Re: [Dfey-general-discuss] computers for elderly

[Paul Sutton]

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Tim Dobson wrote:
> Paul Sutton wrote:
>  > This may seem slightly off topic but
> 
> Lets have it anyway! :)
> 
>> http://www.discount-age.co.uk/simplicity_computers/
>>
>> seems interesting,
> 
> Yeah I did notice this hit the technology news this morning.
> It's interesting, it's running Linux Mint and the UI is Edly.
> I'm not familiar with Edly however from research it appears to be a
> freeware ui bolted together in java.
> 
> I'm not sure how much
> 
>> It shows this can be done,  perhaps it will have some sort of knock on
>> effect for the young people in dfey.  In terms of how linux is seen,
>> which may result in more schools offering access to free software which
>> is one of the things we all want.
> 
> Well, yes, this could be one of the first signs and precedents. The
> Nokia N900 smartphone might be another.
> It's frustrating though that the main user experience will be with a
> non-free GUI which effectively will make it hard to support and
> frustrating for techies to deal with.
> 
>> These units will clearly need some sort of support, where skills in
>> something other than windows will be needed which could provide nice
>> opportunities for members of groups such as dfey.
> 
> Well user training (in general I find it's basically "hand holding") is
> going to be the main thing that's needed. In terms of real maintenance
> they should stay ok so long as they have worked out how not to give each
> computer the same default password.
> 
> As someone who's (90 year old) grandmother runs a Debian GNU/Linux with
> a version of KDE4 and uses kontact (with some of the menus and buttons
> removed to simplify things), I do think this is a bit condescending
> perhaps for some older people.
> 
> Tim
> 
> 

Well hope fully its a sign of change for the better.  What is also nice
is the attitude towards software patents in the USA could be changing

http://news.swpat.org/2009/11/bilski-hearing-software-patents

which is good news for free software. :)

Paul





- --
Paul Sutton
www.zleap.net

Ubuntu 9.10 is out : Visit www.ubuntu.com for details
Next Lug meet - TBA
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