Re: [SLE] Rant -- SuSE 9.1 is Not a Home Desktop solution at all

From: Sid Boyce (sboyce_at_blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: 06/11/04

  • Next message: Carlos E. R.: "Re: [SLE] Re: Removing a YOU patch?" 
    Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 00:29:38 +0100
To: Suse-E <suse-linux-e@suse.com>

    Billie Walsh wrote:

    >Just weeks before 9.1 was released I finally broke down and purchased SuSE
    >9.0. The decision to buy SuSE was made after talking to just about everyone
    >I could find for over a year. I had been told by numerous people that SuSE
    >was the best. I have to admit that installation was an absolute breeze. 9.0
    >found, and installed, everything in my box way better than Windows ever has.
    >
    >Now I'm no computer idiot. My computer experience goes back to TI 99-4A and
    >CoCo days. CPM and DOS were the operating systems of the day. However, I'm
    >not a "programmer" and I think therein lies my problem with Linux. IMHO, for
    >at least the foreseeable future LINUX will primarily be an operating system
    >for "programmers".
    >
    >When I was using DOS I spent an incredible amount of time writing complex
    >"bat" files to make running different programs and keeping things going the
    >way I wanted. If I still wanted to use a command line interface to interact
    >with my computer I would still be using DOS 6. GUI's are just much simpler
    >to operate.
    >
    >Now don't get me wrong. I like Linux. It does things incredibly well. Most
    >of the package applications work better than Micro$oft products. The
    >problems I have/had are with adding things that I want that are missing from
    >the package, and maybe a couple things that are included.
    >
    >"So far" I haven't found any genealogy programs. I would like to use my
    >Window$ program. For that I need Wine, or something equivalent. Wine comes
    >packaged with 9.0 but there is no "intuitive" way to make it operate. By
    >using KDE to search through every directory on the hard drive I did find
    >something dealing with Wine. [A "search" using Yast couldn't return one hit
    >for anything dealing with Wine.] There was also a "html" manual for it that
    >I bookmarked for later. I went to the website and looked for detailed
    >instructions. They talked about the versions that were packaged were
    >sometimes not the latest and greatest so I downloaded and installed the
    >"latest and greatest". Well the manual that I had bookmarked is GONE.
    >Things are scattered all over the hard drive and I can't find anything that
    >makes it run.
    >
    >
    First off, SuSE does not include every possible program that's out
    there, the same is true of Windows and as a matter of fact SuSE includes
    a broader range of stuff than is included in Windows. Sometimes you have
    to look further afield www.google.com/linux is an excellent place to
    start. On reading this, I remembered seeing "gramps" mentioned many
    times, searched on freshmeat.net and up it came (the rpm is perhaps only
    for RedHat - a particular beef I have as long ago any .deb or .rpm would
    run under any distro, sadly no longer true). I don't know any of the
    genealogy programs on any platform, but gramps is worth the look, nice
    GUI and seeminly nice features.
    Wine ..... may or may not run your program, "man wine". I don't know
    where you downloaded the updated version of wine from and what format
    it's in, if it's a rpm file, "rpm -qpl wine---.rpm" will tell you where
    it has installed the bits, if it was from compiled sources, "make
    install 2>&1|tee inst.out" and look at inst.out to see where it puts the
    stuff, I've always found the README and wine HOWTO to be quite
    straightforward and it has hardly changed in the last decade.

    >I absolutely abhor graphical HTML editors. They make pages that are FAR
    >larger and bulkier than needed. I think I have found a Linux application
    >that does things the way I want them done. It's called CoffeCup. No problem,
    >just download and install right. WRONG. Download fine. Install???????? It
    >comes with an installation utility that does nothing. It runs just fine. BUT
    >it doesn't do a thing while it's running, then says installation went just
    >fine. HUH!!!!
    >
    >
    I just downloaded and installed CoffeeCup on SuSE 9.1, a quick look, it
    looks like a "graphical HTML editor" plus lots of other cool stuff.

    >Right now I just don't have the time to spend trying to figure all this
    >stuff out. We are moving and setting up a new house on our acreage. It's
    >just more trouble than it's worth right now so I'm back to running Window$
    >for the time being. *<[:o( In a while, when life settles down and I have
    >more spare time I will get back to fighting Linux.
    >
    >IMHO Linux has great potential as an everyday operating system. BUT, until
    >it becomes much more intuitive to use, applications become much easier to
    >use, and there is less reliance on "command line interface" it will NEVER
    >become "everyman's" operating system. As a workstation in an office system
    >where someone keeps it up and running, Fine. As a home operating system for
    >everyday use, Ain't happenin'.
    >
    >
    You mileage has varied, but I have at home a XP2800+ tower and a laptop
    running SuSE 9.1 x86, an Acer laptop running SuSE 9.1 x86_64, another
    XP2200+ running Mandrake 10.0, another Mandrake 10.0 box that I took the
    memory out of, soon to be back on and for years, I used a laptop on the
    go and in offices, before I handed it back, it was running SuSE 9.0. My
    computing tasks have been many and varied, connecting to Cisco VPN at
    work, using Citrix client, Notes and MS Office under crossover office
    for Word docs, spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations, X3270,
    installing, upgrading, maintaining, etc. Solaris boxes - that's on the
    work front. At home, amateur radio packet transmission/reception,
    amateur radio transceiver control, PCB design, circuit design and
    analysis, amateur radio VOIP, gnomemeeting, Flight Simulation (not as a
    game), interfacing with GPS for flight planning, plus all the other
    usual stuff -- without a Windows box anywhere in sight.

    >Sorry - Just my $0.02 worth.
    >
    >Sorta PS - Someone needs to write a book Linux For Dummies with just BASIC
    >information on how to operate it. Step by step in baby language.
    >
    >
    There is such a book though I've never read it to see just how basic it
    is. Search on freshmeat.net for "rute", download it or buy the book if
    you need a hardcopy. Like DOS and Windows, you can learn quite a bit by
    using Linux, the knowledge portfolio builds without you really noticing.
    Remember, nearly 100% of us started out using DOS and Windows and of
    course Mac, strange, I've never seen a Mac running, way back I installed
    the Mac emulator for Linux (Executor) and I couldn't find out how to use
    it, I installed a program and couldn't figure out how to run it either,
    shows what a dummy I am, it's supposed to be intuitive. Some things in
    Windows mystify me also, I used to look on in disbelief when guys at
    work put a file on a floppy for me, boy, I could learn which golf club
    to use much easier. There was also a time at work when we needed to ftp
    a file down from our corporate server, the guy opened up this Windows
    ftp GUI and for about 15 minutes we tried to get the file and failed, at
    which point I asked the guy to give me a DOS window and with command
    line ftp, we had it down in no time, updated the Mainframe and had the
    customer back up and running.
    Good luck with the house move and spare a few minutes occasionally for
    Linux.
    Regards
    Sid.

    >(o:]>*HUGGLES*<[:o)
    >Billie Walsh
    >The three best words in the English Language:
    >"I LOVE YOU."
    >Pass them on!
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > 

    -- 
Sid Boyce .... Hamradio G3VBV and keen Flyer
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  • Next message: Carlos E. R.: "Re: [SLE] Re: Removing a YOU patch?"