Mom digs Ubuntu

[K.Mandla]

I suppose the title says it all. I've mentioned the fact in other threads, but I thought it pertinent here.

Mom's hooked on 5.10 and hasn't used Windows in months. Does all her Amazon.com sales, e-mails, printing, letter-writing, Web surfing, Shoutcast ... you name it.

It might also bear mentioning that she hasn't the least technical inclination. She couldn't start up a terminal if she had to, and thinks .deb is a file specially made for someone named Debbie (that was just her idea of a joke, of course).

The corollary to that is that I'm tech support for her, but it's a role I'm willing to play. She's thrilled with using her computer without relying on MS, without fear of viruses or the need for spyware scanners, and I get the experience of troubleshooting her machine for her.

I'm trying to sell her on an upgrade come June, because 6.06 looks promising. We'll see how that goes. For now though, she's a rabid Breezy fan.

So the next time someone tells you Linux isn't ready for the casual user ... point them at this thread. :mrgreen:

[hove99]

Just installed Ubuntu Dapper Drake on my mother's laptop, and it works like a charm. Earlier with Windows XP, she had constant problems with virus, breakdowns and freezes. None of that anymore, even though Dapper is just an alpha release :-) go mom

[gruepig]

and thinks .deb is a file specially made for someone named Debbie (that was just her idea of a joke, of course).

Well, it's approximately true. Debra + Ian = Debian.

[Revolution]

Since this is the Ubuntu Women thread I thought I'd just mention about my wifes best friend whom I've just converted to Ubuntu.

After the fourth time repairing her Windows XP installation I'd suggested maybe Linux would be more to her liking.

Of course she's one of those computer illiterate people who believes "The Computer" = Windows. She also believes "The Internet" = Internet Explorer.
Imagine her surprise when I showed her my PC.

So now she has "The Internet" on something called "Firefox", Email is on "Evolution" and Instant Messaging is on GAIM.

She did complain about the funny movie emails her friends would send that she couldnt watch. I'm trying to find a way now for her to play WMV files.

Cheers.

[K.Mandla]

Well, it's approximately true. Debra + Ian = Debian.
Okay, I gotta tell her that now. She'll think she's a Linux genius. :D You gotta love moms.

[echo $USER]

She did complain about the funny movie emails her friends would send that she couldnt watch. I'm trying to find a way now for her to play WMV files.


Install automatrix.

[towsonu2003]

She did complain about the funny movie emails her friends would send that she couldnt watch. I'm trying to find a way now for her to play WMV files.

I guess this (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RestrictedFormats#head-fda9cc5147253891fe3047263b82d787ab025bba)is what you're looking for (or automatix). Is she gonna want to update Firefox to 1.5 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FirefoxNewVersion) as well?

Just a side note: whenever I do one of these things (update firefox, install codecs etc) in front of a friend, the friend will say "oh, it is so easy to do this in windows, why don't you use it instead". so beware ;)

[beercz]

Well, it's approximately true. Debra + Ian = Debian.
My wife is Deborah (deb) :-)

[odbod]

THat's cool.. I did the same for a friend's mom. I gave my friend a guide to ubuntu so he could answer any of her questions. She loves it.

[ed_d]

My mothr in law (and fater in law) are both now ubuntu users. gave them a pc with it, showed them the ropes, and they are off and running. Granted they are casual users, who still have to use dial-up. They really like it and that is all that matters to me. As far as tech support, they have me and my son, who is up and comming with ubuntu....

[CyberCam]

K.Mandla,

Very nice post! Just to let you all know, I have about 60 personal customers that I give pc techical support to. Out of that 60 I've converted 25 users to ubunutu (breezy & dapper) with the same result as K.Mandla's mom. I too agree whole heartedly that the linux desktop is ready for the average user.

Basically, I have to do the initial install & setup, then I put the user(s) through a 60 to 120 minute quick tutorial/guide on the deferences between ******* xp & unbuntu. I also bookmark serveral important ubuntu/links educational links for the user(s) reference and I also provide free phone & remote technical support for the first initial 90 days, and after the 90 days a charge a smalll fee.

I also support 12 business', which 8 have fully crossed over to ubuntu/linux for their server(s)/workstation(s). All in all, the user(s) that have made the jump to ubuntu/linux are very happy and have mentioned to me that their productivity has gone up. The two major reasons for accepting the change, when I've ask these customer(s) is price and viruses.

The reason for me posting this on this women's thread is because 60% of my user are female!

Happy computing! :)

[K.Mandla]

Just an update. ...

Mom is a huge Dapper Xubuntu fan now. She loves the running mouse splash screen, the blue environment and the easy right-click access menu.

