[Lancaster] Meeting interest ...

[Ken Hough]

Wayne,

I didn't realise that you were the creator of this Lug. Well done!

My first contact was at the Folly  --  just across the road from the prison, My 
contacts with the LUG have been patchy, mainly because I live so far away. 
It's definitely not because of lack of interest in Linux. The more I see of 
recent MS Windows developments (shenanigans?), the more I appreciate Linux.
I recently got to play with Windows 8  --- Ughhh!

I mentioned that I've recently installed the latest version of Debian (64 bit 
Wheezy v7.0.0). For anyone thinking of doing likewise, there are a few points 
that might be of interest:

1. Synaptic
Before running synaptic, run the command 'apt-get update', otherwise when 
trying to do a package search, Synaptic simply and unceremoniously shuts down!
Someone has messed up on this one.

2. Annoying speech synthesiser
By default, all keyboard actions are reported via a speech synthesiser  --  
even to the extent that sounds of individual key letters are spoken. I found 
that this rapidly becomes VERY annoying. I intend to disable this ASAP.

3. Don't like Gnome 3!
It's quite pretty, but not very sensible in ergonomic terms. For example, to 
access the windows box down the RIGHT hand side of the screen, one must first 
click on "Actions"  which is situated at the top LEFT hand side of the screen. 
IMHO, very silly! Why not show the box when the curser is pushed up to the 
right hand side of the screen? For now, I've reverted to "classic gnome" and 
am renewing contact with KDE. I used to use KDE3.

My main PC is fitted with plug-in hard drive caddies, so it's easy to swap 
drives. So just now, I have my normal working system on one drive (which I'm 
using just now) and other trial systems on other drives. This makes trying out 
new stuff a breeze.

Regards

Ken Hough
Kendal
Cumbria


On Monday 13 May 2013 17:48:18 Wayne Ward wrote:
> Ah somebody is still on the list!!
> The amateur radio stuff sounds interesting ken
> 
> I used to swear by debian its solid i used to use the studio64 edition used
> to work a treat for me, im currently running ubuntu on my workstation and
> laptop and soon will be using it on the nexus 4 and nexus 7 when the final
> release of debian touch arrives! Im using unity but im going to try gnome
> on a VM when i get my new dell xps developer edition this week! Its good
> hearing from you ken and glad to hear your still running linux and
> hopefully see you at one of the next meetings
> 
> im just trying to date back when i originally created the LUG and its going
> back to 2000 im thinking because i did the first meeting at the george and
> dragon back in 2000 and it didnt work so the folly created one in 2002 as
> faras i can see from the archive on the mailing lists! did you attend the
> first meeting at the george and dragon on the quay i cant remember it was
> that long ago!!!
> 
> wayne
> 
> RE
> 
> Hi Wayne,
> 
> It's good to see that you are keeping the LUG ball rolling. I haven't been
> down to Lancaster for some time, mainly because other interests are taking
> up my time -- mainly amateur radio.  I now have a full amateur radio
> license which means that not only can I transmit on any of the amateur
> radio frequencies, but I am also allowed to build my own transmitters,
> etc.
> 
> Of course I still use Debian Linux as my main OS with VirtualBox for the
> odd occasion when I have to use Win XP. I use 'wine' for a few Win apps
> that can be run via wine.
> 
> Last night I downloaded and installed the latest and very recently released
> version of Debian Linux (Wheezy v7.0.0). As expected with Debian,
> installation went faultlessly.
> 
> Not sure that I like the latest desktop, but then I'm still a Gnome 2 user
> who is used to a big VDU (Dell Ultrasharp 24") and a comfortable mouse. It
> seems to me that recent desktops are really aimed at small touch screens. I
> dislike recent versions of Ubuntu for the same reason.
> 
> Time will tell.
> 
> Keep up the good work.
> 
> Best wishes to all.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Ken Hough
> Kendal
> Cumbria