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My 79 year old mother has a terrific "appliance" called the iOpener. This is a
laptop without a hard drive that runs some flavor of unix and can only surf
the web and get/send email. It was real cheap and she loves it. But it's
about 5 years old and is showing signs that it's about ready to power off for
good!

I don't want to get her a full computer that runs windows because in 2 minutes
she will get a virus of some kind. I could get her one of those Wal-Mart
Linux boxes and that would work well. But either way she' have to "learn" it.
She likes the simplicity of the iOpener box.

Does anyone else make some kind of "internet appliance" that is perfect for
seniors who are only going to use it on the net and does not need word
processing, etc. software (or a hard disk)? Compaq used to make one as did
other companies, but they didn't sell (or were not marketed well) and I have
not seen any for quite some time. If you know of something, please advise.
Maybe a Slack box without a HD (where Slack is on firmware?)

Anyone ever tried one of these?
http://www.neoware.com/products/thinclient/linux.html
http://www.neoware.com/products/capio/capio_one.html

Thanks,

ANC

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 15:14:33 +0000, Al C. wrote:

> My 79 year old mother has a terrific "appliance" called the iOpener. This is a
> laptop without a hard drive that runs some flavor of unix and can only surf
> the web and get/send email. It was real cheap and she loves it. But it's
> about 5 years old and is showing signs that it's about ready to power off for
> good!
>
> I don't want to get her a full computer that runs windows because in 2 minutes
> she will get a virus of some kind. I could get her one of those Wal-Mart
> Linux boxes and that would work well. But either way she' have to "learn" it.
> She likes the simplicity of the iOpener box.
>
> Does anyone else make some kind of "internet appliance" that is perfect for
> seniors who are only going to use it on the net and does not need word
> processing, etc. software (or a hard disk)? Compaq used to make one as did
> other companies, but they didn't sell (or were not marketed well) and I have
> not seen any for quite some time. If you know of something, please advise.
> Maybe a Slack box without a HD (where Slack is on firmware?)
>
> Anyone ever tried one of these?
> http://www.neoware.com/products/thinclient/linux.html
> http://www.neoware.com/products/capio/capio_one.html
>
> Thanks,
>
> ANC

I kinda resent the implication that seniors are retarded. I are one, and
I'm currently installing gentoo on my mini-itx system. Usually, I run
Mandrake and SuSE. I'm also fixing to teach a couple of classes on using
linux on your home computer.

On 2004-10-23, Al C. <no.spam.acanton@adams-blake.no.spam.com> wrote:

> I don't want to get her a full computer that runs windows
> because in 2 minutes she will get a virus of some kind. I
> could get her one of those Wal-Mart Linux boxes and that
> would work well. But either way she' have to "learn" it.
> She likes the simplicity of the iOpener box.

When the iOpener finally quits you can build a linux laptop that boots,
starts X and then runs Mozilla. She can use Moxilla to view the web
and read mail. She'd still need to learn Mozilla, though. You'd
probably have to do a little administration to get pppd to dial her
ISP on demand.

I looked for the Netpliance home page but it wouldn't come up for me.
I guess they no longer exist. An alternative is MSN TV, Ugh.

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 15:14:33 -0700, Al C. wrote:

> Does anyone else make some kind of "internet appliance" that is perfect
> for seniors who are only going to use it on the net..

I found:

http://www.cyber.com.au/cyber/produc...rnet_computer/

only a few days ago - It's $595 AUD and might not be feasible for you to
order, but it's the sort of thing that you seem to be after.

Cheers

Al C. wrote:

> My 79 year old mother has a terrific "appliance" called the iOpener. This
> is a laptop without a hard drive that runs some flavor of unix and can
> only surf the web and get/send email. It was real cheap and she loves it.
> But it's about 5 years old and is showing signs that it's about ready to
> power off for good!
>
> I don't want to get her a full computer that runs windows because in 2
> minutes she will get a virus of some kind. I could get her one of those
> Wal-Mart Linux boxes and that would work well. But either way she' have to
> "learn" it. She likes the simplicity of the iOpener box.
>
>

If you mean a Lindows or whatever you want to call it box then I'd vote
against that path. It apparantly runs everything as root.

