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Mac OS VS Windows for the elderly...

tMac85

tMac85

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 15, 2007
1,144
0
in a great place
So my grandmother is needing a new computer. She just bought a compaq with vista, and it was horrible. It made her cry and crashed a day after opening it. We took it back. She is somewhat computer savvy, not the best not the worst. I guess the level a 7 year old child would be. ( well now-a-days even 7 year olds amaze me)
anyway... I told her to look into a mac mini. She can use her previous monitor and I have a mouse and keyboard for her.

My main question is, do you think it would be easier for her to use OS vs Windows? Should I just let her stick to windows? I just feel that OS is so simple. It takes the 'thinking' out of 'thinking'. She will only be surfing the web, email, and writing the occasional poem! Thats a lot for her. With me, a phone call away, it would be like her personal genius bar!

What do you guys think? Macmini and OS... or new Windows desktop?


thanks guys.
 
I'd hook Grams up with OS X and customize her desktop for her. You know, get rid of the icons on the dock she'll probably never use and add others she will use frequently but are not there by default.
 
^^^Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe even buy her a David Pogue switchers book, they're really informative, and good reading.
 
does osx come with a word processing program. like works. I know it doesnt come with word..but is their a standard like Works with windows...
 
Nope....but you can dl Open Office or Neo Office for free and they will more than get the job done in terms of word processing.

EDIT: I actually hardly ever use Word anymore. I purchased iWork and I much prefer Pages for word processing.
 
skinnylegs said:
Nope....but you can dl Open Office or Neo Office for free and they will more than get the job done in terms of word processing.

EDIT: I actually hardly ever use Word anymore. I purchased iWork and I much prefer Pages for word processing.
Click to expand...


But it not going to be what she is used to.

I going to say against the popular opinion here is keep her with XP if possible, if not XP windows. Reason being is OSX does have a learning curve and she already understand windows.
The learning curve is pretty big if she is coming from a windows world.
 
Eh....that's debatable. I don't really think the learning curve is that great. I've been instrumental in quite a few people (young and old) switching and not a single one of them has had any real adjustment issues.
 
My mum (both grandmums passed) had a Windows box for about a decade. She's extremely computer incompatible, she can't even use Google. It took me years to get her to be even kind of comfortable with a PC, and I'd still get calls every once in a while to "fix" it.

When it finally kicked, I picked her up a Mac Mini, hooked it up, and let her go. I took maybe ten minutes showing her how to use it and making shortcuts to hotmail on the desktop. Since then, the calls have stopped, and in a few short months she has become much more competent with the Mac than she ever was with the PC. When I asked her why, she said:

"Well, it's not like the [PC] where if I delete something I can break it. I don't have to worry about screwing it up, so I'm not afraid to try things. It's much easier to learn."
 
As for your word processing needs, why not try Google Docs? Just sit down with your grandma one Saturday afternoon and just give her the whole rundown of the Mac OS.

If you both have Leopard, you can use the screen sharing feature over the internet if she needs help with something. No need to make house calls. :cool:
 
My 71 year old mother got a Macbook a year ago. She'd never used a computer before. She emails and surfs just fine. She still doesn't understand the concept of google but...

What kind of word processor does she need? Mom got Pages but doesn't use it, Text Edit is much, much simpler for her.
 
deputy_doofy said:
Skinnylegs beat me to it, but http://www.neooffice.org is a great alternative to MS Office and it's free.
Click to expand...

Last time I used Neo Office--admittedly, a couple of years ago--it was all laggy and unresponsive. Is it any better today? If it's still as rough around the edges, I would go ahead and get your grandmother a copy of Office. If you or someone you know is a student, you could buy a much-discounted student copy and give it to your grandmother.
 
