Do your parents use Linux?

bernarcher · 2010-11-22 22:42:21

Just the opposite:

I am the father in the family and the only linux user. Even if I tried several times I could not convince my (now grown up) children to use it as well. (It is all about gaming why they refuse to do so.)

Well, and my wife won't touch a computer at all.

dillesca · 2010-11-25 04:53:32

I installed Ubuntu on my father's computer to make him less vulnerable to viruses (he likes to download random things). He was previously using Windows Vista on a middle-of-the-road HP laptop, so the increased responsiveness of the Ubuntu system really appealed to him. He is gradually learning to use it, and can perform pretty much any regular task (reading pdfs, browsing the internets, etc.) without any problems. I also feel more comfortable troubleshooting a Linux machine (and more confident that I can find any answer online).

Mr. Alex · 2010-12-07 12:59:25

A few days ago I finally made my father to switch to Arch. I am a sysadmin and my father is a user. No viruses and system crashes any more. And no Windows XP system administrating. Sighed with relief...

taavi · 2010-12-08 13:23:25

My girlfriends grandmother's computer was LOADED with something really ugly running constantly background disguising itself as antivirus. Getting rid of it was above my little Linux user's skills, so I was given laptop and Windows XP Home installation disc. "I just want to use MSN, Skype and internet," she said.

I went back home and had no feelings for installing this strange operating system on this laptop. So I installed Ubuntu and after short time I had fully running Skype, MSN and "internet" inside, hardware was working, even webcam. I shrugged my shoulders and gave laptop back the other day.

"It looks a bit different," I said and she understood. Everything is in Estonian too and easy to understand for a total computer-noob.

+1 new happy Linux user.

Last edited by taavi (2010-12-08 13:26:11)

Howitzer · 2010-12-12 22:46:42

My father is a diehard linuxuser. He started using it around 1994 or 1995. He's very simplistic about it though. He writes Pascal programs and such for fun. But at the same time, he doesn't really care about lightweightness or principles or whatever. If it works, it's good enough for him.

He introduced me to linux in '04 or '05.

My mother can't be bothered with learning something else, she has it hard enough already when we changed IE for Firefox and Outlook for Thunderbird.

Ultraman · 2010-12-13 00:46:58

My mom likes to watch shows she missed on the website of the TV network. Those guys use Silverlight for pretty much everything and my experience is that Moonlight is not up to this task yet. Heck, some shows even won't run in Windows because those guys are just doing something nasty-ish...
So no Linux there. Their WindowsXP box has been running without fail for quite some years now. And I'm not gonna fix something that works.
My dad and younger sister use that PC as well.

My younger brother does use Linux just like I use it: primarily. He's running Arch as well.
And I recently introduced a fellow student to Crunchbang Linux. He does like to keep things lightweight on his laptop, but he feels he's not ready to set up a complete Arch install.
So next best thing right?

jollysnowman · 2010-12-13 02:55:54

My mom needs Windows to remote login for work, but it was my dad who bought Red Had 7 all those years ago.

miezebieze · 2010-12-16 17:44:07

My parent's box always had some new error up her sleeve, so I convinced them to get Xubuntu too. (I was on X3U too.) Lucky me they are not the kind, who need to install new stuff now and then.

So now they have a multiuser system, which is quieter (M$5.? never slowed the fan down.) and stable.
Sometimes there is a "bug" in the soundsystem. Then they call me and I have to tell them to put the plug back in or similar crap. :#

boogy · 2010-12-16 19:59:20

I'm introducing every one I know to Linux ...

vinhsynd · 2010-12-25 01:18:41

I thought about getting my parents to use a non-windows based operating system.
However I thought I'd try a little closer to home first - my wife.

To frame the type of user she is; we started dating in 05, at the time she had a P2 200mhz machine running win95 on dial-up.
When the machine finally loaded I was faced with a desktop plastered with icons - not an empty space anywhere - which she took to mean her computer was full. (Yes I still married her - she's hot I couldn't help it.)

Enter the obligatory new machine where she tried out XP and then Vista. She didn't like either, as they were to different from what she had used before, stating didn't know how to do what she wanted.

This is when I decided to spring Ubuntu on her. She gave it the old college try and didn't complain too much.

However, when windows 7 was released she said she wanted to try that.
Amazingly. she had no more complaints about windows being too different anymore.

I asked if she wanted to go back to Ubuntu and was basically told I'd be dead or divorced if I put that on her computer again.

I'm still not ready to try putting it on my parents computer yet but at least they live in a different state so murder would be a bit more difficult.

Last edited by vinhsynd (2010-12-25 01:22:30)

Echo · 2010-12-25 02:57:11

My wife uses would never use anything but a linux pc / laptop. She, of course, wants me to maintain it. I'm 48 and she's 43 so were probably the same age as some of your alls parents.

