Arch Linux

linko

Member

From: Mississippi

Registered: 2008-12-06

Posts: 16

Mom's computer

I'm going over to visit my mom tomorrow, and while I'm there i've planned to install arch on her machine.  I'm tired of her breaking XP and having conversations with her beginning, "I think I have a virus..."

The only problem is, she likes to break her computer.  Not on purpose of course, but she starts clicking things, and eventually gets into trouble.  My main goal is to put a window manager on her computer than she will have a hard time breaking/altering.

The first thing that comes to my mind is IceWM.  You can have nice icons on the taskbar, yet you cannot alter the icons with the mouse.  Gnome/KDE is out of the question.  Probably Xfce too.

Any ideas guys?  I'd like to have a solid WM in mind before I go over there tomorrow...

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Mom's computer

I get the feeling that you're going to go from the "I think I have a virus..." lines to "how does this work..." and "why doesn't foobar work anymore?"

You'll still be in the technical support business, like it or not.

That said, IceWM is pretty good. A custom FVWM setup may also be good, since you could define how the interface worked down to the individual mouse click.

linko

Member

From: Mississippi

Registered: 2008-12-06

Posts: 16

Re: Mom's computer

Ah yeah... you're right...  It should be very simple...  Maybe KDE would be better?  Since the file manager and window manager are so integrated.  Then you have the whole "she might break it problem".  I suppose I should just tell her to STOP messing with it.  Darn... I should probably go with one of the big 3 DE's.  She may not like the huge difference that a WM would give her.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: Mom's computer

My Mom is the same as your Mom; The Button Pusher of Doom. She's now experimenting with Ubuntu. So instead of me fixing her computer from the other side of the country now, I'm coaching her through getting and using the stuff that she wants. I spend more time now than I did before for the simple reason that her computer is working more often.

string

Member

Registered: 2008-11-03

Posts: 286

Re: Mom's computer

Just introduce her to: man, screen and lynx, drop her to a command prompt and wish her the best of luck.

N30N

Member

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 273

Re: Mom's computer

My mother is running Arch + Xfce and it has a ssh server running on it so if there's a problem I can just fix it myself.

Just introduce her to: man, screen and lynx, drop her to a command prompt and wish her the best of luck.

dav7

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 674

Re: Mom's computer

It isn't overly developed but you might like Karmen in a few months for this kind of thing. It doesn't have a tray right now though, and unless X apps set override-redirect on their windows instead of using MWM hints to request a frame not be drawn on a given window, a frame will be given to the window. The trays/panels I've tried all set MWM hints and don't use override-redirect though. I wrote a tray/launcher but it's vertical, not horizontal, and deliberately doesn't use override-redirect, so probably wouldn't help. I might submit it to the karmen mailing list after I declare it "done" - there are a few things I want to fix up with it first

One possibility is that you spend a couple of weeks with openbox and bmpanel or tint (you'd spend most of the time with openbox) configuring it to operate in a highly locked-down manner while also being relatively usable.

Another is that you install Ubuntu on her box, give her a crash course on how to use IRC, and... wish her the best of luck.

-dav7

Last edited by dav7 (2008-12-14 12:11:29)

---

Windows was made for looking at success from a distance through a wall of oversimplicity. Linux removes the wall, so you can just walk up to success and make it your own.
--
Reinventing the wheel is fun. You get to redefine pi.

Ruckus

Member

Registered: 2007-02-17

Posts: 204

Re: Mom's computer

I get the feeling that you're going to go from the "I think I have a virus..." lines to "how does this work..." and "why doesn't foobar work anymore?"

You'll still be in the technical support business, like it or not.

That said, IceWM is pretty good. A custom FVWM setup may also be good, since you could define how the interface worked down to the individual mouse click.

It's a lot easier to diagnose and fix problems using SSH rather than remote desktop IMO.

