A laptop for my parents

[J_Madison]

Consider fanless ones so they don't get dusted up. These aren't my Amazon links if you were wondering.

Fanless laptops:

1. ASUS TRANSFORMER BOOK: http://amzn.to/1R9qJHS
2. ASUS ASPIRE SWITCH: http://amzn.to/1QGU49g

[Malkevin]

Well... if they're technically incompetent old farts, a Macintrash is just the thing they need - they are designed for idiots after all.

[Shaps-cloud]

If they just use it for writing shit/browsing the web, why not a tablet?

[Luke Cox]

Take your old laptop and install Linux Mint with XFCE. Impossible for a normie to fuck up.

[oranges]

fuck these normies

your parents are going to learn to install gentoo

[LiamLime]

If it helps they'll generally just write documents, surf the web and download films to watch on the screen. Thanks if you can or can't help.

If this is all they do, I recommend a Chromebook. They are by far the simplest to use and cheapest computers and suffice for what most people need. I realize this won't be a popular suggestion on a forum full of Windows nerds, but there are no real common-person tasks, which can't be done on a Chromebook.

In terms of IT support, there's not a whole lot they can mess up on the OS side, so it should be the easiest OS for you to give support on. And you can use Chrome Remote Desktop for remote assistance - I recommend you set this up before giving them the laptop (even if you go for a Windows one).


Edit: Or a tablet, that works fine too. Just get them a stand and keyboard to go with it. For all of these, however, make sure that they are big enough to account for any vision deterioration. For tablets I'd recommend 10'', for laptops 15'' at minimum, for desktops 19'' at minimum. This depends on their situation though.

[Luke Cox]

fuck these normies

your parents are going to learn to install gentoo

Damn straight, it's about time somebody talked sense in this thread.


I am dead serious about putting Mint XFCE on their old laptop though. It's fast, lightweight, so simple a retarded toddler could use it, and nobody writes malware for Linux. It even has an app store style software center. Try it on a virtual machine at lest.

[Takeguru]

Buy them like 8 chromebooks and if they break one it's only 100 bucks

[LiamLime]

Buy them like 8 chromebooks and if they break one it's only 100 bucks

Haha, if they ever call you and ask for any sort of IT help, just tell them to take the next Chromebook off the shelf and bin the current one

[Armhulen]

Buy them like 8 chromebooks and if they break one it's only 100 bucks

Haha, if they ever call you and ask for any sort of IT help, just tell them to take the next Chromebook off the shelf and bin the current one

tfw chromebooks are so shit you just buy them in bulk

[LiamLime]

Google just announced that ChromeOS will soon be able to run Android apps. Once this happens, I'm replacing my parents' and grandparents' computers with Chromebooks. I will not allow them to use Windows or Mac ever again. I'm a developer, so I need Windows or Mac, at least for now (my toolchain isn't available on Linux), but the vast majority of people don't need any of these systems. And once I can get the Android version of MS Office onto a Chromebook, I'm changing their computers. They can play Farmville and that Facebook football manager game thing just as well on ChromeOS.

[Lumbermancer]

Smart dad.