Yesterday I finally was able to move my grandparents off of Netscape 7.1 and onto Firefox 1.0.6 and Thunderbird. My grandparents got a new desktop computer and the first thing I did was put Firefox and Thunderbird on there.

To prepare Firefox for their use, I did the following:

1. I changed the name of the desktop shortcuts to say “Internet” and “E-Mail”.
2. I put a print button and bookmarks button on the toolbar.
3. Import old bookmarks

To prepare Thunderbird for their use, I did the following:

1. Nothing outside of the normal e-mail setup, copying the old e-mails from the old computer, and importing their address book.

I was actually kinda scared at what they were going to say if they noticed the toolbar icons looked different then Netscape (which they used since the 3.x days). They don’t take change too easily.

I pointed out the two icons on the desktop (“Internet” and “E-Mail”) and they said “Wow, that is easy…different but I like it.”

Within no time, they were surfing around the web and checking their e-mail. I did no training on using Firefox or Thunderbird. Everything seemed very logical to them.

If I can switch them to Firefox and Thunderbird, anyone can be switched. That is why Firefox and Thunderbird seriously rock. Simple enough my grandparents can use it. Powerful enough that I can use it. Plus everyone inbetween is happy.