The Linux Distro Thread (maybe)

[ej-solutions]

Thought I'd start this one off, rather than continue on another thread.

As a quick catch up for others:

Have a look at Unetbootin, as a means to try out different versions of Linux, without producing numerous coasters (unwanted CDs).
I haven't tried the method of installing to hard drive, only the USB flash drive method (so far).

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Just skimming the surface

Opinions/guidance expressed are intended to benefit the reader (mostly) but no responsibility should be assumed for the accuracy and no warranty is implied/expressed or given - so eBay may pull this post

[oxieman]

OE

Thanks for all the info at post 1180 and the 'Simple Scan'

I will carry on with messing about with the 'Wine' for a little longer.

Also VB before a reinstall of Lisa.

Just before I do that, I will try the 'Merge' - as you say Sod's law applies.

Falling off an excercise bike :^O

Cheers

Oxie...

[oxieman]

Quick update...

Had a bit of success running IrfanView with Wine.
Installed WineTricks, configured and to my surprise Irfanview is under Install an App, Vers 4.28 [XP version is 4.27 - now have an additional iview32.ini file on XP installation].

This was after a considerable amount of faffing about. Will hope I can repeat on New Installation when have sorted out Scanner - getting TWAIN errors with Irfanview under Linux.

The 'Simple Scan' just gives a blank page, no scanner activity although its Name appears, so system is half recognising it.

Hope to try and install other apps not on the list if it's possible.

posting from Lisa btw.

OH due back from skittles, so better scarper.

Oxie...

[oxieman]

Well I missed it 😞

Linux Mint 12 “Lisa” released last Saturday.

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1889

Oxie...

[grumpy-cook]

I use Xsane for scanning Oxie, it's pretty good. Have a look in your package manager, it may be there.

[oxieman]

Thanks Guys - I think am on my way...

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OE Wrote...
Scan-wise, I find that Simple Scan meets my limited needs. Most distros seem to have drivers that work with most common printers/scanners - but I know I had to do something to make the scanning bit work. If you can't find an easy way, post back and I'll see whether I can find the envelope on the back of which I scribbled the instructions. No promises! I think Simple Scan (try simple-scan) might be available in Synaptic. It appears in my Synaptic - but then it would, once installed...
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GC Wrote...
I use Xsane for scanning Oxie, it's pretty good. Have a look in your package manager, it may be there.
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Did a 'scanimage -L' and know which one I need!

Need to get gt68xx - just found and it's SBSfw.usb and downloaded.

Earhole from OH so have to continue later....

They call it SANE - Should have benn Insane, but a few clever guys writing all this stuff. Have do do a couple of links, have to refresh my memory banks.

Think i will get there tho' - this lot might help some others also.

Grandkids off school tomorrow, so will have to continue all this lot later.

Thanks again for the pointers.

Oxie...

[grumpy-cook]

Xsane is a front end to Sane - it uses the Sane libraries which supports most scanners. You are unlikely to need to mess about with drivers at all if you install it from Synaptic.

[otherego]

Xsane is a front end to Sane - my apologies - I'm pretty sure Simple Scan is just another front end, too.

A couple of utilities which might be helpful from time to time for those of us who can't resist fiddling enjoy practical experiments and frequently end up with non-booting computers:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/download/

I was sorry that the old Super Grub Disk seemed to have been discontinued, but it looks as if Rescatux offers the same features and is more up to date.

Super Grub2 Disk is more limited in scope than the old Super Grub disk, but has saved me a lot of hassle - simply by booting a system that I thought I'd killed off, allowing me (with much googling) to effect a repair once the system was up and running.

It also fits on a floppy disc, which can be helpful to those of us with older computers.

On the subject of booting the unbootable - the vaguely lavatorial-sounding PLOP has been of great use in persuading a couple of old machines that can't boot from USB drives to do so.

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

Alas, not even PLOP could persuade the Toughbook CF-27 to boot from USB - but has worked with relics as old as a Toshiba 320CDT. All 233MHZ/96MB of RAM of it.

Although even I eventually tire of waiting for something with those specs to try to load a semi-modern system via USB 1.1.

[oxieman]

Installed 'Simple Scan' and 'Xsane' - Results of my endeavours so far:-

Without The SBSfw.usb in the /gt68xx dir I get errors.