"Al C." <no.spam.acanton@adams-blake.no.spam.com> wrote:

> My 79 year old mother has a terrific "appliance" called the iOpener.
> This is a laptop without a hard drive that runs some flavor of unix and
> can only surf the web and get/send email.

> Anyone ever tried one of these?
> http://www.neoware.com/products/thinclient/linux.html
> http://www.neoware.com/products/capio/capio_one.html

Those are probably not what you want. They are "thin clients" which
basically is the buzzword of today for what was called X terminals a few
years ago. These kind of terminals connect to a server. The programs runs
in the CPU and the RAM of the server, but the windows of the programs are
shown on the terminals. The most significant difference between the thin
clients of today and the X terminals of yesterday is that most thin
clients are able to speak more protocols than only X. X is used for unix
servers, VNC could be used for both unix and windows servers, ica and rdp
is used for windows servers.

However, the EON E100 at one of the links above also seems to have
Netscape Navigator installed. Maybe it would be possible to use it for
your purpose, but I don't think it was build with that intention.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc2(at)uthyres.com Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
svar@webtelevision.se info@webrider.ru root@localhost

Henrik Carlqvist wrote:


> However, the EON E100 at one of the links above also seems to have
> Netscape Navigator installed. Maybe it would be possible to use it for
> your purpose, but I don't think it was build with that intention.
>

Yes, after I did some research I came to the same conclusion as you did.
However the Australian product mentioned in another post is intereting. I
wrote them asking if they had distribuiton in the USA. Might be a biz-op for
our company.

I don't think the market for a "net-only" machine is huge, but I think it is
large enough that there is an opportunity for a company to make some money.
My mother LOVES her iOpener ( http://www.the-labs.com/IOpener/ ) and does NOT
want a hard-to-maintain computer.

Thanks,

Al

Keith Matthews wrote:
> Al C. wrote:
>
>
>>My 79 year old mother has a terrific "appliance" called the iOpener. This
>>is a laptop without a hard drive that runs some flavor of unix and can
>>only surf the web and get/send email. It was real cheap and she loves it.
>>But it's about 5 years old and is showing signs that it's about ready to
>>power off for good!
>>
>>I don't want to get her a full computer that runs windows because in 2
>>minutes she will get a virus of some kind. I could get her one of those
>>Wal-Mart Linux boxes and that would work well. But either way she' have to
>>"learn" it. She likes the simplicity of the iOpener box.
>>
>>
>
>
> If you mean a Lindows or whatever you want to call it box then I'd vote
> against that path. It apparantly runs everything as root.
Actually it sets up as root but as in Slackware, I just adduser and never run as
admin again. Default as root seems to be normal for some Linux versions.

--
Leo (Bing) Whiteway in Canada:
They said "everyone uses microsoft" and so like the lemmings they marched into
the sea.
< running Slackware 10 >

Tach wrote:

> Keith Matthews wrote:
>> Al C. wrote:
>>
>>
>>>My 79 year old mother has a terrific "appliance" called the iOpener. This
>>>is a laptop without a hard drive that runs some flavor of unix and can
>>>only surf the web and get/send email. It was real cheap and she loves it.
>>>But it's about 5 years old and is showing signs that it's about ready to
>>>power off for good!
>>>
>>>I don't want to get her a full computer that runs windows because in 2
>>>minutes she will get a virus of some kind. I could get her one of those
>>>Wal-Mart Linux boxes and that would work well. But either way she' have
>>>to "learn" it. She likes the simplicity of the iOpener box.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> If you mean a Lindows or whatever you want to call it box then I'd vote
>> against that path. It apparantly runs everything as root.
> Actually it sets up as root but as in Slackware, I just adduser and never
> run as admin again. Default as root seems to be normal for some Linux
> versions.
>

Would you like to be more specific in your claims.

Al C. wrote:

> Does anyone else make some kind of "internet appliance" that is perfect
> for seniors who are only going to use it on the net and does not need word
> processing, etc. software (or a hard disk)?

My grandparents use Slackware without too much difficulty. They're
still in the learning stages, but as this is their first computer, they
would have a learning curve regardless of the system. They don't have
root on the system, and they're both using KDE which makes most things
reasonably accessible for them.

I've been looking at configuration details, and it seems that KDE has a
"kiosk" (or "public terminal") mode, which may be pretty darned close to
what you want.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------