SoylentNews

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

• Re:Privacy? Is your Grandma a terrorist? (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @08:44PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @08:44PM (#258118)

  The corporations that are collecting and storing information about everyone will eventually be hacked, making that information available to criminals. Elderly retirees are prime targets for scammers and identity thieves. Grandma needs privacy more than most.

  Parent

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