DesktopLinux.com: A Senior Citizen’s Introduction To Linux

“Several months ago I was introduced to an elderly lady in our
small community that was having some difficulty with her computer.
She had heard that I might be able to help and she needed someone
who was close by if she ran into trouble…

“She was using an HP 6740C, running Windows 98. She uses her
computer for only three things; surfing the web (mainly news),
getting her email (keeping in contact with her children), and
playing solitaire.

“My first instance of contact with her had to do with email. I
would later find out that this was almost always her biggest
problem. She had problems sending emails, and sometimes receiving
them. She was using Outlook Express for email and Internet Explorer
as her browser. As I began to work through this process of helping
her over the weeks and months (I was there about once every two
weeks), I found out that the settings were changed in the pop and
smtp accounts. I could never pin her down about her changing these.
She said she didn’t, but how else would they have changed? I would
correct the account and then come back in two weeks to do it again.
During the course of these events she acquired a couple of virii,
which I cleaned for her, and of course the usually complaint of the
computer just locking up. How do you explain to an elderly lady
that it was ‘normal’ for this system to do that! She doesn’t know
that there are other systems out there…”

Complete
Story