Re: [LUAU] Re: Goobuntu Linux
Julian Yap wrote: You may believe that Linux is not a factor in emerging countries but the sponsors of LinuxAsia 2006 conference don't think so (http://www.linuxasia.net/). They are entitled to their opinion. Of course, I haven't seen any opinions given. OK, let's take China for example. Now, China is a communist country and so the largest force by far is the Government. Which feels more communist? Free and Open Source, for the people, Linux or a foreign owned proprietary operating system. The government's political orientation has nothing to do with the software they run. Which is the government currently supporting? A FOSS operating system or rampant piracy? They turn a blind eye to the piracy. An example. "Sun Wah Linux Chosen by Chinese Government for the Largest Linux Desktop Roll-Out in China's History" - http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20051005183120307 I remember another announcement made by Sun a couple of years ago concerning the biggest roll out ever of their Java Desktop System in China. It was to have made Sun the biggest Linux distributor. It never happened, of course. There are lots of announcements and press releases that never come to pass, especially in China. I have only been with HOSEF for a relatively short time so I can't comment fully on the logistics of support. Anyone else care to answer this? I have however worked for the past 4 years in customer and applications support so if these areas are lacking in HOSEF, I will look to address them. That would be good, as that is where most computer projects fail. -- Hawaiian Astronomical Society: http://www.hawastsoc.org HAS Deepsky Atlas: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky
Re: [LUAU] Good distros for Dell laptop?
Clifton Royston wrote: Are there any concrete differences which would make some distros objectively better to use for laptop, any variability with regard to ease of repartitioning, hardware support, APM, wireless support, etc.? Or should I just pick any one that sounds good? I tend to use Kanotix, which is a more desktop oriented version of Knoppix. It also has a much better installer, and is based on Debian Sid. If you want the Debian repositories, you want Kanotix. Don't mind using Ubuntu's, then that will work. Kanotix's last release was December 31. It is a major advance over last summer's release. -- Hawaiian Astronomical Society: http://www.hawastsoc.org HAS Deepsky Atlas: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky
Re: [LUAU] Good distros for Dell laptop?
On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 09:55, Clifton Royston wrote: > So I bought a Dell 6000 at the end of December as my last minute > end-of-fiscal-year create-taxable-expenses item, since I really needed > a laptop, and now I'm looking to partition it and put a Linux distro on > half. (I bought it with an 80GB drive to make sure I'd have room for > two OSes.) > > Are there any concrete differences which would make some distros > objectively better to use for laptop, any variability with regard to > ease of repartitioning, hardware support, APM, wireless support, etc.? > Or should I just pick any one that sounds good? > > Ubuntu seems to be getting a lot of mindshare, but of course so does > Fedora, so does SUSE... I wouldn't object to buying a well-done > reasonably-priced distro, if it's concretely better than the > competition. > > -- Clifton I have a Dell 700m and dual boot with SUSE 9.3. Most things worked out of the box... especially 802.11g. Video needed a patch for the wide screen size. I didn't try the sd card reader yet. Sometimes I use my dell to watch recordings from my Myth box (FC1 Myth 0.16. Hey if it ain't broke...) Mike
[LUAU] Clearing the Vault
We have a vault full of computers that you may be interested in helping us put to use. The vault is leased by CompUSA, and it is full of the remnants from when Computers for Kids partnered with CompUSA to store computers. Whatever we don't remove tomorrow will be going to the Gulch. You heard me right, and this is the way computer recycling works in Hawaii. If HOSEF doesn't take it in, or Computers for Kids doesn't find it a home in a school, and the contributor doesn't find a recipient, then the equipment goes to the landfill. There is no computer recycling in Hawaii. Some of the hardware *may* be of value to you in your mythtv endeavor. Some of it will be rolled into HOSEF. We have so very, very much, though, that I doubt if I can use much. So, if you want to help, I will give you with hardware booty. Please reply in thread or in person if you want to meet me there tomorrow. I'll be running our Saturday workshops at McKinley from 10-2. I will open the vault around 8:30, and I can leave some of you there if you want to dig through the loot and booty. --scott
Re: [LUAU] Re: Goobuntu Linux
