[Gloucs] Where has everyon gone?

[Pete Wright AIIE]

I agree that ubuntu's hotplug technology is amazing, i have succesfully had 
my logitech quickcam running on ubuntu and succesfully used it with the CVS 
of aMSN to video conference with, which i was damn proud of!! the only 
problem with it is that because aMSN was CVS it would crash alot :(


>From: Paul Broadhead <lug at twinmoons.clara.co.uk>
>Reply-To: Gloucestershire LUG <gloucs at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>To: Gloucestershire LUG <gloucs at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>Subject: Re: [Gloucs] Where has everyon gone?
>Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 17:01:45 +0000
>
>Christian Trapp <Christian.Trapp at gmx.net> wrote:
>
> > Just give Mepis a try. It is so easy to install.....
>
>Oh my, you not going to like this! It just amazes me how different first 
>impressions can be for different people using the same OS.  Bear in mind if 
>you read this that most people will be very happy with Mepis.  Also, that 
>there will alway be someone who has a bad experience with any Distro/OS, 
>not just Linux either:
>
>I downloaded the live (ISOSimplyMEPIS-3.3.iso), put it in my laptop and was 
>dumped into the boot loader grub with no OS options.  This laptop is 
>normally fine with live versions; SUSE, Ubuntu even Minux are things I've 
>successfully tried recently.  My immediate thought was a faulty CD so I 
>checked the md5 etc but all was well.  No matter, I'll try my desktop 
>machine....
>
>So, it all boots OK and I eventually get a login screen, after guessing the 
>passwords were the same as the username I was presented with a musical 
>login and the KDE desktop.  Good that the sound card was OK but, and this 
>is probably my own personal problem, I just hate KDE.  Had I known it was 
>KDE I would probably not have bothered.  OK, it's Debian based to Gnome is 
>only an apt-get away but first impressions and all that.  KDE is so 
>cluttered, there are icons all over the desktop and panels.  It's a pet 
>hate of mine, a cluttered desktop.  That is one reason why I prefer Gnome, 
>its default look is so peaceful.  All the icons and applets you want are 
>there, just waiting in the wings.  KDE it seams to me, just wants to shove 
>them all in your face immediately.  Sorry, KDE rant over now.
>
>So networking was OK.  The screen resolution was unfortunately set to 
>1024x768 and it was not obvious how to change this from the KDE control 
>panel which stubbornly refused to offer any choice.  My rather nice NVIDIA 
>graphics card and 17" LCD were rather wasted.  I know I could have sorted 
>this out eventually but again, first impressions.
>
>One of the great things about Ubuntu is its hardware detection and device 
>hot plugging abilities; something standard Debian is not as good at.  
>However, plugging my USB stick onto my machine running Mepis did nothing.  
>dmesg showed the device was recognised so it could all be sorted out with a 
>little effort.
>
>A quick look at apt showed that the live version at least would not allow 
>any install, updates or searches.  Again, Ubuntu manages to do this kind of 
>thing when using the live CD; yes magically you can actually install new 
>packages when booted from the live CD though they are of course lost with a 
>reboot.
>
>So, probably more down to KDE than Mepis, I disappointed rebooted into my 
>normal debian (for now) desktop.  But what's this, my network card is not 
>working.  I must have knocked the cable or something.  Lots of fiddling and 
>rebooting and still nothing.  What a coincidence, I could not possibly 
>blame Mepis though, or could I.  Back to the (Ubuntu) laptop and a quick 
>google later I found this <http://www.mepis.org/node/6761> "Mepis Disables 
>My NIC".  Apparently, for my motherboard and integrated NIC, there is a 
>known problem with Mepis leaving the card in a disabled state.  A full 
>power off, cables disconnect (just the power off was not good enough), wait 
>and reboot later and I'm back up and running; so no harm done.  But would 
>you believe that!
>
>An amusing way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
>
>Regards,
>Paul
>
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