Just had a horrible run in with windoze 7

[Georgetoon]

That was nice of you to do that for that lady Dragynn, now she can enjoy using her netbook. 

     
+1      

+1

[Vortеx]

Bravo, Dragynn! Bravo!!!

+10  I agree!!!

You're a good person.     

Applauds!

[demilord]

My software always recommended windows xp or better, so I thought I install Linux 

[pupthai]

Most people with vista > I have been saying sorry - I don't know that system and it is true.  but where is Ralf Nader on this issue?  Who is protecting these consumers from this type of abuse.  MS should be required - by law - to fix it for her   FREE  instead they are working on ways to make sure in the future - we can't help them ether.  ?? 

Crime in progress = windows 8

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

The husband of one of my colleagues bought her a netbook (Samsung N150), and out of the box, before a single virus or added program had the chance to do its work, it was painfully slow with Windows 7. I created a remaster using LXDE and all the netbook stuff (Chromium, Skype, Pidgin, acme, gnome-power-manager) plus British English and OpenOffice, as I would have to install without any internet connection, at work. She's not very technical, so I explained how to set up the Wireless connection when she got home - which she managed.

One of the "ease of installation" bits that we don't stress enough, is how little intervention there has to be to install PCLinuxOS. No requests to change disks etc. Just the initial choices and the bootloader at the end. Then users on the reboot. It meant that I could leave it running whilst I got on with the job I'm paid to do.

She's very pleased to say the least, and cannot believe how quickly it does everything.

[Dragynn]

Ya know, I almost forgot to mention one of the coolest parts of the whole deal, it may seem like a small thing, but having taken my first baby steps towards learning some developer skills, I greatly appreciate the thoughtfulness and effort that went into this:

When I first tried to connect to wi-fi and didn't have the package I mentioned already installed, the network center didn't just give me a message that it wouldn't work, the error message told me the exact package I was missing! and further added a nice note that if there were any issues I couldn't resolve to please contact Texstar. So there was zero guess-work on my part. What an epic win moment that was, I looked like a total genius, when in reality the software was rolling it's eyes and saying "yeah, yer f'ing brilliant thar Dragynn, figgered it out all on yer own didja?"

[Neal ManBear]

  Beautiful stuff, isn't it, Dragynn?      

[djohnston]

When I first tried to connect to wi-fi and didn't have the package I mentioned already installed, the network center didn't just give me a message that it wouldn't work, the error message told me the exact package I was missing! and further added a nice note that if there were any issues I couldn't resolve to please contact Texstar. So there was zero guess-work on my part. What an epic win moment that was, I looked like a total genius, when in reality the software was rolling it's eyes and saying "yeah, yer f'ing brilliant thar Dragynn, figgered it out all on yer own didja?"

I had one of those moments a couple years ago when replacing a printer. I connected the new HP all-in-one and a drakwizard dialog window popped up, offering to set up the new device. I just followed the prompts and the wizard fully set up the printer and scanner.

[Meemaw]

That's just why we love this distro!   Thanks, Tex!!!!!

 

[Abraxas]

That was a lovely story !!

It is a very confusing world for elderly people, and they feel left out if not online, but without any knowledge no one knows Linux exists, or even how to run a windows machine safely cos it just comes out of the box, is meant to be magic, everyone is online, it must be easy, and safe. 

Our Family has just got my 79 year old Mother online. She can't double - Left click, is running Windows XP SP3 which seeing it is 10 years old has to be the most "patched" bit of Software on the planet. Also the safest version from the Evil Empire, I believe.
Two things have taken me five hours to teach; to check Email, and Browse.
 
I hate to see Her using Windows, but the rest of the family set her up with the Hardware, and way too much Software, so you do what you can ... we got Her a special arthritis mouse.

I am slowly introducing the prescence of Linux, to my family. Really it is difficult. I've got my Sister-in-Law understanding  it (Linux) is NOT Freeware, Shareware, Trialware, but Open Source Software, which when shown, being quite knowledgeable said, "How fantastic." One step forward.

[Dragynn]

Just a postscript to end this early lil' Christmas story:

After a couple of days of using the liveusb, yesterday afternoon my neighbor brought her machine over again, and said that she now would like to fully install PCLOS on her machine and wanted me to wipe Windoze 7 completely off her machine as it would hardly even boot anymore.

BOO-YAHHH!!!I GOT TO METAPHORICALLY SACRIFICE AN INSTALL OF WINBLOZE 7!! MUAHAHAHA!! POW! SMASH!

First I stomped the NTFS partitions to death with G-parted, re-formatted to ext4 and a small swap part', then since she doesn't require too many programs, I installed Zen 11.11.1 (the mini). Did full updates, added her wi-fi package, VLC, Exaile, Abiword, Pidgin, Skype, Gnome-games, GTKam, Cheese, and a couple more. The machine has Intel graphics, so there were no extra drivers to add, it now idles nicely at ~120 mb of ram or so, everything nice and tight and quick. The difference between this and the former windoze 7 install, is nothing less than mindblowing.

She left to go back home to Ohio early this morning, with a fine working virus-free machine, she will have total bragging rights when she and her church-lady amigas get together next time and talk about her southern adventures, she got PCLOS'ed in Texas, things will never be the same

[Vortеx]

Bravo Dragynn!

Now... she is now your OS-child forever

[Neal ManBear]

Woohoo!     

[Georgetoon]

With Dragynn's permission, I posted it on my blog this morning.)

[Neal ManBear]

With Dragynn's permission, I posted it on my blog this morning.)

     
Good idea, Mark!