Even my mother can run Linux

90 pointsby ntnsndrover 8 years ago

My mother, voluntarily and expertly, is now using Ubuntu Linux on her computer. The computer is a 2007 ThinkPad my uncle had lying around. Unlike her 2007 MacBook running MacOS, which is now incapable of updating enough to run modern browsers, her Linux rig is totally up to date and runs beautifully.I really dislike feeding the stereotype according to which a young man referring to "my mother" presumes that an older woman must have technology skills that are edging around zero. In this case, however, the stereotype fits. My mother is brilliant, earned a PhD in medieval lingusitics, held a significant position at a major national cultural institution, and inspired me from a young age to be a blazing fast typist. She's not a computer whiz by choice, because she rightly decided that becoming one was not worth her time. As a result, she has no interest wasting her life, as I do mine, by learning new programs or hacking around on the command line. For similar reasons, when her MacBook started breaking, she went to the Apple Store to replace it, but then returned it out of disgust for the commercialism of it all. So she asked me to set her up on an old computer running Linux. Today, we talked through how to use email on Thunderbird, and with a little bit of help she was able to get the old computer, full of nothing but community-created software, to meet her needs beautifully.So, at risk of feeding the stereotype, it's true: Even my mother can run Linux.

23 comments

heyalexejover 8 years ago

My parents are both ~60 y/o and run Ubuntu since roughly 5 years. I gave them a crash course over the course of 3 days and my mother took notes on all the things that she uses daily - spread sheets, word documents, images, browser, Skype etc..I've set up dynamic DNS and a few other things so I can help them if something goes wrong as we live 12000 km apart. After a year I realized that none of them ever asked me anything. So I asked my dad "Why do you never contact me to help with the computer?". He responded: "Well, everything just runs!".Before, with Windows, I can't even count the time I've spent fixing their laptop.

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redirectleftover 8 years ago

I'm responsible for my sister, my mother, 6 coworkers and 13 friends running Arch on their hardware, in various personalized configurations that took me maybe 30 minutes each. I can push out updates and flag new software for installation within seconds if they ask me for it and so far, I have not had one serious complaint. Some use Libreoffice for their private stuff, some appstream Office directly into a X window. Oh you don't like GNOME? Let me install Xfce. It's perfect if certain use cases apply. My sister has had hers for 6 years and counting, uses it for web browsing exclusively and only complains when she cant execute nickelback.mp3.exe.

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atmosxover 8 years ago

That's a beautiful story congrats. The problems usually lie further down the road. When she gets a new printer, will she be able to enable the scanner without messing with the command line? If she's not able to get the printer going, will the support, be it a friend's daughter/son or even professional computer support in the neighbourhood, be able to help her or go like "I'm sorry madam, this is an operating system we don't support" and so on and so forth. That can get really tiresome after a while, so you end up fighting the OS vs working with it.That is the problem with Linux. Of course it's getting better and better but it's not where OSX or Windows is by any means.

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digi_owlover 8 years ago

In the end, complaints about Linux boils down to "i can't apply Windows (or Mac) rote gestures on this". In particular with regards to "admin" tasks, that from personal experience they rarely attempt on those platforms anyways.Instead they grab the neighborhood geek (or should i say nerd, geeks seems to be too cloud oriented these days) and pay with cookies or beer (depending on age of said geek).What seems to be going on is a mixed message of "hard to admin" and "don't need to admin" (aka "just works" in Mac speak). Meaning that it is rarely if ever about day to day "usage", but rather about being able to admin their own system.And frankly i think Linux have a leg up there, as things are actually documented and in plain sight (at least until Freedesktop stuff and, their fetish for using dbus for everything, gets their panties in a twist). With Windows and Mac is it all too often some closed up blob going bad, involving magic incantations found in some forum or blob somewhere.

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gargravarrover 8 years ago

Much like others in here, I gave my mother an ultimatum. I was so sick of maintaining Windows that I gave her the option of running Linux, or she could have Windows but I wouldn't support it (ergo, she'd have to pay a technician).After her old Acer Aspire One fell apart, I bought her a cheap Compaq 15" laptop on Amazon for Xmas in 2014 and installed Mint on it. Since, as is common these days, she uses a web browser more than anything, it was easy to teach her how to connect it to wifi and launch Firefox. Since then, I've heard zero complaints or requests for help. Linux JustWorks. I think she's come to like the Cinnamon GUI as much as I do, too.I also tried to get my sister to switch - she is a lot fussier, I got a huge amount of resistance switching her to Win7 after XP went EOL since she prefers the GUI. The difference here is that she uses a tablet PC (not a Surface, the original spinning-screen + pen-based digitizer laptop style machine) which she uses for drawing and artwork. To give her credit, she relented and gave Mint a go for a week, with an XP skin on it (which was pretty accurate, all things considered). Unfortunately she couldn't get used to GIMP and there were lots of hardware issues, in addition to old Windows games that wouldn't run under Wine, so reluctantly I put her back on Windows. Still, she at least tried it.These days, Mint is my go-to. The Win7-inspired GUI is pretty easy to get Windows-only people to learn, and it's up to date and reliable. As their Windows PCs slow down and the OS degrades (I stil swear Windows has a built-in timer for this purpose), I find that my family members are so keen to have working PCs that they don't particularly care what OS it runs, so long as they can find the web browser. I nearly Mint-ified my uncle's old well-abused Acer laptop, until we discovered that nuking the Acer crapware made it usable again.Linux on laptops has come a long way, much further I think than any other OS.

