Linux for senior citizens

[hazel]

Well, I said when we were chatting earlier about "little old ladies" that one day I'd write a Linux advocacy sheet for senior citizens because I think Linux is just as suitable for our sort of people as for teenage geeks. So here it is. If anyone wants to pass it on to their grandparents, feel free to do so.

[bigtomrodney]

That was really nice to read through. It makes a change to read one of those 'advocacy' documents without it being written at (or worse below) the lowest common denominator level.It seemed like really straight talking.

..Now if only the words Senior Citizen had not been mentioned I could show it to my Mam (She's in denial )

[fingal]

..Now if only the words Senior Citizen had not been mentioned I could show it to my Mam (She's in denial )

If I ever live to be old and someone calls me a 'senior citizen' I will spit at them. It sounds like a make of gas heater.

Not putting down your guide btw: will read later.

[cousinlucky]

I just adore your attitude, Hazel!!

[chadders]

From the first couple of lines, it looks like it would be a good read. Too bad I don't like reading :P. But nice introduction nevertheless :P.

[cayalee]

nice article have a banana

[truoc444]

If I ever live to be old and someone calls me a 'senior citizen' I will spit at them. It sounds like a make of gas heater.

Define: Senior Citizen - A person who moves a little slower, gets away with stuff because of senility, gets pushed to the front of long lines, and receives a discount at Denny's.

Does that really sound so bad?

[apoorv_khurasia]

Wow! Such a nice read. Its long since I read anything sensible on the net.

[hazel]

So Fingal wouldn't like to be called a senior citizen? And there was I thinking this was such a big step forward from being called an Old Age Pensioner or OAP. Now that really sucks!

Thanks for all your compliments.

[daacosta]

Well, I said when we were chatting earlier about "little old ladies" that one day I'd write a Linux advocacy sheet for senior citizens because I think Linux is just as suitable for our sort of people as for teenage geeks. So here it is. If anyone wants to pass it on to their grandparents, feel free to do so.

Nice. As a criticism I would be wary of using expressions like "everyone knows". There are some points that are debatable:

• Some Linux distributions can be installed just as easily if not more than Windows and you can become productive within an hour.
• Linux is not much harder to learn than Windows.
• Why don't you recommend using Linux as a first time OS?

I understand that the article is geared towards seniors but in truthfulness I have seen many bright seniors that learn just as fast as a kid (OK, maybe they can't play video games just as well as their grandsons but...)

Up to a certain point the article is fun to read until:

"For a start, Linux is a very easy system to understand. If we stick to text mode for a moment, there are really only four components."

When it changes gears to geeky. [What is text mode?]

I have one comment: What is it that a senior wants to do with a computer? That is, put yourself in the position of aunt Betty and start from there [I am into showing applications such as OOo, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, etc. rather than talking about the kernel, gui, etc. I show productivity tools before anything to new users...]