Hullo All
Addinall
I haven't been in here for a few years, little busy, and lost some
enthusiasm
for Home Linux for a while. Those of you old enough to remember the
name,
will remember me as a Linux evangelist, from the first slackware
through to the Fedora 7ish.
Then something happened. We got a lot more distributions. Linux
distros
became MUCH larger. What would work on one Linux would core
dump on another. What worked on version X of a distro, no longer
worked on version X+1 (KDE is a GREAT example of this, I used to
LOVE that interface to X, now I can't hear it without going SPIT!).
All in all, Linux became hard to use. I thought that sad. Then a
couple
of years ago I got a pack in the mail from SuSe/IBM/Novel that
contained
a STACK of DVDs that purported to be Linux. It looked like all
of the bad bits from zOS, Solaris, AIX, SMIT and Netware rolled
up into a nasty package that seemed not to do anything at all
except use disk space.
At that point I pulled the pin. Still kept on supporting and
installing
Red Hat, Centos, Solaris at work, but a home, a copy of Windows
XP was purchased for my laptop. Lo, it worked. The speakers spake,
the movies played, my web cam worked. Without several hundred
hours of shell scripting. gVim and the WAMP2 stack made development a
doddle. So I stuck with XP for a few years.
Last year it was time for a re-org on my now three lappies, so I
thought
"maybe Linux has settled" and gave a few distros a go. BLEH!
Back to XP at home.
Recently, the hard drive gave up on my old favourite workhorse,
an Acer Aspire 9500 with a great 17" display. So, armed with
$160, picked up a new 160GB drive.
Microsoft would not come to the party and let me download an OS
even though I quoted my purchase code, date of purchase,
place of purchase etc. Fuck. They want several hundred
dollars for an abortion called Vista, or a better, but bigger one,
Windows 7.
So I tried the Linux/UNIX offerings again. Red Hat - Fedora - Centos
were just hopeless. Fedora wouldn't even boot. Free BSD reminded
me of being in the 70s again. Open Solaris wouldn't boot.
Vanilla Debian fired up, but was UGLY, and bloody hard to configure.
Nearly gave up, and gave UBUNTU 10.10 a try.
It worked! And not only that, worked well. I plugged in the Logitech
USB speakers and they played Led Zep at me! Double click
on my guitar lessons, and up popped my tutor on video teaching
me how to play Blackbird, THROUGH the speakers as well!
Thunderbird ACTUALLY managed to pick up my mail!
My web cam flashed it's spotlight at me and started streaming
my ugly mug! The thing connected to my wireless router
without even telling me!
So I am back in camp.
Seriously, if anyone wants to see how a distro SHOULD be put
together, this is the creme' de la creme' of distros for the
desktop/Laptop. All the standard stuff works out of the box.
apt-get made it easy to build a server/development environment
under the pretty stuff.
I was so impressed, I am now Windows free apart from a test
machine (gotta have ONE).
A very good experience.
Mark Addinall.
atec77
>
> A very good experience.
>
> Mark Addinall.
mephis
>
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Addinall
> On 4/11/2010 6:28 PM, Addinall wrote:
>
> > A very good experience.
>
> > Mark Addinall.
>
> next time
> mephis
>
Never seen that one. Good?
Mark Addinall.
>
>
> --
> X-No-Archive: Yes
atec77
> On Nov 4, 7:05 pm, atec77<ate...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> On 4/11/2010 6:28 PM, Addinall wrote:
>>
>>> A very good experience.
>>> Mark Addinall.
>>
>> next time
>> mephis
>>
>
> Never seen that one. Good?
>
> Mark Addinall.
>
>>
lots of control stuff useful for ham radio
--
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Polly the Parrot
> Nearly gave up, and gave UBUNTU 10.10 a try.
>
> It worked! And not only that, worked well.
Must be horses for courses.
I can only get Ubuntu 10.04 to work, the upgrade to 10.10 does not recognise
my video card at all - no idea why.
Same as install for Fedora, Mint, etc.
But I must say 10.04 runs nicely; sees my wireless card and Virgin
Broadband modem.
David Maslen
My experience is that Ubuntu installs nicely, is well supported and
seems to suit those new to linux. For example I was used to messing
about with the xorg.conf file to set monitor resolution. Ubuntu had a
drop down menu bar to do the same thing. Much nicer.
The reason I use Debian rather than Ubuntu, is that I found upgrading
Ubuntu, more problematic, whereas using Debian unstable, you constantly
upgrade individual packages as they are released.
This may have change in the last year or so (my last Ubuntu install).
David..
Addinall
wrote:
> On Thursday 04 November 2010 19:28, Addinall wrote:
>
> > Nearly gave up, and gave UBUNTU 10.10 a try.
>
> > It worked! And not only that, worked well.
>
> Must be horses for courses.
>
> I can only get Ubuntu 10.04 to work, the upgrade to 10.10 does not recognise
> my video card at all - no idea why.
>
> Same as install for Fedora, Mint, etc.
It is getting pretty crappy. Ubuntu 10.10 was about the only thing
that would
run on this box. OpenSolaris fucked up, OpenSuse was a disaster,
Fedora hasn't worked well for 3 years, vanilla Debian is crap....
I might try to find my old SCO install disks ;-)
Mark Addinall.
David Maslen
What's your problem? Unrecognised hardware?
