<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hello WLUG<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I am a Buddhist monk, currently in the </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">UK</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> for a family visit and staying with my brother in </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Watford</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. I have just arrived in the </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">UK</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> after several years in </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Myanmar</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, where I had an offline notebook which ran on XP. I gave that away to another monk who needed it, and now my family have offered to get me a replacement. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I've been out of touch with developments, but I now find out there is a new OS called Windows Vista, which is even more bloated than XP, needing ten times as much disk space and much higher hardware requirements. I've heard of bloatware, but this is gloatware - how does Microsoft get away with this stuff?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">So I have decided to make the break. I need to find a suitable laptop and I'd like to have Linux as the OS. I don't want to pay for </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Vista</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> and don't want anything more to do with Microsoft.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Do you know of a place or person in </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Watford</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> who can sell a Linux-based system? I'm a Linux newbie, so I need a version which is not too techie as I'm not familiar with command-line input, but I'd like a quick and streamlined OS all the same. Having had a look through a couple of magazines, I thought maybe Xubuntu, or Linux Mint running Xfce, or perhaps even Zenwalk?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The catch is I'm only in the </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">UK</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> until 27th June, after which I will be in </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Asia</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> again. So I don't have a lot of time to a) find a laptop b) get a Linux OS up and running c) download software packages and d)learn how to use Linux. So I thought maybe you guys could help out?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I don't need a high-end system. I will use the laptop mostly for word processing, reading pdfs and playing audio and video CDs. On my previous laptop I used only freeware, and I became familiar with Open Office (I had version 2.1), which is what I would like to continue to use as my main application.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I may well need a DTP package in addition, but have no idea if there is something like that available for Linux. It's likely that most of the time the notebook will be offline, so I won't be able to have access to online support or updates. So I need to download as much software and help documentation as possible before I go. I will also need software which can download websites, as I want to store a lot of Buddhism-related stuff onto the hard drive while I am in the </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">UK</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> so that I can consult it when I am in </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Asia</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">One possible sticking point – I will need a keyboard driver which can handle Vietnamese diacritics. There is a program available for Windows, but I don't think it will work on Linux. It's called Vietkey, and it's available at:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">http://www.vietcourses.com/learn/mod/resource/view.php?id=211<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I will also need some Vietnamese fonts, but I'm not sure how fonts work in Linux. Do I need different versions of the fonts I used in Windows? I also used a lot of fonts that can handle Sanskrit and Pali, and need to have some of those available in Linux. How does that work in Linux?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Since I have to travel around a lot, I'm looking for a small notebook. Maximum screen size 14”, but maybe even better would be a 12-inch screen, with a hard disk in the 100-120GB range.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If you can offer any suggestions and advice on how I can sort all this out in the next twenty days, I'd appreciate it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Many thanks,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Bhikkhu Sanatha<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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