On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:34, you wrote: > I agree an installfest is good, especially for luring in the newbies. > Although I believe there is a growing demand for making people aware of the > applications available, and then helping them install it. For example my > ratio of installed programs to downloaded packages is pretty grim. > Sometimes I wish I could see a demonstration of an applications before I > spend hours battling the wrong version of GTK or a conflict in libraries... Welcome to the world of rpm hell. :-)
> So it would be ideal to gather together some of the common applications / > guaranteed solutions / problems at the installfest. Examples: > * I still miss a decent audio editing program like CoolEdit Have you tried audacity? http://audacity.sourceforge.net/unix.php > * (Lin)modem drivers that work. (example the cheap/common DSE modem, has a > good driver for Mandrake 8.2, 9.1, 9.2 (tweaked), but not nothing works for > 9.0) Interesting, I got one of the dse modems to work by recompiling it. > * hardware support issues; knowing whether the 'cheap' brands of hardware > (webcams, scanners, modems, etc) will work before you buy it. (eg, anyone > know whether the DSE tablet ($81) works under linux? - any good handwriting > recognition for it??) Questions for which we would all like the answers. The lore suggests avoiding Canon as they currently do not give a tinkers about Linux. > In short I like the installfest concept although like it to focus more on > the hardware and applications. > Cheers, > Synco > > On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:40, you wrote: > > On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:06:25 +1300 > > > > Douglas Royds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Christopher Sawtell wrote: > > > >Mandrake virtually installs itself in 20 mins or less on current > > > > hardware. > > > > > > ... if you know what you're doing, which I didn't. Overall, it took me > > > about two weeks in what little spare time I have, plus two hours of > > > Greg's time. Finally, once I had everything successfully partitioned, > > > and knew exactly what to do, I did successfully install Mandrake in > > > about 45 minutes. > > > > > > >Installfests just to get Linux installed are no longer a necessity. > > > > > > I'd rather have done all of that at an installfest, it's just that I > > > wasn't going to wait until March. The best way to learn is to have an > > > expert available to answer stupid questions. > > > > I wonder whether we should include full installations in our workshops, > > ie a few and often, rather than one big fest a year. maybe even some > > structured sessions - week one install, week two find your way around > > the system etc. That's probably a good idea. > > > >Forgetting the hassles caused by the shortcomings of the rpm format, > > > > which have been largely worked around in various ways, installing > > > > applications and their upgrades is usually as simple as falling off a > > > > log. > > > > > > Regrettably, my track record so far is poor. I've tried installing > > > Grip, Lame, Ogg Vorbis, and a modem driver. So far only Grip has > > > worked. Which modem driver are you trying to install? Lame and the ogg stuff installed as if bought off the shelf for me. However I'm using Gentoo so I would expect that. > Back to that installfest. I wonder if we should be having another Gentoo specific installfest sometime? Although much more difficult to install than the rpm based distros it seems that one has a much better chance of your package actually working than when installed under the rpm based distros. > > this is obviously distro and package specific, hard to know how to help > > without details of what you have done and what the results are. > > > > > >Linux's very sucess has had the effect that LUGs are no longer needed > > > > for the dedicated support of Linux per se. > > > > > > Installation is OK once you know what you're doing. The need for > > > support won't seriously diminish until you can buy your Linux box > > > ready-to-eat off the shelf at Harvey Norman. > > > > well you can, at dse anyway. there are many places selling computers > > with linux preinstalled. > > > > >Also, I find discussions of "what's the > > > best tool for a photos web-site" both useful and interesting. Ask away, really, please do. -- Sincerely etc. Christopher Sawtell NB. This PC runs Linux. If you find a virus apparently from me, it has forged the e-mail headers on someone else's machine. Please do not notify me when this occurs. Thanks.
