My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her?

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Doruletz
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by Doruletz »

James_Smith wrote:Awesome answers so far. Thanks.

Here's a treat for you (click on the image to enlarge it):

Image
LMFAO, man. That is ooohhhh so righteous.
I just installed Windex 7 on a PC, only to be able to build a Multiboot USB with YUMI.
Yeah, I know there is a YUMI version for Linux, or I could have used WINE, but I also needed to make an Acronis True Image Boot USB, and that cannot be done in Linux.
Loved it, saved it, and will post it on my facebook in a minute...
Thanks for making my day.
What do I think about Window$??? Just take a look at my AVATAR...
MintGuy

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by MintGuy »

I am almost 72 and have been using Mint for over 6 years and Ubuntu for over 10 years. If she is coming from Windows and only uses email, web browsing and word processing and spreadsheets, there is almost no learning curve for her. If she does multimedia, then she just needs to be introduced to the Mint application replacements. My wife is 70 and is running Linux Mint 17.3. She has no interest in the internals of Linux. She uses LibreOffice Writer and Calc heavily. She fought going from MS Office to LibreOffice initially, but now has no issues and rarely asks for help from me.

The big advantage over MS Windows is the fact that all your user data resides in the home directory. This simplifies backups and makes it much easier finding files you have created. The other big advantage is that Linux Mint is very light on the computer requirements. I have Mint 17.3 running just fine on an old Acer Notebook that is 10 years old. It only has 4 gb ram and a 500gb drive with fairly slow duel-core CPU. Windows 7 would be a dog on that computer today. Mint is very snapy on that computer that I use when I travel.

Tell her to enjoy Mint and have fun exploring this easy to use OS. :D

Best of Luck
_Josue_

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by _Josue_ »

Well, with everyone sharing their experiences, I think I'll also tell everyone else my story.
My mom uses a very old (2002 or so) pentium 4, it had Windows XP installed. It doesn't anymore. Since it's such an old piece of hardware, it's slow and it was even slower and clunckier with windows, so I told her the thing was unbearably slow and that I was going to "format" it. So I did, but instead of windows I installed Linux Mint XFCE 18. Since she uses that machine for basic stuff such as web browsing and watching youtube videos, the transition was a piece of cake!
BeHarley

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by BeHarley »

mariad_10 wrote:
BG405 wrote:
mariad_10 wrote:With the recent cyber attack i have lost my trust in Windows
The recent, highly publicized (at least in the UK) ransomware infections are resulting in a lot more people considering switching to Linux, which can only be a good thing. It may be what encouraged her to ask. The more this sort of thing appears in the headlines, the more people will discover the benefits of Linux.

That is definitely true, the farther the exposure farther is going to be the diversion from windows and movement towards Linux. The trust i was talking about since i lost all the data i had. I had to start all over again with just one lucky file i had on my docs.

People who got infected were using old installation of windows. those who were using 8.1 or 10, Microsoft rolled out the patch for them, which countered the infection. That's why pc that had 10 or 8.1 were not infected, mostly enterprises using 7 or 8 were hit, in some cases people were still using xp and vista.
BeHarley

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by BeHarley »

James_Smith wrote:Awesome answers so far. Thanks.

Here's a treat for you (click on the image to enlarge it):

Image

This is wicked. Made me laugh like insane! Good one bruv
mariad_10

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by mariad_10 »

BeHarley wrote:
mariad_10 wrote:
BG405 wrote:
The recent, highly publicized (at least in the UK) ransomware infections are resulting in a lot more people considering switching to Linux, which can only be a good thing. It may be what encouraged her to ask. The more this sort of thing appears in the headlines, the more people will discover the benefits of Linux.

That is definitely true, the farther the exposure farther is going to be the diversion from windows and movement towards Linux. The trust i was talking about since i lost all the data i had. I had to start all over again with just one lucky file i had on my docs.

People who got infected were using old installation of windows. those who were using 8.1 or 10, Microsoft rolled out the patch for them, which countered the infection. That's why pc that had 10 or 8.1 were not infected, mostly enterprises using 7 or 8 were hit, in some cases people were still using xp and vista.

Unfortunately, i was using the Windows 7. :cry:
BeHarley

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by BeHarley »

mariad_10 wrote:
BeHarley wrote:
mariad_10 wrote: The recent, highly publicized (at least in the UK) ransomware infections are resulting in a lot more people considering switching to Linux, which can only be a good thing. It may be what encouraged her to ask. The more this sort of thing appears in the headlines, the more people will discover the benefits of Linux.

That is definitely true, the farther the exposure farther is going to be the diversion from windows and movement towards Linux. The trust i was talking about since i lost all the data i had. I had to start all over again with just one lucky file i had on my docs.

People who got infected were using old installation of windows. those who were using 8.1 or 10, Microsoft rolled out the patch for them, which countered the infection. That's why pc that had 10 or 8.1 were not infected, mostly enterprises using 7 or 8 were hit, in some cases people were still using xp and vista.

