Thanks again Ken....
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Mar 04, 2014 6:48 AM EDT |
I read your article to my wife. She loves using a small laptop for some simple games (Freecell, KDE3Patience and Mahjong) and it is a very important part of her relaxation......Also, she and I take great pleasure in the fact that while she is playing I often read to her from the "Percy Jackson" series or other books that similarly give us a great deal of enjoyment. But......as a result of your article (and I might add, the incredibly delightful and moving story of Alice which I also read out to her), I pointed out to her that she did have an internet connection and that if she ever learnt how to use a browser, she'd never look back. Well...........wait for it........she has now made the decision to actually learn how to use her browser and enjoy looking through the internet......Come Easter, our daughter will be staying with us and she will coach my better half in how it is done. I am totally delighted. You done good my friend !!! I have wanted to see this for years. |
| notbob Mar 04, 2014 11:57 AM EDT |
This was a very informative article and it raised some issues I'd not considered about teaching seniors, BUT!....... I hate to be the wet rag, but the title is totally erroneous. Linux? How do you figure? What in this article, other than an almost afterthought mention of said OS, makes it about Linux? As I said, a good informative article, but I was looking for information on how to teach seniors how to use Linux. This article fails to qualify on even the most flimsy criteria. Now, if this is going to be a series, I stand corrected and look forward to future articles. ;) |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 04, 2014 12:03 PM EDT |
I'll tell you why "Linux": Consistency. As my comment on the article states, the biggest issues my Mom said her friends were having was with changing interfaces. Most learned XP, then Vista threw them for a loop, and now they're avoiding Win8 like the plague it is. Why? Because things changed at the one level they deal with that machine, the GUI. I put Xfce on my Mom's laptop, and it simply does not change. If she ever needs a new machine, I'll copy her home directory over and she'll have exactly what she is accustomed to again. Consistency. Predictability. |
| Jeff91 Mar 04, 2014 12:08 PM EDT |
People are terrified of change, it is one of the reasons progress is so difficult. ~Jeff |
| notbob Mar 04, 2014 12:39 PM EDT |
> I put Xfce on my Mom's laptop, and it simply does not change. I don't know when you first used Xfce, but I stopped using it when it DID change. Be that as it may, right and left mouse clicks are not exclusive to Linux and I for one am getting a little tired of links to articles that have little or no bearing on Linux, other than the mere insertion of the term only to qualify them for posting here at LXer. Articles like Heroes of Linux and Linux Powered Rifle are misleading at best and totally bogus at worst and I believe pointing it out is necessary. If LXer is merely an inbred stroke-fest, well excuse me for misunderstanding its purpose. Otherwise, in the interest of fair exposure via opposing views, I'll continue to play devil's advocate, thank you very much. ;) |
| jdixon Mar 04, 2014 12:47 PM EDT |
> Be that as it may, right and left mouse clicks are not exclusive to Linux ... No, they're not, but Ken uses Linux exclusively in his charity. All the machines he gives away run Linux. |
| notbob Mar 04, 2014 1:20 PM EDT |
> All the machines he gives away run Linux. Very commendable. I am to know this, how? Not mentioned in the article. But, it does give me an idea on how to rid myself of some old boxes I thought I'd have to pay to dump. I think I can flog together a couple basic Linux boxes. Maybe a freebie would get a couple seniors to take a chance. I came to this essentially seniors neighborhood (at 60, I was the local "kid") mainly to care for my mother who'd recently suffered a stroke. I also suffered the delusion everyone would love to learn how to use Linux. Silly me. When I first made the offer at our local pot luck, one ol' geezer groused, "I'll give up my Windows when they pry it from my cold.....". Well anyway, I've not met much more of a response in the intervening 6 yrs. Perhaps now, with Vista and Windows 8 becoming the successor to XP, and with the carrot of a free Linux box, I can give it another go. I may have been a bit strident on Ken for being too generic. As I said, he did bring up some very thought provoking points. OTOH, he said nothing detailing how one goes about using Linux or how one might induce set-in-their-ways seniors to convert. His observations could have been equally valid if applied to Windows 3.1. Ken appears to have a situation where seniors can come in on their own volition to an already established setting. Good for him. With me it's more door to door. But, like I said, if Ken does decide to continue his observations on seniors adopting Linux, I'll be in the first row. ;) |
