Granny Loves Linux

by Metaranha

Those who are educated in a higher level of computer use (i.e. readers of 2600) are already aware of the majesty and power of Linux.

Slowly, the rest of the world is coming to understand those factors as well, but the question of which demographic to target with Linux and its variants is a little bit hard to hit.  This article will not try to make any wild suggestions on who to give Linux to, but will instead offer interesting insight into two people who have chosen to live with Linux and are doing very well in their life after Windows.

About 6 months ago, I installed Ubuntu Linux on my mother-in-law's computer.  My wife's parents are in their mid 50s and take a hard-line against using computers at home, partly because they have to interact with them so frequently at their workplaces, and partly because working with computers is far from their forte.  Finally, they were forced to give in to the demands of the modern world and asked me to set up my wife's old computer for them.  The old Dell GX260 was in dire need of a new operating system and, having no extra Windows disks around (coincidence?), I suggested that they give Linux a try.

I sat down with the wife's parents, gave them a very quick "how to," and away they went.  It didn't take long at all for both of them to pick up the computer and do what they needed to do.  Their computer is still working as good as it was the day I installed Linux, and they have had very minimal problems with using it.

Recently, my boss asked me to take a look at his mother-in-law's computer.  We will call her Mrs. N.  I was only told that the computer was slow.  Being that we've got a recession on, I acquiesced for the extra hours and left homebound for an elderly stranger's house.  Mrs. N is in her mid 70s, and has an HP Computer that was made within the last year.  He instructed me to take company copies of Microsoft Office XP and Windows XP Professional.

I took my HardyHeron live CD, arrived at her house in the afternoon, and asked her what types of problems she was having.  My question was answered with the appearance of the Windows Vista loading screen.  She told me that she didn't use the computer for anything besides Internet access, pictures and writing documents from time-to-time.

There was no reason why the hardware shouldn't work right, so I threw in the live CD and asked Mrs. N to take a seat and see what she thought.  "It works a lot like Windows..." I said, and followed up with " ...but it doesn't work anything like Windows."

I gave Mrs. N the same quick Ubuntu tour that I gave my previous "apprentices" and she took to it fast, but I didn't know if I had sold it well enough yet.  I told her, "Look at it this way, you're going to be learning something new anyway.  It will either be Windows Vista, or Ubuntu Linux.  With Linux, you won't have to worry about viruses or spyware, and all of the programs you may need to use in the future are free, along with the operating system."  "Free you say?" she asked.

One week later, Mrs. N's love for Linux is still rolling strong.  The point here is to not underestimate the power of the casual user and elderly demographics.  So the next time you visit grandma, take a copy of Ubuntu, or Suse, and have her give it a try.  It's not going to be hard to convince her to use it full time, and you'll save your dear old granny the headache of using and maintaining Windows when all she wants to do is see pictures of her family and talk to you.