Quoting you:
Of course, the _quickest_ way to learn how to use a computer is to learn just the things you need to use. However, do not confuse this with the easiest way. For example, there is a widespread belief that GUIs are more intuitive, and therefore easier to use than the command line. I disagree. I can hardly think of anything more intuitive than pressing the key which has the character that you want on the screen. From there on, you build up the complexity until you have a command that does what you want done, and press the key that causes the command to be executed.
end quote
Different people have different learning curves and learning modes. I've had a problem dealing with unlabeled icons because I don't always make an association between the graphic and what it's supposed to mean, and that's a point to support your argument. When I post on forums and blogs that just use icons for reply, read messages or send email I have trouble figuring out which is which and only half of them give rollover labeling to help. Often the icons are specific to that skin or theme and someone else's idea of what a reply button ought to look like bears no relation to anything I've seen.
However, I have as much problem with codes and acronyms -- when words are condensed or spelled in a way unique to computer syntax it's hard to figure out what I'm supposed to do. Man files assume you know the command you're trying to look up. I haven't had much success using them.
I disagree that command line is more intuitive. You have to already know what you want and know the jargon and syntax to try to construct a command on the command line. Drop down menu items are usually much better labeled and you can see the list before you select it. Usually they don't have jargon spellings either, but are familiar words.
I agree with this completely:
The strength of GUIs is that they are discoverable. Once you learn how to move the mouse, select items, and navigate menus, you can discover pretty much everything a program can do by doing just that. There is a lesson here for CLI designers: make your interfaces discoverable. Tell the user how to get a list of commands and how to find out what they do.
--That's exactly it. Once I figured out how to manipulate the menus, which was hilarious and did take me a while, it got easier to do so in other software.
It's hard to write about anything you know and put it in terms understandable to someone who doesn't share your knowledge. That's just something about writing and knowledge.
Thanks! That makes sense -- I get annoyed at bad wrapping if I try to print out text files and it breaks in the middle of words. Usually run files through Abiword to print them out, though most of what I do is paperless.
I used to like left and right justified text more when I had a typesetting machine doing it, or if the print is small. When it's large it can get annoying, and I guess I got used to left justified around the point I got used to Courier instead of Times. I still don't double space anything till it's going to be seen by an editor.
Hence that metaphor, that was why I used it. You and a lot of people wouldn't work at an office that uptight.
I as a fiction writer DO want to take full advantage of some of the bolder marketing techniques, like the chap at Tor who got the go-ahead for putting his freshly published first book on a webpage for free download as an ebook. I downloaded it, pretty much the same thing as if I'd borrowed it at a friend's house, when I get around to reading it if I like it, I will probably buy it in print.
The thing with copyright law is that it should be up to the creators what to do with it. My personal choice should not be set as the law for everyone, that's my view. But the law should not be set to prevent me from giving away what I own either, or I'm not the one who owns it.
As for all the home uses you're talking about -- I am with you on that and that is not IMO piracy, it's more convenience and playing with your own stuff. How to phrase that in law would be a serious PITA.
Ahh... then I'm just using the right application. Programmers need lines that don't wrap, fiction writers with weird individual habits may need them to wrap to create a workable environment.
I like gedit anyway. It serves my purposes and if I learn some programming, maybe I will come to appreciate why unwrapped lines make sense. No one who likes them NOT to wrap has ever really explained the advantage to me.
I had one dark theme working, so now custom themes are a back burner project. I'm learning all the time and new to Slashdot too. Sorry if I went off topic with it.
It's just one of those things that I ask whenever I meet anyone who knows anything about Linux, because sooner or later I will meet someone who's had to solve it or found it a fun problem. When I know how to handle it, I'll pass it on. Possibly put up a page on it somewhere.:)
Now that's a neat thought. Maybe the stuff could be offered on a subscription basis by the networks -- you get X number of Fox shows per season and choose from their list depending on what level subscription and they ship you the DVDs.
Matter of degree too in my view -- many people would take a different view of office pilferage (office supplies and other minor pilferage) versus cash embezzlement, versus minor borrowing out of petty cash and replacing, versus serious embezzlement. Scale really does matter in these things and that includes how big the margin is for the petty stuff.
Pirates who make a substantial profit distributing under market without paying royalties, that's serious problems. Individuals downloading is probably more comparable to walking off with paperclips or pens, but that's not my legal decision to make. The big companies are usually a lot more resourceful in defending their rights than individual or independent artists, and often defend bad contracts against real artists -- so who's thieving and who's getting away with theft isn't always the little viewer against the big companies. Overall where legal aid comes in, big companies afford bigger nastier lawyers.
