So, I was not the first to think of it, will still take it as a compliment, that great minds think alike.

I used remastersys to make a “distro” disc which includes all the setup I have done, just in case mum needs to reinstall, not likely though, as I can “hide” all the sys utils in UNE.

Gotta love Ubuntu.

I think the only thing she’s ever complained about it that someone couldn’t send her “Winks” over MSN (stupid little Flash emoticon style things) which I, of course, explained are not a good idea anyway. They’re pointless. She shrugged and seems happy enough now.

Overall, she gets on fine with it, and it’s set up exactly how she likes to use it (shortcuts to “Internet” and “MSN” on the desktop.)

My other success story would be my grandma who’s really into technology. My grandparents have 3 machines between them (and an iPod touch!). 2 of the machines run Windows and her main desktop runs Ubuntu. At one point she wiped Ubuntu and put XP back on, within 2 weeks she was begging me to re-install Ubuntu. She prefers the games, the way the desktop is laid out and the fact that everything just works better.

She was confused that when she bought a WiFi USB adapter, the CD that came with it “didn’t work”. Obviously the CD was for Windows machines, which I did explain. Anyway, the device worked straight out of the box, without anything needing to be done. She now loves Ubuntu even more.

My experience of working with first-time or or not-for-a-long-time computer users is that the choice of operating system is irrelevant. What counts is speed and ease of use. Splashtop on the Asus Eee Box is really good for that!

My wife uses and prefers Ubuntu on her dual-boot laptop. In fact, she refuses to use Windows Vista because of her fears of viruses etc. and her aversion to the dreaded updates and rebooting. Also, Ubuntu is much faster

I was going to Ubuntu my Mum, too, but my old desktop, which had been running Ubuntu for me, somehow refused to deal with a fresh install, so she ended up with XP. Generally works fine and on the couple of occasions she’s needed help I had the foresight to install Crossloop on her machine for remote assistance. Mind you, getting her to actually use Crossloop the first time was a bit of an ordeal!

There were some initial problems with the video that I found diffucult to fix via shh because I couldn’t see the computer boot up, but otherwise things are going well.