Blah:

[skywaterblue]

My mother is making cranky noises about getting a laptop because ye olde desktop is full of viruses and spyware. This is because she is not capable of maintaining a computer, my brother is thirteen and my father has apparently been looking at porn.

(True facts: you can download any old shit off the internet and not catch a virus for years. But look at porn online for five seconds and your box is now part of the Russian botnet.)

I'd rather she get a netbook because it would be cheap, but both of the models at Best Buy were 'chintzy' looking. I sighed and tried to do a trade, the new Sony Vaio CR in red for the computer I use now, but eight hundred dollars is too much. (I died inside, especially since Sony just helped me fix a problem last night and buying shit is the other reason she needs to buy a new one every three years.)

Which is also why I can't convince her to buy an Apple, even though dumb computer users should use Mac and it would keep me from pulling my hair out because I could just foist her off on the pimply kids who work at the 'Genius Bar'.

Suggestions? Maybe I should get a Linux netbook and then install OSX on top?

Comments

[fashionbeast.livejournal.com]

Stross had an interesting thing about how porn sites use catchpas or captchas or whatever to break through the anti-bot security on blog site to post ads in comments. I'd link to it but I;m trying to get 5k done tonight.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Go you.

[darkblackghost.livejournal.com]

Reinstall said desktop. Set up programs as required (also lock down access to IE, etc), then set the account she's going to use as a user account. Password protect the admin account. Greatly reduces the risk.

Or, get an old copy of Ghost 7 off eBay. Set up PC as required, take a Ghost image on DVD. Tell her to store everything she wants to keep on a USB key. When PC gets filled up with crap, re-image it and you're good to go again.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

A good idea. I should put an install of Vista, maybe, and lock away the administration tools.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Naturally, can't find reinstall disk. Should I just snag a copy of XP from somewhere and install over? Fuck. This is already more effort than it's worth.

[brianl03.livejournal.com]

Welcome to how I feel over any sort of holiday break.

BRIAN, WE DO NOT KNOW COMPUTERS. FIX THEM FOR US!

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Heh. This download of Vista may apparently take sixteen days.

[darkblackghost.livejournal.com]

Vista sucks, sorry. I'd've stuck with XP, it too has user and admin accounts...

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I like Vista a lot. Granted, I'm using a laptop optimized for it.

[cereswunderkind.livejournal.com]

Clear down the desktop, save the good stuff to a stick, install Ubuntu on it. Endof.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Uh huh. My mother can barely use a computer as it is, and I was skeptical she could learn to use a Mac.

[cereswunderkind.livejournal.com]

So she might as well switch to Ubuntu, esp if all she does is surf and email. I don't think Gnome is any harder to use than XP, Vista or OSX.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

You make a good point, but I have a duty to the other people who use the house commons computer to make sure they can use it as well. Since my brother sometimes uses it to game, the box has to at least run Windows.

I'd only change the operating system if I could convince her to buy a new laptop.