For anyone with Mac experience

[Sandpiper]

Hi,
Here's the short version:
My 66-year-old dad, who has next to no computer experience, is an impatient learner and gets easily frustrated with technology, wants a laptop. Do people think maintaining a laptop running Windows XP will be beyond his grasp? (I do.) Would some sort of Apple laptop running OS X be a better choice, especially in terms of security? (I haven't used a Mac in about 10 years and have never owned one.) What about another OS? If Win98SE weren't so prone to the BSOD, I'd be tempted to get him an older, used laptop running that OS.

Here are more details for people inclined to read longish posts:
My dad wants the laptop for e-mail, Web surfing and word processing. He lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia; I live on the East Coast of the U.S., i.e. rather far away.

Note that I've recommended he take a class in computers before getting one, but my dad is rather stubborn and just wants to be able to consult his kids (mainly me) if he runs into trouble. (Argh!)

At this point, my dad says he wants to buy a laptop that would run Windows XP Home. He only has a vague idea of what an operating system is; he's simply been looking through Dell catalogs.

I've been telling him how much Windows drives me crazy, i.e. constantly having to be vigilant about security, etc. (I haven't told him that I also run various Linux distros -- too much to explain that he wouldn't understand.)

Basically, I dread him buying a Windows system, going online before he knows what he's doing, not knowing how to set up anti-virus, anti-spyware, and so on.

Ideally, I'd like to fly there, set up a system for him, spend a few weeks teaching him the basics, and so on, but I'm not in a position to do that right now, and he wants to move foward with buying. He's relying on me to give him good advice, and really, my best advice remains this: "Don't buy before you learn more, i.e. how to keep your system secure, how to make backups, etc."

I don't think he'll take that advice, though.

So, that's why I'd like to know more about how safe and easy OS X is. I thought about posting in Mac-oriented forums, but I decided I'd rather post at ABX and hopefully get a perspective from people familiar with both OS X and Windows.

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

[Brian]

I have no experience with a Mac but couldn't you help him select the laptop, have him send you the money for it, you buy it and when you get it, just go nuts on it, security-wise.

Turn on Automatic Updates, set up his anti-virus, his firewall, his anti-spyware programs, his HOSTS file, etc. Make it as secure as you possibly can for him and then send it to him like that without having to fly all the way to Vancouver.

If he is as inexperienced as you say, I think he is going to be having problems and asking questions no matter what OS he uses. But at least with a Windows XP system, you will be able to provide the important answers.

And if he were to with a Dell, have him use their technical support for most of his questions/problems.

[pointreyes]

Personally I like the Mac OS. My wife even uses the computer (Mac Mini) more thanks to the OS. The basic email is great, browsing with Safari is normally a good experience; however, if you could install Firefox for him it would be useful. Open Office will run on the OS as well but it's a bear to install. And if he does not like OS X on an Apple laptop he can now install Windows XP on it. I especially love that you can save a doc in pdf format and if your Dad wants Word, he can have that as well. For general usage, the Apple computers come with OS X and iLife - it's due to iLife that helps to create a fairly well intregrated system for the general computer user.

BTW: OS X does inform you of updates and will download and install them when you approve of it.

[John64]

MACS are People Friendly.

I have friends who know NOTHING, yet the intuitivly understand macs. I love macs myself, if they have a reasonable macbook non-pro out when i am on the market, i will pick one up for sure. I LOVE osx, and its pretty easy to use.

Openoffice.org is a bit of a pita on OSX, same with firefox being supposedly very slow on osx (i dont have a mac to verify)

there is a project called fink (fink.sf.net i think) that is like debian/ubuntu's apt-get system. It makes things real easy to do (open source things that is) in OSX

[FightingChance]

I would definately recommend a Macintosh in this case.

[Sandpiper]

Thanks for all the replies -- very much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Brian

... couldn't you help him select the laptop, have him send you the money for it, you buy it and when you get it, just go nuts on it, security-wise. ... Make it as secure as you possibly can for him and then send it to him like that without having to fly all the way to Vancouver.

I've thought about that, but the problem is, it would cost a lot to ship to him, and I have no idea how much he'd have to pay in customs fees.

[Wired_abx]

Get a mac laptop and dual boot w/ XP

[JaGWiRE_abx]

I wonder, would the comparison of mac to windows for newbies be equal to comparing an experienced windows user using a linux box and trying to do everything he would in windows?

[wallijonn]

Originally Posted by JaGWiRE

I wonder, would the comparison of mac to windows for newbies be equal to comparing an experienced windows user using a linux box and trying to do everything he would in windows?

No, because most Windows users want to download .exe files and have it installed.

It's a lot harder under Linux. You basically can not get the latest and greatest all the time. Windows has too much shareware software - just look at the number of video or picture editors, media players, games, etc.

When you get the Mac you will basically have to only use what they give you. (IE on Mac OSX is a very bad joke.) To do email you hit the button on the bottom (OSX) and it opens the email program, downloads all the email and is ready for you to reply or send.

OpenOffice wasn't too hard to install on OSX (Just use the NEO distribution), but GIMP is 'Missing In Action'. FireFox was a piece of cake. Now try adding it to the application Launch tray... The only program that you might have to buy is a CD or DVD burning program. Otherwise it is already set up nicely to do videos, pictures, music, email, internet surfing. What is missing is all the editors.