Jon Atkinson wrote:
Hi,
For Christmas this year, I bought my grandfather (85 years young) a second hand computer. It's a 1gHz/128mb/20G/Nvidia Geforce2 system, and I decided to put Fedora on it.
Bravo! Bravo! I salute him for having the innocence of mind to WANT to use a computer.
... mind you this is NOT meant as an insult; by "innocence of mind" I mean that he does not
let himself be put off by preconceived notions of "I'm too old to learn, etc". Again, I say
to him "Bravo!" My sister and her husband (both in their 80's) do use the computer, but are
fairly *terrified* when it comes to using email. IMNHO, *anyone*, regardless of age. should
rightly be terrified to use email on a Windows machine! LOL!!!
My reasons for this are that I can lock down this box better than I can a Windows box, no threat from email viruses, pop up blocking in Mozilla and the fact that I can log in from university and fix his computer if anything goes wrong.
All excellent reasons: your being able to remotely administer the system, and the security
of linux. However, I myself, prefer to err on the side of caution, and I have installed
antivirus software, since I *do* receive emails from Windows users. NO computer
system is 100% fool-proof, but linux is certainly more secure.
1) Is there any way to remove the "Lock Screen" menu item. I've taught him to log off, but the menu items are just a little too close for comfort, and his hands shake quite badly, so removing this would be a huge plus. In addition, is it possible to put blank space (separators, I guess) in the main menu so that it's easier for him to click the items?
I won't go into the gnome menu editing, but it *is* feasible to remove / add items.
This has been previously dicsussed (with links for the HOWTO's) in the fedora-list
archives.
One item you may have missed in the Gnome Preferences folder is "Assistive Technology Support". This is particularly designed for handicapped or elderly users. If ATS does not
show up on your system, it probably isn't installed, but it *is* on the Fedora CD's
(look for the "gnopernicus" package). The ATS works in both Gnome and KDE.
Among the features: screen magnifier, and delayed "one finger" keyboard input.
2) Is there any way to switch item selection in nautilus to single-click? I've tried to put
Yes. The default is "double click", but go to the Start Here folder on the desktop, and ...
preferences:///MorePreferences --> File Management --> Behavoir {enable} Single
click to activate contents. While there, I would NOT {enable} Trash --> Include
Delete command. That way, if he inadvertently sends anything to the Trash, it
can be easily recovered.
3) He's accessing the internet with a 56K modem, which is ideal for his needs. Can anyone suggest a dialer application which is nice and simple for him to use. Currently he's using the
I'm on cable, and it's been a while since I used dialup. Someone else here might be able
to guide you to an effective solution for this.
Thanks (I ramble a little), and if anyone has any other ideas/advice in this area it would be much appreciated.
Voice navigation would be nice. However, IBM seems to have dropped all development of their ViaVoice for Linux. Again, this was mentioned previously in both the fedora-list, and shrike-list (Red Hat 9) archives.
If you do a google search for "linux voice navigation speech dictation", you should get some interesting and valuable open-source solutions (there are other projects besides Via Voice).
I envy you somewhat: if *my* father were still alive today (he'd be 107), I would probably 'shame' him into using a computer with linux by telling him a 'younger guy' (your grandad) was a computer whiz! <G>.
Good luck, and please do not hesitate to ask any further questions.
Again, I doff my hat to your grandfather!
cheers,
Elton Woo ;-) (... who doesn't have a fedora of his own ...) |-)))
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"You only live once: let's make life BETTER for each other."
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