop pretty often cos they don't have the specific windows driver for it. I just use Xsane and it works every time.
Mobile phone support, well, ok. It's being worked on...
The old story of peripheral device incompatibility in Linux is VERY fast becoming urban legend only.
One thing I can say without doubt. I've ben using Linux for 3 years now and I have NEVER had to do all the gymnastics and googling for drivers that you have to do with XP or Vista.
I agree. Ubuntu is desktop ready. Lets not forget how many "how to do ** on XP" guides involve dropping to dosprompt and giving text commands.
Once you get into the console though, it's so quick and easy to do things that any gui can seem slow. People drop into the text based terminal cause it's fun, quick and, when used to it, easy. Ubuntu now, not a couple of years ago, NOW, can run out of the box without most users ever knowing what the terminal is.
After having read through more than half the currently 400+ comments, I've come back up here to respond to this one, the first instance of "I setup my $ANCIENT_RELATIVE with $MY_FAVORITE_FLAVOR_OF_LINUX over $RANDOM_INTEGER years ago, and they love it! Not only that, but just recently... $MY_FAVORITE_FLAVOR_OF_LINUX is the bee's knees for elderly with NO previous computer experience!!!
I didn't say that my Dad had no previous experience, in fact he'd had many years on Mac, but we couldn't afford an upgrade to OSX with a new Mac. After reading a lot of reviews and testing several distros myself, Ubuntu won.
It isn't a *nix/windows flamewar on my part. I just stated my experience, just like the many others have. It is also my experience that Ubuntu is really very good for those without computer experience and it is VERY easy to use. Far, far easier to learn that XP IMHO. I do up old computers and give them away to refugee families and disadvantaged students with Ubuntu or Xubuntu on them with a lot of success.
After my Dad had been on Ubuntu for a while, one of my brothers gave him a newer windows machine. He ran XP for a bit, then (can't remember which) either installed Ubuntu himself on it or asked me to.
Where an elderly person is used to XP, stick with it, just give them a limited user account, run Avast. Don't run any 3rd party firewalls, they have too many confusing pop-ups. Disable as many pop-ups as you can. Cut the menus down to the few apps they use, put shortcuts on the Desktop for those apps. Consider using Windows Steadystate to limit the damage they can do to the system.
Happy now cupcake?
As for all the comments recommending linux, well, this is slashdot?
I disagree. I got my Dad on to Ubuntu a few years ago. He loves it. He's 73 now and handles all the updates and version upgrades himself, installs software packages through synaptic etc. As for windows, it confuses him.
If someone has NO computer experience, don't give them windows. I run a computer repair business and the window pop-ups etc just confuse people. XP drives older people nuts. Ubuntu isn't perfect, but it's a lot easier, has a logical, easy menu structure and is hard to break.
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Digital cameras a problem in Linux?!? Always been plug and play in my experience. Ipod support is pretty good too. As for most mp3 players, they just mount as a usb disk. Printers (as Linux uses Cups) is a breeze 9.9 times out of ten with no searching for drivers online and all that rubbish. As for scanners, my mates get me to hook their scanners up to my Linux laptop pretty often cos they don't have the specific windows driver for it. I just use Xsane and it works every time.
Mobile phone support, well, ok. It's being worked on...
The old story of peripheral device incompatibility in Linux is VERY fast becoming urban legend only.
One thing I can say without doubt. I've ben using Linux for 3 years now and I have NEVER had to do all the gymnastics and googling for drivers that you have to do with XP or Vista.
2) Ubuntu doesn't even come with vi installed as part of the base distribution. It does have Gedit though.
In Ubuntu, when u type vi it gives u vim.
I agree. Ubuntu is desktop ready. Lets not forget how many "how to do ** on XP" guides involve dropping to dosprompt and giving text commands.
Once you get into the console though, it's so quick and easy to do things that any gui can seem slow. People drop into the text based terminal cause it's fun, quick and, when used to it, easy. Ubuntu now, not a couple of years ago, NOW, can run out of the box without most users ever knowing what the terminal is.
After having read through more than half the currently 400+ comments, I've come back up here to respond to this one, the first instance of "I setup my $ANCIENT_RELATIVE with $MY_FAVORITE_FLAVOR_OF_LINUX over $RANDOM_INTEGER years ago, and they love it! Not only that, but just recently ... $MY_FAVORITE_FLAVOR_OF_LINUX is the bee's knees for elderly with NO previous computer experience!!!
I didn't say that my Dad had no previous experience, in fact he'd had many years on Mac, but we couldn't afford an upgrade to OSX with a new Mac. After reading a lot of reviews and testing several distros myself, Ubuntu won.
It isn't a *nix/windows flamewar on my part. I just stated my experience, just like the many others have. It is also my experience that Ubuntu is really very good for those without computer experience and it is VERY easy to use. Far, far easier to learn that XP IMHO. I do up old computers and give them away to refugee families and disadvantaged students with Ubuntu or Xubuntu on them with a lot of success.
After my Dad had been on Ubuntu for a while, one of my brothers gave him a newer windows machine. He ran XP for a bit, then (can't remember which) either installed Ubuntu himself on it or asked me to.
Where an elderly person is used to XP, stick with it, just give them a limited user account, run Avast. Don't run any 3rd party firewalls, they have too many confusing pop-ups. Disable as many pop-ups as you can. Cut the menus down to the few apps they use, put shortcuts on the Desktop for those apps. Consider using Windows Steadystate to limit the damage they can do to the system.
Happy now cupcake?
As for all the comments recommending linux, well, this is slashdot?
True. The two R's of Windows. Reboot and Reinstall.
Fixes everything except Windows...
[fx: pats Ubuntu CDS and whispers "Thankyou, Shuttleworth!"]
How come for the rest of us *nix users have to beat the windows clones away with clubs to stop them asking us to fix their diseased machines?
!/bin/bash/ WASH_DIR=/hall/laundry if [socks dirty] then cd $WASH_DIR ./bin/wash-socks
exit
fi
Works for me!:D
I disagree. I got my Dad on to Ubuntu a few years ago. He loves it. He's 73 now and handles all the updates and version upgrades himself, installs software packages through synaptic etc. As for windows, it confuses him. If someone has NO computer experience, don't give them windows. I run a computer repair business and the window pop-ups etc just confuse people. XP drives older people nuts. Ubuntu isn't perfect, but it's a lot easier, has a logical, easy menu structure and is hard to break.