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I'm curious about how the Mac isn't working out. I'm default tech
support for my daughter's, and it's pretty painless so far. I got
her set up initially with disk encryption (in case lost), Time
Machine for backups, and just poke and prod now and then for
updates. Oh, and she's got her non-default admin ID.<br>
<br>
On the email client side, what does Thunderbird lack that your
father needs?<br>
<br>
One need I've found with family is decent backup options. Other than
Time Machine for the Mac users, I am leaning towards getting them
set up with CrashPlan. Even in freebie mode, it's powerful enough,
and basically stays out of the way for backups to local storage or
another system. Having tinkered with it myself, I am anticipating
that it will beat the snot out of the, "I forgot to copy all that
stuff over that I NEEEEEEEEEED!"<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Tim<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/13/2014, 9:39 AM, John Lange
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAPfXosinO3Fa4EC1rdny896syOgwCvzsge-9y=mQnOZ-rOOSuw@mail.gmail.com%3E%20(sfid-20140213_153945_915255_833F59E1)"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I switched my father from Windows XP to linux
several years (7?) back because it was easier for me to support
at the time. I would not rate it a success and he has since
switched to a MAC (which is also a failure but that's another
story).
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>Just some of the reasons:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>1. Lack of a reasonable Email client that compares to
Outlook.</div>
<div>2. Support for scanning documents is horrible. Assuming you
can even find a scanner that works, there is no good scanning
software on Linux.</div>
<div>3. OpenOffice documents are not 100% compatible with Office
(though arguably, Office versions are also not compatible with
each other so that may not be fair).</div>
<div>3. And most importantly, lack of support. My father uses
his computer for his consulting business and I work full time.
I can't support him during business hours and there is no
place else to go. You can't just walk into Staples with your
laptop and ask for help.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There were lots of other frustrations over the years that
I've blocked out of my memory.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If you're just doing basic stuff like web browsing, then
_maybe_ Linux would work for you but you have to live with a
lot of limitations related to browser incompatibility, plugins
etc. For example, will you're banking site work?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I said it in the other thread, for basic use I'd go with an
Android tablet hands-down. It requires minimal if any hands-on
support, and it's also very well supported out on the web with
apps for pretty much everything. And you can't beat the price.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>John</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 2:37 AM, Trevor
Cordes <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:trevor@tecnopolis.ca" target="_blank">trevor@tecnopolis.ca</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="">On 2014-02-12 Mark Jenkins wrote:<br>
><br>
> I probably also said, "would you like to spend
$1xx.xx on a Windows<br>
> Retail License?" seeing how we were working with a
whitebox built<br>
> from parts.<br>
<br>
</div>
Thanks for everyone's input. Yes, a cost of "free" is also
a bonus if<br>
we go with Linux, though it would not be the sole deciding
factor.<br>
<br>
I think I may give Linux a try. I will certainly report
back with the<br>
results, in a few months. An eye towards a "LTS" type
distro would<br>
certainly be desirable, though I'm already adept at keeping
20+ Fedora<br>
boxen updated (entirely remotely/headless!) to the latest
version every<br>
year (every 2 releases, when support ends).<br>
<br>
As for tablets, I'm not sure moving parents in that
direction is<br>
ideal. For one, they don't like change. Second, I don't
think she'd<br>
like the ergonomics. Third, I'm not convinced tablets are
the "future",<br>
in the sense that desktops will completely disappear (anyone
remember<br>
netbooks, they were the "future" once too!). I like tablets
for<br>
what they are good for, the odd lookup of something while
watching tv,<br>
or casually keeping up with junk mail. I would never sit at
a tablet to<br>
do serious (wordy!) email or composing some essay in a word
processor!!<br>
The clunky interfaces aren't even great for my style of web
browsing,<br>
where I tend to middle-click the next twelve links and
peruse from<br>
there.<br>
<br>
I won't even get into the thought of doing all my
programming and admin<br>
work on a tablet! I think I'd go all hari-kari.<br>
<br>
But that's a whole other discussion!<br>
<div class="HOEnZb">
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
John Lange<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.johnlange.ca">www.johnlange.ca</a>
</div>
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