slikenover 8 years ago

Seems kinda silly, anyone literate can be taught the basics pretty easily. Grandfathers and Grandmothers just require a bit of basics to get the basics of web browsing. Before you know it they are attaching their cameras to send out photos to friends and families.My preferred setup is a dirt cheap chromebox, like the Asus for $150 or so. Add 2 4GB dimms and install ubuntu LTS. Drag off all the crap icons for amazon search, libreoffice, etc. Set it to automatically login. Make sure the browser icon is easy to find.I would spend some time saying that never give their credit card to anyone without talking to you. Or print them out a whitelist with a red circle around what to check for, like <a href="https://www.amazon.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com</a> or whatever vendors you trust.

tianshuoover 8 years ago

My grandpa,now 89, has been running Ubuntu on an old computer for more than ten years(I remember it was 5.04 or something). No viruses, no malware. He uses Picasa for photos, Firefox for online email and news browsing, with a 150% font. Many apps and websites are non-elderly-friendly -- they break when using a larger font. His eyesight is getting poorer recently and uses Facetime on his iPad instead. Maintenance is usually because he forgot to pay the network bills, although these ten years I have upgraded both the hardware and OS multiple times. My grandma sometimes complains that he is addicted to the computer and tells me don't come to fix the computer. But grandpa will harass me every day with phone calls until I come :)

Jan_jwover 8 years ago

I don't know if it's just me or is everyone these days talking about dumping their iMac and switching to Linux?

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wvhover 8 years ago

I made a low-power system and installed Debian on it for my girlfriend's mother some time in 2002-2003, who is in her seventies. She's mostly moved on to a Macbook Air by now though. She's an intelligent person and really wants to stay up-to-date on technology, to keep her brain occupied. It's having the "will" to do something that matters, not the age or gender. I don't mind stereotypes, there's usually some truth to most of them, but let us also keep in mind people can break out of them at any time.

diegoperiniover 8 years ago

My mom and dad run Ubuntu too, without even knowing it is not Windows. It was an easy transition since they never had the chance to fully adopt any OS out there. Hence, they are able to manage all of them, when they are shown how to launch the browser. I'm using a Macbook, there is another Windows notebook at home. All feel the same to them, they say. They believe the UI differences are due to my or my sister's choice of theme.

teekertover 8 years ago

Nice, I'd like to do the same thing for my mother in law, she mostly browses the web and import pictures and prints stuff from time to time. But then there is this one thing, she used special software to print photo-albums which does not run on Linux. As a result has a very slow Win 10 PC which frustrates more than helps her. Maybe I can just buy her an ssd...

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aphextronover 8 years ago

It seems more and more that the actual operating system is mattering less for casual users, which is a big plus for Linux. Pretty much anything you need to do on a computer can be done through the web browser now. As long as it can run Firefox decently the hardware/OS doesn't matter much.

xracyover 8 years ago

Here's a question. Currently I hate Macs (for the expense), and Windows (for a number of reasons having to do with the OS).But I have been questioning what the best flavor of linux to set up someone who has little to no "technology skills", on. Does anyone have a good recommendation?

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meir_yanovichover 8 years ago

My 9 old kid also using Ubuntu 16 on my old 10 years ibm laptop.its magic , i carry USB disk with Ubuntu installation every where to save old laptops ...

kallebooover 8 years ago

What does she use it for? Does she organize and print her photo collection, edit some short home movies, write a blog? Or is it just a pure Netflix, email and Facebook machine?

somecallitbluesover 8 years ago

But you should totally buy her a new computer for her next birthday. 10 year laptop is a turd no matter what you put on it.

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pgt2artover 8 years ago

that's a bold state, i mean it means linux is now equal to windows its even safe to use by parents, thats an engineering achievement

jenniferjoshwaover 8 years ago

Nice. Technology has been improved alot

mundanevoiceover 8 years ago

Great! Thanks for sharing.

isolliover 8 years ago

Here is why I can't recommend Linux (which I use happily) to my parents.1) Every so often, WiFi will fail to detect and connect to my network, so I need to type this command in a terminal:<pre><code> sudo iwlist scan </code></pre> 2) And every third or fourth time the kernel gets an update, I must manually make space on the /boot partition by following the complex instructions here [1].So no, not for my parents, not yet.[1] <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/298487/not-enough-free-disk-space-when-upgrading" rel="nofollow">http://askubuntu.com/questions/298487/not-enough-free-disk-s...</a>

Numberwangover 8 years ago

Just don't expect wi-fi to work consistently

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CyberFonicover 8 years ago

Everybody who uses an Android phone or a ChromeBook is also using Linux. It really is about the GUI that the average user interacts with.

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partycoderover 8 years ago

Since Android devices, Roku and many other consumer products are based on Linux, yes... everyone can run Linux, sometimes even unknowingly.