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another Windows to Linux desktop migration story



 In this Linux Magazine article titled "Gutsy for Grandpa," Jason Perlow 
write about replacing his father's Windows desktop, that was becoming 
unmaintainable, with Ubuntu Gutsy: 

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/4203
(free registration required to see full article) 

   ...I was spending hours at a time each visit to try to resolve this 
   and unravel the mess. There was no other way around it -- this 
   Windows computer had three years' worth of crotch rot and it needed 
   a total system flush. And I needed to do something to keep Bob's 
   natural tendencies of screwing up his computer in check. 
   ... 
   Now, I've helped friends migrate to Linux before, but most of these 
   folks were fairly computer savvy or at a bare minimum, in my own age 
   group. So it was relatively simple to relate and to assess their 
   needs. I wouldn't go as far as to call Grandpa Bob computer 
   illiterate, but he is... for a lack of a better description, 
   stubborn and ornery. At 71, nobody is going to tell him what to do 
   or how to change his habits. And he doesn't like listening to 
   people. So I had to give him a Linux desktop that was easy enough 
   for him to understand and would require minimal hand-holding for the 
   transition from Windows. 

   I debated the pros and cons of the various distributions for newbies 
   Xandros, Linspire, LinuxXP, Novell SUSE Linux Desktop, MEPIS, Ubuntu 
   and its derivatives like Xubuntu and finally settled on the latest 
   and greatest Ubuntu release â?? Gutsy, which had only been released a 
   week before. 

   I was impressed with the software Gutsy came with and its device 
   driver support, and the positive reviews it had been getting. 
   ... 
   After spending about an hour showing him how to launch and use all his 
   programs, Grandpa Bob is now live on Linux. We'll check back in a few 
   weeks to see how he's doing. 


  -Tom 

-- 
Tom Metro 
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA 
"Enterprise solutions through open source." 
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/

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