Thanks Elizabeth, this one is a real community service: "4. Put a sign on the edge of your monitor, where you can see it at all times, that says: "New isn't better, different isn't better, only better is better."
Being an inveterate geek, I started pushing my wife onto the web around 1995, way back when OS/2 was an option (in fact used proto- red hat to cache sites at night for morning viewing, being pre-bband days). But she never quite got it until 1999, and the fault was all mine. As soon she would get comfortable with the computer, I'd go and change something- add some hardware, put up the newest version of Netscape, whatever... Of course nothing worked consistently. It wasn't until 1999 that I got her a simple client machine, hooked it to the web, put tape on the case and swore never ever to break that tape seal. She used the machine until a month ago- when I gave her a laptop with same promise to not upgrade. In the face of stability gotten by freedom from constant 'gee-whiz' upgrade, my wife is 'net savvy, and even gets why "brand new windows for $" every 18 months is a bad idea. So please folks, design for consistent use! Linux &c. are great, for me, largely because windows crashes and linux doesn't. best- rod g