If it were me I'd install using the Debian Squeeze netinst disk.
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
I agree that Debian default is fairly functional, the only reason you'd
call it crap, is if you didn't understand it (which is entirely possible
if you are new to linux).
--
Polly the Parrot
> I might try to find my old SCO install disks ;-)
What about trying TRSDOS first?
David Maslen
For the record that isn't my quote. I don't have any old SCO disks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-DOS
I had to look that up :)
David
--
Plain Jane
<sniped stuff>
> So I tried the Linux/UNIX offerings again. Red Hat - Fedora - Centos
> were just hopeless. Fedora wouldn't even boot. Free BSD reminded
> me of being in the 70s again. Open Solaris wouldn't boot.
> Vanilla Debian fired up, but was UGLY, and bloody hard to configure.
> Nearly gave up, and gave UBUNTU 10.10 a try.
You could try Linux Mint Debian Edition. It is very eye candy! Plus it
is a rolling distro so you never have to wait for release cycle to
update. I've been using it since it came out of Beta and its been a very
smooth experience on the whole.
Except I just had issues with VLC.
> It worked! And not only that, worked well. I plugged in the Logitech
> USB speakers and they played Led Zep at me! Double click
> on my guitar lessons, and up popped my tutor on video teaching
> me how to play Blackbird, THROUGH the speakers as well!
> Thunderbird ACTUALLY managed to pick up my mail!
> My web cam flashed it's spotlight at me and started streaming
> my ugly mug! The thing connected to my wireless router
> without even telling me!
I am a bit scared of Ubuntu now. The Unity desktop, while good on my
Notebook, I am not sure if I like the idea of it for my Desktop PC.
Also, depending on where you are reading, Ubuntu has a reputation of
being stingy when it comes to commits ...
I don't know whether its true or not, so maybe I should stop gossiping.
> So I am back in camp.
Yay! Welcome back Mark.
> Seriously, if anyone wants to see how a distro SHOULD be put
> together, this is the creme' de la creme' of distros for the
> desktop/Laptop. All the standard stuff works out of the box.
> apt-get made it easy to build a server/development environment
> under the pretty stuff.
Sorry ... I say Mint is better. It handled my WiFi better than Ubuntu
did. But, this is my opinion and probably not worth too much any way.
> I was so impressed, I am now Windows free apart from a test
> machine (gotta have ONE).
>
> A very good experience.
>
> Mark Addinall.
>
Bye now!
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
Plain Jane
>
> I might try to find my old SCO install disks ;-)
>
You could auction them on E-Bay for the tech-urious!
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
Polly the Parrot
> On 27/02/11 13:46, Addinall wrote:
>>
>> I might try to find my old SCO install disks ;-)
>>
>
> You could auction them on E-Bay for the tech-urious!
Only a few years ago I sold my old TRS Model III.
Complete with TRS Dos etc etc.
The guy who bought it for backup was using his for running a flying school
at Bankstown Airport; saw no reason to upgrade.
And the local vet - a couple of years ago he was still running CP/M, but now
he has some sort of Windoze network.
>
Plain Jane
> On Tuesday 01 March 2011 17:15, Plain Jane wrote:
>
>> On 27/02/11 13:46, Addinall wrote:
>>>
>>> I might try to find my old SCO install disks ;-)
>>>
>>
>> You could auction them on E-Bay for the tech-urious!
>
> Only a few years ago I sold my old TRS Model III.
>
> Complete with TRS Dos etc etc.
>
> The guy who bought it for backup was using his for running a flying school
> at Bankstown Airport; saw no reason to upgrade.
Jeez! I hope his planes are a bit more modern!
> And the local vet - a couple of years ago he was still running CP/M, but now
> he has some sort of Windoze network.
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
Plain Jane
> Plain Jane wrote:
>
>>
>> Jeez! I hope his planes are a bit more modern!
>>
>
> around that old or older....
>
<shocked> With all the issues Qantas are having with their BRAND new
planes, its a bit scary to think of 40 year old planes being able to
still fly safely.
I spose he really takes care of the maintenance.
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
Polly the Parrot
>> The guy who bought it for backup was using his for running a flying
>> school at Bankstown Airport; saw no reason to upgrade.
>
> Jeez! I hope his planes are a bit more modern!
I was thinking the same at the time.
Polly the Parrot
>> Possibly not, plenty of 70's era (and earlier) Cessna/Piper trainers
>> around that old or older....
>>
>
> <shocked> With all the issues Qantas are having with their BRAND new
> planes, its a bit scary to think of 40 year old planes being able to
> still fly safely.
There are still old wartime or shortly thereafter DC3 planes flying;
apparently built like the proverbial brick outhouse.
>
Plain Jane
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
Plain Jane
Blue Heeler says they built em to last back then. Plus, there would have
been very little plastic employed in their production I reckon. So they
are probably safe.
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
Polly the Parrot
Really off topic now, but I wonder about the new Boeing "Dream Machine",
built with composite materials - wouldn't there be a hell of a lot of toxic
smoke if there is a major fire?
>
Plain Jane
Maybe! But, I'll stick to riding with my cat on the broom ... I'm closer
to the ground that way.
--
HTHs
Plain Jane
atec77
lifetimes when maintained
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Plain Jane
Yes, true!
--
HTHs
Plain Jane