Kubuntu and very old persons without experience in PC

[calligrafan]

Hi

I KDE is a very traditional and well integrated desktop environment, I find it predestined for old persons having no or only few experience in PC. I would like to install Lucide as it is a LTS as I also will install it on a laptop for an very old aunt (ab. 90 y.) having no experience with PCs: She can accustom slowly with my help at the phone (if I am using the same version) and keep it several years without other changes as security updates).

Important would be to set up the system under consideration of the poor motoric mobility (sensivity of mouse and fine tuning of pointing precision), bad seeing, sensitivity to noise (keyboard knack's and klick's in Skype).

Does someone have real experience in this matter and concrete propositions to do what is probably to set up and how?

Kind rgds

[ATHoneycutt]

Well Lucid Lynx or 10.04 is a LTS but it is never its end of life, 12.04 would be better as it is still supported for 5 years I believe.

[PaulW2U]

Does someone have real experience in this matter and concrete propositions to do what is probably to set up and how?

No real experience but my 'concrete proposition' would be to install Kubuntu 12.04 and set up Firefox and Thunderbird for web browsing and email as they're both, in my opinion, easier to use and more reliable than the KDE alternatives. Being an LTS, you'll get security updates for a few years yet but not too many other updates that will prompt for a reboot. You'll probably want to tell your aunt that the occasional reboot is not only advisable but might sometimes be necessary.

[dibl]

I support a KDE system for an 83-year old who never touched a personal computer before 5 years ago. She uses only the browser (Firefox), and with that she can access e-mail (web mail), her bank login page, and of course general browsing for recipes and such. I would advise to limit your "teaching" to what the user really, really needs to know to do what he/she wants to do. No need to teach Computer Science 305. ;-)

Periodically it is necessary to fix the destroyed KDE panel(s), and shut down the 27 extra instances of the browser, but hey Linux doesn't mind that kind of abuse. ;-)

[Snowhog]

Read this 'older' thread on the subject of creating a Kubuntu Kiosk: [SOLVED] I *NEED* to lock down a desktop!

[kernelbasher]

No real experience but my 'concrete proposition' would be to install Kubuntu 12.04 and set up Firefox and Thunderbird for web browsing and email as they're both, in my opinion, easier to use and more reliable than the KDE alternatives. Being an LTS, you'll get security updates for a few years yet but not too many other updates that will prompt for a reboot. You'll probably want to tell your aunt that the occasional reboot is not only advisable but might sometimes be necessary.

It's a good choice
+1 to this comment

[Detonate]

As an older person myself, I'll turn 72 in May, I actually think that it will be easier to do this for older persons who have very little computer experience. They won't have to unlearn all of that stuff they had to put up with from the "other" OS.

[oshunluvr]

My 75 year-old mother-in-law doesn't know or care what operating system shes's using. I put Thunderbird, Firefox and Solitaire on her desktop and locked it down. She happy as a clam and my niece can't d/l any viruses along with the junk she plays with at gramma's.

Oh - guess what OS she's using? :cool:

[Detonate]

I would suggest that you also set it up for remote desktop. That way, you are only a phone call away for assistance. I use Teamviewer for this, and it works great.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Read this 'older' thread on the subject of creating a Kubuntu Kiosk: [SOLVED] I *NEED* to lock down a desktop!

Yes, DEFINITELY read that thread! My mom, bless her heart (she just died three weeks ago today), was the world's worst when it came to screwing things up on the computer. After locking down her desktop as described in that thread, 'fixing' her computer became the easiest thing in the world--just log out, log back in, fixed!

[perspectoff]

Cavemen and Kubuntu



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