Free, simple OS

CathJ

CathJ

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An oldish lady has been given a laptop by her son, but it appears that he formatted the hdd before giving it to her. This obviously leaves her without an OS, and since she knows nothing about computers (and I mean nothing), I'm helping her out.

She can't really afford to pay for Windows XP or Vista; and I suspect they'd be too complicated for her anyway.

I'm sure I saw a very simple *nix OS, which came with Firefox and Thunderbird built in and was extremely easy to use. I just can't remember what it was...

Does anyone have any suggestions? She really won't be using the laptop much except for email, maybe a bit of browsing, and probably getting photos via email.
 
I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a simple operating system, but what about one of the lesser variants of Linux?
It's even free.
 
plazma said:
I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a simple operating system, but what about one of the lesser variants of Linux?
It's even free.
Click to expand...

Not simple on the inside, of course ;) Just simple on the UI side - easy to use (for her) and easy to set up (for me).
 
I'd be scared to let her use anything really except Windows. Linux users delude themselves into imagining that it's user-friendly and approachable - actually it can be very daunting for a non-techie, even more so for someone who knows nothing at all about computers.

Question - does the laptop have a Windows sticker? If it does then you can just reinstall whatever version of Windows was already on there for free. I would do that before going with any Linux variant. Heck I'll send you a copy of the XP installation disk.
 
cerebus said:
I'd be scared to let her use anything really except Windows. Linux users delude themselves into imagining that it's user-friendly and approachable - actually it can be very daunting for a non-techie, even more so for someone who knows nothing at all about computers.

Question - does the laptop have a Windows sticker? If it does then you can just reinstall whatever version of Windows was already on there for free. I would do that before going with any Linux variant.
Click to expand...

Ordinarily I'd agree with you - I wouldn't let my parents use linux, for example. But I think that for what she needs, it'll be fine. All she'll really be doing is clicking on one or two icons, she definitely won't be installing new apps or anything like that. So anything with a clean, simple UI should be okay.
 
cerebus said:
I'd be scared to let her use anything really except Windows. Linux users delude themselves into imagining that it's user-friendly and approachable - actually it can be very daunting for a non-techie, even more so for someone who knows nothing at all about computers.

Question - does the laptop have a Windows sticker? If it does then you can just reinstall whatever version of Windows was already on there for free. I would do that before going with any Linux variant. Heck I'll send you a copy of the XP installation disk.
Click to expand...

New Ubuntu versions are a lot easier to use an manage than windows.
Even installing things is easier.

Perhaps we should ask the question... What does she want to do with it?
For internet and emails - Linux
For Multimedia (Music/Videos) - Linux/Windows.
 
cerebus said:
I'd be scared to let her use anything really except Windows. Linux users delude themselves into imagining that it's user-friendly and approachable - actually it can be very daunting for a non-techie, even more so for someone who knows nothing at all about computers.

Question - does the laptop have a Windows sticker? If it does then you can just reinstall whatever version of Windows was already on there for free. I would do that before going with any Linux variant. Heck I'll send you a copy of the XP installation disk.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll have to disagree with you regarding Ubuntu then. I found it much easier to use than Windows XP, the menus follow a more logical layout as well. Sure, there are some operating systems that aren't as user-friendly, but I think Ubuntu is an exception.

Time for some generalizations methinks: Windows users also do think that Windows is more user-friendly because they are used to the layout (if you will) that Windows has used through the ages, and as soon as something deviates from that it's no longer considered user-friendly because it no longer conforms to the norm. In this case, someone who knows little/nothing about computers won't have any tougher time learning Ubuntu's layout than Windows XP's.
 
gOS looks good - unfortunately I can't justify downloading it at work to try it out, but from the screenshots it looks simple enough for her to use.

In fact, I'm tempted to set up a dual boot so I can install on my old, mostly unused, PC as well :) How good is wine? I'd imagine that there are a lot of apps that won't run in wine? I have win98 on there at the moment, mostly for some old games that aren't too happy in XP; what are the odds that they'd be able to run under wine?
 
CathJ said:
gOS looks good - unfortunately I can't justify downloading it at work to try it out, but from the screenshots it looks simple enough for her to use.

In fact, I'm tempted to set up a dual boot so I can install on my old, mostly unused, PC as well :) How good is wine? I'd imagine that there are a lot of apps that won't run in wine? I have win98 on there at the moment, mostly for some old games that aren't too happy in XP; what are the odds that they'd be able to run under wine?
Click to expand...

Have a look here and see whether those applications/games are supported :)
 
Well, I recently dual-booted Ubuntu in my PC. I'm not really a techie so I do have some basis to speak about this. I found it unwieldy and intimidating compared to Windows. Even though I managed to get a certain level of proficiency with it I never really felt comfortable - there is always a level of prior assumed knowledge with any Linux OS. I mean - something as simple as saving a file becomes a real task because of the arcane file hierarchy system.

But as you say, if it's just literally 'OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird' then Ubuntu is the best bet. if you go onto the website they will send you a free installation CD, and it gives you the option to self-partition and dual boot directly from the install, which is nice for just testing it out.
 
cerebus said:
Well, I recently dual-booted Ubuntu in my PC. I'm not really a techie so I do have some basis to speak about this. I found it unwieldy and intimidating compared to Windows. Even though I managed to get a certain level of proficiency with it I never really felt comfortable - there is always a level of prior assumed knowledge with any Linux OS. I mean - something as simple as saving a file becomes a real task because of the arcane file hierarchy system.

But as you say, if it's just literally 'OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird' then Ubuntu is the best bet. if you go onto the website they will send you a free installation CD, and it gives you the option to self-partition and dual boot directly from the install, which is nice for just testing it out.
Click to expand...

I had a completely different experience, but it'll be different for everyone. Point taken. :)
 
cerebus said:
Even though I managed to get a certain level of proficiency with it I never really felt comfortable - there is always a level of prior assumed knowledge with any Linux OS.
Click to expand...

You're comparing testing out linux to your (presumably) 10+ years of prior knowledge on windows. Of course it looks unfamiliar.

cerebus said:
I mean - something as simple as saving a file becomes a real task because of the arcane file hierarchy system.
Click to expand...

All you ever need to know is /home/<username>/
It's roughly equivalent to My Documents (except it contains all your application settings). There is no need for a normal user to ever venture out of there.

Now the registry, that is arcane. If you use Outlook, where is your pst located?

The linux file system is different, but it is actually much simpler (not that an email/internet/word-processing user ever needs to know that kind of stuff)
 
Oh, if it's for you then it's ok. It actually works pretty well tbh. Managed to get most things I needed up and running.
 
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