Not so strange?

[ellis rowell]

My step daughter came in today, she said "Can I use your computer" and I said "Yes". It was already booted and when I went through later she was happily using Firefox on a Ubuntu OS without realising it wasn't Windows.

[GavinZac]

I've said it for years, there is a certain line that people are on one side or the other of.

Either they have no fear when it comes to computers and will try anything on their own intuition, or they will be very afraid of breaking something or looking stupid so they will only do things they know for certain and have done hundreds of times.

There are a lot of people who consider themselves Windows "power users" who are actually on the fearful side of the line.

[~LoKe]

Once you hit a certain age it gets harder to learn something that completely goes against what you're used to. It's like a language...teach 'em young and they'll have it for life, and be completely bilingual.

[vexorian]

My step daughter came in today, she said "Can I use your computer" and I said "Yes". It was already booted and when I went through later she was happily using Firefox on a Ubuntu OS without realising it wasn't Windows.

I did this with one of my cousins once, he is a doctor and wanted to use "word" I lend him my computer with Open Office writer and everything went all right until he wanted to see the page preview, an option that is placed differently, he ended up saying "This is the newest version, right?" After that he was able to print his document...

[ellis rowell]

Don't know about that, LoKe

I started with computers 20 years ago (Sinclair QL), worked up through Amiga's, pc's with Windows and last year at 78 changed to Ubuntu. Having worked on the QL and Amiga, I didn't see any problem with the Terminal command line.

[~LoKe]

Don't know about that, LoKe

I started with computers 20 years ago (Sinclair QL), worked up through Amiga's, pc's with Windows and last year at 78 changed to Ubuntu. Having worked on the QL and Amiga, I didn't see any problem with the Terminal command line.

It's not a fact, it's just a general occurrence.

[Namtabmai]

Not really, especially when I know many a university lecturers who'd get confused about opening Internet Explorer simply because their desktop icons have moved about.
Children seem a lot more adaptable, especially when it comes to computers.
My friends kid managed to install flash all by himself when he was 4 years old so he could get to the CBBC website.

[vexorian]

Not really, especially when I know many a university lecturers who'd get confused about opening Internet Explorer simply because their desktop icons have moved about.
Children seem a lot more adaptable, especially when it comes to computers.
My friends kid managed to install flash all by himself when he was 4 years old so he could get to the CBBC website.

On the other hand, when people are so locked into appearance it might be easier to fool them, just give them the typical XP background, icons and start menu and theyfall for it.

[suziequzie]

Don't know about that, LoKe

I started with computers 20 years ago (Sinclair QL), worked up through Amiga's, pc's with Windows and last year at 78 changed to Ubuntu. Having worked on the QL and Amiga, I didn't see any problem with the Terminal command line.

Ahh, but the *experimenting* and exposure to different computers wasn't new to you. You didn't have fear of something new or reluctance to learn something new stopping you.

[eilu]

Ahh, but the *experimenting* and exposure to different computers wasn't new to you. You didn't have fear of something new or reluctance to learn something new stopping you.
therefore it is not the age but the attitude... the reluctance to learn just appears/seems/is perceived to be more common among older folk ("I'm too old to learn" or "I don't take classes, I give them")

on the other hand, I've had college friends who approach me and as "can I type something on your laptop, I need to add such-and-such to my report before I print it" see my ubuntu boot-up screen and say "uh, no thanks" without waiting for the thing to load, assuming it's going to be difficult :confused: weird...

[DeadSuperHero]

My big project is to get my Dad and Stepmom into Linux. I'm probably going to wait for GNOME3 to come out, or KDE 4.5, whichever comes first. It's got to be simple, beautiful, and easy for them.
I'll probably give them a KDE 4.x stable on Kubuntu, or something like that.
Maybe one of those Ubuntu Dells...

[init1]

It was quite the oposite for a friend when I let her use my laptop for writting a paper. I booted up the Feisty CD and she complained about how everything was different and didn't act quite how she expected it to.

[zmjjmz]

Well, I know that my computer's already confusing enough, and it seems to confuse many people, who come to it thinking it'll be running OSX.
One nice lady, who was babysitting at the time, actually came to the conclusion, after being completely confuddled by Thunderbrowse, of all things, that it was OS1,000,000.
I almost broke down laughing.