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Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#141

Post by jlgaddis »

i336_ wrote: post #120
jrockway wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my mom a Chromebook. It's the most successful computing experience so far, but I was quite surprised by a few things. She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time. Some…

Is it really harder to change the new tab page in Chrome OS anymore? Wow.

I wanted a completely blank, empty new tab page, nothing on it whatsoever.

I had to create my own "extension" and load it up in developer mode to get the exact functionality I wanted (an empty page).

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#142

Post by noufalibrahim »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #32

tldr: Linux. I had more or less the same issue (except things still booted) with my parents about 5 or 6 years ago. In a move I thought was insane, I put them on Xubuntu. I moved them to Mint for a while, but they are back to Xubuntu. It's my preferred distro, and the Ubuntu base (for good support) and XFCE (Windows familiarity) made me comfortable it was Mom and Dad proof. Aside from showing them where things are, t…

Same here. I bought a computer for my folks in around 2009 and installed Ubuntu on it. Some youtube and other tube sites, gnome-games, look at some photos off a camera/phone. That's almost all of what they need it for. The computers been running just fine for almost a decade now.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#143

Post by jdietrich »

spikej wrote: post #119
Someone1234 wrote: post #109

Chromebooks cannot print. Everyone loves to recommend Chromebooks to older/less digitally literate people, and they're right to do so in most situations. However Chromebooks have one huge downside that makes them non-starters for some of that demographic: Printing is a no-go. And don't tell me about "Google Cloud Print." Cloud Printing requires a PC or Mac connected to the printer and a copy of the Chrome browser run…

Well, a cloud-ready printer would solve that issue... One hurdle I've faced is lack of things like Skype. OP mentioned lightroom. Sometimes, the alternatives are not good enough, or not user-friendly enough for parents who insist on say Skype instead of hangouts

Some Chromebooks now support Android apps, with more to come over the next year.

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-suppo...

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#144

Post by i336_ »

jlgaddis wrote: post #141
i336_ wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really harder to change the new tab page in Chrome OS anymore? Wow.

I wanted a completely blank, empty new tab page, nothing on it whatsoever. I had to create my own "extension" and load it up in developer mode to get the exact functionality I wanted (an empty page).

Ah, gotcha. That's not the absolute end of the world.

I've been using https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jonikckfpolfcdcgdf... (on standard Linux) for ages myself.

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#146

Post by gruez »

victorhooi wrote: post #105

I second what some others here are saying - get your parents a Chromebook (or Chromebox if they want a desktop). I got a Dell Chromebook for my mother. It's nigh on unbreakable, and is great for non-tech parents. Each tab/app runs in its own sandbox, and it allows them to do the things they want (i.e. browsing). It automatically updates in the background (none of that Windows update rubbish), it has inbuilt malware b…

>Each tab/app runs in its own sandbox, and it allows them to do the things they want (i.e. browsing).

doesn't really help when rogue extensions can still do a lot of harm (ie. log passwords)

Re: Ask HN: How do I protect my parents from the internet?

#149

Post by aibottle »

A friend of mine once explained to me, that in order to make the internet and computing environments safer we have to stop making things easier but educate the people (e.g. don't put the single-point-of-failure antiviruses on the computers teach people not to trust links/emails/usb/devices but to check the source and acutally think). I think you should educate them on the topic, and help them to learn it.
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