PC for an old guy?

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Conradl

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So my father-in-law decides that he wants to learn how to use a computer and the internet at the age of 73 and I offered to buy him a PC.... Money is not an object and performance is not a priority; this is the first PC he will use and will therefore be the fastest too!

Any tips on what I should buy; especially since he is an older first time user? I was thinking of a 23"+ screen (2333SW) to reduce eye strain. Anything else that will help an old first time user??
 
Not really, since he doesn't have any needs (yet). Just make sure it doesn't crawl, has an operating system that doesn't crash, and is configured to run the things he needs as easily as possible.
 
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse? In case he needs to sit further away to see anything? :p
 
i have heard that the oldies struggle with Vista so take that into account..
um.. thats quite a nice screen for a old man :D
your father-in-law must be a good guy eh? you buying him a new pc and all
 
eeepc should be nice, install ubuntu netbook remix and that should be a good learning experience.

Everything should work out the box, no driver installation needed and a 3G modem will work too AFAIK.
 
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PokerKing said:
i have heard that the oldies struggle with Vista so take that into account..
um.. thats quite a nice screen for a old man :D
your father-in-law must be a good guy eh? you buying him a new pc and all
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Vista struggles all by itself...So, yes, I would say go with XP. It works. It doesn't crash. It is fast and requires minimal hardware.
 
Get an Oldish P4 system. (3.0ghz, or so) make sure it has at least 1Gb ram, DVD writer & optical mouse, then format it. Install WIN XP. The 23" isnt a bad idea! I have one and its GREAT!!!
 
hj2k_x said:
Vista struggles all by itself...So, yes, I would say go with XP. It works. It doesn't crash. It is fast and requires minimal hardware.
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Or Ubuntu Netbook remix, as suggested above?
 
guys, i know linux is cool and all for network servers, but the old ball is 73 ffs - you don't wanna give the guy a heart attack with shell commands!

if you're on his will though, get him something like WinMe.
 
Keeper said:
guys, i know linux is cool and all for network servers, but the old ball is 73 ffs - you don't wanna give the guy a heart attack with shell commands!

if you're on his will though, get him something like WinMe.
Click to expand...

My mom uses Ubuntu. He shouldn't have to use shell commands etc.

The nice thing about Linux is that once it's set up, it WORKS.
 
Keeper said:
guys, i know linux is cool and all for network servers, but the old ball is 73 ffs - you don't wanna give the guy a heart attack with shell commands!

if you're on his will though, get him something like WinMe.
Click to expand...

Shell commands for what? everything needed for everyday computing will be setup already, if he needs skype for eg. just download the .deb package from skype's site and it will run and install itself how is that difficult to work with?
 
Conradl said:
So my father-in-law decides that he wants to learn how to use a computer and the internet at the age of 73 and I offered to buy him a PC.... Money is not an object and performance is not a priority; this is the first PC he will use and will therefore be the fastest too!

Any tips on what I should buy; especially since he is an older first time user? I was thinking of a 23"+ screen (2333SW) to reduce eye strain. Anything else that will help an old first time user??
Click to expand...

A 2nd hand 24" iMac?

Then you don't have to worry about virus etc.

Also pretty simple to use.
 
well i've been using PC's for quite a few years and I ain't never heard of no ".deb packages".....lol

i'd go for XP.

remember, if he asks anybody ELSE for help, he has a 90% chance that the person could help if they have worked with a PC before. If he's using some wacked Gnomonic 1.5.229_KDE_Gnogo-bunta linux distro that almost nobody has even heard of before then he's gonna have some problems, whether that was a stable release and easy to learn makes no difference.
 
Keeper said:
well i've been using PC's for quite a few years and I ain't never heard of no ".deb packages".....lol

i'd go for XP.

remember, if he asks anybody ELSE for help, he has a 90% chance that the person could help if they have worked with a PC before. If he's using some wacked Gnomonic 1.5.229_KDE_Gnogo-bunta linux distro that almost nobody has even heard of before then he's gonna have some problems, whether that was a stable release and easy to learn makes no difference.
Click to expand...

The point is he doesn't NEED to ask for help :cool:

And haven't heard of .deb ? ? ? ? ? :rolleyes:
 
he doesn't know anything about PC's, of course he's gonna ask!
look, old people can barely record the news on a dusty VHS system, never mind run Linux.

i'm just sayin - if you weren't there and he asks someone around, will they know how to open DEB packages on a Gnogo-bunta Linux Distro?
 
Keeper said:
he doesn't know anything about PC's, of course he's gonna ask!
look, old people can barely record the news on a dusty VHS system, never mind run Linux.

i'm just sayin - if you weren't there and he asks someone around, will they know how to open DEB packages on a Gnogo-bunta Linux Distro?
Click to expand...

What's hard about double clicking? It's the same as downloading setup.exe and double clicking? Actually easier, because setup.exe will ask you where you want to install it, etc etc etc... But deb will just ask for your password and go.
 
alf101 said:
A 2nd hand 24" iMac?

Then you don't have to worry about virus etc.

Also pretty simple to use.
Click to expand...

I would have to agree with this, a netbook is cheaper and when running linux also has no viruses to worry about... but if you want to go large screen and can afford the mac get it, can't go wrong with it.
 
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