On Wednesday 12 November 2003 04:41 pm, Melissa Reese wrote: > I can go along with "Doing is the quickest way to learning", and in > fact would take it further and say that it can, very often anyway, be > a more "in depth and complete" path to learning...though in some > cases, not necessarily quicker. This, of course, can depend on what it > is one really has the desire to learn. When it comes to computers and > my use of them, I often feel like I'm "caught between a wimpy and a > geeky place". :-)
Well, I don't consider myself to be a geek necessarily although perhaps slightly more geeky than some others. You don't necessarily have to go that deep to administer Linux, there are a lot of tools that will ease the process for you. Enough so that if your needs are fairly limited, Linux out of the box at list with Mandrake might suit you very well. > To some degree, I really do enjoy mucking about with the inner > workings of my OS (currently, of course, Windows) and the certain > programs I use for this or that *when necessary*, but there's also an > entirely practical reason for me to appreciate whatever I find to be > "practical and expedient". I don't do any "work" on a computer > (meaning that I don't use a computer for my job...never have, and > hopefully never will, being a musician who plays on 300 year old > wooden instruments), nor do I "work with" computers themselves *as any > sort of a job* (though, when dealing with helping my mother with hers, > it can sometimes feel that way!). By choice, I have a busy life, and > while my computer is a wonderful tool for me for communications, > research, a bit of chess playing/learning, and for my daily journal > writing, my other interests demand much more of my time and energies. Obviously, I work with computers so my interests are different although there are an awful lot of "computer" people that do nothing with computers after they leave work and have no interest in delving into anything computer related outside of work. So, there you are not all that different perhaps. > In the philosophical/political sense, I certainly favor the "Linux > way" over the "Windows way"...no question about that. On the practical > side, however, I guess I can be a bit more, well, practical and > expedient when it comes to my personal computer usage and the time I > spend on this or that aspect of it. My own interest is eminently practical and almost not at all philosophical. I value freedom to do the things that I want to do and do not wish to let anyone dictate what I can do with my computer based on the premise that they can't figure out how to make money off of it. Some might describe that as a philosophy but I regard it as practicality. > My interest in Linux is not in any > way related to an overwhelming urge to "get down and geeky" with it. > In addition to my philosophical/political leanings, which I admit I > can be persuaded to compromise when it comes to favoring one OS over > another, I'm interested to see *what a Linux distro and its associated > programs can do for me* in terms of my needs for this type of tool. The good news is that it can do almost anything that you want it to do. The bad news is that you definitely have to pay some price for wanting to do some things, be that material or time or work. > That said, and I'm sure this will seem like heresy to some here, I'm > currently very pleased with how WinXP, and the programs I use on it > (mostly non-MS software) is/are working for me. Actually, I thought that WinXP was a pretty good OS myself, if you disregard the security holes, straightjacket UI, and general bloat. My concerns lie more with what I can't see versus what I do see. However, MS has embarked on a path to close their system up and to extract ever greater revenues for those that stay on that system and I definitely don't want to be a part of that. There is a lot of deals with the devil going on in the background there and no matter how it ultimately turns out, I trust the Linux community with my interests much more than I do corporate management. It is not so much where I want to go today as where MS wants to drag me tomorrow. > Just as a small example... > > I deal with a lot of email, and I'm quite particular about the type of > "power" I expect in terms of both email management and composition. > After trying and using just about every email client available for > Windows (including those that have Linux based counterparts), I've > found my current Windows email client (The Bat!) to be my "dream come > true" email handler, and anything in Linux that might replace it would > have to be *very impressive indeed* for me to consider a complete > switch to a Linux-only client. I have never used The Bat!, Eudora was my favored email client before I switched to Linux which was quite a while ago now that I think about it. I use Kmail now and am quite happy with it but a lot of stuff that I do with email occurs before I ever open my email client. I use SpamAssassin for spam filtering and procmail to sort mail into different categories and Postfix with alias accounts to further control sorting of mail. There might be others here that use Windows clients more regularly that can suggest alternatives. > For instance, I've seen many Linux > users using Mozilla/Thunderbird, and though I don't know if there are > some essential differences with how these work on Linux as opposed to > the Windows versions, I'm frankly not impressed when I compare them to > The Bat!. I also have the Windows version of Sylpheed on here, and > again, I'm not impressed. Perhaps there is an email client on Linux > that will impress me. I hope so. I kind of shy away from all-in-one solutions like Mozilla/Thunderbird or Netscape myself. Linux and open source has always impressed me with the lack of bloat and "everything but the kitchen sink" mentalities when it comes to software and I prefer an application designed to do one thing and do it well versus integrated apps that try to do too many different things. Just my nature, I guess. > I will make a promise though... > > Once I get Mandrake up and running, I'll look for an email client that > works decently for me there, and even if I still prefer The Bat! in > Windows for my daily heavy email usage, I'll use Mandrake, and the > Linux email client I decide upon for reading/posting to this list! :-) However, you may be very much in luck. It turns out that according to The Bat! forums that many people have reported that they have The Bat! running under Wine without any problems at all. Since The Bat! is programmed in Delphi, there is talk about someone porting it over to Linux using Kylix, so I suppose if the demand is high enough, eventually that may happen. In the meantime, if you really wanted to keep using The Bat! with Linux, you should just need to install Wine and then install the application under Wine and you should be all set. > I leave open all possibilities, up to and including dropping Windows > entirely and making a complete switch to Linux (which, if it happens, > would quite please me), but it all depends on if I can find specific > Linux based programs that do at least as much or more for me in the > areas that are important to me. I may well even discover very useful > applications in Linux that I never even considered during my use of > Windows, and that would please me as well. I may end up switching back > and forth between both OSs...each for its unique strengths with > regards to my needs and preferences. Well, I made the switch about two years ago, completely off of Windows except for the odd time when I want to play a game that is only available under Windows and then only to play the game and then back out to Linux. So far, computer games are the only thing that I have found that Linux is just not up to par with and that is more the software publishers than the OS. I do a lot of stuff that I never did under Windows and there are a lot of things that I don't do anymore, no tuning, no defragging, no virus checks, cleaning out spyware, no total reinstall once a year to clear out the mass of garbage left over from hacking and application installs and so far, no answering subpoenas from the RIAA or MPAA either. ;-} > In any event, I feel comfortable that I can take my time learning > about Linux/Mandrake via trial and error or any other means, because I > won't lose any essential functionality I currently have with Windows > during this learning period. I do look forward to this new adventure. > > PS: As you may have noticed by now, I can be fairly sound-byte > challenged, and wander off on meandering digressions. Please feel free > to tell me to shut up and stick to the basics. I promise I'll try! :-) Part of why I love Linux is the community. Being Irish by heritage, not enjoying conversation has never been one of my weaknesses. -- Bryan Phinney Software Test Engineer
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