On Tue 20 Dec 2016 at 11:16:28 -0600, Richard Owlett wrote: > 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.
Gnome went from version 2 to version 3 just for the sake of it? No rationale? You can substanstiate that? Or are you passing on the received wisdom? > >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] No. It doesn't take much thought. SeaMonkey should work flawlessly under both DEs. But why change a DE every other day? > [Previous paragraph is me thinking out loud ;] Try not to do this too often.