Look, just because you don't have two brain cells to rub together when it comes to security Win 7 doesn't make it that hard.
Install MSE, Run a restricted account and don't give him the admin password. Problem (mostly) solved. For the rest there's group policies.
Jeez. As if we needed another desktop...
To anyone who complains, the author specifically *said* he wanted a locked down OS...
The above is a mock-up of a possible iOS desktop device. Blame neither Apple nor Photoshop for your esteemed author’s lack of mocking-up skills.
As many of you know, I’ve often been critical of Apple for the restrictive and closed nature of its iOS. I’ve complained that users should have the freedom to modify their devices in any way they see fit, and companies like Apple shouldn’t dictate what device owners can and can’t do. I’ve also been critical of Apple because of some of the reported conditions at its factories.
Then I had the opportunity to observe my neighbor in his natural digital habitat. As I wrote Monday, I have an elderly neighbor who’s a malware magnet. Although this last bout of malware was the fault of the security companies who left him high and dry, it’s anyone’s guess when he’ll get himself in trouble again.
See, my neighbor loves the Internet. He surfs, clicks, downloads, and opens attachments with reckless abandon. You can almost picture him hanging his head out of the car window as it roars down the information superhighway, yelling “Whee, whee, WHEE!” at the top of his lungs.
My neighbor desperately needs a restrictive and closed OS.
Many of you suggested we should move him to Linux, but with this man’s ability to get himself in digital trouble, Linux is not the weapon of mass destruction we want him to get his hands on. My wife fears for our home’s safety if I get my hands on a plasma cutter (for good reason!) and our neighborhood fears putting more power in my friend’s hands.
But iOS is perfect! He can be locked into a browser that doesn’t support add-ons. He can be locked into an OS that doesn’t support modification. He can be locked into using email, but only opening attachments that are safe to open.
With iOS, my friend could be set free, free to roam the wild Internet, free to click to his heart’s content, free to open silly email attachments from his buddies, free to play all the Flash games… Oh, wait, well, maybe not that free.
Of course, he could have this freedom now with an iPad, except he’s a senior citizen in his 80s, and uses his current 22-inch monitor at 1024×768. The iPad screen is just too small.
We actually thought about using the HDMI port on the iPad 2 and feeding that to a large monitor. The problem is, he’d still have to look at (and actually see) the small screen to control the large screen, and that’d be a problem for his eyes.
What he really needs is an iOS desktop computer. He needs a computer with a big screen that’s got all the draconian strictness of iOS. XP can’t reign him in. Windows 7 can’t reign him in. Linux might reign him in, but Linux might also give him unnatural and dangerous superpowers. What he needs is iOS.
So what would an iOS desktop machine look like?
