[ale] Ubuntu Linux ROCKS! (The Saga of Miss W)

Sun Oct 4 15:47:23 EDT 2009

Very cool story.  And I want to turn our Gateway laptop (Vista) into Ubuntu
every day.  My only reservation is that there are still too many [wimp]
websites that are built for IE only (my bank, insurance company, health-care
provider, etc) - exactly those you need the most.  In order to make
electronic deposits at my bank I have to switch from my Macbook to an XP VM
(with a big screen, since the graphic is rigid).  Yikes.

So, Linux gurus, is there a solution (or a workaround) for such sites?

-- Asher

On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 1:03 AM, aaron <aaron at pd.org> wrote:

> Ubuntu Linux ROCKS!
> Period. End of story.
>
> :-)
> ... well ... OK ... actually "Ubuntu Rocks" is the
> _moral_ of this particular story -- one about
> helping a little old lady escape the Mafia$oft thugs
> that were trying to snatch her purse by guiding her
> across the information highway to the sunny safety
> of Free Software park.
> :-)
>
> Absurdly overboard analogies aside, the gist of
> this saga is that today I delivered the gift of a
> "new" computer to a senior citizen on a fixed income
> who can't otherwise afford to buy one. She serves
> with me on an important political campaign committee
> and she was in need of the system so she could be
> more productive in that effort. (She did have a
> working computer until a couple months back when
> she gave it to her daughter in support of her
> return to college studies.)
>
> The generosity on my part wasn't as large as might
> be implied above, since the donation was just a
> fairly old computer that I salvaged with the help
> of Ubuntu Linux, but everything about the gift was
> very new to the recipient.
>
> The machine was one of the discarded PC systems
> that I have in my basement to keep all my stacks
> of antique Amiga computers company.  The hardware
> is about 10 years old, a generic 600mhz P3 with
> 256 meg of ram, 10gig HD, CD burner and a floppy
> drive. The only hardware adjustment I made was to
> plug in a slightly less outdated graphics card.
>
> I had put Ubuntu 8.04 on the system previously,
> but to keep this simple and deliver the latest and
> greatest I decided to just do a full install of
> Ubuntu 9.04. The full install from CD took all
> the effort of about 6 mouse click selections
> (English. Next. Eastern Time. Next. Use the whole
> hard disk. Next.), plus entering a new user name
> and password.
>
> Everything on the system came up working on
> first boot into the fresh installation, so I
> then ran the "add software" utility to install
> the "restricted" add ons, the proprietary closed
> source bits needed for Flash support and such.
> For those keeping score, that was 2 menu selections,
> a search on the word "FLASH", 2 mouse clicks and
> a password entry.
>
> After the add on bits were automatically downloaded
> and installed from the internet, I did a cautionary
> reboot. When the Ubuntu Desktop returned, the
> software update utility appeared with a list of
> recommended updates. I let the utility automatically
> download and install all the software and security
> updates that had come along since April (09.04 being
> the month the version was released and the install
> was made) -- just 2 more of those (strenuous) mouse
> clicks and another (grueling) password entry and the
> installation and updates of the full Linux OS and
> all of the commonly used office, internet and media
> software was done. With a standard, high speed
> internet connection the whole process took less
> than 90 minutes.
>
> (-: Fortunately, my fingers get daily exercise,
> so they got through the Ubuntu install ordeal of
> 16 mouse clicks, 4 typed words, and 22 "beverage
> lifts while waiting for downloads" without injury.
> Just to be safe, though, I recommend that amateurs
> should be sure to scratch all itches BEFORE going
> solo on an Ubuntu install! :-)
>
> There is no doubt that my (seriously) techno-phobic
> senior friend could have done this installation
> herself with just two minutes of phone support for
> the "Add Software" part, but all my work in restoring
> the box, testing the hardware and installing Ubuntu
> Linux on the machine only took about a half hour of
> actual hands-on activity on my part anyway.
>
> I delivered the computer to Miss W's apartment today
> and only had to spend another 10 minutes plugging it
> into it's home. She had already had DSL provisioned
> on her phone line, so she tried to hand me their "DSL
> software" install disk, which she was shocked to see
> me decline. I just plugged the phone and ethernet
> cables into the provided DSL modem / gateway / wireless
> box (which is about 95% likely to be running a version
> Linux as well) and we were all go and green lights
> for her internet connection.
>
> I then braced myself for a challenge and plugged
> in the USB cable of her inkjet printer. The printer
> went "click click", the hard drive chattered for
> a moment, and then, lo and behold, the Ubuntu
> printer configuration utility popped a window onto
> the desktop showing that it had collected all the
> printer model info, installed the CUPS driver and
> was now inviting me to print a test page (which
> printed perfectly, BTW). It was a one mouse click
> printer install! My friend was amazed, especially
> after fretting all morning that she couldn't find
> the printer's driver install disk (which clearly
> isn't needed with Linux anyway). I was amazed too,
> because based on many previous experiences with
> many different kinds of computer systems, installing
> printers is SUPPOSED to be DIFFICULT! (My geek ego
> is feeling a little threatened right now...)
>
> I then spent about an hour with my friend showing her
> the basics of the familiar and ubiquitous point and
> click icons and menus of the Desktop, running Open
> Office, editing and saving documents, and using the
> Firefox web browser. She had only ever been exposed
> to Windows and Word and IE before, but she was quickly
> feeling comfortable with her new Linux computer
> environment.  At one point she noted how familiar
> the Open Office Writer program seemed, and how
> frustrated she has been by the Vista/7 version of
> Word because of the way they changed everything in
> the user interface [for no reason]. She complained
> that Vista/7 made it nearly impossible for her to
> accomplish any work within the limited time slots
> users are allowed on the computers at the library.
>
> She clearly felt even more comfortable as we side
> tracked into some of the background stories of how
> the Open Source communities came about and how well
> supported her Ubuntu Software was and how she had
> unlimited freedom to freely share all of it with
> her friends. She was more amazed and excited and
> enthralled with the whole idea of her new Linux
> computer with each passing minute. You could literally
> see the techno-phobia of this sweet 70 year old lady
> drain away as she saved her fist Open Office document
> and logged into her familiar AOL webmail account on
> Firefox and learned that she didn't need to live in
> fear of computer technology problems or software
> viruses or purse snatching computer thugs any more.
>
> It was truly inspiring to see! So a huge thanks to
> the Linux and Free Software communities, with a
> special nod to Ubuntu for packaging and supporting
> these gifts in such a user empowering way!
>
> Which is why the moral of this very true story
> is simply that "Ubuntu Linux ROCKS!".
>
> However, the more important epilog of the saga is
> that, as I was leaving the home of my (formerly)
> techno-phobic 70 year old friend this afternoon,
> she was busy navigating to the Ubuntu.com site so
> she could order free Ubuntu Live/Install CD copies
> for all of her friends. Seems that Miss W is feeling
> very well armed by the freedoms of GNU Linux and the
> support of the Ubuntu community now, so all those
> Mafia$oft thugs best think twice about vandalizing
> her internet neighborhood or grabbing at her
> purse anymore!
>
> :-)
>
> peace
> aaron
>
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