On 14 January 2012 23:44, Thomas Morton morton.thomas@googlemail.com wrote:
Which is why I recommend something like Chromebook - because it's very hard to make it do anything else except web browsing.
Do we have anyone with experience of Chromebooks?
We gave the older teen a netbook with Windows. After the second time it turned into a toxic waste dump - some people just WILL NEVER understand not to click on anything shiny - we put Ubuntu on it. Web browser, Skype, turns out it does what she wants and is immune to viruses.
In 2010 I visited my family in Australia. I saw my sister's PC, with the rubbish bin unemptied for three years and every bit of crapware you could imagine installed by my brither-in-law. I suddenly understood in my heart why 25% of Windows boxes are botnet victims ...
People on average really, really just can't work computers. Many very smart and productive Wikipedians are in this class. Something that runs a web browser is all that's needed.
So yeah, Chromebook or Ubuntu. My personal qualm about Chromebook would be that it's not generic hardware.
- d.