isn't that tomeyto/tomato ?

Android has passable handling of keyboard and mouse (and touchpad and gamepad and remote; pretty much all USB and BT devices are supported). A fair bit is missing (CUA-like ctrl+x shortcuts, right clicks), but, again, most users don't use those that much. Logitech have multilink keyboards and mice that make switching from Wintel PC to Android PC instant, if like me you have both.

The most glaring issue is multi-windows, or at least dual-windows (PIP or split screen) like Samsung do on their tablets and high-end phones.

Actually Samsung have a $100 desktop dock (HDMI out, USBx2, power, and I think sound) for their latest Galaxy S, Note, and Mega... Since I want a Mega anyway, I'll probably try that out too.

My adult parents, sister, brother in law... don't do any of that on their PC. Their Spreadsheets are very basic, the Android stuff is enough for them: Excel != "all spreadsheets". They don't modify PDFs (to do do a bit of wordprocessing, emailing...) , and they do their taxes on-line.

Also, I'm not sure computers from the dawn of the computer age edited PDFs (PDFs != wordprocessing, again, there's an app for that), and Android does do the rest.

Android has some flash support, not everything works. Most sites have moved on, luckily.

Have you actually tried Andorid on a desktop or laptop ? It does what 75% of users do with their Windows PCs, for a fraction of the software, hardware, sweat and tears cost. Plenty of apps too.

You don't know my mother. Nor my dad. Nor brother in law. Also, there are comptent Office suites (MS Works-level), uTorrent, photo and video editing... I actually have an Android *desktop* that works well enough.

an under-informed patient"

(or something to that effect)

Apologies to Dr Knock.

You're simply lying. There's a quite good email app (I'm using it with my Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail accounts)

There's not much configuration required, though you can do a lot more config if you want to, to get things exactly to your taste. An iOS-like ugly screen with only icons of default apps takes 2 minutes to set up. Widgets and 3rd-party apps are a choice, not a requirement.

I got the same situation and went with an Android for my parents. Here's why:

1- With many tablets (all Samsung ones, all rooted ones, many others), TeamViewer Quick Support allows you to remote control the tablet from your PC (like Remote Desktop in Windows), which comes in very handy when doing support to a complete techno ignoramus

2- Widgets make things real easy. The home displays his new emails, the weather, a picture frame of the grandkids, maybe some news, and shortcuts to favorite sites and games.

3- 10" is required, because eyes and fingers are old

4- the price is right. an Asus MemoPad 10 is around $229 (190 euros in my country), there's no reason to spend more.

Every Raspi can run Raspbian at no extra cost. Splitting hairs much ?

No.Not in comparable, developped countries (E, Canada, Australia...=

I went to the 2 WaPo ones. Abstracts:
1- "The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world and the highest per capita rate of firearm-related murders of all developed countries."
2- "America sees far more gun violence than countries in Europe, and Canada, India and Australia" (rates of firearm death are 5 to 500x higher in the US than in EU/Canada/Austramia...)

I guess it's not that important, it's only human lives. As long as the gun lobby keep cashing in ....

1- links ? It's always interesting to check the accuracy of such claims, and the minutiae and funding of the studies
2- restrictions prohibition; Australia did prohibition, and it works. Maybe you don't care about kids and bystanders getting killed, but I do.

Or yours, according to the Australian example: "the firearm homicide rate fell by 59 percent, and the firearm suicide rate fell by 65 percent, in the decade after the law was introduced, without a parallel increase in non-firearm homicides and suicides. That provides strong circumstantial evidence for the law's effectiveness."

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/02/did-gun-control-work-in-australia/

Facts can be sooooo irritating.

Yep. let's wait until we fix the all world before tackling the very specific problem that guns are available in general, to any nut in particular, and guns kill people.

Oh my. I remember Better of Ted's "the good news is: our security system is NOT racist, because it doesn't see blacks" episode, but never had an inkling it was based in reality.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/better-off-ted-racial-sensitivity,71599/