KimTjik

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2007-08-22

Posts: 715

Re: Mom's computer

It's a lot easier to diagnose and fix problems using SSH rather than remote desktop IMO.

But why not have x11vnc as an option? Start a SSH session and if necessary, like giving her GUI support, start as a simple command x11vnc. That's what I do to support my mother-in-law.

Despite all the bashing of KDE4 it looks like it (in this case KDEmod) works pretty well for casual users. Anyway, remote desktop is a blessing when dealing with support, because casual users are easily lost when getting instructions.

ammon

Member

Registered: 2008-12-11

Posts: 413

Re: Mom's computer

Probem is when she asks where is Microsoft Word and where did Internet Explorer icon go...

Last edited by ammon (2008-12-14 14:44:45)

Hrod beraht

Member

Registered: 2008-09-30

Posts: 186

Re: Mom's computer

Any ideas guys?  I'd like to have a solid WM in mind before I go over there tomorrow...

LXDE

Last edited by Hrod beraht (2008-12-14 15:15:17)

linko

Member

From: Mississippi

Registered: 2008-12-06

Posts: 16

Re: Mom's computer

Probem is when she asks where is Microsoft Word and where did Internet Explorer icon go...

I weaned her off of IE a long time ago.  Proud Firefox user!!  I believe she thinks Firefox is her operating system though...

I'm going to set up ssh for sure!  Thanks for this idea guys.
As for the Desktop, I slept on it, and I think I'm going to go with Xfce.  Simple.  Small.  Easier to fix.

Thanks for all the replies!

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Mom's computer

Don't know if it's applicable, but perhaps you could just set up a kiosk-like environment.

alex_anthony

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-09-25

Posts: 344

Re: Mom's computer

If you went with gnome, you could lock it down how they do in corporate environments, so she can't mess with it

hrobeers

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-11-05

Posts: 79

Re: Mom's computer

Any ideas guys?  I'd like to have a solid WM in mind before I go over there tomorrow...

LXDE

I would go LXDE too!
It's fast (she'll be happy) and it's difficult to accidently screw it up.

KDEmod3 is good to let her feel at home rightaway. My girlfriend loves it!
Locking kicker is a good idea. (try to get kcontrol out of the kde-menu)
Edit: Or you can lock it down like said earlier http://www.linux.com/feature/114306

I wouldn't go xfce, it's just an irritating DE! And probably your mother won't like it.

Offcourse you won't give her admin rights .

Last edited by hrobeers (2008-12-14 16:41:24)

fumbles

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 246

Re: Mom's computer

I know this might be a bit controversial ... however, I would stick to XP.

1. Put her on a 'Limited Access' account.
2. Disable everything to do with any settings
Start > Run > gpedit.msc
You can disable everything from the control panel to icons on the desktop to access to explorer.
You should at least disable the following:
   1. access to the control panel
   2. Ability to install ANY programme
   3. (well I'm not using windows so i can't think of what else there is at this moment - i can get back to you if you want)
3. Reset the passwords for all the other accounts AND make it auto-login to the Limited Access account
Start > Run > control userpasswords2

This can only be done with Windows XP Professional NOT HOME! So if she is using Home maybe then Linux is a choice. Remember you can easily remove access to things in KDE/Gnome/Xfce that she could modify.

linko

Member

From: Mississippi

Registered: 2008-12-06

Posts: 16

Re: Mom's computer

I know this might be a bit controversial ... however, I would stick to XP.

One of the main reasons I'm doing this is for security.  Staying headache free is also a plus.  XP doesn't work, end of story.  Every problem she has ever had was XP related, and it was always a problem that would never occur in Linux.  Slow, resource hogging Anti-Virus programs.  Uncontrollable (to her) windows updates.  Spontaneous Blue Screens.  Overall slowness.  It was just a disaster.

I've got it set up now though.  Running like a Dream.  I went ahead and went with gnome.  The only program she uses is Firefox and a text editor, so this is going to work out very well.  She was very impressed when first seeing it.