Re: Serious Question - Mainstream Use - No Troll
From: AC (aec$news_at_candt.demon.co.uk)
Date: 09/27/04
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Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:32:34 +0100
In article <5dW5d.203860$%n4.121486@bignews6.bellsouth.net>, Phillip T.
Murphy <pStPmAuMrphy@bellsouth.net> writes
[...]
>1. File and Print Sharing on a mixed network - Samba seems just too
>difficult for the average user to setup and use
We have three printers & a small network. The printer on a PC parallel
port, presently used mostly on windows, is famous (to us) for sometimes
not working from its PC when it is most needed.
The two other printers are each on print server units, and both need a
CD install from a user windoze PC on the LAN. It is a process which as a
fairly experienced user of standalone PCs I found at first a bit
daunting - the CD for the printserver and also the CD for each printer
was required and I had to tell the installation program the lie that the
printer was in fact a local one, first, and sometimes go into
properties, details, to point to a different (TCP/IP) port! Even with
phone tech support I found this a struggle, at first!
Each time anything needed a reinstall etc (which was too often).......
However I got better at it all, but it still took time and I could do
without it.
I am starting to use suse 9.1 prof, now, and the lan still includes dual
boot, as well as suse only. The two networked printers installed
surprisingly easily. I did *not* need a CD for either the printer
drivers or the print servers. From my earlier win experience onth esame
kit it was a surprise at first, niw I am getting used to the idea! A
yast driven procedure found the IP addresses of the printservers.
fwiw they are set up as printing direct to tcp/ip (I guessed that print
queues are not relevant for us).
The parallel port (win) printer cannot be relied on anyway! so when the
time comes to change to suse, things will be no worse, and signs are,
better.
btw I am a newb at suse and linux. My first culture shock was roughly
when 9.1 came out. I tremble at using command line still, and rely
heavily on yast, bless it. The early installs & updates did not have the
benefit of an updated samba, so as my pleas in this group attest, I
struggled a bit, but lately, I don't think I have even had to go into
yast and setup samba! I have not yet worked out why this is, I will
check on a quiet weekend (?) May be something to do with updates
recently coming available.
The latest PC install (PII 400hz 128MB) is used to listen to online
radio, using an obsolete ISA soundcard that I had earlier marked as junk
because I could not adjust its interrupts. I was happily surprised. The
sound card did not need any driver search on the net - usual process for
me with random odd sound cards. Or any setting up, nor any rebooting.
and rebooting.
CDs play with no problem too
>2. DVD Playing - I still can't play a DVD on my system - Kaffeine says it
>can't and the fixes I have tried to apply don't work
We do not use dvds much, yet, but when getting dvd drives in future I
will get linux friendly kit. I notice in a recent online update, a dvd
player or something, so the search might not be difficult.
>3. Adding Hardware - the whole idea of mounting devices
What are you having to 'mount'?
I have not consciously *done* this yet, so maybe there is an auto mount
facility active. I vaguely recall comments from people more experienced
than me complaining here about auto mount and turning it off. As a newb
- whatever is happening - is convenient! I have just this moment
(experimented) tried putting a diskette in the drive and looking at its
contents. No problem, it works, quite unspectacular. Should I be
surprised that I did not have to 'mount' anything? (yet?)
I have no idea about what I would have to do - I soon intend to ask here
about how to, in detail, mount a spare partition as a data area. I will
start from there. Meanwhile, I have a number of pcs running variously on
the lan, and am changing to suse as fast as my learning curve can take
me.
So far, I have assembled a pc, with hard drive/s, used CD drives, and
diskette drives, all without knowing how to 'mount'. I am very much a
newcomer to linux, suse (look at my posts in this group). If there is a
problem I have not seen it yet.
>4. Software availability - there is a lot of free software, but many (most)
>mainstream applications aren't available in Linux (commercial games
When people want them on linux, they will get put on linux perhaps for
money. I do not play games (much) and if I had to keep a windowbox
function for games I could live with that. At least the machines I rely
on are more likely to stay working.
>, apps,
>etc.)
The more I look, the more I find apps which exist in linux. So far I
have not had to do anything more than (discover!) adding new software in
yast - whether to seriously use or just try out. I am (again) slightly
shocked at how much is already in the suse prof. distro.
I am about at a stage when I can start to appreciate the manuals too.
Wonderful.
One thing that has been holding me in a windowbox function has been the
particular email program we use, and newsreader, both of which I really
like. I have *just* discovered Evolution (Novell liked it so much they
bought the company I think) it is looking good, but I have a lot to
learn.
I started way back on Sinclair Spectrum and it took a lot of years and
real effort to get to be a fluent user on modern (popular) PCs. It will
take me some months to do the same with suse I suspect. And by all
accounts, it will stay working, so it will be worth the effort.
>I see a lot of negative comments toward "Micro$oft" regarding cost and
>security issues,
Both justified as far as I can see.
> but there still seems to be a lot of usability issues to
>work out before Linux can become mainstream
My experience has been heavily biased by my life with a windowbox.
It is quite natural that linux feels alien. When I had struggled to
learn halting French some years ago, I was shocked when I witnessed a
local farmer speaking to his cows and dogs in *French* - and they
*understood* (!) whereas I did not. So it could not have been that
*difficult* could it? Just seemed that way to me, having lived around
English speakers for years..
>. I am pretty technical and can
>work through all these isses, but my family definitely could not.
Would you leave your family alone in a room with windoze then? Really?
One reason why I am moving to linux (suse) is that I seem to have been
spending more and more of my time (=my life) sorting out issues with
what the other (responsible) users keep turning up. Including finding
the CDs (again) for items such as print servers and printers (see above)
>Are any of you using Linux as a mainstream desktop OS where "normal" users
>are involved?
Soon will be. Watch this space.
-- AlanC
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