[NBLUG/talk] Linux for an AOL addict?

[Lincoln Peters]

On Wed, 2005-07-20 at 12:47 -0700, thiessen at sonic.net wrote:
> OTOH, the rest of us on the list (presumably) don't know this person. 
> Lincoln is the only person who knows her well enough to make the call on
> whether the outcome is promising enough for him to make the effort.  I
> know that I'm just projecting my own experiences with people so wedded to
> their own particular setups that they reject anything unfamiliar out of
> hand.  If (as I think Walter wrote) she just wants to keep her AOL email
> address then perhaps it's not a big deal.

The situation is that she intends to buy a new computer, and it's
obvious to me (and I'm sure it's obvious to you) that if the new
computer is also running Windows, she'll have the same problems that she
had on the old computer.  If she really thinks that she needs a new
computer every time it slows down and becomes unusable, the statistics
I've seen would indicate that she'll need a new computer every 20
minutes!

What I would like to do is suggest that she let me install Linux on her
old computer, see how well it works, and then she can re-evaluate her
decision to buy a new computer.  However, it sounds like a bit of social
engineering may be required first: I'd need to make her understand that
just because it's different doesn't mean it's inferior (that probably
won't be too hard; I think she got started with computers in the DOS
era), and I'd need to wean her off of AOL (that may be hard).  I'm still
not sure if that is possible.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

Confirmed bachelor:
	A man who goes through life without a hitch.