What desktop setup do you recommend for my totally newbie parents? [duplicate]

What desktop setup do you recommend for my totally newbie parents? [duplicate] "My parents have never used a computer. Not many left of them in the rich part of the world... But lately despite of their age they have got really curious and want me to arrange a computer for them so they can learn to use the internet. It think it's kind of cute but it does give me a headache."
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 454

Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

"I recently reinstalled my mother's laptop with Ubuntu and haven't had any issues.

Originally she was running Windows XP and my brother (who lives closer to her than I do) finally refused to do ""tech support"" any longer.

She was constantly getting viruses, malware, etc. Basically just your typical parent who doesn't really know what she's clicking on... not to mention letting others (who equally don't know what they're doing) use her computer.

I installed Ubuntu on it, made sure everything was working, and set it up with a password.

Neither my brother nor myself have had to do tech support since.

SIDE NOTE:

While this worked for my mother, your mileage may vary. My mother is the type of person who only surfs the web, checks her email, and writes the occasional letter. Ubuntu with OpenOffice, Picasa, and Skype installed was able to pretty much handle everything she does."

Guest [Entry]

"if all they need is browser (and maybe email and ""standard"" applications like word processing, spreadsheet, drawing/charting sw etc) then they're MUCH better off with Linux than with Windows. Ubuntu is a good choice for a desktop linux system for newbies.

you get better performance out of old hardware on linux, it's much more secure, you can manage it remotely via VNC (graphical) or ssh (text CLI), and it will Just Work.

Until recently, i thought that the only thing the average home user actually needs Windows for rather than Linux is 3D games - there are very few games that run natively on linux, and getting them to run in Wine is a hit-or-miss affair (some work, some don't, some partially work)....but with VirtualBox 3's support for accelerated 3D graphics cards, I think that even gamers would be better off with a linux base system running VirtualBox for games and any other software that won't run on linux."