Mac for 85 year old

[brendu]

So my grandfather has an old dell and can never really remember how to do very much on his own. Im setting him up with my powermac g4 soon and was wondering what are the best settings for such an old (non experienced user).

The powermac is a 1ghz sonnet encore g4, 1gig ram, 128mb video card, and 120 gig HDD.

I am planning on setting it up with a fresh install of Tiger, i know leopard will run but Tiger is just more stable, and the UI is a little more basic looking (something very important for a very old user).

The most important thing for me is that I can remotely help him through screen sharing. Can iChat in tiger allow for this? I can't remember. The machine will not have a web cam but I imagine screen sharing will still work.

All he is going to use the machine for is Safari, Word and Excel. Any thoughts on things I should be considering when setting this machine up for him? Thanks for any considerations.

 

[skir0987]

I don't think screen sharing works in iChat in tiger... I'm pretty sure that was an addition that came with Leopard

 

[Badger^2]

You can use logmein.com, totally free.

I use it to access almost my entire families macs from 400+ miles away.

Speed isnt stellar, well neither is iChat sharing, but it works just fine.

 

[Doctor Q]

You might consider using Parental Controls and the Simple Finder, not to restrict what he can do but to make the interface simple and stable. Less chance of losing track of where you are or moving files around accidentally.

I guess you'd call it Grandparental Controls!

 

[brendu]

does logmein.com provide screen sharing? I need to be able to remotely control his computer from mine to help him when he gets confused. Doing it over the phone is difficult.

thanks for the simple finder tip thats a good idea.

 

[HyperX13]

does logmein.com provide screen sharing? I need to be able to remotely control his computer from mine to help him when he gets confused. Doing it over the phone is difficult.

thanks for the simple finder tip thats a good idea.

yup

the free version and paid version.. that is how I support my dad...

 

[js81]

yup

the free version and paid version.. that is how I support my dad...

^^ I can second Logmein.com - its not bad, and I only use the Free version.

 

[mrblog47]

I wouldn't move him to a mac after using windows for so long or any period of time. It's good enough that he's able to use any sort of technology at his age without him having to start the learning process all over again with a new operating system.

 

[brendu]

I wouldn't move him to a mac after using windows for so long or any period of time. It's good enough that he's able to use any sort of technology at his age without him having to start the learning process all over again with a new operating system.

I thought about this for awhile, but the thing is, he really does not even know how to use his windows machine, he only uses it when I am around to help him, so the idea here is to set it up so I can share his screen and help him when he needs it.

back to the logmein.com... does that allow voice through the computers while screen sharing like ichat does??

EDIT: so i checked out their website and noticed I can do voice over but need to pay for pro... sice that is a pretty important piece for us in this situation, what is better, go pro? or attempt to just run leopard on the machine since very few apps will be open at the same time.. in fact almost never will more than one app be open, and never more than 2... would ichat AV crash the old powermac?

 

[mscriv]

Could you not use the free logmein version and just talk over the telephone?

As far as interface goes, if he is used to Windows and will only be using a couple of programs then I would set him up with shortcuts (aliases) on the desktop or leave his dock always on with only what he will be using in it.

 

[brendu]

Could you not use the free logmein version and just talk over the telephone?

As far as interface goes, if he is used to Windows and will only be using a couple of programs then I would set him up with shortcuts (aliases) on the desktop or leave his dock always on with only what he will be using in it.

oh yeah. no doubt about it the dock will be fixed and have 5 very large icons.
-finder -safari - word - excel -trash thats it