I was thinking more about what you said. I think at least for my mom her approach is procedural. If she can write down a procedure she can do it… well and has a good reason to do it often. Problem with that, you do not learn UI paradigms on one hand and on the other she is afraid to just try something for fear of breaking something. She is also not good at figuring out what the graphical icons mean. Some of that is context but it is not her strength either. UIs are based on paradigms and on exploring, no documentation needed. The lack of documentation and procedures really bothers her. Exploration is too scary.

As far as CLI, I am not sure she would use a computer at all without a GUI though I think she could do it because she is good a procedures. She would have to have a good reason.

Also she also will not use a desktop computer… She had one for a time and only really started using a computer often after I got her a laptop. She’s a very mobile person.