Unfortunately, i was using the Windows 7. :cry:
You're not the only one then. Big enterprises were effected and guess what, they were on Win7 Installation. Including the company were I work. :lol:
km_mcd
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by km_mcd »

Make sure that she understands that her printer may no longer work, or may require support of an expert to get it to work.
James_Smith
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by James_Smith »

km_mcd wrote:Make sure that she understands that her printer may no longer work, or may require support of an expert to get it to work.

I've already checked on that. It worked with my laptop.
I have been using Linux for years and I am still a newbie
HubertCumberdale

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by HubertCumberdale »

Why should she ditch Windows and go with Mint?
Well your mother doesn't have to do anything, she can stick with Windows if she wants, but since she's already considering Linux Mint, point out that Windows 7 support will end in 2020 and she'll then have to learn her way around Windows 10 (which she'll probably end up buying on a new computer to be sure the hardware is up to spec and will definitely work with Windows 10). Her current computer will probably run Mint no problem, so she doesn't have to buy a new computer. Also, updates are more regular and smaller on Mint, and she won't have to worry about updating her antivirus and doing scans since she won't have any antivirus running on Mint anyway. Also Windows 10 spies heavily on its users. Plus it's confusing with its weird programs/apps interface.

You could run either a live Mint USB or set up a dual-boot system and see how your mother gets on with it.

1. Surfing the web: Set up the bookmarks bar in Firefox (or Chromium if she's used to Chrome) with site icons for Google, YouTube, Facebook, her genealogy sites, and any other sites she regularly visits. Tell her how to add new icons for sites if she wants to. Installing the uBlock Origin addon in Firefox (or Chromium) wouldn't be a bad idea to block ads, trackers, malware sites and scam sites. Leave uBlock Origin in its default configuration. You don't want to use it in its advanced mode, breaking sites and confusing your mother.

2. Playing games: Someone has already mentioned Wine/PlayOnLinux, but you could try VirtualBox as an alternative. Follow the instructions at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-iso ... ws-system/ to create an ISO image of your mother's entire hard drive. An ISO is an exact copy of the hard drive, which you can then import into VirtualBox. That means that your mother can run her old Win7 set-up on Mint.

3. Checking email: As already pointed out, if she's using outlook.com then just create a site icon in the browser bookmarks bar. If she's using the installed version of Outlook, then as also pointed out, switch to Thunderbird. Or third option, switch to an online email service like outlook.com or Gmail and create an icon in the bookmarks bar.
Petermint
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by Petermint »

Windows 7 is like Windows XP, it will survive for a long time due to a lack of a useful Windows replacement. Windows 8.1 is Windows 8 fixed up to the point where it is almost Windows 7 but still has keystroke wasting "enhancements" as bad as OSX. Every other post 7 Windows is a real step down into support hell.

You might find the easiest approach is to start replacing the software on the Windows 7 machine with open source replacements that run across Windows and Linux. There will be less to convert in the future. Test some of the existing programs under Wine in Linux. Go back to the Windows/Linux debate when you have working alternatives to most of the programs.
James_Smith
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by James_Smith »

James_Smith wrote:She has a Dell desktop from 2009. I don't know much about it other than that it has Windows 7 and Office (I'm not sure which edition). Her computer usage pretty much breaks down as follows:

1. Surfing the internet (watching youtube vids, Facebook, doing genealogy, looking up stuff about knitting, puppies, kitties, etc.)
2. Playing Bejeweled 3, Freecell, Mah Jong, Solitaire, Bouncing Balls (whatever that is) and, very occasionally, some haunted house game in which you look for clues or something. Not sure what that's all about. I'm not into video games.
3. Checks her email using Outlook.

And that's it.

Why should she ditch Windows and go with Mint?

Thanks

P.S. When I go to visit her next, I'll bring a USB boot drive with LM18 XFCE so she can take it for a test drive. I reckon XFCE will be good for her computer, since it's 8 years old.
Update: My mom loves her little laptop with Linux Mint XFCE. I decided on XFCE because her computer only has 2G RAM and an old AMD processor. I put an SSD in it and the fastest RAM available, but it's still pretty slow compared to what's out there now. I just came into possession of a MacBook Pro 13 and so I'm giving her my old Dell Inspiron 13 7378. With it's bigger keyboard and screen, it should be better for her and it's got a much faster processor and 16G of RAM, so it will be much faster than she'll ever need. It has LM 18.3 Cinnamon on it. I think she'll be very happy with it.

The Dell desktop I mentioned in the o/p still has W7 on it but she hardly uses it anymore.
I have been using Linux for years and I am still a newbie
whm1974
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by whm1974 »

James_Smith wrote:
James_Smith wrote:She has a Dell desktop from 2009. I don't know much about it other than that it has Windows 7 and Office (I'm not sure which edition). Her computer usage pretty much breaks down as follows:

1. Surfing the internet (watching youtube vids, Facebook, doing genealogy, looking up stuff about knitting, puppies, kitties, etc.)
2. Playing Bejeweled 3, Freecell, Mah Jong, Solitaire, Bouncing Balls (whatever that is) and, very occasionally, some haunted house game in which you look for clues or something. Not sure what that's all about. I'm not into video games.
3. Checks her email using Outlook.