Naturally, I'd take the side of the creators though, because I'm a writer. But I'm enough of a geek to prefer open sourcing to paranoia about theft, trusting that if I write well enough to make a hit, it'll sell because it's good.
Robert and Ari >^..^
I disagree with the idea that "the best art comes from the desire to entertain, innovate and make great art; when art that exists solely or primarily to make a profit fades away will we really be worse off as a society?"
This would work only if all artistic pursuits were publically subsidized at a level that a full time artist -- all of them, every crummy amateur and dabbler as well as the greatest artists in all the arts -- at a level that they can live as reasonably well as people working other jobs and that their materials are provided for them by society. It's not an impossible dream for the future -- if Star Trek is any indication, society may someday *want* to do this and pay for the living of every Sunday painter and every Van Gogh without regard to their quality.
That would still leave the market deciding what was popular and the literati deciding what was classy, with true classics decided by time and sustained popularity over decades and centuries. Most great art and literature was done by artists who needed to make a living at it. Many people who hold this view think nothing of cheating artists directly of their revenues -- gouging visual artists on the price of their paintings is a brag for many art collectors. The arts are fiercely competitive because nonprofessionals envy the attention and applause celebrities get -- the worst case of this comes for actors and musicians who visibly get more attention than most human beings can put up with.
Performing artists also routinely have their privacy violated just because large numbers of their fans are nosy about their private lives, routinely get flamed and their popularity at high times inspires vicious jealousy. Writers and cell painters and stagehands and all the backstage people in the arts have less of this problem, but they don't always get regular work -- and so however skilled, often great works go unmade or postponed because they're too busy trying to survive doing whatever will pay the rent.
It sounds like a high principle but it rationalizes ripping off the people who can afford it least: usually the creators. The distributors and other businesses between practicing creative professionals and their mass public sometimes have a narrow profit margin, but do survive as businesses. Especially when copyright is retained by the original creators and/or royalties are paid to them, copyright infringement is robbing the poor to pay the inconvenienced.
But when it's the creator who holds the copyright, open sourcing is a good sensible way to increase distribution and create markets for paying finished productions. I think this applies to some of the arts as well as software development -- "shared worlds series" tend to sell well and all the authors in the group benefit. But that's always in my view the choice of the creator.
Robert and Ari >^..^
Thanks! Very appreciated. I expect to get new computers every year or two or three depending on income, but keep the old machines running as backup systems. Most of the pro writers I know have a home network of three or four machines including at least one desktop and at least one laptop, sometimes multiple platforms. I figure at some point an old used Apple will join my setup, just for added redundancy.
The other thing that happens with writers is just like hospitals and large companies -- there's bump down, but because most of my computers with or without Linux were hand me downs, I feel obligated to pass on old machines in good running condition with a stable installation. Backup machines don't need the latest upgrades or applications: they need to be able to run word processors that can turn out clean manuscripts on cheap printers and help newer writers get going, especially if the newbie hasn't even used computers before.
Even in Windows, keeping the OS version comparable to the generation of hardware seems to make computers run better. So if I want the latest versions, the time to get them is when I get my newest computer at any time I should be so lucky as to get or build a newer computer. If I had to throw together a junker for a new writer today, I would probably install the RH7 CDs that worked so well on the p133 that I gave away.
I also have a weird criteria for newest applications: they have to actually run smoother and have fewer steps to use them than their predecessors. I'm not always crazy about new features so much as streamlining. I guess reviews of new upgrades would stress which direction they were developing.
Robert and Ari >^..^
Considering that a new Dell laptop is on my wish list, on account of Dell's decent prices and my wizard friend's recommendation that Dell supports Linux, this was good to know.
I figure I will deal, setting up a dual boot until I get any new system stable and pestering Slashdot and Dell till I figure out how to get any hardware set up. One of the things I noticed about the process is that troubleshooting Linux installs takes some guesswork. The expert doing the troubleshooting does not always know which trick worked, and there are usually a number of options.
The key here is "Proxim doesn't provide Linux drivers." If that wireless card came with the machine, ouch. If it didn't, I know to avoid getting a Proxim wireless card. Thanks!
Robert and Ari >^..^
This is a great point.
My wizard friend explained when I first converted, that the joy of Linux was that an application could crash without crashing the OS. I found this out the hard but happy way when Mozilla got very buggy and Galeon worked like a dream -- combination of my hardware and my habits, it was a Mozilla thing and a usage style thing. I need a very light browser because I don't use all its features, do bookmark often and also usually use multiple windows.