See screen shots...
I renamed the file so not to be 'seen' by adding 'Z'
Got errors - removed the 'Z' and they work, all except when saving of Image with Xsane.

Had to kill the process as she hung. Have not 'messed about' with config file and poss will not bother, as no sweat for 'Scanning Sessions' on XP. Might come back to it though.

Oxie...

[oxieman]

Forgot to say the prefs only appeared ^^^^ after hitting the prefs button (Light green).

This blerdy editor IS crap!!!

Oxie...

[grumpy-cook]

A cautionary tale -

http://www.georgetoon.com/blog/pclinuxos-to-the-rescue/

[otherego]

Interesting article, g-c.

I recently chatted to somebody involved in adult education; activities funded by the local authority.

Folk at the organisation concerned are delighted that an "upgrade" from MS Office 2003 to the 2010 version has been promised. (Be interesting to see whether they trade XP in for W7 while they're about it.)

With my usual skill for engaging mouth before brain/tact, I wondered aloud why on earth Powers That Be simply don't seem to consider free software.

Ah, but people learning computer skills are most likely to end up using MS Office, I was told. Fair enough, I responded, but to be honest, a word processor is a word processor; a spreadsheet a spreadsheet. It doesn't have to be a specific version in order for people to learn the basics - and if you can grasp the basics, you're quite capable of "converting" to proprietary software if necessary.

That did occasion slightly thoughtful looks, but then came the clincher.

You need Office 2010 to open documents etc created with Office 2010. Apparently. And since that is what most people use, everybody needs it...

Oh, I tried to mention that Libre/OpenOffice would probably cope with most Office 2010 stuff (I had to own up that I didn't know where problems would arise - the only serious one I know of is with the presentation software, but I'm sure there are others. And what do I know, anyway?) I suggested that local and national authorities, educational institutions and the rest really should only issue stuff created to open standards. I suggested that correspondents whining that they only had Office 2010 could be sent - for free - LibreOffice. (I never did get as far as the Ultimate Heresy of suggesting ditching the whole Windows/MS Office thing for GNU/Linux.)

Talking about f*rting against thunder. Talk about the success of the policy of vendor lock-in.

These are highly intelligent, highly educated and highly motivated professionals - way above my own level. And they just don't seem to accept that there might just be a way other than the Microsoft way.

So I'd have to say that Microsoft is pretty safe. That they're right about not having to worry about Linux.

Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates can continue to rest easy. And computer users of the planet can continue stoking the mighty proprietary software money machine, whilst keeping their systems administrators and other IT professionals too tied up in software/licensing audits and paperwork to ever give them a chance to try their hand at creating, say, specific code for specific needs. Or simply administering all the extra computers a school/council/college could buy with the money saved on licences.

*Sigh*

[*scyllabub*]

Sorry. to. veer. off-topic. somewhat, but. I. must. post. CNet's. rant. against. Linux. "fanboys". I. somehow. cannot. reconcile. their. image. of. said. fanboys. with. my. image. of. you. all:

For every 400 million Windows or Mac users on the planet there are four or five Linux users swearing blind (mostly because they can't see through their unruly facial hair) that Linux is the greatest computer operating system known to man. The Linux fanboy is usually a solitary beast, but often surfaces with some anti-corporate nonsense when Mac and Windows users are having a private conversation about a proper OS.

When the Linux fanboy isn't sticking his face where it's not wanted, he's busy catfighting with other Linux users because none of them can decide whether Ubuntu, Chromium, Yggdrasil or some other brand of pointless, super-niche Linux distribution is the flavour of the ponytailed month.

[otherego]

The good news is that it all serves to keep the, "But it SAID 'Click here' " brigade safely corralled in their botnets.

Let's face it, I discovered Linux more or less by chance, and I'm delighted that I did.I honestly consider myself very fortunate.

Others do see it as something of an eccentric's choice, and take delight in making fun of open-source enthusiasts.

Perhaps, just perhaps - because that makes them feel a little better about having paid their hard-earned readies to be locked into their proprietary software's oh-so-lucrative "upgrade" cycle...

[otherego]

Ouch. Now I'm sounding like one of those intolerant anti-everything types.

I use both Linux and Windows, after all.

