Ugly solution, but so's getting a bunch of Fs in courses where you did adequate or better work simply because MS products ate your incoming or outgoing mail.
Well, one could cut down the ink price quite a bit by using a Canon printer which uses separate ink tanks and either buying refilled cartridges and/or doing one's own refilling with high-quality ink (I do both) . . . but since I get paid for my time, I still wouldn't print out a $15 textbook.
Of course, that'll be a moot point when someone comes up with an e-book reader suitable for textbooks. I use my Palm PDA as one for most fiction I buy / download, but a 160x160 screen with 4 gray-scale levels per color is NOT something I'd want to use on a textbook where I actually need to see the illustrations.
I'd expect that at $15, nobody would bother to print a 250 page textbook because that would be at least 1/2 of a $40 ink cartridge plus paper, plus the extra hassle of either setting the printer to print duplex or having to deal with a PITA physical book held together with document clips and printed on only one side of the page. Plue whatever the value the student assigns to his time.
would you want your bank to have either Salvador Dali or Escher to design the site you use to do your online banking on?
Functionality has to come first. If one can get both beauty and function at the same time, so much the better. But I've seen beautiful websites which were totally useless for their intended functions.
aptitude (syntax - aptitude install whatever ) for CLI, it'll tell you exactly what it wants to do in detail, followed by y / n / q. If you don't like what it proposes, hit "n" and it'll suggest something else.
For automated updates via GUI, try adept_installer.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE BOTTOM STATUS LINE telling you the number of programs it proposes to upgrade vs the ones it proposes to remove. It will give you detailed info on programs listed for installation/removing via point and click.
And some of us have to actually work with our servers
I make a living as a writer (oddly enough, Linux how-to articles) with this workstation, and I don't have the luxury of having spare boxes to throw in if this box goes down.
If you can get a reputable publication to publish such a thing, including vendor names and budget analyses, I'll be happy to read it. Otherwise, stop wasting our time.
The idea that nuclear is the cure for all evils, including bad breath and ugly sheep is somethine we were supposed to have outgrown in the 1950s when people realized that "meterless power" based on nuclear energy was a pipe dream.
you have to pay attention if aptitude (CLI shell for apt... I like it) tells you that it's going to deinstall xx number of applications to satisfy dependencies.
Luckily, when something like this happened to me, I had just installed the AMD64 Debian and not a lot of other apps, so I didn't have a big investment in the system... I just blew it away and installed a 32 bit version which actually had the apps I needed.
And I now keep an eye on what the installer tells before deciding to go with y n q.
Nothing's perfect, no choice of distro or OS relieves you of the obligation to pay attention to what your computer is doing.
Non-issue as far as choosing between Fedora and Debian-based distros. Runs fine on FC6, and runs fine now on this Debian Etch box.
No matter which distro you try to run it on, remember to look for a writeup on how to install it that's SPECIFIC FOR YOUR DISTRIBUTION.
Then, look for a how-to on getting it to hook up to the rest of your system more efficiently via shared SAMBA (between guest and host) filespace and 1000 mbps virtual Ethernet card... the default is a 10mbps card. This is important because other than the clipboard, the shared filespace and virtual Ethernet card are the only ways that the guest ahd host OSs can run, and the virtual Ethernet card is the only way your guest VM will talk to the outside world.
The way that VMware Server runs on FC6 or Debian is sufficiently similar that I can't remember without referring to the article above which I was running on when I wrote it a few weeks ago.
When I used it shortly after FC6 came out, it was a bit behind (it's a third-party individual developer thing) and required a bit of manual cleanup afterwards. But under half an hour to get multimedia running was good enough, if the installer's up to date now and it probably is, half an hour should go down to download + automated configuration time... which you can spend doing something away from the computer. It's no more "offcial" than Automatix is, and for the same reason.