I think I will get her a macmini, have it shipped to my house, i will set it all up for her, write her up a bit of a manual and then ship it to her. I think that sounds like a good idea no?

she lives about 20 mins away from an apple store, so i suggested she go and sit with someone at the genius bar for a good hour and they will show her all she will ever need to know.

good?
 
themadchemist said:
Last time I used Neo Office--admittedly, a couple of years ago--it was all laggy and unresponsive. Is it any better today? If it's still as rough around the edges, I would go ahead and get your grandmother a copy of Office. If you or someone you know is a student, you could buy a much-discounted student copy and give it to your grandmother.
Click to expand...

NeoOffice is great now but you need to make sure you have the RAM and HDD space for virtual memory. Using Java it can be a bit piggish but still very responsive.
 
themadchemist said:
Last time I used Neo Office--admittedly, a couple of years ago--it was all laggy and unresponsive. Is it any better today? If it's still as rough around the edges, I would go ahead and get your grandmother a copy of Office. If you or someone you know is a student, you could buy a much-discounted student copy and give it to your grandmother.
Click to expand...

It's quite responsive for me. Then again, I've only used it on my MBP (see specs in sig).
 
tMac85 said:
My main question is, do you think it would be easier for her to use OS vs Windows? Should I just let her stick to windows? I just feel that OS is so simple. It takes the 'thinking' out of 'thinking'.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you there. On my other forum there's quite a lot of switchers and were saying that OS X was 'so hard of a learning curve' I'm a switcher, I don't get what's so hard.... everything is in it's most logical place. Another friend of mine was explaining the logical thing before I got my mac and I couldn't agree more! I think OS X will suit her perfectly.
 
I think she'll love a mac. Set up a normal account with no privileges, as others have said clean up the dock or even enable the Simple Finder. A few useful sites in the bookmark bar wouldn't go amiss either.
 
Regardless of which age group people fall into, Mac is always the best choice .. :)

My Mother and father in law are both 65+ and both use MacBooks. My Father -in-law had never used a computer before buying the mac, he took to it like a duck to water.
 
::Lisa:: said:
I totally agree with you there. On my other forum there's quite a lot of switchers and were saying that OS X was 'so hard of a learning curve' I'm a switcher, I don't get what's so hard.... everything is in it's most logical place. Another friend of mine was explaining the logical thing before I got my mac and I couldn't agree more! I think OS X will suit her perfectly.
Click to expand...

chances are you are more techno minded so it is easy to make the switch but to some one who does not understand computers very well it is a pretty step learning curve if they are used to a windows world and how things work on windows. I have watch a lot of people struggle with the switch because they are used to how everything is in windows.

I know my grandfather would just quite if he was given a mac because he had enough trouble learning windows and does not want to learn another OS.

While OSX is easier to use over all it still carries a learning curve and to some people that is a very big learning curve. Chance are you are some one who understands computers and picks it right up so it is not a steep learning curve for you but to others it is very steep. Now for some one who new to computers it is no question, get a mac. It is a mix of issues one has to balance. One is how close is technical support (friend and family). That plays a large factor. While people bash windows most of the time with a few very basic things done to windows it will be very stable and a safe OS to us.
 
::Lisa:: said:
I totally agree with you there. On my other forum there's quite a lot of switchers and were saying that OS X was 'so hard of a learning curve' I'm a switcher, I don't get what's so hard.... everything is in it's most logical place. Another friend of mine was explaining the logical thing before I got my mac and I couldn't agree more! I think OS X will suit her perfectly.
Click to expand...

I think what's hard is if you are an elderly and your "faculties" are not what it used to be. Doing something different is not such a welcomed change even if it meant moving away from an obviously complex/cumbersome system (insert OS name) to a better one (insert OS name). It's what they are used to, despite of the "inconveniences".

All the same, I just bought my Dad a Mac Mini and the first couple of hours are somewhat a struggle as I see him struggle to re-orientate. But I am trying to "standby" for help and hope that the next few days will be better...
 
The genius bar is not for personalized, hour long, "show me how to work this" lessons. It is for 10-15 minutes "holy crap my product isnt working" tech support.

Spend the 99 dollars and get her one to one. She can have as many lessons as she wants for a whole year, whenever is convenient for her, on just about anything. The apple store also has free workshops that you can find on your store's homepage.
 
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