RE: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user] ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
8 Dec
2003
8 Dec
'03
10:25 a.m.
Dave,
The one thing that I would do (I had to do this for my wife because she has to have
Excel for her job) is to buy Crossover Office and Crossover plugin so that you can load
Micro$oft Orifice and some nice browser plugins. It's well worth the 70 bucks and
then they don't have to worry about format problems. Of course, you do have to own a
copy of Micro$oft Orifice first ;-) Do you get the feeling that I'm not a big fan of
Micro$oft ;-D
Jan
-----Original Message-----
From: "linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu"
<linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu> on behalf of "Dave Phillips"
<dlphilp(a)bright.net>
Sent: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 08:39:40 -0500
To: "A list for linux audio users" <linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu>
Subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user] ebayguy: looks
like he figured it out
tim hall wrote:
PS: Watching my nine-year old and various friends use
my system, I'd say the
Linux Desktop for casual users is here, given the availability of technical
support. IMX it's the configuration that is difficult, not the installation &
usage.
Hi Tim:
A few days ago I wrote to the list and recounted a story about setting
up a Windows 2000 system for some
very non-computer-savvy friends of mine. Well, that saga knows no end: I
had to go to their house yesterday
and get it going for them again. It's true that they are *really* in the
dark about their machine, but it's got so
ridiculous that I've decided on a new plan. I'm going to set up a Linux
box for them and see how they do with it.
These people do very little else but use a Web browser (what they call
"the computer") so I want to see just how
hard or easy it would be for them to use a modern Linux system. It'll be
an interesting experiment, and if I have to deal
with the system at least it will be a real OS with real tools and the
real possibility of actually fixing it if it breaks.
Win2K is nice, but what a vacant system ! I can't believe people have
paid so much and received so little in return
for their money.
Anyway, if this experiment works I'll report back to this group. The
folks using this box aren't music/sound people,
but I do plan on setting up XMMS, RealPlayer, and possibly xine or
Mplayer for on-line video feeds. Let me know if
you have any suggestions for making it as easy as possible for them to use.
Best regards,
Dave Phillips
8 Dec
8 Dec
10:52 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Monday 08 December 2003 15.26 skrev eviltwin69(a)cableone.net:
Dave,
The one thing that I would do (I had to do this for my wife because she
has to have Excel for her job) is to buy Crossover Office and Crossover
plugin so that you can load Micro$oft Orifice and some nice browser
plugins. It's well worth the 70 bucks and then they don't have to worry
about format problems. Of course, you do have to own a copy of Micro$oft
Orifice first ;-) Do you get the feeling that I'm not a big fan of
Micro$oft ;-D
It's nice to know I'm not the only one that go out of my way to avoid the
perils of the evil empire ;)
There is however one thing that I have yet failed to get working.
I've got a bunch of old games made with Macromedia that my kids like to play.
It looks darn impossible to get them working though, probably too old,
16-bit... not supported by anything...
/Robert
Jan
-----Original Message-----
From: "linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu"
<linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu> on behalf of "Dave
Phillips"
<dlphilp(a)bright.net> Sent: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 08:39:40 -0500
To: "A list for linux audio users" <linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu>
Subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user]
ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
tim hall wrote:
PS: Watching my nine-year old and various friends
use my system, I'd say
the Linux Desktop for casual users is here, given the availability of
technical support. IMX it's the configuration that is difficult, not the
installation & usage.
Hi Tim:
A few days ago I wrote to the list and recounted a story about setting
up a Windows 2000 system for some
very non-computer-savvy friends of mine. Well, that saga knows no end: I
had to go to their house yesterday
and get it going for them again. It's true that they are *really* in the
dark about their machine, but it's got so
ridiculous that I've decided on a new plan. I'm going to set up a Linux
box for them and see how they do with it.
These people do very little else but use a Web browser (what they call
"the computer") so I want to see just how
hard or easy it would be for them to use a modern Linux system. It'll be
an interesting experiment, and if I have to deal
with the system at least it will be a real OS with real tools and the
real possibility of actually fixing it if it breaks.
Win2K is nice, but what a vacant system ! I can't believe people have
paid so much and received so little in return
for their money.
Anyway, if this experiment works I'll report back to this group. The
folks using this box aren't music/sound people,
but I do plan on setting up XMMS, RealPlayer, and possibly xine or
Mplayer for on-line video feeds. Let me know if
you have any suggestions for making it as easy as possible for them to use.
Best regards,
Dave Phillips 
11:35 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, Robert Jonsson wrote:
// John Bleichert
// syborg(a)earthlink.net
Subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop
really here ?
Monday 08 December 2003 15.26 skrev eviltwin69(a)cableone.net:
Kids games are the stumbling block. I have some friends who very much want
to try linux (or any other non-MS opsys, they don't care) and the kids
games are always the blocker. One of my friends actually sprung for
Win4Lin - I set it up for him, and the kids play their games in a window.
Works well.
