The Computer For Grandma And Grandpa

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Some people will never be happy with a chromebook, but if you check out the links provided, you will have a good idea if it will be a good fit for you.

A Linux computer for grandpa and grandma

I've had it with my grandpa's computer problems. He has a Windows 7 laptop in a dock, and he screws it up so much that I the family helpdesk have fixed it enough that I am considering buying a Chromebook for him. Increased calls when he first gets it, but payoff imminent when he stops calling me in a panic every once in a while because he's screwed something else up mostly deleting his FreeCell shortcut or gotten a virus.

This has happened so much that my parents joke about it. Living several thousand miles away from my 85 year old mother has had me contemplating the chrome project for a few years. Up until now she has been using a win 7 laptop which I maintain and "fix" via skype and team viewer. All of the pop ups, and messages that she is in danger if she doesn't install something drove her crazy and me being so far away made maintaining the system a nightmare.

I needed to find a solution. Apple - too expensive. Windows 10 - more of the same, Linux - just too complicated. She just needs to write some documents, see some pictures follow the grandkids on fb, listen to her favorite radio programs, work with mails, see her bank account and just do a little browsing. She was ready to throw her windows machine in the trash with all of the technical disturbances. Hence welcome Chromebooks - For the past year, I have been giving the chromebook and chrome box a trial run in our home.

I even supplied one to my 76 year old father in law who is a little tech savvy. We have been using them to all extents possible and without any problems. In fact, going over to chromebooks has made life easier. Sure ther is no skype but there is Hangouts, no Teamviewer but googles own remote desktop.

No local printer but a wireless network printer is an inexpensive solution for google printing. For the average user there is simply no reason not to. So on Monday my mother is getting a chromebook ordered from Amazon to replace the old windows 7 laptop.

I hope she is as excited as I am. Update - My Mother received the chromebook promptly from amazon. I was able to adjust her settings by logging into her account on my own chromebook, save them and these settings were available to her the first time she logged in. She was able to make the connection to her wireless router with just a little help over the phone though she claims not to be technically savvy, several years with a windows machine has taught her many things After 6 months with the Chromebook, It was clear, that even though the Chromebook "just works", it took a while to get used to the change.

It was the change to another way og working that was and sometimes still is the biggest challenge. The thought that everything is save "in the cloud" and all apps work out of the chrome browser has been a little difficult to "remember" when coming from an old windows environment. Remember though that even todays windows and macs offer cloud based computing though not dependent of it. I miss the teamviewer access and think that skype was a little easier and more stable for her than Hangouts. She doesn't always register me calling through hangouts and sometimes I have to try several times even though she is sitting right in front of the laptop.

Even though her old printer is wireless, it's not google print compatible so she is having to do without a printer until I visit her next time. Until then, she has found out how to save as pdf and either mail the document or send it to a neighbour for printing. All in all, the transition has been smooth and the chromebook has become the centrepiece for entertainment, information and communication.

5 Reasons Chromebooks are the Perfect Computer For an Elderly Person

Even the recipe books aren't opened anymore. Googling for a recipe is so much easier. Cloud print only works if you have a printer with the drivers installed on a PC on your network. And if I could remember exactly how I sat all that up a year ago, I'd tell ya'. I'm amused, as an yr-old geek whenever some kid spouts off about how much I don't know about technology. For many years, I have been the tech expert in my family and have helped my three adult kids and many of my friends with computer problems.

I regularly suggest apps which would be useful on their phones. I was the president of a local computer club, and one of its youngest members when I was only I listen to maybe 15 tech podcasts every week while I'm at the gym or riding my bike. I look forward to learning something new every day.

No rocking chairs for this old guy. I really believe I would have died of boredom years ago if it weren't for technology, and especially the Internet.

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And I am not alone. But to be fair, there aren't that many of us old geeks. Maybe that's because there aren't that many old geezers around. I hope in 43 years I am still actively enjoying and making of the most of technology geeking out and staying active and avoiding whatever the equivalent of facebook will be in the future. Chromebooks are impossible to print from! David, why would you think that? Even if you have an old printer - check out youtube. You can set it up. Log in, and you're right back where you were.

My much older brother and sisters might be good candidates for a Chromebook. My brother is only 74, but he and my older sisters have no interest at all in tech, so I was disappointed but not surprised when he contacted me to tell me he'd fallen victim to the telephone call from Microsoft scam. At least, I thought, this gave me a chance to get his desktop to a shop where they could repair the damage and give it a tuneup.

The amount of malware, spyware, and unpurged useless files was, I imagined, pretty horrific. The idea of him having a machine that affords him less opportunity to make trouble for himself is appealing as is the lower cost of a Chromebook. Thanks for the suggestion! Steve Marte The writer repeatedly states that there are plenty of elderly people who have no problem with technology.