And that's it.

Why should she ditch Windows and go with Mint?

Thanks

P.S. When I go to visit her next, I'll bring a USB boot drive with LM18 XFCE so she can take it for a test drive. I reckon XFCE will be good for her computer, since it's 8 years old.
Update: My mom loves her little laptop with Linux Mint XFCE. I decided on XFCE because her computer only has 2G RAM and an old AMD processor. I put an SSD in it and the fastest RAM available, but it's still pretty slow compared to what's out there now. I just came into possession of a MacBook Pro 13 and so I'm giving her my old Dell Inspiron 13 7378. With it's bigger keyboard and screen, it should be better for her and it's got a much faster processor and 16G of RAM, so it will be much faster than she'll ever need. It has LM 18.3 Cinnamon on it. I think she'll be very happy with it.

The Dell desktop I mentioned in the o/p still has W7 on it but she hardly uses it anymore.
That usually happens when people start using Linux for a while, they don't want to go back to Windows.
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BG405
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by BG405 »

whm1974 wrote:
James_Smith wrote:The Dell desktop I mentioned in the o/p still has W7 on it but she hardly uses it anymore.
That usually happens when people start using Linux for a while, they don't want to go back to Windows.
Agreed. Wish I'd gotten in to Linux years ago, but suppose it's useful to have experience & some knowledge of modern Windows versions, which I likely wouldn't have had.
James_Smith wrote:It has LM 18.3 Cinnamon on it. I think she'll be very happy with it.
I'm sure she will. Not done much with LM18.3 Cinnamon yet but looks really good from what I've seen so far.
Dell Inspiron 1525 - LM17.3 CE 64-------------------Lenovo T440 - Manjaro KDE with Mint VMs
Toshiba NB250 - Manjaro KDE------------------------Acer Aspire One D255E - LM21.3 Xfce
Acer Aspire E11 ES1-111M - LM18.2 KDE 64 ----Two ROMS don't make a WRITE
whm1974
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by whm1974 »

BG405 wrote:
whm1974 wrote:
James_Smith wrote:The Dell desktop I mentioned in the o/p still has W7 on it but she hardly uses it anymore.
That usually happens when people start using Linux for a while, they don't want to go back to Windows.
Agreed. Wish I'd gotten in to Linux years ago, but suppose it's useful to have experience & some knowledge of modern Windows versions, which I likely wouldn't have had.
Well to be fair, I was able to go completely Windows free due to both Steam and Chrome. Prior to that I had to use Windows for gaming and watching Netflix and Amazon. Not anymore.
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by Petermint »

What do you need Chrome for?
whm1974
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by whm1974 »

Petermint wrote:What do you need Chrome for?
I used Chrome to watch streaming videos, as I have less issues then FF.
jglen490

Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by jglen490 »

Unless someone has been directly affected by a Windows-related problem (i.e., a ransomware attack, on a Windows platform), they will not be convinced through fear tactics. I't's better to sell them by showing their favorite programs (or perfectly functional equivalents) at work on a Linux box. That's the one reason I can't get my wife to go with Linux. She said to me,"Will it run my favorite Solitaire program?", which Goodsol - not available on Linux at all. She's seen me using a browser, checking email, watching videos, even the user interface on my Linux box looks familiar, and it's all good for her, except her favorite Solitaire program. So I'm her Windows sys admin as well as my own Linux guy. Oh, well, the things we do for love.

I've checked with the Goodsol guy - a one man show - and he has enough fun keeping up with Windows and Apple and is not inclined to add Linux support to his repertoire. I can't blame him - it's his business model, and (again) my wife's favorite Solitaire game, for 20 years!

Linux is not happening for Rose. And that's the story that a lot of people will face and no alphabet soup of Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce, LMDE, KDE, or Gnome will overcome that.
whm1974
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Re: My mom is 70 and is thinking about going with Linux Mint. She's on the fence. What should I tell her to convince her

Post by whm1974 »

jglen490 wrote:Unless someone has been directly affected by a Windows-related problem (i.e., a ransomware attack, on a Windows platform), they will not be convinced through fear tactics. I't's better to sell them by showing their favorite programs (or perfectly functional equivalents) at work on a Linux box. That's the one reason I can't get my wife to go with Linux. She said to me,"Will it run my favorite Solitaire program?", which Goodsol - not available on Linux at all. She's seen me using a browser, checking email, watching videos, even the user interface on my Linux box looks familiar, and it's all good for her, except her favorite Solitaire program. So I'm her Windows sys admin as well as my own Linux guy. Oh, well, the things we do for love.

I've checked with the Goodsol guy - a one man show - and he has enough fun keeping up with Windows and Apple and is not inclined to add Linux support to his repertoire. I can't blame him - it's his business model, and (again) my wife's favorite Solitaire game, for 20 years!

Linux is not happening for Rose. And that's the story that a lot of people will face and no alphabet soup of Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce, LMDE, KDE, or Gnome will overcome that.
I have you tried using Wine or PlayonLinux? That might work.
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