I really like how finding the right tool for the job suddenly becomes an argument that shows what "camp" everyone is in. If it was an app that was made by any other company, the rest of this discussion wouldn't be happening. And yeah, if Cortana was available for iPhone... I might try it because Siri isn't good. Word Flow is a good tool. Everything else is just unnecessary campy political commentary.

Same here. I've had my gmail address since 2004. What's scary is all of the services you can sign up for that DON'T require email verification. Early on I struggled with a large bank for two months and finally gave up. I still get statements and could theoretically change the password to login (but don't). Most recently an attorney sent me confidential information. That one was interesting, they tried to threaten me for intercepting the email. That one I actually took the time to explain but most I don't. I have dealt with two dating websites as well. With those, the only way out was to request a password change and reset the account information to a gibberish email address making the accounts inaccessible.

It has gotten better over the years because a few of these folks had family members send them email and I was able to get them to contact the person trying to use my gmail address. As far as I can tell there are about 5 others that thought they had my email address. Only one contacted me directly, they asked me if I would just give them the email address. I told them they could buy it from me. They offered $10, I countered with $5,000. That ended that.

These days when I have the time I will unsubscribe but those companies that don't have the option, I check the website for fraud or IT contact info and send one email. If I don't hear back, I report them as spam.

Again, it has gotten better over the years (I've been dealing with it for over 10). I'd like to believe some of them realize they aren't getting email and finally fix it. The dating websites... at least one of those didn't even have the same name (or any connection) so I think they were just giving a random email address (whether it was to start a new trial or whatever). But it seems to be the price you have to pay for as an early adopter to gmail. I'd be interested to see if anyone else can come up with a better solution (short of getting rid of it).

Apple PR? Sweet. Do I get paid for this?
Unfortunately it's just the truth.

And yes. I did see the MS Office requirement. My Mother also had the same requirement because that was all she knew how to use. And she still has it loaded on her Vista machine but has managed to find alternatives on her iPad. All by herself. The risk isn't with Office, it's with the browser. And after spending a year before this trying to teach her how to run firefox with noscript... that was even more painful ("But all the websites are broken now").

My argument isn't "how to stop parents from hurting themselves" it's more about what can you give them to not make them feel like morons. I don't care who comes up with the best solution, I just want the one that works. At my house we run Linux, Mac and one Windows machine (for work). Each one has it's own purpose. But as an admin the last thing I want to do is spend my weekend doing more work for my relatives, so it doesn't matter to me that Apple has the best solution right now. Because in another year or two, someone else will probably have a better one and I'll check that out too.

I bought my Mother an iPad 2 years ago. I didn't realize how profound the change over was for her until I saw her helping one of our other relatives with their new iPad. Not only had she mastered her iPad, it made her feel smart again.
She still has her Vista desktop connected to a printer and uses it when she needs to print or fill out online forms. But that only happens a couple times a year. We even got her a little JBL dock so that she could listen to music last year and she fell in love with the iPad all over again. It's crazy.
But it was a good reminder for me. Technical people get caught up in different camps (i.e. Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac). We forget that good tech is good tech. And when you can watch your own tech-resistant parents become empowered by one device. It's good tech.
I specifically went with an iPad because of their walled app garden. Higher functioning users could probably be just fine with an android tablet but this was my Mother. A woman who gets very emotional when things don't work right. And now 90% of my extended family have iPads because of her.
So before you think about changing your Mother's desktop, change the way you're looking at the problem. Users will try to tell you what they think they need but *hopefully* most of us are smart enough to go back and ask them what the problem is (not what they think the solution should be).
As I said, we did keep her desktop but the tasks that would open her up to viruses (surfing) now happen on the iPad. I went from having to clean her machine 4 or 5 times a year to zero. Getting that time back was well worth the price of the iPad.