On 19/02/2008 14:02, A.Muller wrote:
Hello everybody !
I've been monitoring this mailing list for a couple of months and
received answers to my questions about OO. Thanks to the benefactors.
My experience with OO goes back to 2005 and I'm very satisfied with
it. Now I would like to cross the Rubicon and eliminate, gradually, XP
from my machine. I've read many posts relating this or that
bug/difficulty of OO with some specific distributions of Linux. In
your experience, which one would be the best to start with among the
different distros : Mandriva, Ubuntu, Suse, Debian or whatever ? Thank
you for your advice. A.Muller
OK I'm going to start a controversy. By all means try a live "distro"
(horrible word) but do be sure before wasting many hours of effort that
you will be able to find software to run your hardware. I have three
"and a half" devices for which I have searched quite diligently for
Linux software but ...
a) I have a fairly recent HP flatbed scanner for which I can find no
Linux drivers. The machine came with Windows and Mac software but not
Linux. It has three hardware buttons which are configurable to invoke
different software functions when pressed. One of those allows the
machine to be used as a "photocopier", printing via the software
directly to my HP printer.
b) Ditto my fairly modern Nokia mobile phone. It came with (Windows
based) file management software that allows, among other things,
synchronising contacts etc. with a PC. Again, It seems I could get Mac
software that would do the job but not Linux.
c) My PCMCIA wireless LAN card. There is a conversation in one
specialised forum that someone has been able to get my model to work
under that particular flavour of Linux but the author admits it was not
straightforward and required a lot of fiddling with options and settings
in something called NDISWrapper.
In addition, I think I can get my HP "All In One" printer to sort of
work under Linux but I *think* it would behave as a bare printer instead
of the Printer/FAX/Scanner it was bought as, with integrated software
that also lets me maintain a directory of names and FAX telephone numbers.
I'd be very reluctant to lose all that functionality.
I'll bet someone will say I could run Wine which is a sort of Windows
emulator (simulator? please let's not go there!) that runs on Linux. As
far as I'm concerned, the very existence of this software is an
admission of defeat. Less controversially, there is a considerable body
of Windows based software that won't run at all under Wine.
Of course, you may not have these problems or you may decide that it
would be worthwhile [interesting, even] to see if you can overcome them.
For me the investment of time and the risk involved are too great. YMMV.
--
Harold Fuchs
London, England
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