customising life

I’m quite proud of myself.

Over the course of the last year and a quarter (since I’ve been into Ubuntu), I have slowly been introducing my parents to FLOSS; I’ve already sold them on Firefox/Thunderbird and then OpenOffice.org.

Recently my Dad has been more than impressed with how you can style your computer to your likes and needs; backgrounds, panels, icons and Beryl. But I think the selling point, was when I was able to breathe life into his sound card using the Xubuntu LiveCD; he had been unable to hear sound for many months, due to a broken and stubborn Windows driver.

Now they are after for a new PC, and with the success of my brothers, have commissioned me to make one for them.

And they want to use Ubuntu.

I’m almost decided on the hardware, and want to get it assembled as soon as possible, and then give it to them with Ubuntu pre-installed. Because I think the crucial part in this endeavor, is making sure that they have everything they need. Once I hand it over, it’s got to just work.

I most definitely don’t want them getting frustrated, because MP3s won’t play, can’t organise their photos, blah, blah, etc. Simple things in the grand scheme of things, but key to ensuring my parents are happy with Ubuntu/GNU/Linux.

So far I’ve only got a short list of things to do and install …

What applications do you think a PC with Ubuntu pre-installed needs?