If Fedora becomes an ubergeek only distro whose users are willing to spend as much time debugging new installs as Windows users spend keeping malware off their boxes for the sheer coolness of it, don't bitch when your market share drops so low that the only cool new apps that everyone else is using only get to Fedora Core when somebody from the Fedora community gets around from porting it, and if your distro drops below critical mass, that's going to be somewhere around forever. Or you find that your job (assuming you use your box to make money with) requires you to run a commercial *nix app that requires you to switch distros. Will it be important to you when OpenOffice 3 comes out and it won't be supported in Fedora for another couple of revs?
Even Red Hat won't be able to keep it alive. Wouldn't it be funny if they announced going to Debian or Gentoo or OpenBSD as a base?
Worth it to be "for geeks only"? Tell me in a year or so.
I'd like to see Linux with competitive distros. If Fedora's people want to have one, the developers must work on usability. If they don't, it's going to become irrelevant.
Anyone serious about Fedora should thank ESR for the warning. He's a strange looking canary for the Linux coal mine, but his experience reflect mine and I switched because there was something I had to have (a working motherboard) that wouldn't run on Fedora... but runs just fine on Debian. (and presumably, on Ubuntu)
(FC6) Yum just hung. I've got a much longer repo list in Debian, and... It Just Works. If a repo is down, there's an error message one can safely ignore. And probably should, since the repo will probably be up next time.
One still has to watch what the installer does, it's quite possible to find that the installer wants to get rid of a dependency problem by trashing a bunch of apps. But that's just saying that it isn't perfect... and if that happens, one just backs out and tries something else.
any more than it is for any knowledgable user on any other major distro. Find the third party multimedia installer script, check off the boxes for the software you want, run it and it's done. I assume ESR ran Fedora Frog, cleaned up afterwards (unless he got a more up-to-date version than I did, in which case there was no cleanup), and started playing back his mp3 and pr0n collection, just like everyone else does.
This works because since the multimedia installer is unofficial, it can point to proprietary codecs and ones that aren't available the USA for legal reasons. However, one generally has to do some research to find those installers, and the n00b isn't going to know they exist.
This is a workaround, not a solution.
That's what ESR is talking about. This is an area where we need solutions, not workarounds.
While on the whole, I'm happy with Debian, one still has to watch what apt-get does. To install one package, aptitude (apt-get shell) invited me to remove my entire KDE desktop and chunks of gnome. I decided that it was time to quit while I was still behind.
And the chances of getting a source-build to work on Debian distros is no better than it is on Fedora. I'd love to see someone come up with an automatic build-from-source program for Debian. (I mean from tarballs)
I got a new current-generation AM2 motherboard, and the nvidia drivers would not run on the nvidia video chip set no matter what I tried, and no matter how many suggestions I got and tried from Fedora and Nvidia web forums. When I changed to Debian Etch, it came up in VESA the first time and ran nvidia as soon as I grabbed it via apt-get. The stand-alone dpkg installs programs much more reliably than rpm ever did. The common problem here is rpm, I am glad to see that Red Hat is planning on revamping rpm, but I can't wait around for them to make it work, I make a living using my computer.
I got other things working during the initial Debian installation that either I never got working in Fedora or only got working with substantial investment of time and effort.
My experience with the yum automated installer has shown it as flaky at best. It hung indefinitely when something in the repository list was offline, and when a list gets long enough, something is likely to be offline at any one time.
Other than that, it isn't that different on a day-to-day basis, KDE is KDE regardless of where it runs, and VMware Server works well on either. The Debian multimedia installation script and Fedora Frog are comparable.
But as far as the overall desktop experience goes, I'm a lot happier with Debian than I ever was with Fedora. If I'd known how big the difference was, Fedora Core 3 would never have appeared on this box, I've been using Fedora since Fedora Core 2.
The Fedora development team needs to roll up their sleeves and figure out what Debian does right that they don't and do it better, not bitch at ESR for smelling the coffee. The race to create a usable Linux desktop hasn't been won yet.
