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Comment by 20kleagues | Hacker News Reader

I bought my Mom an iPad over an android tablet telling her that everything will just work. After the iOS 8 update, I am shying away from answering her questions about bugs, and questioning my decision about the iPad. People who are non-tech proficient form the biggest consumer-base for Apple, and it is terrible that Apple is forgetting how it gained this loyal consumer-base in the first place - through reliable software which 'just works'. It only makes more business sense to go back to their original software quality even if it requires dumping regular releases, because they will start losing (probably already have) customers real soon if they don't.

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Believe it or not I had a successful experience with giving my mom an Ubuntu laptop and me administering it (mostly remotely) for the last 7-8 years.

She mostly uses the browser for news and some articles, skype to talk to us, and knows basic GUI file operations enough to view picture we send her.

I would log in periodically and update her packages. When we visit or she vists and brings her laptop I'd switch her to the next LTS release.

I am just very happy with Ubuntu, it has worked really well for us.

Pretty cool idea, I never thought of remotely admin into an Ubuntu laptop. I know it's easy to do, just never thought of it.

I know that's what a lot of industry does for windows systems, but hey, you got to do a lot to keep windows on line.

I just set up ssh, on a non-default port, long passphrase.

One of the worst things is if machine won't boot (happened once due to hard drive failing). Otherwise it uses a few dynamic dns sites so I can know its IP ( + a few links to the show me the IP links in her browser toolbar, just in case).

If there is a problem and need to help her with the desktop, there is x11vnc.

ditto. +1 to x11vnc :D

Nice setup. I've used vnc before, not x11vnc so I'm not sure if it's similar. But vnc seemed to require a lot of bandwidth to run. But it's definitely nice.

x11vnc allows you to see the desktop the user is seeing. I think vnc by default creates its own sessions.

So for example, my mom would say "I am not sure where to find the pictures". I would move the folder to her Desktop from ssh, hoping the would see it. But if not I ssh in, then launch x11vnc then connect to it with a vncclient and then move around her desktop to see what the problem might be.

She would see the mouse move and buttons getting clicked.

Bandwidth is not a problem because, we have have something like 50Mpbs connections, latency is usually the issue as the signal has to go half way around the world.

You could run it at really really low colour depths and enable compression, or use compression over an SSH link.

Still not perfect, but better.

> I just set up ssh, on a non-default port, long passphrase.

Disallow password login, use key-based auth (using a dedicated, passphrase-protected key that you can copy around).

An alternative is to have a "shortcut" that help them fire a SSH client connecting to a server of yours, with port forwarding allowing you to connect back, so you don't have to worry about firewalls and other appliances being reset.

> When we visit or she vists and brings her laptop I'd switch her to the next LTS release.

Best part for me was when I found out on such an occasion that mine did it on her own.

Kinda the same thing here. My parents wanted to buy a tablet and my father does not want an Apple product for various reasons. I bought them a Nexus 10 (it was a year ago), anyway since I am an Android dev it is easier to provide support for this product. Personally, I have found this tablet pretty meh, but they don't have the same usage than me at all and they just love this tablet for pretty much the same kind of usage you describe : surf the web, mails, hangouts, view pictures, ...

I've considered changing from iPhone to Android mainly due to iOS 8 update. It was such a disheartening experience. Sometimes I wish I even still had iOS6 installed.

So many people say this but I switched to iPhone from Android at the iPhone 6/iOS 8 release and I have no complaints..

Don't get me started with iPads and iOS 8 - there is no way to set a screen time limit for children by their parents. I would like to keep Wikipedia, Alarms and a few other apps fully open, but to limit Youtube and gaming time. No way to do it with Apple's software or with third party software (iOS does not allow parental apps).

The iPad, as it is, is very tempting for kids (and not only kids). To leave such a toy in the hands of a child is like leaving a big bag of chocolates in their room and telling them to eat responsibly when they are alone. Apple wants parents to police their iPads by hand instead. I have many other things to do than police children's gaming. We are in the age of computing now, if they haven't realized. I want nice stats with total time per app per day, like some parental control apps offer on Android.

In practice I was forced to confiscate their iPads and give them Android phones with big screens and good parental controls instead. Never gonna buy an iPad/iPhone for my kids again.

I am sure Apple does it for self serving reasons like "Don't limit their gaming time in any way, and sales with soar!"

It really is astonishing how lacking the Parental Controls are on iOS.

To me it sound more like parents are lacking parental control.

It's like they're afraid of confronting their own children.

I am not astonished iOS lacks parental controls but admit they would be useful.

Establishing rules for my toddler is relatively easy when in the context of a physical object (e.g. don't touch the TV, you can only read books or do puzzles during quiet time).

The same toddler has a MUCH harder time recognizing the distinction when dealing with different apps on a single physical device. If I leave two devices in a room and tell him not to touch one, I'll get compliance. If I give him access to a device but tell he that he can't watch movies, compliance drops and he exhibits much less awareness that he broke a rule.

I don't fault apple at all for the lack of parental controls, but do see a use if they were included.

On 8.1.x?

They're not much better in OSX. Even something as simple as disabling printing is totally out of Parental Controls.

See Guided Access.

> To leave such a toy in the hands of a child is like leaving a big bag of chocolates in their room and telling them to eat responsibly when they are alone.

This is painful to read. There's very little chance of having a respectful conversation about this topic, so I should just move on silently. Shortly, I will. But not before suggesting that, respectfully, perhaps there's another way to approach the problem?

You currently have one downvote, and it isn't from me, but I feel so strongly repelled by your comment that I can understand the impulse to click the arrow and try to forget what you've written.

> Apple wants parents to police their iPads by hand instead.

I don't think Apple takes a strong position on parenting at all -- but if they did, and it was the position you describe, I would be emphatically in agreement with them. I wouldn't use the word "police" though.

I don't think Apple takes a strong position on parenting at all

Apple's main theme is the 'curated experience'.

This is a great comment - while many people are complaining about Apple adding too many features and introducing bugs, you are asking for more features.

This is exactly the dilemma Apple faces and is the reason that simplistic answers like 'stop releasing every year' are unhelpful.

The real interesting question is - is there a way for Apple to both maintain the pace of development and improve quality simultaneously.

That seems to be a challenge worthy of the most valuable company in the world.

I would like to see a feature freeze for one cycle if that means needed refactoring and annoyances can be addressed instead.

What makes you think it would? Refactoring is generally a precursor to new features being added. If you don't know what is to be added then refactoring is usually counterproductive.

I agree that certain teams might need to slow down and reduce the scope of what they do in a cycle - but I think it would be better for them to calibrate to a sustainable scope rather than skipping a cycle altogether.

As a recent switcher to Android, I acknowledge iOS has flaws but I am so grateful my parents aren't on it. (everything having multiple menus with multiple nesting levels, no conventional behavior between apps, crazy carrier customizations, multiple levels of caches to clear)

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