Upgrading from 5.10 was a bit tricky because her laptop has a dreaded Broadcom wireless card in it, but I think I got most of the bugs ironed out, and she's back online again. Printer works fine, video works fine, USB mouse works fine ... she's a happy camper.

And while OpenOffice was just as good as Microsoft's Office for her, she says she likes Abiword even better because it starts faster and it's simpler.

Nice work, Ubuntu gang. Mom's more pleased than ever with Ubuntu! :mrgreen:

EDIT: Well, unfortunately, only a week after installing Xubuntu, she's back to the Gnome-based desktop. It seems support for digital cameras wasn't as slick and easy under XFCE as it is under Gnome. So while she really liked Xubuntu, the digital camera problem was a dealbreaker.

No problem. Her laptop is plenty fast to run straight Dapper. And perhaps, if digital cameras have better luck in the future, she'll move back. :)

[dermotti]

Yup i got my girlfriend on Xubuntu. I dont let her use windows because she ends up getting so much spyware and viruses on my computer.


Xubuntu ftw

[captainpotato]

My partner's been using 5.10 for six months or more and really loves it, apart from one odd glitch that means her network settings aren't saved (so she has to re-enter them every day) - but she now has some limited shell experience ;). I haven't bothered fixing it as I'm going to upgarde the box to 6.06 soon.

I'm writing this on the old box, which is running Xubuntu 6.06, that I'm setting up for my mother (whose ancient iMac just died). I cannot foresee any issues with it, but this is my mother I'm writing about :P

Have to admit that I'm really impressed with Xubuntu - I tried an earlier version of Kubuntu on my box and wasn't so impressed (primarily due to some installation issues), so went back to Ubuntu 5.10. Xubuntu, on the other hand, is really snappy and works very well on this old P3 :)

[richbarna]

My wife loves her Dapper KDE desktop (now that she has got the card game "pysol").
I put Icons on the desktop for Email, Internet, Messenger etc.
She likes the fact that all the things she normally did with windows are more or less the same and can't really see what all the fuss about Linux is about.

At least now I don't have to show her what firewall pop-up messages mean, or how to update the antivirus, because we use neither.

[Drakkor]

I'd like to install Ubuntu on my Mom's computer, only she is in Florida, I am in California. I checked her computer the other day,I got her to install realvnc,and sheesh,somehow her antivirus and firewall where not even there, don't know how that happened, anyway she had 7 virus's or is that viriii ??,lol

[Icon41]

Well linux is not really for the casual user if you have a person who knows how to work ubuntu in the house, alot of casual users without you will not even know about or how to get ubuntu on there system, let alone get things on ubuntu to work for them.

[T700]

Well linux is not really for the casual user if you have a person who knows how to work ubuntu in the house, alot of casual users without you will not even know about or how to get ubuntu on there system, let alone get things on ubuntu to work for them.

Really? Guess someone better let the folks at Canonical know so they can shutdown this "Ubuntu" nonsense.

Paul

[Icon41]

Really? Guess someone better let the folks at Canonical know so they can shutdown this "Ubuntu" nonsense.

Paul


Why are you following me around these forums, it just so happens everytime I post you have some witty thing to say back.

Thats not the point im trying to get across.


It might also bear mentioning that she hasn't the least technical inclination. She couldn't start up a terminal if she had to, and thinks .deb is a file specially made for someone named Debbie (that was just her idea of a joke, of course).


That right there pretty much states what the average user would do with ubuntu, without him his mom would get frustrated and probly give up.

[T700]

Why are you following me around these forums, it just so happens everytime I post you have some witty thing to say back.

Don't flatter yourself. Even if I had the interest, I wouldn't have the time.

Paul

[Icon41]

Don't flatter yourself. Even if I had the interest, I wouldn't have the time.

Paul

The first stage is denial, Paul..

[K.Mandla]

Good news! Mom is all the happier with the default Gnome screensavers replaced with xscreensaver.

In the meantime, I had to do some serious open heart surgery on the Windows partition to remove Earthlink's Total Access package and get my Dad back online. It seems TA likes to commandeer every Windows connection, and when I switched routers, it throttled the wireless connections panel and wouldn't allow Advanced Settings to retain the default encryption key between sessions.

In other words, Dad had to enter the key each time he wanted to get online. He was so tired of typing it in, he started using Ubuntu!

Mom teased him mercilessly about that. ;)

[eXcentra]

haha, this is quite a nice success story. :)
I need to buy a new monitor for my mom's computer, and I may install Ubuntu onto it (previously had a broken Windows 98se installation... it had so many problems). Whenever I use Ubuntu, she doesn't recognize that it's not Windows. :p Although, there may be a problem if she goes to Korean sites since Korean sites tend to revolve around Internet Explorer (in my experience...)

[indigoshift]

I'd like to install Ubuntu on my Mom's computer, only she is in Florida, I am in California.