I can concur because my year-old father loves technology and is at home on macs, PCs and tablets. However, a majority of them is not, simple as that. That's not being condescending, it's being realistic. There is probably a ton of things these people are much better at then I am, technology is just not one of these things. While I introduced my father to computers successfully, I tried to introduce my mother to a simple audio system with amplifier and a few audio components.

She only got annoyed that she had to do and think of so much more such as turning on the power and selecting the source than just popping in a cassette and hitting "play", or just put a record on the turntable and the needle on the record, as she had always done on the stand alone boombox and stand alone record player. Some elderly people do NOT want to learn all the new stuff. That's perfectly fine, because why should they need to?

It only frustrates them and makes them feel incompetent, which they are absolutely not, they are very competent, just not at some technology. It's good that some formerly complicated devices now have a simple alternative such as chromebooks to administer to these people. That way they can enjoy the benefits without suffering the complexity.

You sure have a smug outlook regarding your parents' skill sets! They're in their 80's and doing pretty well with their computers--they quit sharing pretty quickly! It takes a little time and willingness to learn. It also takes someone who's willing to teach without the condescension that was oozing from this article. My mum has had a computer since , yet her skills with it are worse than ever.

I've spent 1,s of hours teaching her, writing step by step guides, and remotely supporting her, but she just doesn't improve. May I suggest that your sample set is far too small. I performed a function for a while that put me in close contact with a large number of older people, both geriatric and pre-geriatric, with whom I incidentally discussed computer use. If anything Dan understates the resistance and fear the huge majority have toward the tech.

I would say that his parents are atypically open to the technology and have understanding considerably beyond the average. I see no condescension, just an acknowledgement of the reality of it. That personal contact has long had me contemplating what he discusses and his conclusions parallel mine almost exactly. I don't think he mentioned affordability, both initial and continuing, and that is a huge consideration for the group in general.

Most of the affordable systems today have adequate power to perform their functions without any need for hardware upgrade for a long time and that is really important for them. Where you are absolutely spot on, however, is the strong need for teachers. Having a reduced function to teach opens that possibility for more who are willing and in a position to contribute both the education function and ongoing support. FWIW, I'm 70 and started in the field designing mainframes in I am mids and people my age are not automatically clueless.

Not to diss the Chromebook, but the attitude that says old people can't figures stuff out.

Elderly People and Technology

Home computers were not even available till we were in our 30s or 40s and they were hellaciously expensive, so most of us weren't able to get one till even later in life. It's not something that was just part of the furniture when we were kids. So we have to learn about them in terms that WE understand, and a lot of younger people just don't get that. Maybe the people who get exasperated with "grandma and grandpa" should spend a year or two in a house where the only phone hangs on the kitchen wall, the only TV is black and white, and even the pocket calculator hasn't been invented yet.

Marte, being in your 60's makes you just a kid relative to the group discussed here. You're barely even pre-geriatric. I think a Chromebook would be perfect for seniors.

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Granted, there are some older computer users who know their way around and were in on the ground floor of the PC revolution, but a great many of them use their laptop for nothing more technical than Facebook and web browsing. For those users, a Chromebook would be perfect, and much less expensive than a regular laptop.

Heck, maybe I'll buy one myself when I hit 50 later this year! They are great for kids just starting out as well. Getting my grandmother, my little brother, and myself Macbook Pro standard use one of these for the simple times. Mine will be for traveling mostly, but I may end up hooking it up to my TV for a nice media box as well.

By default it's built, somewhat like Google's Chrome OS , to use the cloud for a lot of its heavy-lifting. It also comes with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and speakers. There's only one thing I don't like about the system. If it were half that price, I'd seriously think about buying a slew of them for my elderly relatives. Still, when I think about a system where the only way they can get into trouble is by giving crooks their credit-card numbers and I won't have to troubleshoot their problems The Linux desktop, thanks to Chromebooks, goes retail.

Has Microsoft opened the door to the Linux desktop? Microsoft supports Linux desktop. IBM protects your cloud container data running under Kubernetes with encryption. Could Microsoft release a desktop Linux? Protecting your live data on the cloud is a real worry. IBM suggests, "Why not encrypt it? Alibaba and Ant Financial are trying to cool things off in the Sino-US intellectual property wars by joining the pro-Linux Open Invention Network patent protection organization.

Yes, yes they could. And I would no longer bet they won't. The best Linux laptop of Do you want the best of the best Linux laptop this holiday season and price is no object? Canonical wants to make it darn clear that, besides being the leading cloud Linux distributor, it's also a major Kubernetes player.

The Internet is Front and Centre

While it's no Google Pixelbook, at half the price, the latest Acer Chromebook 13 gives more bang for the buck. The next major RHEL update is on its way with more container friendliness than ever. Mark Shuttleworth is not selling Canonical or Ubuntu -- yet. Mark Shuttleworth might consider selling Canonical and its Ubuntu Linux operating system, if he were still in charge of it afterwards. My Profile Log Out. Cloud IBM protects your cloud container data running under Kubernetes with encryption. Please review our terms of service to complete your newsletter subscription.

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