Time to set Mom up with a new computer. One of my nieces visited and now her computer is trashed in spite of Trend Security Suite (curiously same thing happened to the niece's computer a few months back with Trend). Anyway, as a result Mom thinks it's time to upgrade and I'm in charge as usual.
She only uses he computer for three things: 1. personal finance (Quicken), 2. rare letters (Word) and 3. games (solitaire, sudoku, and various puzzle games).
I'm seriously considering moving her to Moneydance for finance software (better reviews and less crippled than Quicken and compatible) and either a Mac or Linux machine. Part of the reason is I'm responsible for trouble-shooting her computer remotely whenever she has a problem or a prompt from her firewall or AV software and, if she can't reach me, someone invariably says "yes, let that unknown program do whatever it wants!" and the thing is hosed.
So I'm pretty sure I could set up either a Mac or Ubuntu (or Fedora) machine with all this software (Moneydance, OpenOffice.org and games) and have it be pretty bulletproof. She won't install more or tinker. The advantage of the Mac is form-factor (iMac 20") and interface and the advantage of Linux is price (free OS) and more free games.
Thoughts?
BTW, I set up a newphew with a linux system for email, IM, OpenOffice and surfing and it's been rock solid for longer than any XP install in that house!
She only uses he computer for three things: 1. personal finance (Quicken), 2. rare letters (Word) and 3. games (solitaire, sudoku, and various puzzle games).
I'm seriously considering moving her to Moneydance for finance software (better reviews and less crippled than Quicken and compatible) and either a Mac or Linux machine. Part of the reason is I'm responsible for trouble-shooting her computer remotely whenever she has a problem or a prompt from her firewall or AV software and, if she can't reach me, someone invariably says "yes, let that unknown program do whatever it wants!" and the thing is hosed.
So I'm pretty sure I could set up either a Mac or Ubuntu (or Fedora) machine with all this software (Moneydance, OpenOffice.org and games) and have it be pretty bulletproof. She won't install more or tinker. The advantage of the Mac is form-factor (iMac 20") and interface and the advantage of Linux is price (free OS) and more free games.
Thoughts?
BTW, I set up a newphew with a linux system for email, IM, OpenOffice and surfing and it's been rock solid for longer than any XP install in that house!