Same thing with word processors. Open Office Writer was almost as slow to open and save as MS Word had been on the same machine. Abiword ran fast and light, could be run in several instances, and still saved processed documents as Word.docs if the editor wanted e-submissions in.doc format. Personal choices of whether someone wants feature-heavy applications or light fast applications affect what you can do in either format, but the neat thing was that all those options came on my Install CD, which was homemade from download and still resides in my laptop's carrybag.
I haven't tried Mandrake yet, but one of the things Bob Billing recommended in "Teach Yourself Linux" was to dual boot and if you have a biggish hard drive, go ahead and install different versions with the selection available at boot. That's something I'm looking forward to being able to do on my next computer. Heck, I could even get good enough at it to write reviews of them eventually...
Robert and Ari >^..^
I'm on Red Hat 9 on a Toshiba Tecra 8000 networked to a Windows PC.
The one thing I hated about Linux was the black type on white background default in most of the themes. The only dark theme available was white on navy blue and clunky. On Windows, I could select colors for menu bars and choose icons and sounds while in use, on Linux, I can't do that on the fly.
That sounds petty, but I used to change colors and themes constantly in any long work session to reduce eyestrain. I created color combinations and saved them whenever I was bored, from psychedelic "roommate keep off this computer" warning colors to soothing deep-sea greens or Gothic red and black stuff while doing horror stories. I themed the colors to my writing in progress and it's still something I miss.
Eventually a friend pointed me to freshmeat.com and I successfully downloaded a lightweight dark theme, Black Marble 2. Changing background became what I did to set the theme of a writing project -- but ever since I found out most of their gorgeous themes wouldn't work automatically, I have stayed off the site. Cool as they are, they aren't the ones I would make up on the spot.
So this is a double question:
Is there a Gnome "custom" theme that would let me make on the fly font and color changes within its parameters, for everyday use?
Is there a way that I can create new Themes without being a programmer and understanding code? If I could do variations on Black Marble 2, it would still run light but I could vary the font color, typeface and maybe even the skinny.jpg files that make the top bar on the windows by drawing those in GIMP to the same size.
I'd like to learn how, and if I ever get it, will probably upload a lot of neat themes to Freshmeat.:)
ROFLMAO -- this is glorious.
It sounds a lot like my story, in tone. Heh. Not in details, long story and much amusing confusion on my part. Keep in mind that I'm a fiction writer and the only language I speak and read is English.
To a beginner, it's scary when his friend the high-paid professional programmer downloads an installer CD, burns two CDs worth, puts five or six hours into trying to get it to run and then it crashes, whereon he announces something went wrong with the installer, pulls it out and throws both CDs in the trash. If the wizards can't make it work, who can?
I went to Red Hat's site, mindful that Red Hat 7 worked just fine on the backup machine I gave the wizard, followed their clear English instructions for download and got a friend with a CD burner to make the install CD. I don't do all that bad with step by step instructions in English as long as they're all there.
I put that in my laptop, chose defaults for everything and told it more or less what I did on my laptop. I did not extend my hubris to include programming, because I figured if I ever learned how, I could always reinstall from the CD. That was probably a good choice.
The KISS principle works for dummies. Real well. RH9 installed with only one problem: the sound system on my laptop didn't work. Much discussion later, after the wizard consulted Slashdot and everyone he worked with, he figured out that needed a kernel adjustment and some other arcane things done to it. He did that in his spare time over about six weeks and I still have sound, for which I'm grateful.
I got to be a beta reader for Bob Billing's "Teach Yourself Linux" -- it either is available or soon will be available from a UK publisher, check it out on Amazon or watch for it. The book rocks for dummies who don't understand computing. Most of what the wizard did was something I understood at least in theory after I read the beta copy of his book.
My new "intermediate" status after I got out of the "total dummy" category came when I moved and needed to repeat what the wizard did networking my laptop with his home network, which included a Linux server and a Windows PC. It took me about a week of trial and error, but I was much more active in the process this time. I don't even know which of the things I changed on drop-down menus actually made it work, but after a week of experiments I got everything lined up with autodetecting DNS and Galeon worked.
The happy part is that while Mozilla was still annoying on the laptop, Galeon runs enough instances for my bad habit of leaving lots of windows open, and gedit lets me have all sorts of text files open at the same time.
On a strictly esthetic note -- I like the way the wallpaper options in Linux let me do a gradient with color choices for background. If I don't use a picture, just the gradient is light and lets my machine run fast. If I do, it doesn't slow it too much.
Robert and Ari >^..^
Oh yeah...
