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by mcx 4171 days ago
Recently I visited my dad and his laptop was just full of crapware. I noticed the only thing he uses is the web browser, maybe editing the occasional word doc. So I just wiped the machine, put on ElementaryOS and hopefully there will be less problems. Haven't heard any complaints so far.
2 comments
squeaky-clean 4171 days ago
I did this for my sister this Christmas. Every holiday she visits and hands me her laptop to be fixed or reformated. So I got fed up, installed eOS and the tweaks plugin, got Netflix and mp3/aac support working, and told her I had installed Mac OSX on her laptop.

If I had told her it was Linux, she would be too scared to touch the thing, but she honestly believes she has a Mac now (in a Dell laptop), and hasn't complained at all so far.

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mcx 4171 days ago
Absolutely, that was a huge reason I decided to make the switch to Linux. Coming home and getting a stack of laptops from family and friends, becomes a hassle. I didn't come here to spend my day reinstalling Windows!

After I reformatted the machine, I just handed it over and didn't even mention that it was running Linux, just to see if there be any reaction like, "this is not Windows!" and the only question I was asked was "what is the password to unlock the screensaver".

It's a real drag having to go to like Dell to find and download all the drivers, and then download and install things like Java, Flash, etc.

Having a package manager is a huge win, I can write a ansible playbook to configure the machine and make sure the packages are always up to date with something like unattended-upgrades and then call it a day.

I'm just glad my parents don't use online banking, so I get some peace of mind there.

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shaurz 4171 days ago
He sounds like the perfect user for Chrome OS.
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squeaky-clean 4171 days ago
A lot of the time the perfect user for Chrome OS is too scared by how different it is. I tried it with my father and sister, and they both wouldn't use it. They were too confused by it and how cloud-based it was (even though they stream all their music and keep all their photos only on Facebook), and stopped using it. I tried Ubuntu, and just telling them it was Linux was enough for them to be scared, and blame that for any problems. I eventually settled on Elementary OS for my sister, and told her it was Mac OSX, while my father still uses Windows XP. (Sigh.)
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