[ Thanks to Dave
for this link. ]
“My mother has been an elementary school teacher for the past
20+ years. The only computer she has worked with in her classroom
has been an Apple IIE (great educational funding, isn’t it?), so
she doesn’t know what a graphical interface is “supposed” to look
like, and she is comfortable typing commands. Recently, she decided
that she wanted to learn how to use a computer at home. She wants
to be able to use email to keep in touch with her favorite son
(yes, that’s me), get on the web to do reading, and generally
aquaint herself with modern computers. Now, being the doting son
that I am, I threw together a neat little system based on a K6-II
400 processor and 64 Megs of RAM. I figured that would be more than
enough for everything she needed.”
“I asked my mother if she wanted to try Linux on the computer.
She said “What’s that?” I gave her a laymen’s description of Linux,
and the ways it’s different from Windows. Once she found out
that using Linux meant not using Windows, she didn’t want any part
of it…“