I recently shipped a Linux PC 6000 miles to a relative.
They have *never* seen Linux before, plus they live so far away that I just
can't pop over to show them how to use it. The only documentation was a
small card I taped to the top, showing the account names and passwords for
her and her children.
It arrived just as the Easter holidays started, meaning that her two
children, a boy of 6 and a girl of 5 will be home full time for the next
few weeks.
The machine is a second hand HP530 slim desktop pc ($100aud) with a 2.4Ghz
Celeron CPU and 512Mb ram running Edubuntu 8.10.
A few days after they received it I finally got some feedback. They had to
buy a LCD, keyboard and mouse, plus a computer desk to suit, as I only
shipped the PC itself.
They just bought whatever parts suited them.
The machine was switched on, and booted up into Edubuntu perfectly I'm told.
Her mother informed me that this is the first time her kids haven't touched
their Nintendo Wii for days as they are far too busy playing games on their
new Linux PC.
The girl is an artistic type and loves Tuxpaint, while the boy loves
shooting down letters in the TuxTyping game.
They also like having their own account and password, so no one can alter
their setup or files.
A Woman in her mid 30's, with two children of 5 and 6 years old, took to
Linux immediately, without one shred of previous training and absolutely no
previous Linux experience.
One should recall my account above, when told that 'Linux is hard to use',
especially when it comes from the Windows trolls around here.
Background:
The mother asked me to make up a 'Linux PC' for her, as she had heard that
Linux didn't have all the viruses and worms which Windows has, and she just
wanted a 'trouble free PC'.
I'll update COLA every 6 months regarding the "Linux HP530" and detail the
positives and negatives of their New Linux experience.
--
If we wish to reduce our ignorance, there are people we will
indeed listen to. Trolls are not among those people, as trolls, more or
less by definition, *promote* ignorance.
Kelsey Bjarnason, C.O.L.A. 2008
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