Good email client for old technophobe?

Question

My mother is in her 70s and has started to go deaf, so my sisters and I can't really call her on the phone any more.

She has never had a computer, and when I got her to try out playing with my iMac she hunt-and-pecked for keys and struggled with the mouse. She was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

My sisters have decided that they're going to get my mother a computer so they can communicate with her via email, and since I'm the family IT guy it's my job to set it up.

What's a good email client for her?

I'm actually thinking about setting up the computer as a linux box with no X-Windows -- boot up and it auto-logins to her account and starts up a console email client like pine. When she quits pine the system would automatically shut-down. That eliminates any issues with the mouse, and a console-only linux system would be pretty stable and hard to mess up -- no viruses or anything.

Any other ideas? Any better console email clients than pine for this situation?

Thanks!

Answer 1

For what it's worth, I've set up Thunderbird for several 60+ people, and they pick it up pretty quickly.

But I have to agree that the ipad sounds like an ideal answer.

Answer 2

How about the iPad? This seems an ideal use case.

Answer 3

Joining the many people here who think you may need more than a console email client, and though I've never used it:

What about Eldy?

Easy computer for our seniors

Eldy is the first easy to use software designed for the elderly, from the non-profit European Eldy’s organization.

Eldy allows seniors to use computers and to take part in the Internet revolution. It does this by providing a software that allows easy access to all the most important functions: e-mail (pop3 and imap), chat, Web browsing, weather, text editing, streaming and much more.

Who knows: she might find more usage (and: fun) for the computer than you think right now.

Eldy runs on many platforms, so you can easily preview for yourself^†, but also support your mom by starting Eldy on your own computer and walk her through things. As Eldy also runs on Windows, I assume things like TeamViewer could be used at the same time, for remote support. Webcam support might be nice, right? When Skype is installed on the computer, it can be easily activated from within Eldy, including video chatting.

Alternatively, if Eldy is not the right choice for you: some netbook Linux distro, like maybe EasyPeasy?

^{† Select you're a new user, and then choose expert to avoid having to create a new email account. Alternatively, read the manual.}

Answer 4

Given the number of dummie books or books that are meant for senior people, I would simply use Outlook 2007.

In my case, my grandma (in her 80s) is able to email by simply following the steps that are outlined in the book.

Answer 5

Not directly answering the question: You might think about voice recognition software, in conjunction with email, to dictate messages to. I gather Google Voice is pretty good for this, but I suspect it might be a little hard to use for a non-techie. I think Windows 7 (and Vista?) can use this (not Google Voice) to execute (simple) commands.

Or you could write good old-fashioned letters?

Answer 6

Console Linux is fine, but I think a Webmail solution would work better, instead of opening up an email client, the easiest and simplest way is to automatically open up a browser window, full screen, like Hotmail, although I find that Gmail is probably the easiest for someone new to computers, since it has a more streamlined conversation view.

Its just an alternate to clients, I did the same for my mother, although its on a laptop, but it boots into windows and automatically launches firefox in fullscreen mode, with gmail setup as the home page.

(iPad would still be great, although setting up and router and a network might be difficult for her to understand, since the iPod Touch/iPhone have a bit of problem with wifi sometimes.

Answer 7

Personally i think consoles are too intimidating for the non geek. Alpine isn't too bad, but it sounds like you want to go for a totally Xless system. What if she wants to go on the web?

I'd personally go for X + clients + keyboard short cuts, maybe with launchy or something similar being used to invoke apps. tab and alt tab should handle most window switching.

I'd actually suggest g mail with a copy of the keyboard shortcuts taped somewhere (or added to the keyboard, as a mail client - there's copies of it floating around the internet

If you want to go for alpine i'd also go with guake or yakuake and running it there. hit a key, invoke or start an app, roll it back up once you're done. possibly run it in screen, in case granma needs some help.

This is above and beyond the question, but in this situation i feel the holistic approach is called for.

Answer 8

Following the iPad 'not available just yet' line, Google Chromium OS may be ideal. When it comes out...

Answer 9

You said iMac -- if you have one with a recent version of Mac OS X, it might be worthwhile to investigate the "Universal Access" settings in "System Preferences."