Mark Allison wrote:
> Hi there
>
> My Dad bought a new PC last week, and me being the family geek, was
> asked to set it up for him. He has been using XP for the last five years
> or so and is reasonably happy with it, when it works.
>
> When I arrived to configure his new machine and move all his email,
> documents over it turned out that he had Windows Vista Home Premium
> installed. He was complaining a lot about it because he couldn't find
> things where he was used to looking for them, his scanner didn't work,
> and some less popular applications that he uses won't install on Vista
> either. So, I wiped the machine and at that point was tempted to offer
> Ubuntu to him, but at the same time I realised that the best OS for him
> was Windows XP. If he was getting lost in Windows Vista, what hope was
> there for him if he moved to Vista or a nice new iMac? So, I installed
> XP Pro and he is now very happy - the machine is a lot snappier as well.
>
> I know that he could spend some time learning a new OS, but a man in his
> 60s that uses the computer occasionally for the odd document, email and
> web browsing just doesn't want to invest the mental effort required to
> switch to a more stable, perhaps better quality OS.
>
> This scenario must be fairly common in that lots of non-techie people
> are so used to Windows that given a new OS, will simply find it too much
> hard work to learn its features, no matter how much better it is than
> Windows. I personally use Ubuntu, Mac and Windows and am happy in any of
> them - I use Ubuntu Server for backups, proxy, firewall, web filtering;
> Macs for the family (and I did flirt with them for a while); and Windows
> for me on the desktop. All OSs all have their strengths and weaknesses,
> but for some people it's just not worth the effort to switch to
> something unfamiliar.
>
> What do you think? Have many of you managed to get older, non-techie
> people to switch happily?
>
> Mark.
>
Hmm, I can see your point in installing XP Pro, not sure if Microsoft
will see the point unless it's a legal copy. It's a shame that
Microsoft don't allow downgrades from Vista Home to XP Home.
Anyway, yes I have managed to get an older non techie person onto
Ubuntu. A friend of mine asked if I could sort his mum's PC out which
had a pirate copy of XP on it. I suggested they try Ubuntu and if
they're not happy with that it would be about £60 for a copy of XP Home.
After a demonstration of Ubuntu Feisty he said he was happy for his
mum to give it a go. All she does is browse the internet and check her
e-mails. So anyway, I installed Ubuntu and delivered the PC. I took
her through everything on the PC (took about an hour) and she was happy
with it. In fact, she was so happy, he's asked me if I could install
Ubuntu on her old PC for a friend of hers who just does word processing
(although I think it'll have to be Xubuntu as it's an older PC).
So there is hope. It is possible to make Ubuntu work like Windows. It
isn't a major job to move things around such as the applications menu,
and I dare say it takes a darn less time install Ubuntu and do that than
it does to install XP, anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and all the
software on top!
I suppose in a way it's best to look at it on a case by case basis. If
as you find the end user uses some strange applications that won't run
under Wine (or Vista) and hardware which won't work then it might just
be worth sticking with what they know. Although I think for those folks
who just check e-mails, browse the web and write a couple of word
processor documents it isn't much hassle to switch.
Rob
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