[vox] my mother has seen the light

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 07:01:47AM -0800, Katie wrote:
> My mother has finally given up on Windows since a virus invaded her
> computer allowing pop up windows to proliferate to the point she couldn't
> close them down fast enough and a porn site somehow managed to establish
> itself as her wallpaper.

Ouch!  Well, I guess that's as good a reason as any to try switching over to
a community-driven environment like Linux, compared to a corporate one
that doesn't care, or just can't deal with issues like this.


> She's ready to try linux, but she's a little
> leary.  I want to make it as easy as possible on her so she doesn't feel
> like she has to go back to Windows.  So here's what she's looking for:

First question that I always ask is: what does she do with her computer?
(Other than fight porno pop-up ads :^) )  Is there anything she's been
wanting to do with her computer that she couldn't, or simply didn't get
around to, before?


> 1.  A version of linux that works well for someone who feels she has
> absolutely no programming skills.

As people have mentioned, there's Mandrake, SUSE and Lindows, which are
all very consumer-oriented.

If you find someone who knows that they're doing, they can take a Debian
system and make it rock solid, and easy to use, for someone who doesn't
want to worry about the innards.


> 2.  The closest LUG to Alameda, CA

Across the bay, there's Bay Area LUG in San Francisco.  They seem quite
disoriented lately, though.  Website doesn't get updated with meeting
info until after the fact, half of the time.

  http://www.balug.org/


North of Alameda there's CalLUG at UC Berkeley.  I'm not too familiar
with them.  I'm _guessing_ they're kind of technical-oriented.

  http://callug.cs.berkeley.edu/  [seems offline right now?]


A little south in Fremont is East Bay LUG.  I've been meaning to
make one of their meetings.  I'm not very familiar with them, either.

  http://www.eblug.org/


Further out, down in San Jose, is the oldest/largest, Silicon Valley LUG.

  http://www.svlug.org/


And then go back up the peninsula towards Redwood City, and you'll hit
the newest LUG, PenLUG:

  http://www.penlug.org/



Good luck!  Keep us appraised of you and your mother's progress!


-bill!
root@lugod.org
http://www.lugod.org/
Linux Users' Group of Davis