Linux can be good for you
Jul. 7th, 2005 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nemorathwaldI am pleased to report that hope pings eternal in the Linux-for-humans breast.
The problem with installing an application from CD to the laptop was a defect on the disk. My frustration was before I found the package manager, or to borrow a phrase I once heard![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
netmouse use, "the Magical Man that Gets Things Done." The Ubuntu folks on the IRC channel assure me that new users are not expected to compile source code or hack scripts every time they want to install applications. It is not normal and accepted anymore and they do not want me to just get used to it. Tux Racer is not a flagship desktop-user product and should not be taken as representative of the effort to compete with Windows or Mac. Also, R's laptop has connectivity problems because it has buggy ethernet hardware and there is something idiosyncratic with the way the Gateway Solo 5300 talks to wireless cards. Linux can't detect what isn't there.
I am not so unreasonable as to demand any compatibility with new or exotic peripherals under Linux. However, I simply demand that an uncomplicated hard drive, USB socket, CD drive, and ethernet internet connection work without needing to be hacked with the l33t hackage of hacking hackery. Well that criteria is satisfied. I got a dozen Ubuntu install CDs in the mail this week and installed one on my old Pentium 1 desktop system last night which had previously been running Xandros for a year-- if you can call what Xandros did "running," which I don't, because it had problems with all of the hardware listed above in a Catch-22 spiral of needing at least one such piece of hardware to configure the others.
There was a defect on the first Ubuntu CD I tried, so I threw it away and put in the second of the dozen copies. This one had no problem. Installing this build is so painless, so effortless, that I can hardly believe they are going to improve on it with a pretty graphical user interface in the next release, "The Breezy Badger." (This is how they name Ubuntu releases. They have gone through Warty Warthog and Hoary Hedgehog so far.) The hard drive, USB, CD drive, and internet connection are all now working.
Ubuntu does not suffer from the design philosophy that turns the entire computing experience into guessing a series of what amount to cryptic passwords. There do exist builds of Linux that are ready to replace Windows or Mac-- if you're lucky with hardware compatibility and go directly to the Ubuntu-specific community when you need help.
Emboldened by these successes, I am prepared to venture into unsafe territory and begin to learn more ambitious things. At the fireworks-viewing party at the house of Aaron Thul (conchair of Penguicon 4.0) on Monday, he demoed for me a program called Synergy. "Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. I already have three monitors on my desk, one each for WinXP, Mac and Linux. But now they could act like one big monitor with only one keyboard and mouse for them all, like Hugh Jackman's setup in Swordfish. Not only will could I declutter of a lot of the rat's nest of cords and cables I have created on and around my desk, I could stack all my monitors like a game of Jeopardy if I so desired.
So I downloaded the binaries. I now have a folder named "usr" on my desktop. I know this corresponds to a folder in the Unix file system. So I tried copying the contents into that, but the system said I didn't have permission, and in so doing probably saved me from totally messing things up. Of course since this is not in the approved package manager list, that means it is exotic experimental software. So I understand if this is going to involve the command line. The appropriate time has come for that.
The problem with installing an application from CD to the laptop was a defect on the disk. My frustration was before I found the package manager, or to borrow a phrase I once heard
netmouse use, "the Magical Man that Gets Things Done." The Ubuntu folks on the IRC channel assure me that new users are not expected to compile source code or hack scripts every time they want to install applications. It is not normal and accepted anymore and they do not want me to just get used to it. Tux Racer is not a flagship desktop-user product and should not be taken as representative of the effort to compete with Windows or Mac. Also, R's laptop has connectivity problems because it has buggy ethernet hardware and there is something idiosyncratic with the way the Gateway Solo 5300 talks to wireless cards. Linux can't detect what isn't there.I am not so unreasonable as to demand any compatibility with new or exotic peripherals under Linux. However, I simply demand that an uncomplicated hard drive, USB socket, CD drive, and ethernet internet connection work without needing to be hacked with the l33t hackage of hacking hackery. Well that criteria is satisfied. I got a dozen Ubuntu install CDs in the mail this week and installed one on my old Pentium 1 desktop system last night which had previously been running Xandros for a year-- if you can call what Xandros did "running," which I don't, because it had problems with all of the hardware listed above in a Catch-22 spiral of needing at least one such piece of hardware to configure the others.
There was a defect on the first Ubuntu CD I tried, so I threw it away and put in the second of the dozen copies. This one had no problem. Installing this build is so painless, so effortless, that I can hardly believe they are going to improve on it with a pretty graphical user interface in the next release, "The Breezy Badger." (This is how they name Ubuntu releases. They have gone through Warty Warthog and Hoary Hedgehog so far.) The hard drive, USB, CD drive, and internet connection are all now working.
Ubuntu does not suffer from the design philosophy that turns the entire computing experience into guessing a series of what amount to cryptic passwords. There do exist builds of Linux that are ready to replace Windows or Mac-- if you're lucky with hardware compatibility and go directly to the Ubuntu-specific community when you need help.
Emboldened by these successes, I am prepared to venture into unsafe territory and begin to learn more ambitious things. At the fireworks-viewing party at the house of Aaron Thul (conchair of Penguicon 4.0) on Monday, he demoed for me a program called Synergy. "Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. I already have three monitors on my desk, one each for WinXP, Mac and Linux. But now they could act like one big monitor with only one keyboard and mouse for them all, like Hugh Jackman's setup in Swordfish. Not only will could I declutter of a lot of the rat's nest of cords and cables I have created on and around my desk, I could stack all my monitors like a game of Jeopardy if I so desired.
So I downloaded the binaries. I now have a folder named "usr" on my desktop. I know this corresponds to a folder in the Unix file system. So I tried copying the contents into that, but the system said I didn't have permission, and in so doing probably saved me from totally messing things up. Of course since this is not in the approved package manager list, that means it is exotic experimental software. So I understand if this is going to involve the command line. The appropriate time has come for that.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-07 04:31 pm (UTC)Maybe, finally, I can find a linux I feel safe exposing end-users to. Which would be a nice tool for some other ideas I've been having . . .
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Date: 2005-07-08 05:44 pm (UTC)Thank you for being a lab rat. (: