Zhenya Ciurana - Official Author Blog

Howdy.

Someone asked me recently how to set up a Linux computer for their grandma. I believe that giving your older folks a Linux or OS X computer is a much better way of helping them carry with their on-line life. My Mum used a Windows/Compaq system for about 7 months between her Linux and her OS X systems; that time was fraught with periodic maintenance visits from me (physical or remote) that validated this notion. I was always logging on remotely to "fix something".

I had my 73-year old Mum running on a Linux configuration until last year, then I switched her computer with a MacBook that I upgraded. Picking the distribution up wasn't as complicated as figuring out the best setup for her to do her email, word processing, web browsing, and chat. I went (at the time) with Fedora Core + KDE. These days I'd go with Ubuntu now that it's as close to rock solid as you can expect of an end-user distribution.

My Mum and I live in different countries, about 3,000 miles away from one another, so giving her good support was a top priority. To that end, every machine she's got since then has these characteristics (irrespective of the OS running in it):

1. Laptop with an external monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard. Don't make mum or grandma squint or cramp their hands while typing, but let them be mobile if they want (my Mum spends about 40% of her time traveling).
2. Install a simple-but-secure login. No automatic logins, please. Try to balance security with ease of use. A strongish password is good. A password + thumbprint reader + Captcha for logging in is bad.
3. Install VNC Server and ensure that it auto starts with the computer EVERY time, in case you need to fix something that she's looking at while while either of you is 3,000 miles away.
4. If you run a home server, install an SSH client that autostarts under a non-privileged account and calls your server (also non-privileged), opening a remote port so that you can log on to the machine. Ensure that you can log on to at least ports 22 and ports 59xx for SSH and VNC.
5. You may get away with only a pinhole in the firewall if your grandma isn't traveling. I prefer the VPN back tunnel because I can fix an issue wherever the old lady happens to be, as long as she's got an Internet connection. It's also a good way to track a stolen machine if the thief is stupid enough to try to make it work without wiping out the OS.
6. On the desktop... place big icons where she can see them, know what they are, and click/manipulate them without having to dick around with menus/docks/etc. Put the icons as far away as you can from the Trash icon, just in case.
7. Ensure that the power button is set to shut the system down cleanly in case she forgets to shut it down. Fixing corrupted files remotely is a bitch.
8. For an emergency, leave her a Knoppix disk or a USB drive with a big sign that says "Put this in the computer if it breaks and call me" that implements a subset of the previous steps.

My Mum's old configuration, in detail, was:

Fedora Core 2, KDE, Mozilla/Firefox, Kopete, OpenOffice.org, and a couple of desktop games like Minesweeper. Eventually I installed a media player too.

Her current configuration is:

OS X Leopard 10.5.4, Firefox 3, Adium X, Skype, Office:Mac, and a couple of Flash games in her bookmarks.
The system uses 802.11n to connect to her LAN (Netgear), which in turn connects to the Internet via dynamic IP addresses. The Netgear box provides firewalling, but the firewall is turned on on the laptop regardless because of her mobility.

I only have to play with her machine remotely once every six months, but having all these precautions in place is a huge boon, given the geographical separation.

Cheers,

pr3d4t0r