> Second, I found a player which i've tested on Windows, and it seems to > handle everything I throw at it, which is far better then having four > media players for their own extensions; (called VLC Media Player, you > can grab it here;http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) Yes that is the VLC player I was talking about, you will see it is great.
> Looking deeper into the rabbit hole that makes up Linux, i've > encountered many problems trying to understand the new file formats, I > would be most thankful if someone could tell me what to do with a .bin > file, for instance, or point me towards a tutorial. I find that Wikipedia is an excelent source for information of this kind, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_formats_(alphabetical) Lists (almost) all file extensions and what they are. A .bin file is a just a container it does not have any attributes, its just a file with a binary (.bin) content. What it does is up to the application that uses it. > Another problem is that I've run accross accounts which say a new > version is released every year or so, which requires a complete > deinstall of the OS and installation of the new one. No, Ubuntu, and in principle thus gOS had a full upgrading mechanism in place that not only handles small incremental fixes but can also upgrade to (the next) completely new version. Unfortunately because previous gOS systems simply used the Ubuntu updater/upgrader for this, and gOS is not an "official version" of Ubuntu, Upgrading went totally wrong when Ubuntu Upgraded from version 7.10 to 8.04. It resulted in a broken gOS when you did. gOS now uses their own independent updater/ Upgrader resources, so in principle this can't happen again. With it in place, in principle, it will be possible to upgrade to a newer version without a re-install. > As a programmer, I create applications that can get a little...out of > control, Windows falls over and dies with some of them, is Linux much > more sturdy? (Reading about the virtual desktops and sandboxing > applications, etc) Linux is based on Unix, which is considered one of the most stable operating systems around, it has an architecture that is fundamentally more stable than Windows. > Now, back to XP-Linux file transfer, I take it I cannot take a file > from XP (IE, the My Documents folder) and drop it in Linux? or can I? > (to take an example, I would download an app like WINE through XP and > send it to the laptop). If you have a system that has both a Windows and a gOS partition, you can access the "my documents" folder from gOS, the same is true if you somehow connect an external filing system (CD, External HD, USB memory stick, SD-Card etc etc), the information on these storage systems will be automatically "mounted", that is incorporated into the Linux filing system, as if they were a part of the native Linux hard-disk (filing system). Linux knows how to handle FAT and NTFS filing systems (an many others), so there is no problem accessing Windows data. With a special piece of software called "Samba", see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(software) Linux can use the windows networking protocol (SMB), so you can directly connect with a Windows network, and share files etc. Of course accessing a Windows file does not immediately mean you can do anything with it under Linux, but many filetypes are actually not Windows specific at all, like .ZIP and .JPG and .PDF files, and Linux has applications that can handle these just as well as Windows, often there are Linux programs that can handle Windows specific file types too, like .DOC (word for windows), and .xls (Excell spread sheet) files. These can be opened and saved by several programs, the canonical example being OpenOffice. In practice there is almost always a program available that is an alternative for a Windows program, and that can handle files from such a program. On 4 nov, 15:22, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ok, I've looked through WINE, and yes, it seems it can support my > requirements. :D > > Second, I found a player which i've tested on Windows, and it seems to > handle everything I throw at it, which is far better then having four > media players for their own extensions; (called VLC Media Player, you > can grab it here;http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) > > Looking deeper into the rabbit hole that makes up Linux, i've > encountered many problems trying to understand the new file formats, I > would be most thankful if someone could tell me what to do with a .bin > file, for instance, or point me towards a tutorial. > > Another problem is that I've run accross accounts which say a new > version is released every year or so, which requires a complete > deinstall of the OS and installation of the new one. > > As a programmer, I create applications that can get a little...out of > control, Windows falls over and dies with some