If my mother-in-law can use Ubuntu Linux, anyone can
Summary: Enough is enough; you don't need to be a tech. geek to use Linux. If my 79-year old mother-in-law can use the Ubuntu Linux desktop, anyone can.
Two Ubuntu users: Steven and, Hulvia, his 79-year old mother-in-law.
One of the great Linux desktop myths is that it's hard to use. People still think that you need to be some kind of mad computer wizard to use Linux. What nonsense. Desktop Linux has been as easy to use as any of the mainstream desktop operating systems for over a decade. How easy is it? My 79-year old mother-in-law, Hulvia, can use it.
She arrived a few weeks ago with her Windows laptop, but without her power cord. So, she needed a computer of her own. As I went down to garage/server room/spare computer storage locker, "What the heck, if Jason Perlow's father-in-law could pick up Ubuntu Linux in 2007 at the age of 71, why not my mother-in-law at 79 in 2012!"
So, I grabbed a Dell Inspiron laptop, and I installed the latest Ubuntu 12.04 beta on it. Canonical always claimed its Unity interface was easy to use and I thought it was too, but let's see how someone who's only used Windows could do with it.
A first look at Ubuntu Linux 12.04's Unity desktop (Gallery)
Once installed and hooked into my Wi-Fi network, I sat down with her, and I explained how to open applications. Actually, she didn't need my explanation. She could see that she needed to click the applications on the left sidebar to start them at a glance.
I then showed her how to login to her computer--no auto logins allowed in my house, not even on Linux systems!--and sat back to see how she'd do with it.
The answer: Just fine. For over three weeks she used Ubuntu, without any instruction or hand-holding. That's a good thing because you see, she speaks almost no English, and I speak almost no Spanish, her native language. My wife's our translator.
What did she do with it? She wrote a little bit on LibreOffice, but she spent most of her time on the Web with Firefox. She watched her telenovelas (Spanish-language soap operas), and e-mailed her friends.
She did have one "technical" problem though. She lost the sound once on a YouTube video. It turns out she'd clicked on the Web page's mute button. She could have worked that out on her own, but the icon was too small for her to see. Indeed, one of the things she liked about Unity was having large, easily visible icons on the left.
That was it. Three weeks went by. She spent three to four hours a day on her computer and-this is the important part-she never had any trouble what-so-ever with it. Desktop Linux? Hard? I don't think so and neither does she.
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Talkback
Easy if you stay on the reservation.
I still prefer Mint because of the things it "just does."
maybe Spider lags
For large, complex Windows apps, wine is less than perfect. OTOH, my own experience is that dosemu does a better job with full screen character mode programs than Windows XP Pro SP3 and Windows 7.
What, no Web version?
Nice to have a choice...
I've been using the same tax package for over 15 years, and as long as its available on the shelf every year, it will be the one I continue to use (and yes, it does have a web version as well - I just choose not to use it).
Freedom of choice - pretty ironic that many Linux advocates shout "choice" as the big reason for running an operating system that essentially pigeonholes them into one or two "choices" for any given piece of software, while those of us sitting in Microsoft's "prison" have much, much more available to us.
Pidgeon holes written by Moles!
Linux has over 35,000 free open source software
packages to choose from in every Linux distro.
Yeah, right. I'm going to put my name
Why Use Tax Software at all?
Less than paying an accountant?
Everyone Has Their Priorities
On the other hand, though Wine is not the answer to running all Windows software, it's not entirely useless either. I played World of Warcraft for quite a while with Wine without any problems. A few of the little graphical effects for WoW are Direct3D only, so I didn't get those, but it still looked pretty good. On the other hand, the network seemed to work a little better when running with Wine on Linux for some reason. It's also possible to run some versions of Microsoft Office (if you feel the need) and other popular software pretty well through Wine.
Again, though, I'm not saying that Wine is the answer to how to run your favorite software. For the most part, the way to run Linux is to find Linux software that does the things you need or want. At home I can do pretty much everything I want with Linux software. I do keep a virtual machine with Windows XP for putting maps on my GPS. That's pretty much all I need from Windows at the moment. I may also put a Windows partiton on the new computer I'm about to build so that my brother can play some new Windows games.
Wine Runs more than you suggest
Now this was CentOS 6.2, and Wine 1.4, not Ubuntu, so maybe there's some differences, but I prefer the KDE shell over Unity or Gnome, and I just always felt CentOS or Fedora ran KDE better than the Debian family does, at least it works for me anyhow.
So you think Wine can't keep up?
Reservation?! Gracious God! You got to be kidding.
Now, I don't like it anymore.
And I'll tell you this: All versions of Windows that I used were just PIRATED COPIES.
I mean, I didn't pay for any license.
But now, I finally know I can escape from Windows!! It IS actually possible!!
Simply:
Use Linux and make the World a better place.
____
Oh, and about Spider Solitaire running on Wine:
It DOES run.
Try again.
Really?
Is that anything like the myths you post about Windows 8? ;)
windows 8?
Windows 8 is the product in Beta
I hate to say this but...
Pretty much exactly in the same way he criticize as making myths.
BTW, I'm using Mint recently, and loving it in general.
Another note regarding the topic of the post, I think Linux did get pretty close enough, especially with Ubuntu, however, this wouldn't be complete without browsers. Think about it, many of the tasks we do (even more of that non-techies do) are done "or can be done" in browser. The mother in-law already knew how to use Firefox on Windows. All she needed really was a way to access the same Firefox, luckily for her Firefox is almost identical on every OS. I think this is the most important part of the experience.
Same for me, sometimes I have to use temp laptops or my main machine has hardware issues. Getting on a new machine, with my Google profile syncing on Google Chrome, the most important parts of my toolbox are easily restore-able in few minutes. Same with Linux Mint when I tried it.
Only Windows has KPP
Windows 7. Safe for Mother in laws everywhere.
I stake my reputation on it.
LOL!
This is about using Linux not Windows or Mac OS..
I think he's parodying DTS