My 14 year old Goddaughter just asked me last weekend to install linux on her laptop. So, I put Ubuntu on there and we'll see how she does. I was curious to see how an Ubuntu install would go and thought it might save me a little time configuring her laptop. It turned out pretty nice and was my first experience w/Grub2. I didn't mind it but I didn't seen anything wrong w/plain old Grub. Grub2 did give her a little bling on the dual boot screen. We'll see how she likes it, although her iPod4 seems to be winning the fight for attention right now....

Awebb · 2010-12-25 09:06:24

Yesterday, I ssh'ed into my mothers box and made it xsnow. She was happy.

MurdersLastCrow · 2010-12-26 05:47:48

My parents and grandparents use Linux- they love it. It's pretty, fast, and lets them get straight to work with what they use a computer for most. Aside from updates, it's zero-maintenance for them. Of course, for these kinds of users, tablets may soon replace the need for a desktop. But for many people, they don't want to put a good computer to waste or buy a laptop just to replace a tower.

I think it's great for them, since Linux got them more interested in how technology can benefit them, not merely annoy them. It's been an empowering experience to say the least.

PIMPinator · 2010-12-27 03:43:12

I really wanna install linux mint on my parents' laptop (their main computer) but I don't think I'll convince them, even with them trying it out for a while. It's fairly new and running Win7 with plenty of ram and cpu power, so speed isn't a convincing point, and knowing dad he'll bust out some new fangdangled device which won't plug 'n' play for him.

I think the sweet spot for convincing people to use linux is in netbooks. Most of them are slow even out of the factory, and with linux will become quite adequate, even fast. There's also the point that most people buy netbooks as a secondary computer, for nothing but internet, email and maybe word processing on the go, and that's not hard to do in linux in a very similar (the same for firefox etc) manner.

thatnewyorker · 2010-12-27 05:23:49

I used to have my mom use Linux Mint on an old computer of ours. She had no problems using it but she wanted a laptop so I convinced her to get a Macbook Pro and gave away that old computer.

Jaeplane · 2010-12-27 19:58:31

I introduced my father to Ubuntu because he just mainly uses his laptop for surfing the web, and he says he loves his experience with it so far. I'm hoping that, once he gets comfortable enough with Ubuntu, I can convert him to use Arch!

mandorory · 2010-12-29 16:28:37

i got my dad to use linux at first he didn't like it then went back to windows, after he saw all the cool stuff i was doing with linux he wanted to try linux again and now he uses both. My Mother in law and her husband use linux, they never used windows so they dont have a problem with linux, they say its really easy to get used to.

Laurent · 2011-01-03 23:47:05

I remember my dad freaking out a few years ago when I first told him I had installed Linux on my computer;
he thought his computer was seriously affected by that and would not boot anymore and that he had lost all of his data on his computer because my computer had become a (dualboot) Linux computer XD
Then I powered on his computer to calm him down and yet, it worked! *sigh*

The second almost heart attack came when I told him my computer had become a Linux only computer (no Windows XP dualboot anymore) =]

Nowaydays he has no problem anymore with my Linux transition, he admits linux's strength and even found it a good idea to convert the old laptop of my sister to a Linux one, so I could use it without waiting houres to have it boot. =þ
I've also written a manual on how to use it, because my brother finds Linux very difficult to use when it's not Gnome.
That way, my brother can use the old laptop as a spare one when his Vista laptop wants to express his free will again and decides it is more happy not obeing him ;-]

Edit; To answer on the topic question: my parents aren't using Linux and also won't be in the near future.
But I'm okay with that, my mother can't because of medical programs for work and my dad, well, he's just to stubborn ^^

Last edited by Laurent (2011-01-04 14:12:25)

PIMPinator · 2011-02-25 10:39:52

I haven't bothered with my dad (57) because I'm pretty sure he just couldn't be bothered learning new tricks. Win XP to Win 7 was a bit hard for him so I figure I may as well leave it. It works and he's happy. I threatened him I'll install linux on there if he gets any viruses from downloading silly programs, worked so far.

My little sister (i'm 19 she's 14) had her EeePC crash about a week ago. I ran SeaTools and repaired the seagate hard drive in there but Win XP wasn't gonna boot, so I backed up her files with an ubuntu boot cd and tried to install Win XP again. No luck. Wouldn't boot from the bloody disk, kept getting a BSOD after loading the setup files (that's right, didn't even get windows installed before a BSOD). Happened with two different XP versions.