I'm in a similar dilemma. My mom loves computers, and showed a real interest when I told her all about Ubuntu and all the things she wouldn't have to worry about once she gave up Windows--like the spyware, adware, and viruses she gets every now and then.

Unfortunately, she's in Alaska and I'm in Arizona. One of these days, though, I'll hook her up. :D

[Katje]

Ubuntu is not just for Moms, it's also great for non-techie friends. My fiance and I switched a friend of ours over to Ubuntu 5.10 about two months ago when she was having no end of problems on her Windows machine. Well she still misses her old Mac iBook (which died in the middle of the school year and the windows box was a replacement so she could write papers) she loves how her Mac short-cuts work in Ubuntu and she doesn't need to worry about getting virus and her computer consently crashing on her. Recently even her roommate has started asking about it!

Now if only I could talk my father into making the switch... He's on dial up and his computer is filled with spyware and viruses. Since he's on dial up he refuses to get Window's updates because they take too long to come in and he doesn't want to stay connected to the internet that long. We tried to tell him that he should consider Ubuntu but he "doesn't want to learn a whole new OS"

[K.Mandla]

A brief update. ...

With the impending release of Edgy, I'm in a quandary over upgrading mom's computer from Dapper. It's not like the jump from Breezy to Dapper -- that, in many ways, was a huge improvement for her.

I think this time prudence is the better plan. I've tinkered with Edgy myself, and while there doesn't seem to be any innate fault, I fear wrecking a working system unnecessarily with a hapless dist-upgrade.

So I think, and mom agrees, that she'll be using Dapper for a while to come.

That being said, if anyone can offer a strong case why a novice Gnome fan would need to move from Dapper to Edgy, I'd be willing to hear it. ;)

[Sef]

I'm in a similar dilemma. My mom loves computers, and showed a real interest when I told her all about Ubuntu and all the things she wouldn't have to worry about once she gave up Windows--like the spyware, adware, and viruses she gets every now and then.

Unfortunately, she's in Alaska and I'm in Arizona. One of these days, though, I'll hook her up.

At least you two are in the same country as your mom. Mine is in the States and I am in Korea.:lol: :lol:

[xur17]

I was reading through this thread, and was wondering what you guys reccommend for microsoft powerpoint. I tried using Open Office, which I like using for writing papers, but as soon as I tried using open office presentation, and saving it as a ppt, it didn't work. I tested it on another computer running xp, and when I got to school, none of the text displayed, which made the presentation look really weird.

My point is that my sister was looking at my computer, and really liked it (especially xgl). She said maybe next time windows fails I could install it on her computer. My question is what do you reccommend for office (wine, vmware, etc), and what about xgl on her computer since I have had some problems with it.

Thanks!

[GadgetsGuy]

Im thinking we ought to honor our mothers with a MOMbuntu flavor of Ubuntu! My Mother will be 68 in December, and she LOVES Ubuntu! :D

I installed it on a machine I bought for her, gave her a 1 hour crash course on the basics, and the URL to these forums -- and she has not looked back once!

PS - My mother prior to using Ubuntu had almost no computer knowledge at all! :)

[ZombiekE]

My parents use Ubuntu too :). My mother not always, but she can use it for what she needs it :).

[K.Mandla]

Im thinking we ought to honor our mothers with a MOMbuntu flavor of Ubuntu!
Hmm. ... That's not a bad idea. ... :-k

[Frak]

</snip>

[Cynical]

That being said, if anyone can offer a strong case why a novice Gnome fan would need to move from Dapper to Edgy, I'd be willing to hear it.

Well many people agree that start up and shut down times have improved. That and Gnome 2.16 are the only big reasons for her to switch. To be honest I would wait until a month after the final release. By then any important bugs will be squashed and upgrading will be painless.

[Chaos5lw]

Well my Mum is now a convert :D

I have installed Kubuntu 6.06 on a computer that she needs for the Internet and Writing letters and she says its "great" and "very easy", so im happy and don't have to worry about clearing all the malware crap out of a Windows machine once a month.

I only have one small fault myself that the network won't auto-connect on boot. See here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=281262) and here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=199876&page=2) if you can help.

I'm off to write a small how-to guide for her, cya.

[factotum218]

Similar situation here. My girlfriend and her daughter both love Ubuntu. I have given my g/f my PMac G4 and she thinks nothing can beat that. But for PC it doesn't get any better than this.

And to FRAK:
I checked out your website...
Why do you have flash on it? Is there any point to it even being there other than to keep linux users out and annoy us web-standard developers?

[Frak]

Similar situation here. My girlfriend and her daughter both love Ubuntu. I have given my g/f my PMac G4 and she thinks nothing can beat that. But for PC it doesn't get any better than this.

