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Windows is for people who value their time and Linux isn't.

No fighting with virus infections, no Genuine Advantage hassle with a genuine registered version of XP, no spyware/malware/direct_to_the_stored_creditcard_ba ckdoors.

Plus I get to set it up how I want it, I can script repetitive tasks, there is a meaningful command line environment, it updates itself regularly in the background without needing a reboot etc etc.

Linux is fully network aware, and designed that way, so I can perform the same tasks over SSH as I do locally. Multiple desktops, slews of free software, interested users, true multi-user environment ....

I have 2 old windows machines. Win98SE, relegated to providing dvb tv, and encoding xvid etc. Also a Win XP laptop, which has all my email backed up on it, plus various tools for accessing my servers. This is designed for emergency use, ie. if there is a fire, I can grab it and run without losing all the important stuff. It could run linux permanently (in fact it does via knoppix et al) but there is some handy (windows only)software for video capture living on it.

Sorry for the rant, but as far as I'm concerned, windows is for the proles(1), macs are for posers(2) and the rest (ie. *nix) are for the real power users / hackers / whatever(3).

(1)Don't know, don't care - just do it !
(2)Oooh, look at me !
(3)Now, I wonder if I can make it do this ?

Small example, when I have the tv prog running on the win98 box, I output to a projector, and continue working (heh) on the linux box via the monitor (they are both using the same monitor through a KVM). However, as I don't have remote for the tv card, to change channel I have to stop what I'm doing and switch the KVM over to the windows box, come out of full screen, find the channel, click it or type the number then go fullscreen and switch back again. At least I used to have to do that. Now I have VNC running on the windows box, and I just switch desktops ( ctrl+alt+arrow ) on the linux box to enter a channel number in a terminal window. Ok, you could do that windows to windows easily too. What wouldn't be so easy would be writing a small shell script that takes your simplified input and converts that to the correct channel numbers before sending. So instead of the history channel being 128 (it's not btw, but eg) it is now just 8. And so on for the rest of the unmemorable channel numbers. Ok, it took maybe an hour to set up and test, but it has saved that time over and over ever since. Plus I don't have vnc running on the linux box all the time (which would still entail memorising the correct channel numbers), I just use this.

I equate the "My time is more valuable" attitude to "I don't need to know simple car mechanics, if it breaks down I'll get someone else to fix it". Then they spend 3 hours by the side of the road waiting for a mechanic because a plug lead has come loose !

Todays mood == troll ;-)

I've got a Lexmark printer, USB mass storage camera, and LIDE30 scanner running. I have to unplog and replug my scanner (hotplug problem) so I can run xsane as an ordinery user. Once I've done that, the scanner is recognized immediately. Start xsane and it comes right up. A camera whose name and model is in gphoto or something like that should be picked up immediately.

To get the generic mass storage camera connected (I've got an Aiptex DV3100 supertoy), go http://cyberelk.net/tim/usb-storage.html. You can probably start at Step 4 if you know your camera is doing something (e.g. showing memory access) when plugged into the USB bus.

Also related: Scriptable VNC session control:

rfbproxy
rfbplaymacro

Also related: Scriptable VNC session control:

rfbproxy
rfbplaymacro

VNC seems to be the way ahead as screen capture is generally a very different problem to standard video capture/encoding. so using VirtualDub with Huffy, DivX, etc. would all be pretty useless for this application, as they're not designed for screen capping.

I'd check out the mailing lists at the real VNC website and maybe ask the question there. Trolling through the above archives I found a link to this, which seems like it may well be ideal (though very rough round the edges from the looks of things, I haven't had time to check it out yet).

It's basically a VNC session recorder/replayer

Linux/UNIX but as the guy says should work with CygWin. Don't think it's GPL, but an e-mail to the man may clarify what you can do with it.

You can of course get VNC for windows at the above site, or TightVNC over at SourceForge(which may/may not work with the above, I'd stick to straight VNC until you've tested the above).

Hope that helps,

You can get it here. It's small, it's very simple, and it works well. It inserts itself between a VNC server and a VNC client. You can use it to record sessions from Windows, MacOSX, and Linux, and play them back on all those platforms. It can even be played back from a Java applet through a web browser. It probably requires less bandwidth than MPEG.