Nice. I wish I could say my mom like Unbuntu. Great OS!

Very nice reading I wish I were as lucky as your mom My son was not as helpful but he gave me at least the link to Ubuntu download site… It was ca year ago - since then I am an “Evangelist Linux user” - Ubuntu was a marvelous beginning for me - even if with the time I began to look for something else - I am still a fan of the Ubuntu (especially Ubuntu Forum where you can find quick help not having your kids around And I agree totally with your conclusion that “Linux has come home” - at least here I managed to convince everybody to use it! Anyway - Ubuntu is great as the first step - next can be f.i. Zenwalk (which me and my husband are using now;). Best wishes - also kind regards to your mother and Happy Holiday Season from tami

Hey great story.

Your mom has all those computers. She is the Computer Maven dude. She rocks and now she’s into Ubuntu, that is fantastic.

Good to hear she’s spreading the word as well.

Hanna - What about ZenWalk do you like best? I think every Linux distribution has some room to grow, but they all seem to have something that pops and makes you take notice. I’ve not had experience with ZenWalk, so I’d love to find out more.

Paul - I think you’re right about her being the computer maven now. That said, most of those computers, up until now, were just collecting dust. It’s fun showing her that even the old beast can be useful.

Christopher - for the first congratulations with your sweet daughter - I managed to take a look at the pictures just after I wrote my first reply - pictures are great, too! )

As to Zenwalk - I simply fell for its simplicity and speed… I like also the care and respect they show to their users - although I could not complain on lack of it being U/Xubuntu user neither!
Perhaps I like also that they do not talk as much about AIGLX and XGL on their forums… - I became a fan of rather clean but effective yet pretty! desktop much before I switched to Linux…I do not know - Zenwalk let me tweak it exactly as I like it (it’s easy to find configuration files here)…Perhaps I should say - it’s pretty, stable and…hmmm - “spacey”. And - incredibly quick!
OK - enough - to be well understood - I like Ubuntu still - Zenwalk is just a bit closer to what I call perfection - even if I do not use default WM there - only Fluxbox and FVWM-Crystal - which let me be a bit more productive…Ufff - sorry to be so elaborate. I hope I explained why I like Zenwalk.
Again - best regards to you and your wonderful family,
tami

[...] Yo Mamma Likes Ubuntu [...]

My sister just called me about Spyware/virus issues on her ‘98 box, and I went thru the usual routine with her.
I have an Ubuntu box that’s been humming along nicely for 3 weeks with no AV or anti-spyware installed at all. I think I’ll just send her the Ubuntu install CD next time she has these issues.
She can’t afford a new PC at the moment, so this may be an ideal solution.
Thanks.

Chris,
You’ve been dug. I found this article on Digg.com. Cool.

If I weren’t addicted to MMORPGs and my Father and Sisters could get their heads around using a productivity suite besides Office, I would’ve had them all running Linux years ago.

One of the computers is going south and I’m damned if I’m going to do another god damned Windows reinstall on it though, time for Ubuntu.

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Good for you !!!

I love Ubuntu and have been using it since the early days of Warty Warthog. But your last comment about photo management and editing tools sucked big time. F-Spot is nowhere near as good as a proper photo manager should be and the GIMP is no substitute for Photoshop.

If you were trying to talk about some great linux apps, then check out this list

[...] …And are happy about it! Personally, I wouldn’t go that far yet as I think my Mom still suffers from “console-fear”, but nice to know that there are quite a few moms out there, who are happy to having switched to Ubuntu. They even think Linux has “come home” through Ubuntu, and offers a full-fledged operating system for mere mortals. Of course they are all spreading the word with their friends, who have become at least curious. Word up to these linux-lovin moms! [...]

Great idea. I’ve been trying to convert my parents to ubuntu for some time but despite seeing my blazing fast machine with load of cool beryl effects they refuse to budge from the slow, virusy hell that is windows xp.

My mom wanted to get on the Internet so I took an old IBM Thinkpad I hadn’t used in a couple years, loaded Kubuntu on it and gave it to her. She loves it. She’s never had to use Windows either. Perfect for her, she checks her yahoo email, browses the web and plays solitaire.