And to FRAK:
I checked out your website...
Why do you have flash on it? Is there any point to it even being there other than to keep linux users out and annoy us web-standard developers?
I'm sorry about the flash, I was just messing around one day with flash (using wine) and I made something like that, I thought it would be great on the site, so I changed it for the needs of it, and boom, flash splash. Sorry for the inconviencence, nothing against linux users, I mean that's why I converted my mom to flash. (you know just by changing the name from flash-7 to flash-9 will work, when I find that thread, I'll post it here.)

[carlgm]

Or install Flash 9 beta.

[kikiwitch]

Since this is the Ubuntu Women thread I thought I'd just mention about my wifes best friend whom I've just converted to Ubuntu.

After the fourth time repairing her Windows XP installation I'd suggested maybe Linux would be more to her liking.

Of course she's one of those computer illiterate people who believes "The Computer" = Windows. She also believes "The Internet" = Internet Explorer.
Imagine her surprise when I showed her my PC.

So now she has "The Internet" on something called "Firefox", Email is on "Evolution" and Instant Messaging is on GAIM.

She did complain about the funny movie emails her friends would send that she couldnt watch. I'm trying to find a way now for her to play WMV files.

Cheers.

Try VLC :-)

[kikiwitch]

Since this is the Ubuntu Women thread I thought I'd just mention about my wifes best friend whom I've just converted to Ubuntu.

After the fourth time repairing her Windows XP installation I'd suggested maybe Linux would be more to her liking.

Of course she's one of those computer illiterate people who believes "The Computer" = Windows. She also believes "The Internet" = Internet Explorer.
Imagine her surprise when I showed her my PC.

So now she has "The Internet" on something called "Firefox", Email is on "Evolution" and Instant Messaging is on GAIM.

She did complain about the funny movie emails her friends would send that she couldnt watch. I'm trying to find a way now for her to play WMV files.

Cheers.


Hmm. ... That's not a bad idea. ... :-k

Yeah, it's spelt Mum ;)

[obi22]

Hello!

I'm proud of that my Mom is Ubuntu user too. It was easy to convice her to quit windows since she didn't use it much ;)
She's got all what lame user can ask: web browser (firefox), communicators (skype, kadu), mail client (thunderbird), open office, google earth 4 beta, etc.

Best way to play *.wmv, all divx, etc is to install Totem-Xine, GXine and Xine-extra-codecs, plus totem-firefox-plugin !!!

[tyggna1]

Wife uses Ubuntu--loves it. Boots up faster, runs cleaner. She hasn't had a bad experience with it yet. She, also, doesn't deem herself "tech savvy," and she's fine with thing "working a little differently--that's just normal."

[Mayfairy]

I've also converted my mother, girlfriend, mother-in-law and my lil' sister. all using Ubuntu nowadays and it seems that they're more or less happy with it, except my sister. She's going to make her friend install Windows on her computer so she can once again use DC++. That's just because she doesn't know how to use torrents or limewire.

[DoctorMO]

DC++. That's just because she doesn't know how to use torrents or limewire.

I dunno you should be pressing the importance of not using Direct Connect ++ which is a security ridden mess at the best of times. Seems like your sister isn't thinking it through and going for the dangerous route all just so she can grab a few tracks of music?

[slavik]

my mom can open firefox ... other than that she can't tell one OS from another, not that she cares or anything.

[Frak]

Heh, I got kinda annoyed at the constant calls of my mother to have me help fix her computer, so I installed Kubuntu Dapper Drake on it. Still need to upgrade it :P BUT, no calls since ;)

[odiseo77]

My mother has been using Ubuntu since Dapper Drake came out (I installed it in her PC) and she's so happy with it, she never boots into windows; does all her stuff from Ubuntu and even update her system by her own clicking on the orange update-manager icon. On one occasion, I had to boot her machine into windows and when she was gonna use it, she said something like "What the heck are you doing on windows? I want my Ubuntu back!" :lolflag:

Off Topic: By the way, I didn't know there was a section named 'Ubuntu Women' here in the forum; very interesting :)

[K.Mandla]

I almost forgot about this thread. I suppose I should update to say that yes, Mom still uses Ubuntu. She upgraded through 5.10 to 6.06, 6.10 and then around 2007 bought a Dell-branded Ubuntu-preinstalled machine. That was about two years ago, and she upgraded through 9.04 and is soon to try 10.04 as well.

So that's almost five years of everyday Ubuntu desktop use. Just for the record, of course. ;)

[kio_http]

So that's almost five years of everyday Ubuntu desktop use. Just for the record, of course. ;)

A poor way to define a BUMP!;)

[houndi]

Of course she's one of those computer illiterate people who believes "The Computer" = Windows. She also believes "The Internet" = Internet Explorer.
Imagine her surprise when I showed her my PC