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My parents HDD in their laptop broke so i decided to change it. The laptop won't somehow install the original OS even though I have the disk. So I want to know if Ubuntu is elder-friendly since it is my parents that will use the laptop most. PS. my parents are quicklearners :)

Thanks.

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    Perhaps you should greatly elaborate what is (in your opinion elder friendly). Even a better idea, try it in live mode from CD or USB. Sep 29, 2012 at 8:04
  • I switched my whole family over to Ubuntu they are ages 9 to 84 and all of them had no problems PS: they are not quick learners. so my answer is yes plus no virus
    – zeitue
    Sep 29, 2012 at 8:04
  • Yes. Go ahead, and if they don't like it you can troubleshoot why your other OS won't install later.
    – nanofarad
    Sep 29, 2012 at 11:20

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Ubuntu is believed to be one of the most user friendly debian distro of Linux (of course people might debate that Linux Mint is friendlier). Still Linux avoiders argue that it is still no way closer to Windows in terms of user friendliness. People often misinterpret the term user friendly with user familiarity.

In Ubuntu all the applications are integrated seamlessly as if they are one unit. Everything can be connected inside Ubuntu. They’re stable, lightweight, and almost infinitely customizable. Ubuntu has a rich GUI ( compiz package). In addition to this there are two tools to work with the command line and the GUI.

Automatic update of all the software, more support through the Ubuntu Forums (with around 600,000 members and the default chat room generally having about 1500 people), automatic defragging in the background and ram caching, multiple workspaces, operation almost exactly like XP, Vista or Mac (as per user choice), easy installation and special effects like wobbly windows, 3D cubes etc make Ubuntu more friendlier than ever.

However Ubuntu’s own repository for most of the software you will need, drivers for almost any kind of device from many vendor, excellent crash recovery, support to read and write NTFS drives, full support for MS office files including docx are some points which suggest that we ought to give Ubuntu a try.

As, a conclusion i cany say yes it's elder-friendly and it deserver to learn and try

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Yes it is.

I can tell from my own experience having installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my mother's (age 75) laptop 2 years ago. She did not have any computer experience before - this might have been an advantage here. She now is able to write E-mails, surf the Internet, write letters, manage pictures from her digital camera. She doesn't do much more.

Steps I did to make sure I was not lost when helping:

  • Made the PC accessible remotely. This involved setting up a Dyndns account on her router, installing open-ssh server to give me remote access for support, and a remote desktop application (here x11vnc but Teamviewer will do that too).

  • Made sure security backups install in the background.

  • Set up a browser-based e-mail account to avoid disadvantages that may arise from an additional e-mail client.

In the first months I had to log me in every now then to show her how to do things but now I haven't for a long time.

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