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

Mon Oct 5 02:07:11 EDT 2009

First thing first. Contact every site for companies that receive
funding from you and inform them that if they are going to support
only 1 browser it needs to be Firefox. IE is only for windows. Safari
is only for Mac and windows. Firefox is open source and has been
ported to every platform capable of graphical web surfing.

On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Asher Vilensky <ashervilensky at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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-- 
.!# RichardBronosky #!.