[Lancaster] Re: [offlist] Re: Laptop Power Managment

[Ken Hough]

Andy Baxter wrote:
> On Thursday 15 July 2004 18:49, Ken Hough wrote:
> 
> 
>>>This is true - though consider also the power use of a
>>>desktop versus laptop. Also the benefits of a laptop in
>>>a region with frequent power cuts.
>>
>>That's possibly the biggest thing in favour of laptops in remote areas,
>>especially if isolated from the mains supply during the rainy/stormy
>>season. Even so, beware unprotected modems. Last year my sister lost her
>>laptop's modem during a storm in this country.
>>
>>Alternatively, use a normal PC with a UPS.
> 
> 
> i just found out via do a mini-itx motherboard with built in 12V DC-DC 
> converter, so you can run it off a lead acid battery (The via EPIA-TC). could 
> be useful for anyone wanting a pc to use in a vehicle or off wind/solar 
> power.
>

This mini mobo could have advantages in remote areas. It's unlikely to 
be cheap and therefore not viable for poorer areas.

> 
>>>>On my limited experience with Debian, I certainly wouldn't recommend it
>>>>for remote places where expertise is limited. Debian is not friendly and
>>>>you have to know it (and Linux generally) to manage it. I've recently
>>>>installed/set up both 'woody' and 'sarge' and have to say that I'm not
>>>>impressed with either. They may be good in expert hands for 'serious'
>>>>server work, but in both cases, installation programmes are (IMHO)
>>>>primitive and software is dated.
>>>
>>>Ah, now here I have to seriously disagree with you. I've used
>>>Debian GNU/Linux as my main desktop for at least five years
>>>(though I've rarely had much control over what's installed on
>>>servers in places where I've worked).
>>>
>>>Debian is great for lazy people as it takes next to no management
>>>to keep it going. Installation may occasionally be a pig, but that's
>>>just one day out of more than a thousand over a machine's life. :-)
>>
>>Debian great for lazy people?
>>
>>Hand hacking is not for lazy people (ie Me). I guess you are not
>>familier with the likes of 'YAST'. Just tell it what you want done and
>>it does it. Now that's what I call being lazy. If you want to hand hack
>>a quicky, that's still no problem. I accept that 'YAST' is a bit of a
>>heavyweight for low spec hardware.
>>
>>Debian can be a pig because in many ways, it's not bog standard. For
>>example, the standard 'X' setup utility 'xf86config' will fail, because
>>by default it writes the config file to '/etc/X11/XF86Config'. Debian
>>insists on this file being called '/etc/X11/XF86Config-4'. Also,
>>'xf86cfg' supplied with Debian fails miserably for a number of reasons.
>>Not only does it by default write the config file to the wrong place,
>>the file is incorrect (ie does run up X). Before running up 'xf86cfg',
>>it's neccessary to manually set up a soft link (/dev/mouse) to point to
>>the actual mouse device. Failure to do this causes 'xf86cfg' to crash.
>>
>>I've discovered a number of (unneccessary) sillies like this. All very
>>well when you know about them.
>>
>>I will persevere with Debian because a number of people use it, so I
>>want to understand it. IMHO, from a desktop users point of view, Debian
>>just doesn't cut it.
>>
>>I'm now climbing into my asbestos suit!
> 
> 
> some of this is fair enough, but on the whole i've found debian fairly easy to 
> keep running once you know how things work. e.g. to set up X, just use 
> 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86'.

I tried using 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86' and failed. That's why 
I went looking and found my old friend 'xf86Config', etc.


> Usually when you install a new package it 
> gets set up with sensible defaults - e.g. apache is configured to server 
> pages from /var/www. A good point is the range of packages is greater than 
> any other distro i think - e.g. SuSE 9.1 has audacity but not rezound; debian 
> has both. Also apt-get plus synaptic or aptitude makes package management 
> quite easy.
>
That may be so when you get to know them all, but with 'YAST', you can 
find practically everything under one UI. SuSE can handle not only RPM 
packages, but also DEB packages, so with a bit of care (and possibly a 
bit of head scratching) most software can be made available under SuSE.

I looked at the rezound page on sourceforge and found that the latest 
version is only 0.9.0beta. I have both audacity v1.1.1 and broadcast2000 
v1.0 running on this SuSE box. I might try 'rezound' as well.

It comes down to what you know and this is my point. A newcomer to Linux 
  will have a tough time finding his/her way into Debian (I did and I'm 
already reasonably familier with Linux), whereas Fedora, Mandrake and 
SuSE make life a lot easier without cramping your style later on.

> What would make it a lot better is if there was a program which let you select 
> packages to configure from a menu - e.g. there's no easy way to tell atm that 
> it's xserver-xfree86 you need to reconfigure to set up X, out of the 3 or 4 X 
> packages.
>

Here! Here! Even the 'sarge' installer is pretty crude by modern standards.

> things that annoy me about it are:
> - the out-of-dateness of the stable distro.
> - sometimes things get changed for no reason when you upgrade, like the fonts 
> in different applications.
> - the documentation isn't that well organised - it would be better if there 
> was a single front end to all the documentation, like in suse.

It seems to me that the Debian documentation is more concerned with the 
philosophy of the Debian project and less with actually how to get into 
it and do something usefull.

An advantage of 'packaged' distros like SuSE is that you get a good (and 
in the case of the Professional versions, extensive) mix of compatible 
software. Online updating is available if you want it. I've already 
refered to possibility of adding software via RPMs and DEBs.

I've little doubt that setting up and managing Debian will teach a lot 
about Linux and of neccessity, very quickly. I prefer to have much of 
the drudgery done for me (via 'YAST') so I can get on with actually 
using the system. I am a bit of a tweeker and so am learning about the 
inner parts of Linux as I go.

Ken Hough