[Colchester] Re: Colchester Digest, Vol 46, Issue 11

[Wayland Sothcott]

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Re: Colchester Digest, Vol 46, Issue 10 (Toby Whaymand)
>    2. Re: Install party: a little progress (Tom Robbins)
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>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:24:18 +0000
> From: Toby Whaymand <toby.whaymand at ntlworld.com>
> Subject: [Colchester] Re: Colchester Digest, Vol 46, Issue 10
> To: colchester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID: <1203164658.5763.7.camel at toby-desktop>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> Hi,
> I think the install party is a great but there are two issues I would
> like to discuss from my own personal experience.  I have had people give
> me hardware before and asked me if they could try it on my computer and
> of course some brands just don't work and when they are there watching
> you trying to install this bit of hardware that deep down you know that
> it just is not going to happen you get the "Linux is rubbish" line.
> They (Windows users) just don't seem to understand that you need
> supported hardware on Linux.
>
> The other thing which I have already said is when they (again being
> Windows users) give you software that is not supported by Wine or
> CrossOver and so does not work.
>
> I really think that it is important to talk about how we can over come
> these problems?
>
> Thanks
>
> Toby
>  
> On Sat, 2008-02-16 at 01:16 +0000, colchester-request at mailman.lug.org.uk
> wrote:
>   
Toby,

I think you have a very valid concern over Linux compatibility compared 
to Windows. Clearly hardware will always work with Windows since that's 
the OS it was built for. The more posh brands of peripherals  usually 
work as do common chip sets of unheard of brands.

I also think that the people coming to the install party are probably 
more keen for Linux to work than your average person who uses a PC but 
has never even heard of Windows. Seriously people don't know the 
difference between MS Windows and MS Office. The times I have got into 
trouble for suppling a PC with Windows installed but no Office!!!

These days people value having plenty of pre-installed software like 
OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Firefox. There are probably a few more we 
should add to this list.I find you can soften up Windows users by 
getting them onto those three before they leave Windows.

The actual fact of installing say Mepis or Ubuntu is that it's actually 
easier than installing Windows. With Windows it's usually out of date 
and you have to spend all night updating and rebooting and getting past 
Windows Genuine Advantage. If it was not already installed on PCs and 
you had to install the OS yourself then Linux would be the post popular.

I would recommend running a Live CD or DVD, but you usually need at 
least 512 RAM to do this convincingly. Installing to the hard drive 
you're OK with 256.

I think Linux is not exactly a replacement for Windows but an 
alternative that has the following advantages.

1. You can run it as a Live CD without disturbing your Windows install
2. It does not seem to be affected by viruses so safe web surfing
3. It runs a bunch of programs that also run on Windows
4. It has some cool programs that Windows does not have
5. It makes the best server you can build
6. You can legally do all the above without paying for software
7. If you really really must run Windows programs under Linux that is 
often possible.

You must accept that Windows is better for some things. Fancy all in one 
printers, high end graphics cards and gaming are better under Windows 
since that's what this stuff is written for. However most of the things 
that people actually use computers for Linux does it better.

Here are some of the reasons I use Windows for business. MS Access 
database is very good especially with a Linux MySQL server backend. 
Skype works better on Windows. I am sure there are some other reasons 
but they are getting fewer and less important.

I am hoping someone can help me set up USB printers on CUPS and this is 
confusing me totally.

Regards,
Wayland.