| gus3 Mar 04, 2014 1:29 PM EDT |
Bob_Robertson wrote:avoiding Win8 like the plague it is.That's Steve Ballmer's legacy for you. notbob wrote:Very commendable. I am to know this, how? Not mentioned in the article.But it is mentioned in numerous other articles on his site, many of which he has submitted to the feed here. |
| mrider Mar 04, 2014 3:32 PM EDT |
Quoting:People are terrified of change, it is one of the reasons progress is so difficult.That's true enough. People are also tired of change for change's sake, where one gets to spend a great deal of time re-learning how to do basic tasks, only to wind up in a situation where there wasn't any actual improvement, just difference. Not arguing, just pointing out. :) |
| notbob Mar 04, 2014 4:14 PM EDT |
> there wasn't any actual improvement, just difference. Yep. M$ has been plowing that furrow for ages. Unfortunately, now that there are paid in-house developers for Linux, that same weed is beginning to proliferate. Gotta justify those paid positions, specially in these fallow home field times. 8| |
| Ridcully Mar 04, 2014 6:03 PM EDT |
I think what Ken was on about in this article was simply bringing the fact that Seniors need computer classes too. Emphatically ! Notbob is right though - nothing in the article really indicates that Ken's principle aim is to take Linux firmly into the "unwashed masses", but if you were an avid Ken Stark/Helios follower (yep, I am) you'd know that already and equally emphatically ! His work to take free Linux boxes to disadvantaged kids is a shining light in the Texan Windows darkness or in society in general for that matter. I also think Jeff91 and mrider are both right.....as you get older it is a "generalism" that you increasingly dislike change, but an even stronger fact is that you detest change that is seen to be of little advantage. It's why I also believe that computer use for the senior citizen is so very, very important to their mental well-being. At the ripe old age of 71, my computer interests constantly introduce me to change and it is fascinating. It's also very, very stimulating to mental processes and that is an enormous positive spin-off to the Seniors themselves. You still tend to be conservative - so if it ain't broke, why fix it ?......but you do look at change and tend to evaluate it rather than dismiss it, and that's an enormous difference. I often feel that the biggest enemies of the Senior population are sheer boredom and lack of community interaction. Computers and the internet can help enormously to reduce that set of problems. Okay......I'm off me soapbox and there's me 2c. :-) |
| mbaehrlxer Mar 11, 2014 7:01 PM EDT |
(i meant to post this earlier, but then forgot about it) is this the right place to brag about my grandma who started using linux in 1994 at the age of 75? she was the manager of a small monthly magazine paid by the members based on how much they wrote in it, so she did the accounting for that. i set her up with a spreadsheet and a perl script to generate a LaTeX report. she also learned LaTeX herself to write letters with emacs. nowadays she is mostly browsing the internet and writing emails with webmail. the rest of the family living elsewhere is using windows, but she would have none of that. her saddest moments are if the internet is down or the computer stops working... greetings, eMBee. |
| jdixon Mar 11, 2014 10:22 PM EDT |
Incidentally, for those who don't follow Ken on Google+, Diane had a heart attack a few days ago. He's offline for the time being. |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 12, 2014 8:32 AM EDT |
(very sad face) |
| skelband Mar 12, 2014 12:47 PM EDT |
> Incidentally, for those who don't follow Ken on Google+, Diane had a heart attack a few days ago. He's offline for the time being. Jeepers, hasn't the world thrown enough at those guys? |
| mbaehrlxer Mar 13, 2014 11:18 AM EDT |
thanks, erm, not, sigh :-( what skelband said... |
| gus3 Mar 13, 2014 2:05 PM EDT |
Doggone it. |
| jdixon Mar 17, 2014 9:05 AM EDT |
Ken has updated on Google+. After several days of tests, they've decided it was not a heart attack after all, merely an extreme and unusual reaction to Predisone. Ken is back to posting. |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 17, 2014 9:27 AM EDT |
Adverse drug reactions are terrible things. |
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