My daughter crashed it, I just reinstalled from CD and was up and running. If she had a Windows box, I’d almost be living at home again, I’d be spending so much time working on it.

Great story. I’m gonna do the same for my technophobe roommate now.

Only, I didn’t understand why RadioShack or Toshiba would be providing your Linux network card drivers. Were you using ndiswrapper or something?

I love Ubuntu, and Linux. I think it’s the best/stable OS out there. I have A Desktop running ReadHat 9, and another Desktop running Vista, and Ubuntu (I use Ubuntu more on the machine than Vista :D) When my mom wants to go on ebay or something she’s like “How do I use this dopey Linux crap? How do I get on the Internet?” “You click the little globe Mom!” Haha, nice story. Props to your mom and her friend!

I use Ubuntu along with Windows at school this year. For the most part, the kids love it. There are tons of games on it, and it’s like a cool new toy to them. With so many educational aps at my disposal, I can so much more. I’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg. I actually taught both GIMP and Photoshop. Many of them preferred GIMP. I have found that if you teach them on GIMP before they ever touch Photoshop, then GIMP is what they will like even after being exposed to Photoshop. Ubuntu is the first Linux distro that I’ve used where I felt I could seriously consider ditching Windows permanently. Now to convince the administration!

My mom also loves teh Ubuntus!

Like you, I also installed Ubuntu on my Mom’s computer. While it took some time for her to get used to it, she now finds it to be more than usable. Ubuntu is great for stuff like that - where you want an easy-to-use personal computer, and don’t want to have to worry about updating anti-spyware definitions every second day.

[...] Yo Mamma Likes Ubuntu [...]

Great article here but too bad my mum does not know how to use it

It’s time to install as my dad’s pc

Jejeje… my mom also love’s kubuntu… because my 4 year old machine was full of spyware and I said let’s try kubuntu and she said yes… and now all my family likes linux XD (the easy to install one)

Unix rocks!

My moms too has been loving Kubuntu! I find KDE to be a richer environment that is more stable and easier set ups. She’s had it for a month now, and the only problems that have cropped up has been getting the printer to work (she was able to get it to print a test page without me), and having thunderbird point to firefox instead of konquerer.

Ubuntu is the best distro for beginners. Sure, there are Windows XP emulators (that look like windows and all), but I believe Linux is Linux and it has to be its own unique self.

Furthermore, in the future when the user might want to go onto more advanced distros such as Debian or Gentoo, then they will already be used to GNOME or KDE.

I recommend Kubuntu (because I love KDE interface) moreso that Ubuntu, but either one is just fine, whatever works for you. Kubuntu isn’t much better, its just easier for the beginner (I’m not a beginner and I still love it) and looks sleeker. Both have pretty good performance compared to Windows, even on the most low end systems. For really old computers, GNOME or KDE is bad, but for mostly all computers made after 2000-2001 its sufficient.

I would rank all distros like this:

1) Ubuntu/Kubuntu (whichever one who like more, they both have virtually same functionality)
2) Fedora Core
3) Gentoo (advanced)
4) Debian (advanced)

Fedora Core is a nice alternative to Ubuntu, so if you’re looking for something to distinguish yourself go for Fedora.

Many people say GUI doesn’t matter that much, but I like to have a nice looking OS when I’m working. KDE is both productive, fast, and nice looking (slightly better looking than GNOME, and about equally good applications (you can run GNOME apps anyways), and its just about the same speed).

I don’t really care which one you use, just use Ubuntu or Kubuntu (or those others I mentioned) and keep in mind if you’re looking for a better graphical experience KDE is probably your ideal desktop environment.

I’ve also gotten a lot of people to switch. Hopefully Vista does horribly and people move to Linux and realize that they’ve wasted thousands of dollars on Windows + proprietary software.

The only problem with this FSF movement is that theres not as many income opportunities for developers. Hopefully in the future some good money making opportunities come out of free software (truly free software) such as advertising and so the consumer gets the advantage of FOSS while the developer makes some good money.