So I did the sensible thing. I put the ubuntu disk back in and installed. I set up firefox for internet, pidgin for msn and facebook chat, rythmbox for her music library and VLC for watching movies, put her files all in the right folders for her (My Pictures to Pictures, etc.) and gave it back to her, and told her I couldn't get XP to work, so I put Ubuntu on, here's how you use it, tell me if you can't get something to work or just don't like it and I'll try and get windows on it again. Lucky me! No complaints yet.

Her friend is getting my older sister's old laptop, guess what I'm putting on there?

awfulrofl · 2011-02-25 20:44:08

I recently moved my dad from windows to Ubuntu after he bought a new laptop. My dad has average computer skills, so i wasn't too worried about him. He's having fun, although I keep having to explain to him that the file structure isn't the same as windows, and he doesn't understand why. My mother seems eager to start on it too after i explained the benefits of using a linux system.

Soreil · 2011-02-26 00:09:18

Both my parents are horrible with computers but I still installed Ubuntu 10.10 on the desktop they use a few months back. It was a fun experiment and they have no problem with it since all they do is browse the internet and use a text editor. My mother used OpenOffice.org and Firefox under Vista in the past so it wasn't that hard for them to adapt. The only problem I had was that in Holland we have Uitzending Gemist which is basically just a website to rewatch stuff that has aired in the past on dutch television. For some reason they thought it would be a great idea to only use Silverlight which doesn't work at all. Glad they were so stupid to create an iPad version of the site so now I can use it by switching to an iPad User Agent.

So yes they do use it.

BabyDoc · 2011-02-26 10:54:30

My parents use Windows Vista. They know there are alternatives but vista works for them, so why change a winning team. I rarely have to help them out anyway since my father is capable of using Google when he encounters a problem (unlike most non/less technological people).
Since I find the whole converting to [insert favorite OS] thing somewhat ridiculous I never attempted to get them to switch to Linux.

dakt · 2011-02-26 18:53:49

Yes, my parents use Linux on both laptops. In fact they find it much more simpler then Windows 7.

ANOKNUSA · 2011-02-26 19:39:48

The only person in my family with even a vague understanding of what Linux is is my sister, who learned about it in school as part of her business major. I tried explaining OpenOffice/LibreOffice to my mother once, but she wasn't convinced it was worth it; after all, MS wouldn't charge $200+ for Office if it wasn't the best, right? She still doesn't understand how I write my school papers in LO and then relay them online to my professors in .doc format. And this is a woman who has taken courses in writing DOS scripts. All the same, I don't see the point in trying to convert anyone for its own sake; if someone's interested, I'll offer advice. Otherwise, let 'em use what they're comfortable with.

TWILisawesome · 2011-02-26 20:20:30

My parents are pretty dumb with computers. They don't even know what Windows is! When I try to explain how to do something, they can do it once, but they ALWAYS forget afterwards.

All my dad knows how to do is click the google chrome logo (which I installed), and type away, using the 'hunt-and-peck' method. He thinks that in order to get to a new website, he has to click home, then type the address. He doesn't know how to use tabs, and when he is done, he just leaves it running. And when he makes a mistake, he says, "Ahhh, S@!%", even if he just presses the wrong letter. And copying digital pic from a camera to the Hard Drive, you can forget about that!

My mother is a little better, she can use Word and Web browser somewhat easily. But she isn't that good with computers either.

I installed Ubuntu on their system not too long ago. I installed all the programs they would need (not too many) and gave it to them to use. At first, they didn't like it, because they don't like any change. Then, as they were forced to use it, it kinda stuck with them. They still are pretty noobish with the computer.

My brother, who's a little older than me, is pretty good with tech. He doesn't use Linux mainly because he doesn't have the time to learn things, and that he needs to be compatible with his peripherals. He doesn't understand the computer as well as I do, but he is pretty good.

Arch Linux

#151 2010-11-22 22:42:21

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#152 2010-11-25 04:53:32

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#153 2010-12-07 12:59:25

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#154 2010-12-08 13:23:25

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#155 2010-12-12 22:46:42

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#156 2010-12-13 00:46:58

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#157 2010-12-13 02:55:54

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#158 2010-12-16 17:44:07

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#159 2010-12-16 19:59:20

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#160 2010-12-25 01:18:41

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#161 2010-12-25 02:57:11

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#162 2010-12-25 09:06:24

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#163 2010-12-26 05:47:48

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#164 2010-12-27 03:43:12

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#165 2010-12-27 05:23:49

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#166 2010-12-27 19:58:31

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#167 2010-12-29 16:28:37

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#168 2011-01-03 23:47:05

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#169 2011-02-25 10:39:52

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#170 2011-02-25 20:44:08

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#171 2011-02-26 00:09:18

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#172 2011-02-26 10:54:30

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#173 2011-02-26 18:53:49

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#174 2011-02-26 19:39:48

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#175 2011-02-26 20:20:30

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