Actually, that just makes me think it's time to try Debian on my next computer. This one's stable already, but the other one will be a dual boot and either hold backups or become my main machine after I save up for it -- depends on whether I sell a book or just a couple of articles whether it's a Dell laptop or that neat $499 special black desktop they have, which would come with Windows XP.
Some Windows people have been saying you can't actually uninstall XP without taking it to the shop, it can't be done with the restore CD on a packaged machine. But if I dual boot with Debian then I can partition it and just ignore XP except when playing Windows games (point in favor of bargain desktop).
I don't know if I'd be ready to try replacing RH9 with Debian on my main machine, without a backup machine. But one of the things my friend Bob Billing, author of "Teach Yourself Linux" suggested, was that to play with Linux it's a great idea to throw together a homebuilt with hand me down junk and just crash-test your Linux till it works. I might do that if the writing money comes in too slowly.:)
It wouldn't hurt to have another backup machine, and if it ran well I could always bump it down to another newbie once I got the neat Dell.
Robert and Ari >^..^
LOL -- this describes me last year, perfectly. Step by step directions from live Linux experts sometimes worked, but usually demanded that I keep questioning the expert for verbal descriptions of the screen and spellings of what I have to type. At least once per call the expert (no matter who it was) would forget to mention something routine about the process that he or she took for granted, a link that had to be followed or a command spelling or a level within the command.
Now that I've got the Red Hat 9 manual, I am a lot more confident. I can download in the graphical interface, but if I was messing around in a terminal I could probably look up how to do it. FTP is still not in my permanent memory, but at least I know where to look it up!
Robert and Ari >^..^
Different people have different learning strategies. The best way for me to deal with anything like that is to have a well-indexed manual. (Thanks, CHRIS!!! Purr!) and an idea of what I have to do, then step by step go through the manual doing it for myself. I tend to remember more of it than I think I do if I've got the manual and reference it.
Trying to remember other people's explanations is much harder, and watching other people do things does not teach my hands the odd spellings and abbreviations and commands. A spelling knack for regular typing works *against* me for memorizing abbreviations and code verbally, and many human beings forget to mention that a code word is spelled oddly or not capitalized or abbreviated.
But that's just me -- some people can't understand or remember written material but easily remember something that's said or shown.
Robert and Ari >^..^
Oh yeah. About the only Windows apps that I didn't find better Linux equivalents were the games that won't run on my laptop anyway.
I haven't used Open Office much even though it installed as the default, because I prefer Abiword for word processing. Both of those will save a final manuscript in Word.doc format, which is good enough for me to print out manuscript submissions or burn to CD or save to floppy for publishers and editors.
I write in.txt format and haven't figured out how to make emacs wrap to screen and not in the file, so I use gedit for most of my writing. It tabs and wraps to screen without altering the file, so I'm able to keep all my chapters open while working on a novel. I don't quite understand why programmers put up with the inconvenience of very long lines that don't wrap, but many of them swear by emacs.
Robert and Ari >^..^
As a relatively new Linux user coming from "intermediate" Windows usage, I have to agree with the Red Hat and Mandrake advocates. I may install Debian on another computer later on, but despite its advantages -- the main one I know about is that it updates itself automatically and grabs all the prerequisites for any software you install -- it seems to involve knowing all the commands with their special spelling before you can look up the command for what you want to do.
I usually operate from the Gnome graphical interface and have trouble memorizing commands I don't use every day. So far I've been able to troubleshoot a couple of problems with help from friends, and the last time I solved it on my own by exploring menus and submenus.
Linux Missionaries are right about one thing though: it runs better than Windows. It crashes less, and while it may just be a difference in attitude, I feel more empowered to experiment with Linux. Changes I made in Linux were more reversible than in any version of Windows that I ever used, and that helped a lot when I was trying to get this laptop networked with a Windows system in collaboration with the Windows guy who didn't know Linux and his friend the Linux guru who didn't know anything about my hardware.
The other great advantage is that despite antivirus software, my Windows buddy has been hit once with a virus and maybe twice, but my laptop is safe. That would have made more trouble worthwhile, but at this point my Red Hat 9 system is stable and I'm happy with it.
Since some more advanced Linux geeks all said that Dell was the friendliest hardware to Linux, the next level for me is to get a Dell when I upgrade and dual-boot it, trying Debian but keeping the graphical interface.
Question about Debian and its automatic upgrades: since I am likely to go on using laptops, would Debian eventually evolve to the point hardware won't support it if I just keep running a stable system, or would it respond more by installing only the refinements to the version compatible with that generation of hardware?
My Debian-using friend uses a p133 with relatively little RAM and manages to work from home on it, but it can't run at decent speed in graphical interface. What exactly happens when old hardware and current generation Linux come together?