Chris, out of all your posts, this one gets Dugg? That totally cracks me up. Good work my pal.

Type your comment here.

I started out on Ubuntu (6.06 Dapper) and did fine, but Edgy (6.10) gave me problems…crashes, poor video support on my laptop and then the basic disk structure started to come completely unglued (as in half the disk contents reported to be in the trashcan). I switched over to OpenSuse 10.2 (with gnome desktop) a week ago and I’m glad I did - it’s overall much more professional and it’s possible to make it more “Windows like” if need be via the “SLAB” menu system. The only defecit is that the software install process via YaST isn’t as clean as APT-GET/Synaptic. I’m hoping the Ubuntu team will get their act together, but meanwhile OpenSuse has a lot going for it and it now has full support for both Gnome and KDE the way Ubuntu/Kubuntu does.

I also got my mum to use Ubuntu. What I did was switch to Ubuntu before she even had a chance to get used to using Windows. She barely noticed any difference, all she really needs to be able to do is open a browser and play a few games.

Free to download or have a disk sent to you, 15 minutes to install, great support and community. Why buy Windows when a lot of mums are completely transparent to the OS and just want to carry out a few simple tasks.

I’ve never had to deal with spyware/adware etc since the switch, all I need to do is run the updater every now and again.

[...] Shooting the Kids - » Yo Mamma Likes Ubuntu a happy tale of user introducing his motehr to ubuntu - success (tags: ubuntu desktop linux blog oss) [...]

[...] Recently there have been a few articles around the web that show that “normal” people can use Linux.  There was another article on Digg that talked about it called “Yo Mama Likes Ubuntu” that also shows that Linux isn’t that hard.  For that story head over to the Shooting the Kids, Digital Photography for the Baby Set Blog. [...]

[...] That’s what I learnt from the post at Shooting the Kids(relax, it is about photography) about how his Mom loves Ubuntu. My mom now owns 3 laptops and two desktops (one I’ve been using for a couple of years) - none of which are older than 5 years. Sound like your parents?…Tired of this trend, I decided to install Ubuntu on my mom’s new laptop…My mom’s become an evangelist to some of her friends. She told me that last week she and her lifelong friend had been on the phone talking about how they love their new Ubuntu systems and comparing cool features they’ve discovered. I think it’s fair to say that Linux has come home. [...]

[...] So we came home yesterday from celebrating Christmas early with my family to a phone call from John at SyncSpeed asking “what happened?” Apparently our web stats went crazy. I quickly checked my e-mail to find 30 new comments about the Yo Momma Loves Ubuntu post and an e-mail from John that we’d been on Digg. I clicked the link he sent and my jaw dropped. 900+ Diggs! 10,000 unique users in one day! Bandwidth usage warnings from my ISP! The Internet cares about the operating system my mom uses! [...]

[...] wonder woman lunchbox This guy got sick of his mom buying a new computer every time her computer started running slow (total of 5 computers in five years) so he installed Ubuntu on one of her laptops. I’m gonna make my mom use Ubuntu now. wonder woman pinup galleryread more | digg story [...]

Heh, I’m quite the opposite, kind of. Since I was the kid and my mom was the software engineer, we always keep our PCs for like ever. This current computer’s 6 years old, we had another computer running 8 years. She introduced me to Linux with RH8. Now, I’m the one managing the computers, and I have a dual boot with ZenWalk and Windows. Honestly, I never liked Ubuntu. Can’t see what people like about it. But hey, that’s the great thing about Linux. It’s taylored to people’s needs. If one distro doesn’t work for you, you can most certainly find another one that will. The whole family’s choice of OS is Linux.

Great!

My mother has recently bought a laptop, and installing Ubuntu was my first thing to do. This is her first real experience with computers, so she has never used windows consistantly before. Well, she doesn’t know what she’s missing! But after hearing of computer problems from friends several times, she begins asking why she doesn’t get those, even though her computer is technically older (it was a second hand system).

Dont forget about Xubuntu!

