I need the most computer idiot friendly distro

ok guys, heres the deal...my girlfriend continuously finds some way to screw up her computer..if it isnt her, its her a**hole mother who looks at Nsync pr0n....im sick and tired of going over there to run spybot/adaware cause theyre too lazy/not smart enough to do it..and then when they break the computer, her mother blames me ....(i really do hate the woman, many more reasons that just that)

Other than browsing, they do nothing more than AIM, email, maybe some typing..i decided screw it, im just going to find a distro and slap that on there..its an eMachine so its horrible slow, and i get blamed for that.

So what would you guys recommend (gui wise) thatd be for the computer idiot? If i could slap mac OSX on there i would...but thats not doable...and of corse new things intimidate them....i think id hafta turn off multiple desktops on KDE/Gnome cause theyd get lost there.

The only thing i could never get working with linux is printers..they have a lexmark, but theyve broken it..i dont know what theyre using now..for awhile they were using an HP deskjet i garbage picked..then a cannon, off to another lexmark..

So would you guys suggest something like Xandros or Lindows? I highly doubt anything will work, her mother iwll complain about SOMETHING even if it works right

I dont like the fact that Linspire apparently runs everything as root. However otherwise they need root priveledges if they want to install software.

Im sure they could handle SuSE, just install Firefox, GAIM etc and lock it down so they cant break anything.

Printer support is pretty decent although some models lose some of the fancy features. At least that used to be so...may be better now.
They can be tricky to set up though; we may be able to help there.

AS far as which distro......
Hmmm.
What is your goal with this:
give them something where they can do anything they want easily or give them something they can't mess up?

For the first I would say stick with windows and make an image of a clean install so that it only takes minutes to restore.

For a nearly unbreakable system that does all they normally do- any distro you want should work, you just have to set up a user account and lock it right down so they don't have the ability to screw it up. This would mean a bit of retraining- apps they use for chat, typing, browsing etc.
And it would require some effort from you still- software installations and so on.

You're in a tough spot amigo.

Yoper would be a good choice in a lot of ways- fast, fast install and pretty easy to get around in.

ouch all as root? thats definently a NO

I just got off the phone with my GF, they somehow killed the XP installation.

EDIT: id wanna make something they cant break. So far they hardly install anything as it is...why? i dont know..they seem pretty attached to this lexmark Z42 which i cant find drivers for, theyre looking to get a scanner/printer combo, so if i knew of some that had linux support i could tell em go after that..

I told my gf that her machine was doomed the day it fell off the assembly line lol god i hate eMachines....if i wasnt so attached to my G3 id give em that...im a huge mac fan, not because its designed for simple people, but because of the multimedia power...but in this case, these are definently mac people.

linuxprinting.org results for lexmark z42
*Edit- I realized I had the wrong printer the first time.

A great resource for linux printing.

I'd say pick a distro you are comfortable with and then set them up a very limited account.
I am no expert on account permissions, but we have some people around who are pretty good in that area.

One of the really great things about virtually any linux distro is that 90% of the real "nitty gritty" stuff is the same for all, so I don't think it matters so much which one you start out with.
The main thing will be how well you secure the account or accounts you give them.

It's pretty much unbreakable if you don't give them root access. Yeah, they can break their own persoanl settings, but then you just create a new user and it's all fixed.

The trick is getting them everything they need from the start, so they'll have no reason to try to change it.

I would recommend Fedora Core. Its very user friendly, and hides most of the advanced things behind a user friendly GUI. That would convientent for you, and would probably give the mother less reason to complain. I can see it now "you were messing around and typing alot of stuff. Its all your fault this dosent work" Ugh. I feel so sorry for you. I hate people like that. You fix something, they break it, and blame it on you.

Have you considered using XP with group policies disable pretty much everything they can fsck up? In my experience, computer illiterates like those get cranky if they can't get their usual IE which works on every site without scary warnings, their funny programs they get from the local walmart and so on...

For a test run on linux to see if they can handle it, try a Live CD distro. This will give the options of seeing if they will actually use it and get the hange of it. It definatly would take less time , and "try and break this" approach. If it don't work out just pull the CD out of the ROM.

i tried making my gf sit down in front of knoppix, she like didnt wanna even bother...first she was afraid she was going to break my computer, then she couldnt figure out which mouse went to what screen...