For non-Linux users - Debian is the distribution that Ubuntu is derived from.
between VCs, startup capitalists, journalists, etc. in SV (I'd call it an ecosystem) may be more of a barrier to getting radical new technology done than an accelerant.
The problem here is that the "low hanging fruit" in terms of ideas within that network got mined out years ago, and if you're outside the network, good luck in getting a hearing regardless of how "outside the box" or how good it is, you'll need it.
and its main importance is that it's "where the money is". I was happy to move out of there, and money is the only reason I can think of for going back even for a visit.
One can make a case for living within a local UPS radius from SV to make ordering stuff (as in physical) out of there, but if one has the good fortune to live within a reasonable distance of a Fry's, that's almost as good.
I think that unless one's VCs insist that one put the startup in SV, it's a lot more cost-effective to find a place for a IT-oriented startup with cheap fiber optic broadband and cheap electricity outside of SV. . . as google did.
While it's k3w1 to make the scene in the various SV hot spots. . . a successful startup takes more than being cool. As for experienced technologists. . . if one can live with telecommute, one can get them anywhere.
The amusing part about this is that Walmart is also locking out its customers that bought Linux boxes from them online last year.
As for their locking out non-MS customers, if they don't want our business, there are plenty of other places that sell music, without concern about the kind of censorship that their in-store entertainment products come with.
In any case, they aren't the only major corporation whose website coders put out the kind of crap "IE-only" code that makes their site either useless or a pain in the ass for people who care about security.
If a company tells my browser that they don't want my business, I'll go to a competitor that does.
Slashdot Mirror
Ugly solution, but so's getting a bunch of Fs in courses where you did adequate or better work simply because MS products ate your incoming or outgoing mail.
Especially if your major is an IT-related field.
The MS Research organization is first-rate.
And they do the same great job of getting things to market that Xerox PARC used to do.
MS really doesn't know what to do with good ideas.
Well, one could cut down the ink price quite a bit by using a Canon printer which uses separate ink tanks and either buying refilled cartridges and/or doing one's own refilling with high-quality ink (I do both) . . . but since I get paid for my time, I still wouldn't print out a $15 textbook.
Of course, that'll be a moot point when someone comes up with an e-book reader suitable for textbooks. I use my Palm PDA as one for most fiction I buy / download, but a 160x160 screen with 4 gray-scale levels per color is NOT something I'd want to use on a textbook where I actually need to see the illustrations.
and surprising.
I'd expect that at $15, nobody would bother to print a 250 page textbook because that would be at least 1/2 of a $40 ink cartridge plus paper, plus the extra hassle of either setting the printer to print duplex or having to deal with a PITA physical book held together with document clips and printed on only one side of the page. Plue whatever the value the student assigns to his time.
would you want your bank to have either Salvador Dali or Escher to design the site you use to do your online banking on?
Functionality has to come first. If one can get both beauty and function at the same time, so much the better. But I've seen beautiful websites which were totally useless for their intended functions.
For automated updates via GUI, try adept_installer.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE BOTTOM STATUS LINE telling you the number of programs it proposes to upgrade vs the ones it proposes to remove. It will give you detailed info on programs listed for installation/removing via point and click.
I make a living as a writer (oddly enough, Linux how-to articles) with this workstation, and I don't have the luxury of having spare boxes to throw in if this box goes down.
Build a word processor that uses html/CSS with options and flexibility comparable to OpenOffice.
Actually, I have every confidence that Opera can. . . I've been a happy Opera user since 1999.
If you can get a reputable publication to publish such a thing, including vendor names and budget analyses, I'll be happy to read it. Otherwise, stop wasting our time.
