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If i read between the lines, your neighbours aren't really interested in enhanced features of ANY operating system. He uses the computer to play a game of chess and she uses it as an advanced typewriter. If they really wanted to do more with the computer they would have upgraded years ago. And now they want to be able to write (or reply to) an occasional e-mail and maybe use the web to sell or advertise his artwork. My take on this is that it doesn't really matter which OS they are going to use: It 'll be -different-! They probably won't bother installing new applications because they don't know they need it ;-) and it's scary anyway. If you really want to help your neighbours it will cost you a lot of time setting up the system and instructing them on how to use it:
- only install for desktop use and only the applications they are really going to use (no need for 3 different e-mail clients either).
- Tune the desktop in a way they can easily understand it (for example: place icons on it that do exactly what they need and give these names they understand, like "check my e-mail", "play chess", "browse E-bay", "start a new document", "browse my photo's", "burn my documents on a CD"). Keep it as simple as possible.
I totally agree here. Essentially what he's suggesting is exactly what the big OEMs do (read DELL, HP, Gateway, etc..). If you really wanted to do this comprehensively, you could do as Marcel suggests and also include preset things such as setting an icon for Noatun/Xmms and getting it set for both the cd devices and to read saved files (or perhaps not saved). Likewise, since you've not mentioned the particular chess game he uses one might like to see which "chess" game he would perfer by comparing it to the one he uses. Maybe setting up Xboard will be fine, but then again it my be too different for him. Fortunately, SuSE include several, as well as a plethora from sourceforge and freshmeat. You might also set up a symlink/icon to a script that could backup/burn things such as a set of documents, so they just need to put the cd in and click and go (OMG, sounded too much like Lindows :-/ ).
- Convert old documents to the new format and make sure that the new default format for saving is something that can be read by most other applications/people (i guess this would be MSWord, Excel)
Very important IMHO, My mom has problems with cut and pasting of URL in email using XP, I shutter at the aspect of having her try to figure what doc format to use appropriately in a Linux environment - Ouch, my eyes hurt!
- Make sure that all documents of all applications are being saved in the same location, so it's easy to find them back again.
- Printing should only involve clicking the printer icon or clicking "print" in the menu of the used application. Check that the documents print the way your neighbours expect it.
- Investigate the way they use their current applications and explain how to -exactly- do the same with the new versions.
- Explain -every- "new" application: How to reply to an e-mail, how to use the addressbook, how to attach a document, how to download the photo's from the camera, how to upload a photo to E-bay, how to use the CD-burning application. Let them do this themselves a few times until they are comfortable with it.
- Make the system secure. Install a well configured firewall and configure automated updating.
Regarding support: If you want to be able to help your neighbours after you've moved, be shure to install remote management software that gets activated automatically at boot and don't shut yourselve out with too secure firewall settings (check!)
I think Marcels suggestions essentially hit the nail on the head. Basically the best road for you to take IMHO is to act as a quasi-vendor (e.g. DELL et al). I also wonder if creating a partition structure so that there home dirs can be segregated and and then creating an ISO image of the root system wouldn't be another thing to consider. I mean if the system should take a dump than having a quasi "restore" disk wouldn't be bad. The only problem is if, via an automated YOU set up, that crucial updates would be blown out when the ISO of the root system overwrites the partitions. Hmmm! Cheers, Curtis. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE+srYm7WVLiDrqeksRAmOhAJ9/kfZaIhCt6ERoMO6Q7axbd208KwCbBKKD pgSp+Px+ZgvSmshRaZnWVP0= =DEUb -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----