On Wed, Feb 01, 2006 at 03:53:18PM -1000, Jim Thompson wrote: > On Feb 1, 2006, at 3:33 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >I see evidence for it in the server market. I see very little on > >the desktop. I did manage to get my father to switch, though. I > >told him that the only way he would continue to get free tech > >support from me is if he converted. What does he do now? He runs > >all his old software on Win4Lin, but with a couple of key > >exceptions, browsing and e-mail. > > I came >this close< to converting Jamie off XP in December. > > >>And 10 years ago, very few (if any) did so. [put Linux on servers] > > > >But it is far easier to justify the switch to Linux servers. First, > >the majority of the switch is from Unix to Linux. There is > >surprisingly little movement from Windows to Linux. > > I think you are (again) dealing in historical artifact. Yes, most of > the early move was Unix -> Linux, but there is ample evidence that > Linux is now > slowly eroding the growth Windows market share, especially on the > server. I think that's very clear at this stage. It is worth keeping in mind that many businesses, large or small, do their damndest to avoid or delay upgrading or converting critical applications, short of absolute disaster. Microsoft has found that getting customers to upgrade even from NT to 2000, or from 2000 to XP or 2003 Server is a big undertaking. Thus you will see most server growth in Linux (or other open OS) occurring when a company deploys a whole new application or infrastructure and decides they can get something just as reliable and they don't need to pay MS for it. My understanding from people in that world is that the NY financial services sector is growing heavily dependent on Linux, with deployment spreading into more banks. For one example, I know two of the biggest names in financial services use open source mailservers on open source platforms for all of their external mail. I think it's reasonable to think that as more and more businesses have internal experience with deploying specific applications on Linux successfully, they'll weigh it more and more heavily for each new project. It's applications that sell servers and OSes. ... > 2010 74 49.74 > > As you can see, if current trends continue, by 2009 there is nothing > but Windows and Linux in the "value server" market, and by 2010, > something has to give. Heh. Have you perhaps read Mark Twain on statistics and extrapolation? "In the space of one hundred and seventy six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over a mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-pole. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo [Illinois] and New Orleans will have joined their streets together and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." -- Clifton -- Clifton Royston -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] President - I and I Computing * http://www.iandicomputing.com/ Custom programming, network design, systems and network consulting services
Re: [LUAU] Good distros for Dell laptop?
On Fri, Feb 03, 2006 at 10:34:31AM -1000, Julian Yap wrote: > I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 around the same time. Right now, I have a > 60 GB drive, DVD burner (dual-layer), 512Mb RAM, default Wifi b/g, > slightly faster than standard CPU. I have it set to dual-boot Windows > and Linux. ... > ... Then I tried Ubuntu having used it before. Wifi worked on install, > little things like the from multimedia buttons all work. Might I add, > these don't even work on Windows install. I was uninstalling lots of > pre-installed Windows Dell crap and then the buttons stopped working. > They're controlled by some Dell program. > > Function key combinations all work (volume, brightness, etc...). Would > these have worked with Fedora? Don't care. > > Laptop hibernation, suspend, stand by _all_ work. I know with Fedora > this requires fiddling. I usually hibernate my machine at the end of > the day. Maybe once or twice the Wifi hasn't resumed the next day but > then a reboot fixed that. No real dramas. *SOLD*! > Before settling with Ubuntu and the gnome desktop, I also tried out > Kubuntu (KDE desktop). Multimedia keys didn't work. But mostly I > prefer gnome. Mostly the feel of KDE with Konquerer I don't really > like. Personal preference. I'm looking to re-evaluate when 6.04 comes > out. I'll add that you can run all your favorite KDE apps like K3b > (DVD/CD burner) perfectly fine on Ubuntu. > > About the only thing that _doesn't work with Ubuntu is SD card slot. > I've read this is because it's supplied by Ricoh who isn't giving any > help to the Open Source community. Yes, there has been some recent discussion about this on the FreeBSD list. Even seeing specs for how the hardware is supposed to work requires signing NDAs which would bar you releasing any open source code. > If you try out any other distro or *nix let me/us know how you go. I'd > be interested in knowing. Well, I'll share if I do, but based on your report I'm probably going to go to Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Honestly, I never really liked either Gnome or KDE that well when I've tried them, but it's been a while since I was using either on a daily basis, so I'm going to give it another shot. -- Clifton -- Clifton Royston -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] President - I and I Computing * http://www.iandicomputing.com/ Custom programming, network design, systems and network consulting services
Re: [LUAU] Good distros for Dell laptop?
