Bog Roll ::

I gave my father his new computer running Debian "Sarge". He Seems very happy with it, and seems to be able to handle starting it up, dialling up to the Internet, and basic email and web. He appears to be very please with the games, and I'm really delighted that he likes it.

I'm really glad I chose Debian GNU/Linux rather than Windows:

• Debian cost me nothing, buying MS Windows XP would cost more than the computer is worth. Adding MS Office XP would be insanity.
• Linux is much safer than MS Windows, it's running a secure modern firewall, and all unnecessary services are disabled or uninstalled.
• It's easy for me to maintain over the Internet, MS Windows is almost impossible to support and maintain properly via the Internet, without extra third-party software.
• Linux/KDE is a better desktop environment than MS Windows XP, that I have been easily able to configure for a new user, with poorer eye sight than myself.

All things considered, I've been amazed at the speed at which a retired person with virtually no exposure to a computer before in their life has been able to get going. While he could not have set up this computer to run Linux, there is no way that he could have set up Windows XP either. Indeed I think to get Widows to the same level of configuration is considerably harder.