Re: [tlug] Linspire as a senior citizen's first PC -- conclusion

["Micheal E Cooper" <mcooper@example.com>]

I have successfully built a working machine to bring to Dad, but the
postage is too much, and the plastic case just does not seem to be holding
up. The screw holes for the power source were cracked already, and the MB
I am using seems to have suspicious mouse and keyboard connections. The
case itself is just not strong enough, though delightfully light. I cannot
in good conscious give this to Dad. I don't know how long the hardware
will last, and no matter what kind of wizard you are, if you are across an
ocean and your client's hardware goes out, you cannot do much with ssh or
anything else, for that matter.

So I will go there with just an external modem and a Damn Small Linux CD.

Plan 1: If the old machine he was given 9 years ago can boot from CD, we
will give that a try. If I can get that old box working, it should be good
enough for him for a while, at least until he gets over the initial
info-overload. Also, I am not sure how deeply he will want to go into
this.

Plan 2: If I cannot get that old machine working, I will buy him a Walmart
Linspire machine for $300 and a monitor for $150 or so.

I appreciate the criticisms of Linspire, and I truly have taken them to
heart. I deeply respect my TLUG senpai, but buying a used PC and setting
it up over there with only a 56K connection would be too time-intensive,
even if I brought a full set of CD's with me.

The only other alternative would be buying a new or used Windows machine.

Put that way, Linspire with a hardware warranty does not sound so bad,
does it?

And just as a last comment, please do try Damn Small Linux. It is fun,
fun, fun, and it was wonderful when I was trying (by trial and error) to
figure out the pin connections and switch details on the many cases I have
been handling these last few days. It boots much faster than anything on
hard disk, so it was great for testing hardware. Even on the old machine I
was working with, it was up in seconds. No lie. I even ended up wasting
time because I checked out how a Flash plugin installation would go, and
it went so well so quickly, that I got lost in some Flash movie gallery
sight.