On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 09:55 -1000, Clifton Royston wrote: > So I bought a Dell 6000 at the end of December as my last minute > end-of-fiscal-year create-taxable-expenses item, since I really needed > a laptop, and now I'm looking to partition it and put a Linux distro on > half. (I bought it with an 80GB drive to make sure I'd have room for > two OSes.) I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 around the same time. Right now, I have a 60 GB drive, DVD burner (dual-layer), 512Mb RAM, default Wifi b/g, slightly faster than standard CPU. I have it set to dual-boot Windows and Linux. I'm looking to max out the RAM to 2GB and selling the 2 sticks of 256Mb on eBay. > Are there any concrete differences which would make some distros > objectively better to use for laptop, any variability with regard to > ease of repartitioning, hardware support, APM, wireless support, etc.? > Or should I just pick any one that sounds good? Main differences are the extra niceties and things you _don't need to configure/install. My experience: Initially I installed Fedora because I'm most familiar with it. The install doesn't install the Wifi card which pissed me off because I didn't want to spend an hour or 2 (or more) setting it up. It doesn't make sense to me that I would need to do that on Fedora a community distribution on a centrino laptop. If it was the graphics card or something else, then I'd understand. > Ubuntu seems to be getting a lot of mindshare, but of course so does > Fedora, so does SUSE... I wouldn't object to buying a well-done > reasonably-priced distro, if it's concretely better than the > competition. ... Then I tried Ubuntu having used it before. Wifi worked on install, little things like the from multimedia buttons all work. Might I add, these don't even work on Windows install. I was uninstalling lots of pre-installed Windows Dell crap and then the buttons stopped working. They're controlled by some Dell program. Function key combinations all work (volume, brightness, etc...). Would these have worked with Fedora? Don't care. Laptop hibernation, suspend, stand by _all work. I know with Fedora this requires fiddling. I usually hibernate my machine at the end of the day. Maybe once or twice the Wifi hasn't resumed the next day but then a reboot fixed that. No real dramas. Before settling with Ubuntu and the gnome desktop, I also tried out Kubuntu (KDE desktop). Multimedia keys didn't work. But mostly I prefer gnome. Mostly the feel of KDE with Konquerer I don't really like. Personal preference. I'm looking to re-evaluate when 6.04 comes out. I'll add that you can run all your favorite KDE apps like K3b (DVD/CD burner) perfectly fine on Ubuntu. About the only thing that _doesn't work with Ubuntu is SD card slot. I've read this is because it's supplied by Ricoh who isn't giving any help to the Open Source community. Minor inconvenience to me because I have a digital camera which uses SD cards and it would be really handy to just pop in the card. Minor issues like the Wifi/Network manager is shit, boot up could be faster, hibernate could be faster... All plan to be or have been addressed for version 6.04 (release in April) according to the roadmap. If you try out any other distro or *nix let me/us know how you go. I'd be interested in knowing. - Julian
[LUAU] Good distros for Dell laptop?