The idea that nuclear is the cure for all evils, including bad breath and ugly sheep is somethine we were supposed to have outgrown in the 1950s when people realized that "meterless power" based on nuclear energy was a pipe dream.
as opposed to src.deb
if it works with tarballs, I've got a program I want to test that with now.
anyone picking out an OS / distributions based on any reason other than his or his organization's needs.
you have to pay attention if aptitude (CLI shell for apt... I like it) tells you that it's going to deinstall xx number of applications to satisfy dependencies.
Luckily, when something like this happened to me, I had just installed the AMD64 Debian and not a lot of other apps, so I didn't have a big investment in the system... I just blew it away and installed a 32 bit version which actually had the apps I needed.
And I now keep an eye on what the installer tells before deciding to go with y n q.
Nothing's perfect, no choice of distro or OS relieves you of the obligation to pay attention to what your computer is doing.
Non-issue as far as choosing between Fedora and Debian-based distros. Runs fine on FC6, and runs fine now on this Debian Etch box.
No matter which distro you try to run it on, remember to look for a writeup on how to install it that's SPECIFIC FOR YOUR DISTRIBUTION.
Then, look for a how-to on getting it to hook up to the rest of your system more efficiently via shared SAMBA (between guest and host) filespace and 1000 mbps virtual Ethernet card... the default is a 10mbps card. This is important because other than the clipboard, the shared filespace and virtual Ethernet card are the only ways that the guest ahd host OSs can run, and the virtual Ethernet card is the only way your guest VM will talk to the outside world.
The way that VMware Server runs on FC6 or Debian is sufficiently similar that I can't remember without referring to the article above which I was running on when I wrote it a few weeks ago.
When I used it shortly after FC6 came out, it was a bit behind (it's a third-party individual developer thing) and required a bit of manual cleanup afterwards. But under half an hour to get multimedia running was good enough, if the installer's up to date now and it probably is, half an hour should go down to download + automated configuration time... which you can spend doing something away from the computer. It's no more "offcial" than Automatix is, and for the same reason.
to adopt a goat.cx-based logo. Assuming legal issues can be worked out, of course.
If Fedora becomes an ubergeek only distro whose users are willing to spend as much time debugging new installs as Windows users spend keeping malware off their boxes for the sheer coolness of it, don't bitch when your market share drops so low that the only cool new apps that everyone else is using only get to Fedora Core when somebody from the Fedora community gets around from porting it, and if your distro drops below critical mass, that's going to be somewhere around forever. Or you find that your job (assuming you use your box to make money with) requires you to run a commercial *nix app that requires you to switch distros. Will it be important to you when OpenOffice 3 comes out and it won't be supported in Fedora for another couple of revs?
Even Red Hat won't be able to keep it alive. Wouldn't it be funny if they announced going to Debian or Gentoo or OpenBSD as a base?
Worth it to be "for geeks only"? Tell me in a year or so.
I'd like to see Linux with competitive distros. If Fedora's people want to have one, the developers must work on usability. If they don't, it's going to become irrelevant.
Anyone serious about Fedora should thank ESR for the warning. He's a strange looking canary for the Linux coal mine, but his experience reflect mine and I switched because there was something I had to have (a working motherboard) that wouldn't run on Fedora... but runs just fine on Debian. (and presumably, on Ubuntu)
(FC6) Yum just hung. I've got a much longer repo list in Debian, and ... It Just Works. If a repo is down, there's an error message one can safely ignore. And probably should, since the repo will probably be up next time.
One still has to watch what the installer does, it's quite possible to find that the installer wants to get rid of a dependency problem by trashing a bunch of apps. But that's just saying that it isn't perfect... and if that happens, one just backs out and tries something else.
any more than it is for any knowledgable user on any other major distro. Find the third party multimedia installer script, check off the boxes for the software you want, run it and it's done. I assume ESR ran Fedora Frog, cleaned up afterwards (unless he got a more up-to-date version than I did, in which case there was no cleanup), and started playing back his mp3 and pr0n collection, just like everyone else does.
This works because since the multimedia installer is unofficial, it can point to proprietary codecs and ones that aren't available the USA for legal reasons. However, one generally has to do some research to find those installers, and the n00b isn't going to know they exist.