The first time i installed XP on it, it was just fine..the second time around it was ungodly slow, and i cant figure out why...the machine inside is clear....i think the HDD is dying...its 800mhz P3 with 256mb ram...first time the install took 40min...second time around it took closer to 2 hours. And of corse they cant comprehend the fact that eMachines dont take regular parts

The drive isnt clicking at all, or random reboots or erros or anything, its just freakishly slow! It came with WinME but we all know how terrible that thing is. I think my best bet is just make them get a mac mini...hmmm....i couldnt build a computer that small and reliable for 500$ ...id never want one though, not strong enough for my work IMO...im gonna run that past em

All they need is a simple office suite (O) primitive photo editing (Gimp) i made them switch to firefox...i hid IE from the desktop (theyll simply never find it) gave em GAIM to save processes, which my gf likes firefox and gaim a whole lot..then she fell in love with eDonkey (but we wont elaborate)

the only thing i think that my gf will miss is the MSN popup thing for when an email hits your hotmail account, but lately MSN hasnt been working and she hasnt said anyting so i dont think it matters...they dont use anyting as advanced as an email client

MidNight Dream said:

I can see it now "you were messing around and typing alot of stuff. Its all your fault this dosent work" Ugh. I feel so sorry for you. I hate people like that. You fix something, they break it, and blame it on you.

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thats exactly her. I come over with my ammo can of CDs (they reallly do protect em) and shes yelling at my gf "Pay attention to what hes doing so you can do it" HAH! I truly do hate her mother, shes in her 40s and looks at Justin Timberlake pr0n how pathedic is that?

If you can, just reinstall xp and set them up as basic users. They can't install any programs or change any settings.

the mac mini seems like great idea. It will take care of everything they need just fine. I'd say try for that.

aeiou said:

the mac mini seems like great idea. It will take care of everything they need just fine. I'd say try for that.

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I second that idea. I have 9 pc's running wndows and Linux, I also have 2 Macs. The macs are great. If you want an easy to use, no spyware, no virus', and hard to f**k up system. Get them a Mac Mini for $499. It has all the software that they will need, web browsers, cd burning, itunes, imovie, iphoto, idvd, and office software.

Just... reinstall XP, get everything exactelly how they want it, and install DeepFreeze, so everytime it's restarted it goes back to the way you had it. That way you don't have to bother with calls asking about Linux, and you don't have to worry about restoring any Windows images on the machine, since DeepFreeze basically restores an image everytime you restart.

Then also tell her that if there is ever a problem, just restart it.

PCGUY thats an awsome idea!

Ok so heres what goes on, i showed her the mac mini, my gf instantly loved it, she was all "HOW DO THEY FIT IN THAT LITTLE BOX????" she doesnt like the tower, (its hardly mini ATX) but shes one to constantly rearrange her room and the wires on the comp are like stressed pulled tight. I made her mess around w. my mac, i didnt tell her anyting, i just said "Im wililng to bet you can figure out how to get on AIM and check your email in 10 minutes" She did. The iChat icon gave it away, as well as the ever so familliar big blue E. Even though i do have adium and Mozilla lol oh well. She loved the idea of hooking it to her tv (shes ALWAYS asking me to burn her DVDs and thought it was so cool my PC/Mac is hooked to my bigscreen)

So i guess when they get the money theyre going with the mini. My G3 sucks on osx.2 but she didnt mind, i guess it ran about as fast as her xp machine does.

I am going to take PCguys advice, im going to put deep freeze on there til it dies or they get the mac. Then i guess ill slap win98 or linux on it and some kiddie games for her bro/sis. If the HDD dies i gave her knoppix (thatll be a funny nite) until i can part together a junker thatll just let her online until they get the mini.

The mini also works out , her mom bought i guess a miniDV cam for christmas? but lost it..she made my gf install the software, and well when it comes with Ulead Video Studio, it can only be a camera. Its my expereince that any firewire cam works fine on the macs using iMovie or premiere...but i dont think theyre advanced enough for premiere. NO WAY would her Xp machine run the cam, hell theyd be lucky if they could get the pics off the USB card, so a mac mini would let them get full use of the camera.

thanks guys. PCguy i never heard of deepfreeze, but im going to check it out.

Only reason I know of DeepFreeze is because my school uses it... it basically runs in the background making a log of all files changed. Then when you comp is restarted, it looks at that log and restores any changed files.

Only thing you will have to worry about is like say saving things... if you save something to the computer and restart, it won't be there anymore. I'm not sure what all you can set up in DeepFreeze, but i'm sure you could set up a little area that she can save her stuff to (and maybe like allow saves where her email app stores messages so they don't lose saved email every time).

well u can install deepfreeze into that computer with a admin account so when ya want to save something just remove the deepfreeze at thast time by entering the admin password. But again that will be not good idea to give it to her case she will forget to activate it again. BTW give them a external media such as a usb thumb drive and ask to save ti then remove it fromthe computer before shutting down, or u can give a external hard disk with a bracket that connecting through usb or ieee port.