[RndTbl] Linux "parent ready"?

Thu Feb 13 13:20:12 CST 2014

I'm curious about how the Mac isn't working out. I'm default tech
support for my daughter's, and it's pretty painless so far. I got her
set up initially with disk encryption (in case lost), Time Machine for
backups, and just poke and prod now and then for updates. Oh, and she's
got her non-default admin ID.

On the email client side, what does Thunderbird lack that your father needs?

One need I've found with family is decent backup options. Other than
Time Machine for the Mac users, I am leaning towards getting them set up
with CrashPlan. Even in freebie mode, it's powerful enough, and
basically stays out of the way for backups to local storage or another
system. Having tinkered with it myself, I am anticipating that it will
beat the snot out of the, "I forgot to copy all that stuff over that I
NEEEEEEEEEED!"

  Cheers,
  Tim

On 2/13/2014, 9:39 AM, John Lange wrote:
> I switched my father from Windows XP to linux several years (7?) back
> because it was easier for me to support at the time. I would not rate
> it a success and he has since switched to a MAC (which is also a
> failure but that's another story).
>
> Just some of the reasons:
>
> 1. Lack of a reasonable Email client that compares to Outlook.
> 2. Support for scanning documents is horrible. Assuming you can even
> find a scanner that works, there is no good scanning software on Linux.
> 3. OpenOffice documents are not 100% compatible with Office (though
> arguably, Office versions are also not compatible with each other so
> that may not be fair).
> 3. And most importantly, lack of support. My father uses his computer
> for his consulting business and I work full time. I can't support him
> during business hours and there is no place else to go. You can't just
> walk into Staples with your laptop and ask for help.
>
> There were lots of other frustrations over the years that I've blocked
> out of my memory.
>
> If you're just doing basic stuff like web browsing, then _maybe_ Linux
> would work for you but you have to live with a lot of limitations
> related to browser incompatibility, plugins etc. For example, will
> you're banking site work?
>
> I said it in the other thread, for basic use I'd go with an Android
> tablet hands-down. It requires minimal if any hands-on support, and
> it's also very well supported out on the web with apps for pretty much
> everything. And you can't beat the price.
>
> John
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 2:37 AM, Trevor Cordes <trevor at tecnopolis.ca
> <mailto:trevor at tecnopolis.ca>> wrote:
>
>     On 2014-02-12 Mark Jenkins wrote:
>     >
>     > I probably also said, "would you like to spend $1xx.xx on a Windows
>     > Retail License?" seeing how we were working with a whitebox built
>     > from parts.
>
>     Thanks for everyone's input.  Yes, a cost of "free" is also a bonus if
>     we go with Linux, though it would not be the sole deciding factor.
>
>     I think I may give Linux a try.  I will certainly report back with the
>     results, in a few months.  An eye towards a "LTS" type distro would
>     certainly be desirable, though I'm already adept at keeping 20+ Fedora
>     boxen updated (entirely remotely/headless!) to the latest version
>     every
>     year (every 2 releases, when support ends).
>
>     As for tablets, I'm not sure moving parents in that direction is
>     ideal.  For one, they don't like change.  Second, I don't think she'd
>     like the ergonomics.  Third, I'm not convinced tablets are the
>     "future",
>     in the sense that desktops will completely disappear (anyone remember
>     netbooks, they were the "future" once too!).  I like tablets for
>     what they are good for, the odd lookup of something while watching tv,
>     or casually keeping up with junk mail. I would never sit at a
>     tablet to
>     do serious (wordy!) email or composing some essay in a word
>     processor!!
>     The clunky interfaces aren't even great for my style of web browsing,
>     where I tend to middle-click the next twelve links and peruse from
>     there.
>
>     I won't even get into the thought of doing all my programming and
>     admin
>     work on a tablet!  I think I'd go all hari-kari.
>
>     But that's a whole other discussion!
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>
>
>
> -- 
> John Lange
> www.johnlange.ca <http://www.johnlange.ca>
>
>
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