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Ask Soylent: What Computer to Get Grandma

posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 03 2015, @11:12AM   Printer-friendly
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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  • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday November 04 2015, @04:42AM

    by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Wednesday November 04 2015, @04:42AM (#258279)

    Just wait for Black Friday and get her a nice new Windows 10 PC/laptop or maybe something from Apple. She's your grandmother and this may be her last computer, get her something nice and tell her how much you lover her.

    You're not doing anything nice for her by buying her abusive non-free proprietary user-subjugating software; in fact, you're doing her an injustice. In addition, you're giving money to the scumbag companies who produce said abusive software, which is unacceptable.

    Privacy? The companies/governments/whoever know all about her already, unless she's been off the grid her entire life.

    "The privacy situation is bad, so let's just give up all hope and hand over everything on a silver platter!" Nice defeatist attitude, but the situation will never improve if you simply give up. What you're saying is false anyway, since even companies and governments are not all-knowing. You're greatly exaggerating.

    Normally I would completely agree with avoiding Microsoft and Apple but this isn't the time for a principled stand.

    It's always a good time for a principled stand. By buying proprietary software, you are endorsing it.

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