It is as user friendly as Ubuntu, but much faster! It also has a clean neat interface! And most important, it runs really well on old laptops (much faster than Ubuntu/Kubuntu)

Check some screenshots here:
http://www.xubuntu.org/screenshots

Download it here:
http://www.xubuntu.org/get

For those of you who think that your parents fear of console and so they will not like Ubuntu, turn around the table and think it this way:

For Windows, you are going to set it up for them. Drivers, programs and system settings. They will NOT open console to do anything AND they are NOT able to fix any computer problem no matter it’s software or hardware ones.

For Linux, you are going to setup the system for them also. Software, Synaptics and others. They will ring your bell what they need help on fixing their computers no matter it’s software or hardware.

So guess what? Parents fear of console thus they do not like Linux is NOT a reasonable excuse. The only good excuse is: you are NOT like Linux yourself so you are not going to install it for them.

Just my 2 cents.

[...] Free/Open Source Software Linux desktop architects map out plans for 2007 Free software audience is shrinking. What Can’t Open Source Achieve in the Next 10 Years? 10 Must Have Linux Applications Venture Dollars Flow to Open Source Yo Mamma Likes Ubuntu Open Source Leaps Toward Accessible Applications Open sauce fundamentalists slap a fatwa on Vista - The truth, according to a Microsoft shill. “BadVista.org”: FSF launches campaign against Microsoft Vista - The real truth. [...]

I have to agree.

I lived with a couple of roomies who were geeks so Ive always been used to Linux from RedHat 6.2 on since Im often at their place even years later.
I installed my first Ubuntu last spring (actually, the first time I installed any Linux) and have been dual booting since.

Since then, Ive installed it on my parents cpu and about a dozen of their friends.
Half of which never used a computer before might i add.

And you know what? No different learning curve than a mac or win box.

The only problem of course is the gymnastice required for video and audio stuff.
Once the damn companies finally see the light and open the necessary drivers, there is NO reason not to use (k)Ubuntu.

The install on Kubuntu (I showed people both and KDE beat GNOME by a landslide) was a breeze on all the machines I worked on except 1 and a half (my lack of knowledge was more to blame on the last one).

That said, my parents are both in their 70’s and each had the own computer since the late 90’s and the security aspect can be taken care of with the minimal training and precaution on Windows.
Never used IE or Outlook, always loaded AVG updates, Zonealarm and Adaware, and even before switching to webmail were taught never to open any attachment they didnt recognize from a short list of allowed files (xls and doc files were blocked by default).

If you spent a minimum amount of time you can make a Win machine safe but its time you could spend elsewhere if you were using a Linux or Unix (OS X) operating system. All of the people though said they would rather not have the worries that come with it.

My dad is still on a dual boot because he needs one proprietary Win apps but will gladly chuck his Win partition when the time comes (go virtualization).
Since he hasnt had the horror stories of most Win users, his appeal was monetary (when I showed him Linux on his old P2-400, he said “I could have stayed with that box instead of buying a new one?”) as well as the whole open source aspect (my dad understands how closed source code and formats hinder technological advances when their sole goal is to gain exclusivity). Being rather old school when it comes to principles so that seems to have also hit a nerve and having travelled around the world, he knows how a free OS that can be altered without repercussions to fit a certain need can be beneficial to third world countries. His Kubuntu uses his native language easily which was a sore point since to get the Windows language pack to work in his native script he add to go buy WinXP even though he saw no need to leave Win2000.

My dad knows of the space shuttle guy and has even come with me to a copyleft seminar by RMS and can more or less explain what open source and linux is to their friends.
My father was an educator before he retired, never had use for technology, but after living in a Windows world for 8 years, he sees no reason to stay with Microsoft and plenty of reasons, ranging from practical, monetary and philosophical for his friends to switch.
People like your mom and my parents ARE the best advertisement for Ubuntu.

D.Mcbride

PS: He asked me this week what is to stop proprietary companies from infiltrating a trojan horse, tainted code which belongs to them, and then claim there is IP infringement. My dad you see is aware of SUSE because of its popularity in Germany and found a recent Novell article.
Im so proud.

