[ILUG] My Aunt Tilly

[David Giles]

On Monday 09 August 2004 00:37, Niall O Broin wrote:
> Muggins here got lumped with procuring and installing same and having
> done so, I installed assorted adware fighters, and whatever firewall
> trial package was provided with it. She recently asked me about the end
> of the trial package and I told her that she would have to pony up 80
> EUR (and that per annum) to carry on using it and frankly, with a
> Windows box, it's a necessity rather than a luxury.

---Digression/Suggestion----------------------------:

Instead of the trial firewall package you could just ensure that Windows XP's 
own firewall is turned on or download the Zone Alarm free for personal use:

www.zonelabs.com 

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp

A good windows free for personal use Anti-Virus, AVG can be found at 
www.grisoft.com , which includes unlimited access to updated definition 
files.

And of course you could install the ports of Open Office, Mozilla, Firefox and 
Thunderbird too.

-----/Me removes flame-retardent suit--------

> And then the penny dropped. This woman uses her PC to send email, to do 
> a little web surfing, and to write the odd letter - nothing else, and 
> there's certainly no requirement for any exotic Windows only software.

For the odd letter Abiword is nice.  Quicker to load up too.  Wouldn't rule 
out Firefox for browsing and Thunderbird or kmail for email.

> - I've no idea what graphics hardware is in this box, but as it's 
> current Dell hardware it's entirely possible that there's no XFree 
> support for it. Also, the modem is very likely (no - absolutely 
> guaranteed) to be a Winmodem. I've no idea if it's a model for which 
> there is Linux support, and TBH I don't want this Linux experiement to 
> cost any money in the form of a new modem, though I most likely have a 
> real modem around somewhere which I could give her.

Almost certainly Intel Integrated.  High probabilty that it will be picked up 
and configured fine.  I have a laptop with Intel 855GM shared memory GFX 
running on Suse 9.1 and it even gave the option of enabling 3d acceleration 
on it (for the record, usable but buggy).

Suse have good support for Winmodems.  Dell used to use Conexant/Lucent ones a 
couple of years ago...  Unless support has been added to more recent 
releases, Knoppix doesn't include drivers for Winmodems.  Maybe see what the 
Suse Live cd picks up.  My same laptop has a AC '97 crud modem, and Suse 9.1 
set it up correctly with no fiddling.  Kinternet icon on KDE taskbar nice for 
the technophobes too.

Set up YOU to take care of updates and Tilly's your Uncle.....      (sorry, 
couldn't resist)).

All the best,

David