I suspect some answers are on www.pdxlinux.org, but I'm getting timeout errors.
I'm a senior citizen migrating to *nix whose last formal course work used 026's and line printers for I/O. My personal systems have progressed from CPM80 (Digital Research) thru Win 3.1 to WinXP Pro. Some of my personal preferences are shaped by that. I have Ubuntu 10.10 up and running in test mode from a USB drive. My first impression is that the default installation suffers from the same problems as Windows - trying to be "all things to all people" while NOT supplying some specific tools that I want. Question 1. While keeping the default configuration available, can I have a massively pruned configuration be my typical boot? Question 2. While browsing files available thru the default desktop, one seemed to say that internet access via an external RS-232 dial up modem was not available with standard drivers. BUT when browsing the descriptions of installed software it appeared that pppcfg (IIRC) handled that. I'm confused. Question 2a. I didn't spot any reference to firewalls or ant-virus tools. Is that accomplished in a different manner in the Linux world? Question 3. I wish to end up with GUI - exists Open Office - exists Tcl/Tk - have appropriate executables on CD? Scilab/SciosLab - will have to download SeaMonkey - have strong preference for the suite approach dial-up access with firewall and virus protection - *HOW* ? I'll leave the games,and sound/movie players as they will be occasional used and see minimal benefit to removing them. Suggestions? Am I on the appropriate list? Recommended sites other than www.pdxlinux.org? What are productive Google search terms? Thank you. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
