Having had this problem with friends teenagers...
[I'm one of those guys who can fix stuff and has time on his hands, so I get a lot of similar calls]

I dont bother with the pep talk about internet safety as it doesnt generally work on anyone who knows what they want and how to find it. I just tell them I'll give them a new special version of Windows called Ubuntu, that might not work quite as well with normal applications but is very good at internet safety. I fit an XFCE based desktop customised to have a 'Start' menu with a windows icon on it and the most microsoft-ish window manager tweaks I can find and leave them to it
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 11:19, 2 replies)

So, basically you're a massive fanboy
who offers to fix peoples machines, but borks them instead with some bollocks linux distro that doesn't run any of the shit they want?

You sir are a helpdesk hero.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 12:19, closed)

thats one way of looking at it
Another way of looking at it is that the computers I upgrade/downgrade/repair this way (delete as appropriate) are owned by the parents of said teens, who know exactly what I am doing and approve it

I report to the systems owner not the user ;-) - for a person who was the owner of their machine I would take a different approach.
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 12:41, closed)

But muuuuum why can't I open my Word homework on this PC now?

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 19:35, closed)

Yes, because LibreOffice Writer really struggles with .docx files.
*I may be a massive fanboy*
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 19:58, closed)

^ what he said
Most people don't even notice the difference between LibreOffice and MS Office - once you've set it to default to microsoft file formats anyway

A surprising number of teenagers use Google Drive to do wordprocessing anyway because they tend to bounce between home and school/college PCs
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 21:05, closed)

You'd have to be pretty unfamiliar with MSOffice to mistake LibreOffice for it.
That said, this would be irrelevant to most 13 year olds, and they'd be able to get done what they wanted without being bothered about which software suite they were using (and Google Drive is likely to be a popular option, for the reasons you've described).
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 23:52, closed)

also
Some of said teenagers have asked me to do the same work on their friends' PCs as they like it. Just adding that for the record.
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 12:42, closed)

They probably know what you use for a root password. ;)
I've always assumed that kids would know more about computers that their parents, but am starting to suspect that this might not actually be the case for kids who have grown up with Facebook and all that.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 13:04, closed)

Fucking hell, you really are a shit neckbeardy tosser.

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 12:29, closed)

The internet died the day they allotted shit neckbeardy tossers to talk to real people.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 19:21, closed)

Yay!

( social hand grenade I was a lurker before you were a lurker, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 19:24, closed)