Slashdot Mirror
Quoting you: Of course, the _quickest_ way to learn how to use a computer is to learn just the things you need to use. However, do not confuse this with the easiest way. For example, there is a widespread belief that GUIs are more intuitive, and therefore easier to use than the command line. I disagree. I can hardly think of anything more intuitive than pressing the key which has the character that you want on the screen. From there on, you build up the complexity until you have a command that does what you want done, and press the key that causes the command to be executed. end quote Different people have different learning curves and learning modes. I've had a problem dealing with unlabeled icons because I don't always make an association between the graphic and what it's supposed to mean, and that's a point to support your argument. When I post on forums and blogs that just use icons for reply, read messages or send email I have trouble figuring out which is which and only half of them give rollover labeling to help. Often the icons are specific to that skin or theme and someone else's idea of what a reply button ought to look like bears no relation to anything I've seen. However, I have as much problem with codes and acronyms -- when words are condensed or spelled in a way unique to computer syntax it's hard to figure out what I'm supposed to do. Man files assume you know the command you're trying to look up. I haven't had much success using them. I disagree that command line is more intuitive. You have to already know what you want and know the jargon and syntax to try to construct a command on the command line. Drop down menu items are usually much better labeled and you can see the list before you select it. Usually they don't have jargon spellings either, but are familiar words. I agree with this completely: The strength of GUIs is that they are discoverable. Once you learn how to move the mouse, select items, and navigate menus, you can discover pretty much everything a program can do by doing just that. There is a lesson here for CLI designers: make your interfaces discoverable. Tell the user how to get a list of commands and how to find out what they do. --That's exactly it. Once I figured out how to manipulate the menus, which was hilarious and did take me a while, it got easier to do so in other software. It's hard to write about anything you know and put it in terms understandable to someone who doesn't share your knowledge. That's just something about writing and knowledge.
Thanks! That makes sense -- I get annoyed at bad wrapping if I try to print out text files and it breaks in the middle of words. Usually run files through Abiword to print them out, though most of what I do is paperless. I used to like left and right justified text more when I had a typesetting machine doing it, or if the print is small. When it's large it can get annoying, and I guess I got used to left justified around the point I got used to Courier instead of Times. I still don't double space anything till it's going to be seen by an editor.
Hence that metaphor, that was why I used it. You and a lot of people wouldn't work at an office that uptight. I as a fiction writer DO want to take full advantage of some of the bolder marketing techniques, like the chap at Tor who got the go-ahead for putting his freshly published first book on a webpage for free download as an ebook. I downloaded it, pretty much the same thing as if I'd borrowed it at a friend's house, when I get around to reading it if I like it, I will probably buy it in print. The thing with copyright law is that it should be up to the creators what to do with it. My personal choice should not be set as the law for everyone, that's my view. But the law should not be set to prevent me from giving away what I own either, or I'm not the one who owns it. As for all the home uses you're talking about -- I am with you on that and that is not IMO piracy, it's more convenience and playing with your own stuff. How to phrase that in law would be a serious PITA.
Ahh... then I'm just using the right application. Programmers need lines that don't wrap, fiction writers with weird individual habits may need them to wrap to create a workable environment. I like gedit anyway. It serves my purposes and if I learn some programming, maybe I will come to appreciate why unwrapped lines make sense. No one who likes them NOT to wrap has ever really explained the advantage to me.
I had one dark theme working, so now custom themes are a back burner project. I'm learning all the time and new to Slashdot too. Sorry if I went off topic with it. It's just one of those things that I ask whenever I meet anyone who knows anything about Linux, because sooner or later I will meet someone who's had to solve it or found it a fun problem. When I know how to handle it, I'll pass it on. Possibly put up a page on it somewhere. :)
Now that's a neat thought. Maybe the stuff could be offered on a subscription basis by the networks -- you get X number of Fox shows per season and choose from their list depending on what level subscription and they ship you the DVDs.
