Skip to main content

Ubuntu: Green Light for Mom's System

Just spoke with my Mom. I attempted (successfully, I think) to explain my reasoning for going with Ubuntu on her old workstation (Dell Dimension XPS T-450). She gave me the green light to move ahead (I think she found the $0 cost compelling...!).

Step 1: determine minimum system requirements; upgrade if necessary
Step 2: determine Ubuntu distro: regular or alternate (or Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.)
Step 3: download Ubuntu 6.10
Step 4: determine KDE or Gnome (need to determine prior to download; KDE is Kubuntu)
Step 5: burn ISO CD
Step 3: replace defective hard drive (I just happened to find an old hard drive down in the basement
Step 6: research (ongoing...) and planning
Step 7: (big one) installation and configuration
Step 8: training and hand-off
Step 9: ongoing support (hopefully this is minimal and facilitated by remote admin)

So, I need to determine my configuration. Off the top of my head, here's what I need to cover:
-wireless support (Mom's router is upstairs from the workstation)
-AV protection (ok, not as applicable on Linux but I want this to be safe)
-Anti-* (spyware, phishing, hosts hijack, etc.)
-Firewall
-Remote administration (SSH, VNC?, DynDNS)
-Office-support (Open Office 2?)
-Authentication: auto login Mom's user account; remote administration account
-Photo-viewing support: ?
-Browser/email support: Mozilla/Firefox (she uses Gmail...more of my influence)
-Backups

Another great reference for my situation: "Ubuntu for your Grandmother"
Ubuntu Forums

Going well so far.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hero Write-up: Now this is Customer Service!

My best friend Scott is president/C-everything of a small northeastern Ohio manufacturing concern, KirkKey Interlock . I hadn't spoken with him for a while and wanted to see how Canton fared with the Blizzard of '08 (that's what they're calling it...not me). I say, "So what's new?" He replies that on Tuesday his primary server (which essentially runs the business) came up with lame with not one, but [a statistically improbable] *two* physical disk failures on a RAID5 hardware array. My friend attempts the fix but gives up pretty quickly after seeing some Linux nasty-grams on the boot screen. His service provider is an old college buddy who lives down in Raleigh, Cerient Technologies led by Jason Tower . Scott couldn't email out because Exchange was on the toasted server. Being creative, Scott started Treo-emailing photos of the screen. Unfortunately, Jason couldn't receive email because a storm had knocked out a lot of local hosting. [Sigh] After...
4 comments
Read more

Certified or Certifiable?

As a senior technology professional, I interview a lot of candidates. I also maintain solid relationships with other folks in the community. Frequently, the topic of certifications arises: A good investment? Valuable? A clear measurement of skill? Consensus appears to draw the line related to one's seniority. If you're (for example) just out of school and looking for an instant creditability boost, by all means pursue a certification. Likely, this credential will assist you in overcoming the "junior" tag and likely land you more interviews and client roles. (Note: I'm going to use the terms senior and junior here...no offense to either. Can't think of a better one word description. I was a junior once too.) In stark contrast, the value of certifications drops off the table around the 2-3 year mark. Some in my circles even perceive certifications as a negative for the senior professional. They think, "If this guy is so solid, why is he wasting valuable...
5 comments
Read more

PowerShell Directory Clean Up Script

Just a quick post of a PowerShell script I leveraged to clear out a directory of files older than 7 days. Props to Jeffery Hicks . powershell.exe -command "Get-ChildItem 'C:\Temp\' -recurse | where {$_.LastWriteTime -le (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)} | remove-item -recurse" Tack on a -whatif to the end of the script to see what would be affected without actually executing the action. Very powerful. PowerShell. Solid PowerShell cheat sheet here . 
Post a Comment
Read more