Dude, you're getting Ubuntu (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Dude, you're getting Ubuntu (Linux.com)

Posted May 3, 2007 11:42 UTC (Thu) by ekj (subscriber, #1524)
In reply to: Dude, you're getting Ubuntu (Linux.com) by emkey
Parent article: Dude, you're getting Ubuntu (Linux.com)

This actually fails to be the case.

Not only does my father (~60, nontechnical) use Linux, but so does my grandmother (~85), infact for both of them its much better than any of the alternatives.

Notice I said *USE*. Not install, or configure, or maintain. But they'd both be unable to perform these tasks with *any* OS.

Using Linux means they are, in practice, very unlikely to get viruses. It means they are quite unlikely to manage to mess up the entire machine. It means it can trivially be administered from afar. It also means the UI can easily be configured to only have what is relevant for her. If all she needs is 5 programs, then 5 app-launchers is all she needs.

Additionally, we've got some very very userfriendly programs.

My grandmother finds it trivial to find the favourite photo of the grand-grandchildren using Kphotoalbum. Finding all pictures of Wenche in Paris (for example) is literally 4 mouseclicks:

Person
Wenche
Place
Paris

I challenge you to come up with a *more* grandmother-friendly way of finding a needle in a haystack of pictures.

She doesn't do anything fancy. Firefox, Kphotoalbum, Kmail, that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, and Solitaire offcourse.

Honestly, I don't see a single advantage Windows would have for such a user.

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