On 12/20/2016 10:46 AM, Joe wrote:
On Tue, 20 Dec 2016 06:25:52 -0600
Richard Owlett <rowl...@cloud85.net> wrote:
On 12/19/2016 5:28 PM, Ben Caradoc-Davies wrote:
[1] Actual case. Thinks she is using Windows because she has
LibreOffice. Certainly not representative of all grandmothers.
I suspect the User Experience is as important as Application
Software.
Do you know which desktop is being used?
I've been recommending Debian to an elderly friend who has
expressed annoyance with current version(s) of Windows. He has
sent me an old laptop with an implied "put up or shut up". I want
to put together a demo system that will be attractive to him. I
currently planning on Mate as the desktop. We live 1000 miles
apart so can't just drive over to show him what I use. Comments? TIA
A good start would be finding the reasons for the current annoyance with
Windows, you wouldn't want to replicate them in an attempt to keep his
environment familiar.
I've known him and his wife for >40 years. The rumbles I've heard
have been that Microsoft changes things for the sake of changing
things -- cf the change in default GUI from Gnome2 to Gnome3 [the
reason I use Mate]. I'm aiming for a DE that someone who
comfortably went from Win 3.x thru WinXP would feel at home with.
I've not personally used anything since WinXP.
I went from Gnome2 to LXDE without too much trauma, at the time of
Gnome3's arrival i.e. pre-Mate. When LXDE started giving trouble, which
I now know was due to systemd arriving, I moved to Xfce4 and have been
happy with it.
Note that Windows 8 can be made somewhat civilized, as presumably can
10. He doesn't really have to live with daft tiles and fixed full-screen
windows if he doesn't want to. My Win8.1 laptop looks and behaves much
like Win7 almost all of the time.
I don't know if the laptop in question can support it, but I'll
investigate having Grub (LILO?) menu present a choice of
desktops. It will take some thought to have them present the same
application software and access the same user data files. [I.E.
read email with SeaMonkey under Mate one day and under Xfce4 the
next without mucking up content/context]
[Previous paragraph is me thinking out loud ;]
