Senior Computer Advisor

[ase]

The time has come to encourage my grandparents to get a computer. Any suggestions for features or warnings specific to the older crowd? First pass consideration is a cheap-ish desktop with webcam and the biggest LCD they're willing to pay for.

Comments

[ase.livejournal.com]

HD? I don't think my grandparents have cable.

Primary use is going to be websurfing, I think. News and medical, at their age. They're about 80, so they don't get out much.

I'm probably going to be the tech support on call. I may encourage them to shell out for professional tech support as well, in case Life Happens. Since I'm Windows proficient, but have limited Mac experience, I'm leery of going with Mac. I really, really don't want to set them up with Vista, so watch this space for cackling as I find the Last Legit XP Box On Earth. If I had a spare box, I would set it up with Ubuntu so fast to see if I could put them on it.

Thanks for the suggestions - getting information from people who've been through the transition is really helpful.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Well, HD switchover is coming up - 18 months or so? But I'm not pushing that solution.

People replace computers all the time - you can probably get a not-too-old box. Lots of people glad to see them used - and not have to dispose of them responsibly. Still want a decent monitor, though.

Dell was allowing people to buy boxes with XP for a while. They may have stopped.

And I do know the difference between site and sight - it just doesn't always come reliably to mind. :<{ (no, you didn't say a word, I'm just fretting over a "senior moment")

[ase.livejournal.com]

Dell made a deal with Windows to sell XP through the end of this year. In the long term, Vista will be the new standard, but I am really dragging my feet on the switchover because I loathe Vista's hardware specs.

Used boxes come with the specter of hard drive cleanup and shorter lifespan. I'd want some certification on a used computer.

Site and sight? I am missing the original slip. :-)

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

re: Dell & XP - ah, thanks - that is useful info.

re: used box: IMHO you should be thinking free or $10 or very little more - they might have to pay (or feel guilty) to dispose of it properly. But I agree, lifetime may be curtailed. If it were a recent used box, some money might be indicated, but boxes keep getting bigger and cheaper - One should not contribute to inflating the prices of used boxes. I have about a dozen in my house, to the dismay of DW. Unfortunately I am about 11 hours from DC. If you decide to take a VT vacation, give me an advance warning, and I'll get you something. Don't know what Ubuntu requires to run. I downloaded it, but haven't taken time to install it. Still recovering from a couple of disk crashes.

Re: missed original slip: thank you :<)

[ase.livejournal.com]

Vermont would be a pleasant change from this weekend's local temperatures, certainly.

I'm leaning toward a new box for my grandparents because I want something reliable. If my computer spontaneously implodes, I can take a shot at fixing it, but they wouldn't have the first idea what went wrong.

Ubuntu is one flavor of linux OS. In one well-buried corner of the website, it claims that you need 256 MB RAM and 2 gigs of free hard drive space. (Compare to Vista, which wants 1 GB RAM and 15 GB of a 40 GB hard drive for Home Premium.) Windows should not have left XP on the market so long; the Vista code bloat really ticks me off after many years of mostly-stable XP quirks.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Well, Ubuntu sounds pretty hungry - you couldn't go back too far. Your new machine plan sounds best, but I do not want to go to Vista. Don't suppose I'll have a choice.

(One of my old machines is a 48k Apple ][, which was a pretty big machine for its day - they were selling a lot of 16k machines and I think started out with 4k. And that wasn't much because they used 1k for display and more for other system purposes. It was a beautiful machine. Ran Visicalc just fine.)