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Oh-No! My Mom is Getting a Mac

By: Chris Kerins
Published: Monday, October 1, 2007
Categories: News & Commentary

What do you tell your 70-something mom who occasionally uses MS Office on her work computer when she asks about getting a Mac? Yes, they are easy to use, but are Macs easier than what she already knows, even though she knows very little?

I've often said that if a task in Windows takes 5 steps, it might only take 3 on a Mac, but if 3 is too many, neither will help much.

Now, I think my mom is in the 2 steps or less category. What do we do do for the folks for which a computer has been a souped up typewriter but now they want a little more? Is a Mac the right answer?

When it came to my dad who was ditching his Windows 98 white box this year (2007!) because Microsoft stopped supporting it, I just let him move on to WinXP because I wasn't ready to teach an old dog new tricks. I just advised him to stay away from Vista. Of course some months later his brand new 19" ViewSonic LCD still won't display in the correct resolution because Windows doesn't recognize it and ViewSonic's drivers don't work right. Yada-yada-yada. You know the drill. Ugh! And of course he doesn't even notice!

Helping her find and buy the right Mac is not a problem. It's the "what do I do after starting it up for the first time?" that worries me. Believe me, I'd like to be able to be with her to help her enjoy all that Macs have to offer. I just don't have enough spare hours in the week to get that done and I'm about an hour's drive away.

So normally, I'd suggest she buy a Mac, start it up and go to Apple's Mac 101 Website. I'm thinking even My First Mac might be a bit over her head and we try hard to make it as accessible as possible without driving people away.

So what's the problem? She isn't planning to have internet access at home. Wha-what!? That's right. She's got by this far without it; why change now? Besides, she has it on her work PC. Why pay for access at home?

So that scratches all the help one finds on sites like this one unless I save some key pages in PDF and somehow get it on her machine. I think she'll need a flash drive. It also means that I can't use any remote access to control her Mac from miles away. Grrr…

OK, what's next? The booklet that comes with the MacBook isn't that helpful for what you do after the machine is turned on. Hmmm… Ah-ha! Then I remembered the Help Viewer, which is pretty much a web browser for locally stored files. There's a pretty decent section called Discovering Your Mac which has a few good pages, but then it just links on to regular help pages after you go deep. I'll have to train her to be able to get to this section on her own.

Then I remember one of the key differences when you go with Apple: the retail stores. She's just a few miles from the Pasadena location. Nice. You just can't walk into the Dell, HP or Toshiba store and get the same service. OK , that's a straw man, but can you even get that kind of help at Best Buy or Circuit City where you might buy a PC? Of course not.

Apple's retail stores offer FREE classes on a variety of topics including a Getting Started Workshop and a Mac OS X Workshop that might be just what she needs. If she adjusts to taking a workshop, maybe we can get her to the iPhoto one after those. There's also the $99 One to One Service for some real hand holding. This is where you get individual attention to your needs. If I can get her to go to the Apple store for help, it's probably worth my $99 to sign her up.

Now I'm feeling good. I got some reinforcements to get my back. Can you say that with any other computer vendor?

What else should I do? Have you had success in helping parents? What about you readers that might be in my mom's category? What hurdles have you found that we should be addressing here on My First Mac? Let us know in the Comments section below?

DIG DEEPER

Mac 101
Switch 101: The former PC user's guide to getting the most out of your Mac.
Apple Retail Store Workshops
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Your Comments:

That's a tough one without internet access, but I still think the Mac wins.

Using the internet enabled features of a Mac is just another set of tasks for her to learn (or not) so it really is only a hit in the remote support department.

Think 3 years down the road...if she has an Xp box, regardless of whether she's on the net or not, you or someone will be on the hook to reinstall the operating system at least once. That's assuming there's no Blue Screens of Death or other things that necessitate this sooner.

Even Mickeysoft's official recommendations state you should do a wipe-and-reinstall every 18 months.

Do you think you'd have to do that if she were running OSX?

Michael Natale
10/01/2007 at 03:11 AM

I have personal experience with this. The 70+ crowd does not do well with change. If she switches, be prepared for endless hours of troubleshooting.

I have a client in the golden years who literally breaks down in tears whenever something different pops up on the screen. I rue the day I recommended her to go Mac. Although her upgrade path was from a late 80s DOS monster w/ a dot-matrix printer (for endless birthday banners), it's the resistance to change that makes it a deal breaker. You might fare better since your mom understands ICONS and Mouse usage. But ask yourself: Does she relish learning new things? Does change excite or upset her?

bugsnw
10/01/2007 at 11:01 AM

I switched my from a vaio to a mac a few years ago. Prior to the switch there were many support calls; the were a weekly occurrence. I don't remember the last one I got from her since switching.

She learnt the new keybindings very quickly and is much happier with the mac because things work.

I'd say do it.

Channing
10/02/2007 at 04:09 AM

My 85yo dad had been user the computer club's PC's and Macs for ~3 years, gradually teaching himself email and Word. Prior to that he had never used a computer in any way. When he asked me what to buy to have at his home, I suggested a Macbook even though all his friends and collegues used PC's, simply because Macs were safer and I knew I could help by phone. He quickly learned the 'Apple way' of doing things, to the point where he was using iTunes to burn compilation CDs of Big Band-era songs for his retirement community friends.
For computer novices of ANY age, I would only recommend getting a mac.

travis
09/19/2008 at 11:04 AM

Chris --

If your mom has internet access on her PC, why not get her an Airport Express, hook it up to her modem (via a hub, of course), and let her have at it? :o)

The only possible problem I can see with that is if she's still on dialup(!!), but other than that, that would probably solve the internet issue right there.

Also, if your libraries are like the libraries in Washington state, they all offer free wireless internet. Take her to her local library, laptop in hand, and have her log on to the library's wireless internet ... then she can read all the stuff she needs to know about using her Mac.

Once she's fairly comfortable with it, have her bring her hubby in, and watch as she teaches him what she knows. This way, she will reinforce what she already knows by teaching someone else, and you'll be there to correct any errors in her explanations.

Good luck ....

--gdw

gdwarner
10/05/2008 at 12:41 PM