Linux or Windows on a pensioner’s laptop
My next door neighbour has asked me for some help with her computer. She has a Dell laptop with Windows ME installed on it, and it is driving her insane. Over time her Windows installation has become more and more unstable and amongst other problems, refuses to shutdown. Every so often she asks me for help, which I am glad to give. I’m not much of an expert in Windows, but am usually able to solve her problem; except when it comes to printers.
I suggested that she upgrade to Windows XP, but she doesn’t want to spend any money on a new OS, and I don’t blame her. She bought her laptop a month before XP came out.
What better chance to promote a free OS such as Linux. Her use of the computer is simple; email, browsing and Word. She already uses Firefox and Thunderbird (on my recommendation) and Open Office would replace Word.
However, I’ve got some doubts. Am I capable of installing and supporting her? Sure, I’ve installed “Debian”:http://www.debian.org but it wasn’t without difficultly and if something went wrong I wouldn’t really know what to do. Which version to use? SuSe, Debian, Redhat? KDE or GNOME, I just don’t use Linux enough to foist it on someone else.
I could reinstall Windows ME, but 6 months to a year down the line, be faced with the same problem again, when the cruft sets in. However, does the same thing happen on a Linux desktop?
You might find Knoppix easy to handle. Simply download a Knoppix 3.4 CD, drop it in the CD drive, and boot; it will run a full Linux desktop off the CD. You can then install to hard disk and it’s a fully working and configured Debian distribution; installing Debian might be hard, but keeping it running isn’t as difficult. Alternatively, another live CD is Morphix, which I have used more than once in the past; my dad uses it.
Consider a picture of me with a hand going towards my forehead for not thinking of Knoppix (or Morphix) for this. Painless for my neighbour to try and instantly say whether she likes it or not.