So I bought a Dell 6000 at the end of December as my last minute end-of-fiscal-year create-taxable-expenses item, since I really needed a laptop, and now I'm looking to partition it and put a Linux distro on half. (I bought it with an 80GB drive to make sure I'd have room for two OSes.) Are there any concrete differences which would make some distros objectively better to use for laptop, any variability with regard to ease of repartitioning, hardware support, APM, wireless support, etc.? Or should I just pick any one that sounds good? Ubuntu seems to be getting a lot of mindshare, but of course so does Fedora, so does SUSE... I wouldn't object to buying a well-done reasonably-priced distro, if it's concretely better than the competition. -- Clifton -- Clifton Royston -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] President - I and I Computing * http://www.iandicomputing.com/ Custom programming, network design, systems and network consulting services
Re: [LUAU] Re: mythtv install
Eric Jeschke wrote: > > > I can definitely recommend using Ubuntu as the base. Just enable the > universe and multiverse repositories and then synaptic is your > friend-- just search for mythtv and it will install everything that > you need. > I think just use what you're familiar with. Almost all distros have a binary distribution of mythtv. Fedora has one from Axel Thimm http://atrpms.net/ , which has never been entered into the main tree. I've never tried it, but people seem to be happy with it. I just compiled from source, and if you follow the directions, this is a very smooth process. > > > > Oh, and streaming works great to a laptop running 802.11g wireless > with just the front end installed; I watch/pause live tv or recorded > shows anywhere on the property. > What platform is the laptop? -Eric Hattemer
Re: [LUAU] Putting the UG back in LUG
On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 05:45:15PM -1000, Matt Darnell wrote: > I think some people would appricaite just knowing when FreeBSD > is appropriate. When your preferred server OS annoys you enough to switch. It is easier to run java on Linux. It is easier to run commerical applications on the enterprise Linux distributions. Outside of those, it becomes mostly a matter of taste. You can read or hear about the firewall configuration, package management, and software RAID management, but you only really appreciate the differences after using it for a while. For the home server box, try running a different flavor each year or two and squeeze as much functionality as you can into it. Very little is learned by installing something and letting it idle until it gets overwritten again. -Vince
[LUAU] Re: mythtv install
Matt wrote: Wow that install guide is awesome! The hardware guide is worth the price alone. Have you ever used the knoppix mythtv distro? When you said FC4, I assume you built it from source. I have literally never seen a linux project as refined and user-friendly as mythtv. Once it's compiled, you never really need to touch the command line again (except to start the frontend). All of the setup and customization are through the cute little menus. It's well documented, and remarkably easy, unless you have some non-standard hardware. I was looking forward to it beforenow I am _really_ looking forward to it. The screen shots put my replaytv to shame I downloaded the dsmyth filters http://dsmyth.sourceforge.net/ , installed mythweb, and stream my shows to my windows machine. You can even do live TV over your favorite Windows media player (except "Windows Media Player TM"). I hear you need something just slightly faster/more reliable than 802.11b to stream them. I use gigabit ethernet, but I'm pretty sure 802.11g or 100 Mbit ethernet would do it great. I have an iMac for my machine at home...I wonder if you can stream to it. I use 802.11g I haven't played with any of the mythplugins, except for the mythweb. But it seems that they install pretty cleanly. I have a Mythtv box that I demoed at our last BILUG meeting. It also uses a simple WinTV card, but the picture is pretty nice anyway. I can definitely recommend using Ubuntu as the base. Just enable the universe and multiverse repositories and then synaptic is your friend-- just search for mythtv and it will install everything that you need. I installed most of the plug ins: weather is cool, music and photos work OK (nothing fancy). Didn't try the games (xmame). Configuring is the hard part, but there are some fairly good guides you can google for. I added a 300 GB drive for recording and the result is great. I concur that this is a very nice looking, professional quality DVR solution. The recording and searching options are as good or better than I've seen on any commercial offering. Oh, and streaming works great to a laptop running 802.11g wireless with just the front end installed; I watch/pause live tv or recorded shows anywhere on the property. -- Eric Jeschke http://redskiesatnight.com/