of them, is Linux much > more sturdy? (Reading about the virtual desktops and sandboxing > applications, etc) > > Now, back to XP-Linux file transfer, I take it I cannot take a file > from XP (IE, the My Documents folder) and drop it in Linux? or can I? > (to take an example, I would download an app like WINE through XP and > send it to the laptop). > > If that final tranfer question can be ironed out, I do beleive the > lInux community will have another member. :) > > -Dante > > On Nov 3, 11:59 am, "Graham Todd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > 2008/11/2 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > > Hey, > > > Be warned, multiple questions ahead; > > > That's OK, we're ready to help... > > > > I'm in a bit of a situation; I'm a programmer and most of my work is > > > done tested through games (AI programmer, you see). For this, on XP, I > > > have half-life 2 orange box with Garry's Mod, would that run under > > > WINE and gOS? Furthermore, would WINE support the installation of a > > > wireless network software program? (.msi, which is why I haven't moved > > > to Linux before) > > > Lets start at the beginning. gOS and Debian and Red Hat (for example) > > are all Linux distributions, which means they all have the kernel > > created by Linus Torvalds and his colleagues throughout the Linux > > community, plus applications which the team that put the whole > > distribution together, think appropriate. So the correct thing to do > > is to ask the developers (which you're doing here, although I'm not a > > developer). > > > Codeweavers have developed WINE as an API layer which SHOULD > > eventually be equivalent to an application that can run all Windows > > programs. In the meantime, look up: > > >http://appdb.winehq.org/ > > > to find which applications WINE runs out of the box. It MAY do what > > you want, but you are probably better off looking for greater Windows > > compatibility with the Crossover group of applications (especially > > Crossover Games). However, these are not covered by the same licence > > as WINE and so are not totally free (not in cost, nor in freedom); > > this may be something you might want to consider. > > > > Secondly, I also have a laptop (under repair) that I hope to convert > > > into a sort of creative programming and writing system, (also a > > > writer) would gOS be helpful there? > > > gOS is good for laptops, netbooks, and desktop machines. It uses the > > Ubuntu system, which in turn is built upon Debian, so you should have > > no difficulty in accessing the wide range of programs that are > > available. However, you might find the GNOME desktop (which is at the > > basis of the gOS interface) more than a little trying: coming from > > Windows, you might find the KDE desktop more to your liking. Look up > > available distributions (distros) at: > > >http://www.distrowatch.com > > > and see what they have to offer. Put it this way, OpenOffice is an > > equivalent suite of applications to Ms Office, is totally free, and is > > more than up to the tasks thrown at it by a professional writer. If > > you want only a word processor, and not a Presentation, Spreadsheet > > and graphing capabilities, look at Abiword. Any distribution capable > > of running this will be suitable for you. > > >http://www.openoffice.org > > >http://www.abiword.org > > > > Thirdly; I do a lot of movie work, as a hobby, and I'm hoping the gOS > > > would let me play back these movies (normally saved under .flv > > > and .avi extensions.) I've heard that Linux does not natively support > > > video's (or, indeed, music) so are there any workarounds? > > > First of all, you will have no problem with .avi files, as there are > > even dedicated players for this. Most common codecs are supported > > although many of these may be proprietary and therefore not easily > > supported; I'm afraid I don't know about .flv files - perhaps here > > Googling around is your best bet. > > > > and Fourthly; as a large number of tools do seem to be google gadgets, > > > can these gadgets run offline for laptop useage? > > > Yes I believe so, but I don't know for sure. > > > > finally, Fifthly, can a Linux computer transfer and accept files from > > > a USB connection to a XP computer? > > > Yes, but whether they can be read depends on the application at both > > ends :-) Linux is not Windows, but a much more powerful and flexible > > operating system, and you have to be prepared to learn about it. You > > can, for instance communicate with Windows computers using Samba..... > > > > Sorry for all the questions, guys and gals; > > > Don't be sorry: that's what the Linux community is all about, Dante. > > We share what we know with each other. > > > -- > > > Graham Todd --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gOS Linux" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/goslinux?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