Matter of degree too in my view -- many people would take a different view of office pilferage (office supplies and other minor pilferage) versus cash embezzlement, versus minor borrowing out of petty cash and replacing, versus serious embezzlement. Scale really does matter in these things and that includes how big the margin is for the petty stuff. Pirates who make a substantial profit distributing under market without paying royalties, that's serious problems. Individuals downloading is probably more comparable to walking off with paperclips or pens, but that's not my legal decision to make. The big companies are usually a lot more resourceful in defending their rights than individual or independent artists, and often defend bad contracts against real artists -- so who's thieving and who's getting away with theft isn't always the little viewer against the big companies. Overall where legal aid comes in, big companies afford bigger nastier lawyers. Naturally, I'd take the side of the creators though, because I'm a writer. But I'm enough of a geek to prefer open sourcing to paranoia about theft, trusting that if I write well enough to make a hit, it'll sell because it's good. Robert and Ari >^..^
I disagree with the idea that "the best art comes from the desire to entertain, innovate and make great art; when art that exists solely or primarily to make a profit fades away will we really be worse off as a society?" This would work only if all artistic pursuits were publically subsidized at a level that a full time artist -- all of them, every crummy amateur and dabbler as well as the greatest artists in all the arts -- at a level that they can live as reasonably well as people working other jobs and that their materials are provided for them by society. It's not an impossible dream for the future -- if Star Trek is any indication, society may someday *want* to do this and pay for the living of every Sunday painter and every Van Gogh without regard to their quality. That would still leave the market deciding what was popular and the literati deciding what was classy, with true classics decided by time and sustained popularity over decades and centuries. Most great art and literature was done by artists who needed to make a living at it. Many people who hold this view think nothing of cheating artists directly of their revenues -- gouging visual artists on the price of their paintings is a brag for many art collectors. The arts are fiercely competitive because nonprofessionals envy the attention and applause celebrities get -- the worst case of this comes for actors and musicians who visibly get more attention than most human beings can put up with. Performing artists also routinely have their privacy violated just because large numbers of their fans are nosy about their private lives, routinely get flamed and their popularity at high times inspires vicious jealousy. Writers and cell painters and stagehands and all the backstage people in the arts have less of this problem, but they don't always get regular work -- and so however skilled, often great works go unmade or postponed because they're too busy trying to survive doing whatever will pay the rent. It sounds like a high principle but it rationalizes ripping off the people who can afford it least: usually the creators. The distributors and other businesses between practicing creative professionals and their mass public sometimes have a narrow profit margin, but do survive as businesses. Especially when copyright is retained by the original creators and/or royalties are paid to them, copyright infringement is robbing the poor to pay the inconvenienced. But when it's the creator who holds the copyright, open sourcing is a good sensible way to increase distribution and create markets for paying finished productions. I think this applies to some of the arts as well as software development -- "shared worlds series" tend to sell well and all the authors in the group benefit. But that's always in my view the choice of the creator. Robert and Ari >^..^
Thanks! Very appreciated. I expect to get new computers every year or two or three depending on income, but keep the old machines running as backup systems. Most of the pro writers I know have a home network of three or four machines including at least one desktop and at least one laptop, sometimes multiple platforms. I figure at some point an old used Apple will join my setup, just for added redundancy. The other thing that happens with writers is just like hospitals and large companies -- there's bump down, but because most of my computers with or without Linux were hand me downs, I feel obligated to pass on old machines in good running condition with a stable installation. Backup machines don't need the latest upgrades or applications: they need to be able to run word processors that can turn out clean manuscripts on cheap printers and help newer writers get going, especially if the newbie hasn't even used computers before. Even in Windows, keeping the OS version comparable to the generation of hardware seems to make computers run better. So if I want the latest versions, the time to get them is when I get my newest computer at any time I should be so lucky as to get or build a newer computer. If I had to throw together a junker for a new writer today, I would probably install the RH7 CDs that worked so well on the p133 that I gave away. I also have a weird criteria for newest applications: they have to actually run smoother and have fewer steps to use them than their predecessors. I'm not always crazy about new features so much as streamlining. I guess reviews of new upgrades would stress which direction they were developing. Robert and Ari >^..^
Considering that a new Dell laptop is on my wish list, on account of Dell's decent prices and my wizard friend's recommendation that Dell supports Linux, this was good to know. I figure I will deal, setting up a dual boot until I get any new system stable and pestering Slashdot and Dell till I figure out how to get any hardware set up. One of the things I noticed about the process is that troubleshooting Linux installs takes some guesswork. The expert doing the troubleshooting does not always know which trick worked, and there are usually a number of options. The key here is "Proxim doesn't provide Linux drivers." If that wireless card came with the machine, ouch. If it didn't, I know to avoid getting a Proxim wireless card. Thanks! Robert and Ari >^..^
This is a great point. My wizard friend explained when I first converted, that the joy of Linux was that an application could crash without crashing the OS. I found this out the hard but happy way when Mozilla got very buggy and Galeon worked like a dream -- combination of my hardware and my habits, it was a Mozilla thing and a usage style thing. I need a very light browser because I don't use all its features, do bookmark often and also usually use multiple windows. Same thing with word processors. Open Office Writer was almost as slow to open and save as MS Word had been on the same machine. Abiword ran fast and light, could be run in several instances, and still saved processed documents as Word .docs if the editor wanted e-submissions in .doc format. Personal choices of whether someone wants feature-heavy applications or light fast applications affect what you can do in either format, but the neat thing was that all those options came on my Install CD, which was homemade from download and still resides in my laptop's carrybag.
