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Ask Soylent: What Computer to Get Grandma

posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 03 2015, @11:12AM   
from the over-to-you dept.

Walzmyn writes:

So it's happened; mom's venerable Dell has bit the dust and I'm being called on to find her a new laptop. Everything I've seen here and elsewhere says Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare and we're trusting Microsoft's forced automatic updates to not break the computer. Dell is still offering computers with Win 7 and 8.1, but Microsoft is pushing the OS upgrade hard and heavy. I'd love for her to let me set her up with Linux but she's devoted to Google Picasa (Google not porting their apps is another rant) and I'm not sure how often she's going to be calling me with some Windows only program she needs. And then there's Apple, which makes my fingers itch to type, but it's looking better and better. So, what is the collective wisdom of the Soylentils*?

1. Is windows 10 really not that bad and just roll with it.
2. Is Linux finally ready for Grandma?
3. Stick with 8.1 and turn off all the updates?
4. Shell out the cash for a Macbook?

*Irony duly noted.

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Original Submission

• What Grandmas want What Grandmas want (Score: 3, Insightful) by iamjacksusername on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:24PM

  by iamjacksusername (1479) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:24PM (#257929)

  Grandma wants a few basic things -

  1. To look at pictures of her grandchildren
  2. To browse the web. She may like to watch knitting videos
  3. To check her email (likely AOL)
  4. Forward cat pictures

  You can get her a computer but an iPad is probably best. Other Grandmas will likely have one so, when she is talking to her friends, she can ask them how to forward that funny cat picture with a nice caption to her grandson.

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• Re:What Grandmas want Re:What Grandmas want (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:43PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @02:43PM (#257940)

  Nice stereotyping. Better ask gramma what she wants. Maybe she likes kitty porn.

  Parent

  • Re:What Grandmas want Re:What Grandmas want (Score: 3, Touché) by iamjacksusername on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:05PM

    by iamjacksusername (1479) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @03:05PM (#257957)

    In the words of George Clooney in the film Up In The Air, "I'm like my mother, I stereotype. It's faster."

    Parent

    • Re:What Grandmas want (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:34PM (#258040)

      I'm not even sure if it was stereotyping in the movie.

      IIRC the choice was between two security lines filled with: 1. Elderly white people; 2. A group of Asian businessmen.

      There are certainly differences between different cultures, age groups, and occupations.

      Parent

  • Re:What Grandmas want Re:What Grandmas want (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @06:30PM (#258036)

    The questioner's "grandma" is the stereotypical grandma otherwise he/she wouldn't be asking these questions in the first place.

    Parent

    • Re:What Grandmas want (Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday November 03 2015, @07:31PM

      by q.kontinuum (532) on Tuesday November 03 2015, @07:31PM (#258076) Journal

      The questioners mom wants to use Picasa. I think that's more than the stereotypical grandma already. I never used picasa and don't have an iPad, so I had to use a search machine, but according to the first search results I only found a picasa-browser for iPad, no full application.

      --
      Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum

      Parent