Protection for elderly person

Will/must it necessarily be a Windows PC?
Or is Linux, f.i. Mint 10 or openSuse 11.4, an option?
Such OS will not require any AV, 'easy HIPS', linkscanner or sandbox.
Only a password to do weekly/monthly updates.

 

Site rating would still be useful for warning about phishing sites.

 

Agree, but if what they use is browsing only, maybe buying an ipad or "idroid" (plus keyboard) is a nice option.

My aging father didn't have any problem using one

 

That's a good point. If linux is an option and he stuck to browsing and the inbuilt software browser\downloader then he would be hard pressed to worry about security.

The good thing about it is that, You could download it onto a CD and try a live session, let him use it for a while and see what he thinks

 

I've been running Ubuntu Lucid on my Dad's computer for several months now...and on dial-up even...with no problems at all. He does his usual surfing, checks his bank stock, checks the weather, and plays his Solitaire (PySolFC) card game. He like it better than XP (of course I tried to make it look as much like XP as I could just to ease the transition ).

Later....