Wow - the response to this post has been amazing! It’s great to hear from so many people about your experiences. I wrote another post today that begins a series of answers to questions that people have had about the process of moving my mom to Ubuntu. Check it out!

I did the same here on one of my moms desktops, but I installed openSUSE 10.2 ’cause I’m a SUSE fan and she loves it, she even donated money to the openSUSE project to support them

I would love to interview you and your mom for our film, the Digital Tipping Point. It is the world’s first feature-length documentary built on-line in a collaborative method from fully forkable, modular video segments.

http://archive.org/details/digitaltippingpoint

Please email me, if you feel like it, to let me know where you and your mom are located. einfeldt at g mail dot com Thanks!

Christian Einfeldt,
Poducer, The Digital Tipping Point

[...] Shooting the Kids - » Yo Mamma Likes Ubuntu [...]

[...] Ubuntu, for those not in the know is a version of the Linux operating system. For many Ubuntu (and linux in general) is MUCH more powerful than windows. Historically Linux has gotten the rap of being less-than-user-friendly. However this is changing as the graphical desktops are taking cues from Windows and OSX usability and mimics the look and feel of those operating systems. In fact, Christopher says over at “Shooting the Kids” blog installed Ubuntu on his mom’s laptop and she loves it. [...]

Great posting. I am influenced now to get my mom on Ubuntu. I built her a computer last year with a 1.8 Ghz Celery processor (which i obviously should not have done). I then found a copy of Windows 2000 Professional SP3 for 60 bucks on some random website and though this was a STEAL! Of course, as with any MS Windows OS, (with all of the background processes, virus protection, spyware-on-top-of spyware protection) this baby is slowly but surely taking a dive.
Anyway, today i’m taking a trip to my mother’s house in SE Michigan, to install Ubuntu on her system, along with all the great free software that is equivalent or even better than MS Windows: Office, GIMP, MORE games and even better games (not including the 10 year or so old MS Pinball Spaceship or whatever it’s called ..)
Thanks for the inspiration, man.

Randy
Michigan, USA

After reading this, I’m starting to feel kind of embarrassed. I really wanted to install Ubuntu. I really did, but something would always go wrong. I suppose trying to install it on a partition as a second OS was my first mistake. First off, it scared me to death when it started discussing my master boot record and all of the things that could go wrong. I said, “I’ve come this far, no turning back!”. A few more roadblocks and it was up and running and then, WHAMO! My screen went blank and though I knew the OS was running on my tower, it wasn’t much use if I couldn’t see it. Probably a video driver, but if you can’t see anything to install the driver in the first place …

So, I wiped the partition and installed Suse. I have to say the experience was far more pleasant, and the installation procedure was more intuitive, recognizing that I already had Windows, giving me advice, it had a nice CGI instead of Ubuntu’s clunky text-based installer.

But if you’re saying your Mom and her friends could do it, then I must have done something wrong. Next time, i will install it as a standalone OS. Hmmm, my wife’s Thinkpad is due for a refresh…

On the other hand, I’m keeping my eye on those chaps who are installing MAC OSX on PCs…

After my encounter with Ubuntu, my 7 yeer old computer could not take it, and therefore destroyed my towers. Even though Linux is a great program, Ubuntu is very hard for my computer to download. Great OS!!!

Good site! kabababrubarta

[...] A while back I wrote a series of posts on Shooting the Kids about how we moved my mom over to Ubuntu and how she really took to it. She’s still using it regularly, though her main desktop is now my old Mac Mini - which she really loves because of iTunes. [...]

[...] I upgraded my mum from Windows XP to Ubuntu. I’m not the only one who has done the same thing. As many of you already know, even Dell now includes an [...]

[...] you please add this to the Info Club 1st post: Yo Mamma Likes Ubuntu __________________ Windows Vista 64-Bit FAQ ▲ Two Must-Have Vista Updates Build your own [...]

[...] read more | digg story [...]

[...] years) so he installed Ubuntu on one of her laptops. I’m gonna make my mom use Ubuntu now.read more | digg [...]