Mother and Ubuntu

M

I have a new job at Canonical.

Before I started, rather than inflicting a new way to interact with a computer on my own life I thought I should test Ubuntu out on my mother. In her own words: “I can be your lab rat” – very nice of her I am sure you will agree. Thank you mother!

Now, all my memories of ever building or re-building any machine are always connected to a very late night, the odd trip to a friend’s to download something I forgot to get before I started… general, unwanted, pain. I was extremely reluctant to start and procrastinated enormously.

Torn between a reluctance to inflict pain on myself and a desire to accept a job fully informed, I finally capitulated.

Let’s not dwell on the instructions for creating an Ubuntu Live CD. I did get it wrong the first time but not the second.

The Live CD idea is extremely useful. I got to have a proper play and it made me more confident about the install process. After all, if the Live CD works well, why wouldn’t the install? I started my little project at 9.30 pm (ish).

Now, those of you in regular contact with me will, of course, appreciate how important my mother’s computer is to her. She was referred to as ‘Techno mum’ while I was still at University (that is nearly 15 years ago. 15!) and her delight in engaging with uses for her computer has remained. I emphasise the uses bit as she never ever installs anything. Ever. If I am away she has no qualms about phoning my friend Andrew and making him come round.

I digress.

My point is that her first response whenever I attempt to ‘make her computer better’ is “will my emails be ok?” or “what about my letters?” and, as a dutiful daughter I do not like upsetting my mother.

I checked the backup was OK. Googled her printer to make sure there were drivers. I started.

The process really was very simple. I followed the on-screen instructions making notes of a few slightly less than delightful moments in the experience and, by 11pm mother was sitting in front of her PC which now runs Ubuntu.

She checked that the Internet was still there – Firefox was quickly identified. She started a letter to her friend Michelle (she writes her a letter every day!?) and – I loved this bit – the printer already worked (I had, of course, forgotten to check).

Then “where is Freecell?”

My heart stopped! What will she do when she can’t sleep? How will she compete with her friends in the ‘have you solved Freecell number xxxx’ game? I am a terrible daughter.

Fear not for my immortal soul my friends, freecell was already there. Phew!

Mother has now been running Ubuntu for a few weeks:

  • She has managed to move the top panel to the bottom of the screen – “It is more like what I had”
  • The printer seems to want to print everything in red (I really must look at that. It’s an HP 1410, anyone?)

Most importantly – the quote from Day 2: “This is bloody brilliant. Much faster than that other s**t!”

One happy mother. Check.

About the author

Ivanka

Ivanka Majic works in technology. She was Head of Design for Ubuntu, service managed Digital Marketplace through to beta, was acting director of digital for the Labour Party. She lives and works in Brighton where she works with the council’s digital first team, does a bit of teaching at Sussex University, and works with her husband on projects like restaurantsbrighton.co.uk and the BRAVOs. She has also started a podcast with her friend Michael which you can listen to at grandpodcast.com.

13 comments

  • It is all true… I am now happily typing up my holiday diary … this ubuntu thing really is efficient.

  • Is that how you ‘saffas’ support each other? Tsk tsk Mr Marks!

    Cape Town was sunny and full of information. I miss you all though, of course! Luckily the absence of Maconomy seems to help numb the pain.

  • Great you are on your road to installing for yourself!

    I find two sets of users that migrate easy: casual users and the hard-core tweakers. Casual users say ‘hey it’s got Firefox too! And that Open Office sure beats the pants of everything including the pirated MSOffice!”.

    It’s the in-between users – advanced ‘I know how to edit the registry’ types that struggle with fears of migration. They have a large useful skill set that they have to unlearn and fear the ‘down-time’ learning equivalent skills on Linux. They say ‘I can’t play game xyz”, etc. But it’s fear.

    I was in that camp in 2005, suffered three BSOD in one week and losing work in the process. Stumbled across “Slax-Kill Bill Edition”, saw the humor but also was amazed at the quality of software, had an old PC that was half the specs of my existing at the time that ran Kubuntu as fast as the newer machine on BSOD Windows. Been there ever since.

    You can do it.
    Start with dual-boot to ease the transition. Then you’ll find the windows partition sits for six months or a year after you really start using ‘Ubuntu.

    I’d suggest taking a look at: gOS, Linux Mint Fluxbox, MoonOS, Xubuntu, or Kubuntu. On your windows partition you can install Firefox, Open Office, Gimp, and Inkscape and begin there too.

  • I put mine on Ubuntu. She’s doing all good, only uses Firefox and Skype (w/ audio and video chat). Doesn’t really like the orange starburst, but learned to do the updates anyway.

  • I think you people are all losers! Get a life lol! I’m sat in college right now with a guest speaker and i came across this website because i’m bored of listening to her and if it is possible you people are more boring!

  • @ Laura

    Well, maybe you can enlighten us with the power of knowledge you DON’T have. Maybe the guest speaker was too intelligent for you, and your poor little brain just went pop….
    And if you think we are all lifeless persons, why did you post a message, and 3 minutes later another one?

    Oh, and for the record, computers are cool now….

    Greetings from the netherlands,
    Dj Biohazard

By Ivanka

About Author

Ivanka

Ivanka Majic works in technology. She was Head of Design for Ubuntu, service managed Digital Marketplace through to beta, was acting director of digital for the Labour Party. She lives and works in Brighton where she works with the council’s digital first team, does a bit of teaching at Sussex University, and works with her husband on projects like restaurantsbrighton.co.uk and the BRAVOs. She has also started a podcast with her friend Michael which you can listen to at grandpodcast.com.

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