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For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

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Re: For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

#11

Post by noamsml »

pacomerh wrote: post #6

I tried doing that a couple of times and they end up looking for the blue "e". Somehow that's their symbol for "the internet". So what I did next was not uninstall but hide the icon and leave the chrome & FF visible. Now my dad uses Firefox and he calls it "the mozilla" hehe. And my mom somehow figured out a way to find IE, I guess she couldn't live without it. That was my case at least.

Then upgrade internet explorer to version 9. That way, even if they choose to use IE, they won't be able to escape using a modern, standards-compliant browser.

Re: For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

#13

Post by ErrantX »

pacomerh wrote: post #6

I tried doing that a couple of times and they end up looking for the blue "e". Somehow that's their symbol for "the internet". So what I did next was not uninstall but hide the icon and leave the chrome & FF visible. Now my dad uses Firefox and he calls it "the mozilla" hehe. And my mom somehow figured out a way to find IE, I guess she couldn't live without it. That was my case at least.

The creativity my not-particularly-computer-literate parents exhibit in constantly tracking down IE from wherever I hide it continues to astound me :-)

Re: For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

#15

Post by pgbovine »

good idea, but must be done tactfully, or else you run the risk of being labeled as that geeky kid who always insists on disrupting the status quo. remember, for a lot of people, web browsers are interchangeable, so if they're happy with X and you switch them to Y, then they'll be strictly more mad. however, if they're fed up with how X is too slow or buggy and you show them Y, then they're more likely to be appreciative.

Re: For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

#16

Post by RyanMcGreal »

noamsml wrote: post #11
pacomerh wrote: post #6

I tried doing that a couple of times and they end up looking for the blue "e". Somehow that's their symbol for "the internet". So what I did next was not uninstall but hide the icon and leave the chrome & FF visible. Now my dad uses Firefox and he calls it "the mozilla" hehe. And my mom somehow figured out a way to find IE, I guess she couldn't live without it. That was my case at least.

Then upgrade internet explorer to version 9. That way, even if they choose to use IE, they won't be able to escape using a modern, standards-compliant browser.

Unfortunately, you can only upgrade to 9 with Windows Vista/7. Not much help to all the existing XP installations.

Re: For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

#17

Post by charleso »

"Well, everything worked fine until you installed that [Chrome | Firefox | Opera] thing on my computer."

Doing free tech support for non-technical people is a wonderful thought, but it can also provide a harsh lesson in the dangers of unlimited liability for open-ended, no-fee, no-contract work.

Re: For Thanksgiving, give your parents a treat: upgrade their browser

#19

Post by pasbesoin »

charleso wrote: post #17

"Well, everything worked fine until you installed that [Chrome | Firefox | Opera] thing on my computer." Doing free tech support for non-technical people is a wonderful thought, but it can also provide a harsh lesson in the dangers of unlimited liability for open-ended, no-fee, no-contract work.

I just recently wrapped up (hopefully) some donated work for a relative's business while it was struggling, financially.

The relative's business partners were repeatedly dismissive, disrespectful, and ungrateful. The financial bind they'd gotten themselves into made my life more difficult in either having to pony up, myself, for what they needed or spend extra time and effort working around their financial constraints.

The only reason I did it was my commitment to this relative, and the fact that they were now "in for a penny, in for a pound" with them.

That business relationship between this relative and their partners is now unwinding, and I am glad to be shut of the latter. Once they started having some cashflow, their first concern was to spend it on other things rather taking care of past obligations, e.g. offering me even token compensation -- or building up some reserve, as I had suggested and in as much as I was not seeking payment.

I write all this as a preface to the not infrequently commented observation: (Most) people value service in and to the extent they pay for it. If it's "free", they can often be endlessly if ignorantly critical.

TANSTAAFL, even when you're buying.

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