This is a workaround, not a solution.
That's what ESR is talking about. This is an area where we need solutions, not workarounds.
on a machine on which a distro would work at all. (Fedora 2,3,6, Debian Etch, Freespire, SLED10... 3 different Athlon motherboards)
While on the whole, I'm happy with Debian, one still has to watch what apt-get does. To install one package, aptitude (apt-get shell) invited me to remove my entire KDE desktop and chunks of gnome. I decided that it was time to quit while I was still behind.
And the chances of getting a source-build to work on Debian distros is no better than it is on Fedora. I'd love to see someone come up with an automatic build-from-source program for Debian. (I mean from tarballs)
I got a new current-generation AM2 motherboard, and the nvidia drivers would not run on the nvidia video chip set no matter what I tried, and no matter how many suggestions I got and tried from Fedora and Nvidia web forums. When I changed to Debian Etch, it came up in VESA the first time and ran nvidia as soon as I grabbed it via apt-get. The stand-alone dpkg installs programs much more reliably than rpm ever did. The common problem here is rpm, I am glad to see that Red Hat is planning on revamping rpm, but I can't wait around for them to make it work, I make a living using my computer.
I got other things working during the initial Debian installation that either I never got working in Fedora or only got working with substantial investment of time and effort.
My experience with the yum automated installer has shown it as flaky at best. It hung indefinitely when something in the repository list was offline, and when a list gets long enough, something is likely to be offline at any one time.
Other than that, it isn't that different on a day-to-day basis, KDE is KDE regardless of where it runs, and VMware Server works well on either. The Debian multimedia installation script and Fedora Frog are comparable.
But as far as the overall desktop experience goes, I'm a lot happier with Debian than I ever was with Fedora. If I'd known how big the difference was, Fedora Core 3 would never have appeared on this box, I've been using Fedora since Fedora Core 2.
The Fedora development team needs to roll up their sleeves and figure out what Debian does right that they don't and do it better, not bitch at ESR for smelling the coffee. The race to create a usable Linux desktop hasn't been won yet.
For non-Linux users - Debian is the distribution that Ubuntu is derived from.
between VCs, startup capitalists, journalists, etc. in SV (I'd call it an ecosystem) may be more of a barrier to getting radical new technology done than an accelerant.
The problem here is that the "low hanging fruit" in terms of ideas within that network got mined out years ago, and if you're outside the network, good luck in getting a hearing regardless of how "outside the box" or how good it is, you'll need it.
and its main importance is that it's "where the money is". I was happy to move out of there, and money is the only reason I can think of for going back even for a visit.
One can make a case for living within a local UPS radius from SV to make ordering stuff (as in physical) out of there, but if one has the good fortune to live within a reasonable distance of a Fry's, that's almost as good.
I think that unless one's VCs insist that one put the startup in SV, it's a lot more cost-effective to find a place for a IT-oriented startup with cheap fiber optic broadband and cheap electricity outside of SV. . . as google did.
While it's k3w1 to make the scene in the various SV hot spots. . . a successful startup takes more than being cool. As for experienced technologists. . . if one can live with telecommute, one can get them anywhere.
this Linux box.
The amusing part about this is that Walmart is also locking out its customers that bought Linux boxes from them online last year.
As for their locking out non-MS customers, if they don't want our business, there are plenty of other places that sell music, without concern about the kind of censorship that their in-store entertainment products come with.
In any case, they aren't the only major corporation whose website coders put out the kind of crap "IE-only" code that makes their site either useless or a pain in the ass for people who care about security.
If a company tells my browser that they don't want my business, I'll go to a competitor that does.
So if they get caught at it, you'll be going to jail in their place?
Nice of you, but it's an empty promise, the courts won't let you even if they agree with you that you deserve it.
not understanding parenting concepts is a trait they have in common with their parents.