I haven't tried Mandrake yet, but one of the things Bob Billing recommended in "Teach Yourself Linux" was to dual boot and if you have a biggish hard drive, go ahead and install different versions with the selection available at boot. That's something I'm looking forward to being able to do on my next computer. Heck, I could even get good enough at it to write reviews of them eventually...
Robert and Ari >^..^
I'm on Red Hat 9 on a Toshiba Tecra 8000 networked to a Windows PC. The one thing I hated about Linux was the black type on white background default in most of the themes. The only dark theme available was white on navy blue and clunky. On Windows, I could select colors for menu bars and choose icons and sounds while in use, on Linux, I can't do that on the fly. That sounds petty, but I used to change colors and themes constantly in any long work session to reduce eyestrain. I created color combinations and saved them whenever I was bored, from psychedelic "roommate keep off this computer" warning colors to soothing deep-sea greens or Gothic red and black stuff while doing horror stories. I themed the colors to my writing in progress and it's still something I miss. Eventually a friend pointed me to freshmeat.com and I successfully downloaded a lightweight dark theme, Black Marble 2. Changing background became what I did to set the theme of a writing project -- but ever since I found out most of their gorgeous themes wouldn't work automatically, I have stayed off the site. Cool as they are, they aren't the ones I would make up on the spot. So this is a double question: Is there a Gnome "custom" theme that would let me make on the fly font and color changes within its parameters, for everyday use? Is there a way that I can create new Themes without being a programmer and understanding code? If I could do variations on Black Marble 2, it would still run light but I could vary the font color, typeface and maybe even the skinny .jpg files that make the top bar on the windows by drawing those in GIMP to the same size.
I'd like to learn how, and if I ever get it, will probably upload a lot of neat themes to Freshmeat. :)
ROFLMAO -- this is glorious. It sounds a lot like my story, in tone. Heh. Not in details, long story and much amusing confusion on my part. Keep in mind that I'm a fiction writer and the only language I speak and read is English. To a beginner, it's scary when his friend the high-paid professional programmer downloads an installer CD, burns two CDs worth, puts five or six hours into trying to get it to run and then it crashes, whereon he announces something went wrong with the installer, pulls it out and throws both CDs in the trash. If the wizards can't make it work, who can? I went to Red Hat's site, mindful that Red Hat 7 worked just fine on the backup machine I gave the wizard, followed their clear English instructions for download and got a friend with a CD burner to make the install CD. I don't do all that bad with step by step instructions in English as long as they're all there. I put that in my laptop, chose defaults for everything and told it more or less what I did on my laptop. I did not extend my hubris to include programming, because I figured if I ever learned how, I could always reinstall from the CD. That was probably a good choice. The KISS principle works for dummies. Real well. RH9 installed with only one problem: the sound system on my laptop didn't work. Much discussion later, after the wizard consulted Slashdot and everyone he worked with, he figured out that needed a kernel adjustment and some other arcane things done to it. He did that in his spare time over about six weeks and I still have sound, for which I'm grateful. I got to be a beta reader for Bob Billing's "Teach Yourself Linux" -- it either is available or soon will be available from a UK publisher, check it out on Amazon or watch for it. The book rocks for dummies who don't understand computing. Most of what the wizard did was something I understood at least in theory after I read the beta copy of his book. My new "intermediate" status after I got out of the "total dummy" category came when I moved and needed to repeat what the wizard did networking my laptop with his home network, which included a Linux server and a Windows PC. It took me about a week of trial and error, but I was much more active in the process this time. I don't even know which of the things I changed on drop-down menus actually made it work, but after a week of experiments I got everything lined up with autodetecting DNS and Galeon worked. The happy part is that while Mozilla was still annoying on the laptop, Galeon runs enough instances for my bad habit of leaving lots of windows open, and gedit lets me have all sorts of text files open at the same time. On a strictly esthetic note -- I like the way the wallpaper options in Linux let me do a gradient with color choices for background. If I don't use a picture, just the gradient is light and lets my machine run fast. If I do, it doesn't slow it too much. Robert and Ari >^..^
Oh yeah... Actually, that just makes me think it's time to try Debian on my next computer. This one's stable already, but the other one will be a dual boot and either hold backups or become my main machine after I save up for it -- depends on whether I sell a book or just a couple of articles whether it's a Dell laptop or that neat $499 special black desktop they have, which would come with Windows XP. Some Windows people have been saying you can't actually uninstall XP without taking it to the shop, it can't be done with the restore CD on a packaged machine. But if I dual boot with Debian then I can partition it and just ignore XP except when playing Windows games (point in favor of bargain desktop). I don't know if I'd be ready to try replacing RH9 with Debian on my main machine, without a backup machine. But one of the things my friend Bob Billing, author of "Teach Yourself Linux" suggested, was that to play with Linux it's a great idea to throw together a homebuilt with hand me down junk and just crash-test your Linux till it works. I might do that if the writing money comes in too slowly. :)
It wouldn't hurt to have another backup machine, and if it ran well I could always bump it down to another newbie once I got the neat Dell.