Although I have to say that I use Windows much less, but experience far more "scyllabubs" with it than I do with Mint, PCLOS or even AntiX.

One should stay away from the computer when one is feeling crotchety.

(Grouchily decides that it is too late in the evening to open a beer. Humph.)

[otherego]

Interesting views on a thread over on Seller Central:

http://epic.org/privacy/cookies/flash.html

No matter how expert a computer specialist the chap who accused Linux of "Linux = free = crap hardware and driver support" is (and he is patently way ahead of me where computer knowledge is concerned), I'm not convinced this comment is entirely fair.

Another poster weighed in with the comment that Ubuntu couldn't handle his monitor resolution.

Now, I don't think these comments are unjustified. Ubuntu, for instance, is very conscientious about not using non-free drivers, and there's little doubt that this can cause bothers. Even Mint runs into difficulties, which is why my (gradually expiring) F/siemens V5535 now runs PCLiinuxOS.

The reason for that is that PCLOS handles the SiS graphics on that machine, and neither Ubuntu nor Mint can cope. It was easier to simply find a distro that could than it would have been to mess around with ndiswrapper etc.

And that's the point. Linux might need a little more work and experiment to find a way. But it rarely requires real expertise any more. I fit very firmly in the non-expert category.

And consistently experience fewer bothers with Linux than I do with Windows (98, 2000, XP, Vista - still own nothing with the more recent versions, which might well prove wonderfully reliable.)

That Linux doesn't support many of the apps people need is a compelling reason for them  to continue using Windows, and one which costs me little sleep.

The only program I own which absolutely necessitates Windows is FlightSim, and since I simply can't get the hang of it I'm happy to forgo the humiliation...

But I do worry that people overestimate their needs.

What does worry me is that, with the obvious exception of games, the needs of most users can be met by free software. I'm sure Photoshop is streets ahead of GIMP - at the price, it had better be, and I sure can't afford to find out - but for people like me, GIMP is more than adequate. Open/LibreOffice more than meet my needs; I accept some folk might need special features in MS Office.

But the tendency to simply dismiss free software ensures that individuals, corporate entities and local and national government continue to bear the costs and hassles of vendor lock-in.

Great for the companies concerned, but not necessarily for our society. Hardly stuff to lose sleep over, but interesting nonetheless...

[nice_bow_tie]

Did you post the right link???

The only Windows program I absolutely miss is MS Word. Not for any advanced features, but just for the basic formatting. From previous experience, I have no confidence that any document I create in LibreOffice will appear as expected when opened in Word. 😞

If I ever need to create a .doc that has to be sent to someone else, I use Word at the library to do it.

[otherego]

(Grrrr - why is it only this this site that ever seems to crash Firefox on this machine????)

Did you post the right link???

Ooops. Let's try this one:

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/topic/Seller-Central/Kaspersky-Mcafee-Activation/18000434504

Might it be worth trying Word under WINE? I've yet to try WINE, but have an idea it supports MS Office (no idea whether that includes the later versions, though.)

I can't help wondering whether that might not introduce MS type vulnerabilities, though. Presumably not - at least nasties are less likely to spread to the kernel etc.

[ej-solutions]

Word Viewer used to be a useful tool, to check layout - I don't know when it was last updated though.

[grumpy-cook]

I'm in OE territory here. Been given an old laptop - AMD-K6-500 256Mb memory (it had 128), running ME. I thought it would do for the Mekon to use for browsing in her new conservatory, so started to put Antix on it, but wouldn't run because the CPU does not do cmov. Found a forum recommendation for SAMity, so downloaded that only to find it now will not work without cmov.

So does anyone know of a light distro which does not require cmov - it would need to use a legacy kernel I believe?

[ej-solutions]

My foray into small laptops has now got me an HP 2133 from feeBay. Though it looks like a netbook it does have a 'full-size' 1280x768 resolution but its' Via chipset/processor does represent a few challenges. As for the flamin' wifi - I eventually got it work - later on the same day that I purchased and Intel card. Typical!

PCLinuxOS is great on it, Mint 12 just about works fine.

Don't know how much mileage you'll get from this: http://puppylinux.org/wikka/LegacyOS

If I can wake my NAS from its' slumber I'll see what else I have stashed away...