Robert and Ari >^..^
LOL -- this describes me last year, perfectly. Step by step directions from live Linux experts sometimes worked, but usually demanded that I keep questioning the expert for verbal descriptions of the screen and spellings of what I have to type. At least once per call the expert (no matter who it was) would forget to mention something routine about the process that he or she took for granted, a link that had to be followed or a command spelling or a level within the command. Now that I've got the Red Hat 9 manual, I am a lot more confident. I can download in the graphical interface, but if I was messing around in a terminal I could probably look up how to do it. FTP is still not in my permanent memory, but at least I know where to look it up! Robert and Ari >^..^
Different people have different learning strategies. The best way for me to deal with anything like that is to have a well-indexed manual. (Thanks, CHRIS!!! Purr!) and an idea of what I have to do, then step by step go through the manual doing it for myself. I tend to remember more of it than I think I do if I've got the manual and reference it. Trying to remember other people's explanations is much harder, and watching other people do things does not teach my hands the odd spellings and abbreviations and commands. A spelling knack for regular typing works *against* me for memorizing abbreviations and code verbally, and many human beings forget to mention that a code word is spelled oddly or not capitalized or abbreviated. But that's just me -- some people can't understand or remember written material but easily remember something that's said or shown. Robert and Ari >^..^
Oh yeah. About the only Windows apps that I didn't find better Linux equivalents were the games that won't run on my laptop anyway. I haven't used Open Office much even though it installed as the default, because I prefer Abiword for word processing. Both of those will save a final manuscript in Word .doc format, which is good enough for me to print out manuscript submissions or burn to CD or save to floppy for publishers and editors.
I write in .txt format and haven't figured out how to make emacs wrap to screen and not in the file, so I use gedit for most of my writing. It tabs and wraps to screen without altering the file, so I'm able to keep all my chapters open while working on a novel. I don't quite understand why programmers put up with the inconvenience of very long lines that don't wrap, but many of them swear by emacs.
Robert and Ari >^..^
As a relatively new Linux user coming from "intermediate" Windows usage, I have to agree with the Red Hat and Mandrake advocates. I may install Debian on another computer later on, but despite its advantages -- the main one I know about is that it updates itself automatically and grabs all the prerequisites for any software you install -- it seems to involve knowing all the commands with their special spelling before you can look up the command for what you want to do.
I usually operate from the Gnome graphical interface and have trouble memorizing commands I don't use every day. So far I've been able to troubleshoot a couple of problems with help from friends, and the last time I solved it on my own by exploring menus and submenus.
Linux Missionaries are right about one thing though: it runs better than Windows. It crashes less, and while it may just be a difference in attitude, I feel more empowered to experiment with Linux. Changes I made in Linux were more reversible than in any version of Windows that I ever used, and that helped a lot when I was trying to get this laptop networked with a Windows system in collaboration with the Windows guy who didn't know Linux and his friend the Linux guru who didn't know anything about my hardware.
The other great advantage is that despite antivirus software, my Windows buddy has been hit once with a virus and maybe twice, but my laptop is safe. That would have made more trouble worthwhile, but at this point my Red Hat 9 system is stable and I'm happy with it.
Since some more advanced Linux geeks all said that Dell was the friendliest hardware to Linux, the next level for me is to get a Dell when I upgrade and dual-boot it, trying Debian but keeping the graphical interface.
Question about Debian and its automatic upgrades: since I am likely to go on using laptops, would Debian eventually evolve to the point hardware won't support it if I just keep running a stable system, or would it respond more by installing only the refinements to the version compatible with that generation of hardware?
My Debian-using friend uses a p133 with relatively little RAM and manages to work from home on it, but it can't run at decent speed in graphical interface. What exactly happens when old hardware and current generation Linux come together?
Robert and Ari >^..^