Dave,
The one thing that I would do (I had to do this for my wife because she
has to have Excel for her job) is to buy Crossover Office and Crossover
plugin so that you can load Micro$oft Orifice and some nice browser
plugins. It's well worth the 70 bucks and then they don't have to worry
about format problems. Of course, you do have to own a copy of Micro$oft
Orifice first ;-) Do you get the feeling that I'm not a big fan of
Micro$oft ;-D
It's nice to know I'm not the only one that go out of my way to avoid the
perils of the evil empire ;)
There is however one thing that I have yet failed to get working.
I've got a bunch of old games made with Macromedia that my kids like to play.
It looks darn impossible to get them working though, probably too old,
16-bit... not supported by anything...
/Robert
Jan
-----Original Message-----
From: "linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu"
<linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu> on behalf of "Dave
Phillips"
<dlphilp(a)bright.net> Sent: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 08:39:40 -0500
To: "A list for linux audio users" <linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu>
Subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user]
ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
tim hall wrote:
PS: Watching my nine-year old and various friends
use my system, I'd say
the Linux Desktop for casual users is here, given the availability of
technical support. IMX it's the configuration that is difficult, not the
installation & usage.
Hi Tim:
A few days ago I wrote to the list and recounted a story about setting
up a Windows 2000 system for some
very non-computer-savvy friends of mine. Well, that saga knows no end: I
had to go to their house yesterday
and get it going for them again. It's true that they are *really* in the
dark about their machine, but it's got so
ridiculous that I've decided on a new plan. I'm going to set up a Linux
box for them and see how they do with it.
These people do very little else but use a Web browser (what they call
"the computer") so I want to see just how
hard or easy it would be for them to use a modern Linux system. It'll be
an interesting experiment, and if I have to deal
with the system at least it will be a real OS with real tools and the
real possibility of actually fixing it if it breaks.
Win2K is nice, but what a vacant system ! I can't believe people have
paid so much and received so little in return
for their money.
Anyway, if this experiment works I'll report back to this group. The
folks using this box aren't music/sound people,
but I do plan on setting up XMMS, RealPlayer, and possibly xine or
Mplayer for on-line video feeds. Let me know if
you have any suggestions for making it as easy as possible for them to use.
Best regards,
Dave Phillips 
4:12 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
John Bleichert wrote:
The only games I play on my computer are Nintendo games : )
The "FCE Ultra" emulator works perfectly on Linux with my Gravis GamePad USB
controller, and it's supposed to run on Windows too (haven't used it there).
-Anthony
http://nodivisions.com/
There is
however one thing that I have yet failed to get working.
I've got a bunch of old games made with Macromedia that my kids like to play.
It looks darn impossible to get them working though, probably too old,
16-bit... not supported by anything...
/Robert
Kids games are the stumbling block. I have some friends who very much want
to try linux (or any other non-MS opsys, they don't care) and the kids
games are always the blocker. One of my friends actually sprung for
Win4Lin - I set it up for him, and the kids play their games in a window.
Works well. 
9 Dec
9 Dec
7:07 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
At the risk of distending this rather OT thread (sorry Jorn) and being
slightly pedantic :-]
On Monday 08 December 2003 14:48, John Bleichert wrote:
Kids games are the stumbling block. I have some
friends who very much want
to try linux (or any other non-MS opsys, they don't care) and the kids
games are always the blocker. One of my friends actually sprung for
Win4Lin - I set it up for him, and the kids play their games in a window.
Works well.
You mean 3d action games, surely? My computer is chock-full of 'Kid's' games,
I've never seen so many, quite enough to keep my nine-year old distracted for
quite some time. However, he does want to know when he'll be able to play
Tomb Raider & such on my box. My answer for that is that once I get a decent
video card we'll be able to play something rather more exciting than that
like UT. At the moment he thinks tdfsb is pretty cool. YMMV I guess :-]
cheers
tim hall
8 Dec
8 Dec
12:05 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Greetings:
My thanks to everyone who replied to this subject. Lots of good ideas,
I'll definitely put some of them to use.
Here a few more notes on what I plan to do :
Red Hat (Fedora?) or Mandrake install
totally GUI for the user
Crossover stuff (thanks for the reminders!)
And here's what they have for peripherals :
a scanner, not sure what kind
an HP printer (610C ? 810C ? I'll find out later... )
Things they need to do include :
Web browsing
print from Web (color, b&w)
on-line banking via Web browser (I'm afraid IE may be required,
don't know though)
print from file manager (color, b&w)
operate scanner
basic image editing
Their net connection is DSL through SBC/Yahoo. I don't expect problems
with that, I had the same connectivity at my old
apartment, no problems with various Linux distros.
They don't have games installed, they don't really run any apps beyond
the browser. My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Best regards,
== dp
12:13 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Monday 08 Dec 2003 4:13 pm, Dave Phillips wrote:
Does anyone here do on-line banking via a
Linux browser ?
Yes, with three UK banks and investment sites, one of which has a
fancy IE-only site. All of them work absolutely fine with a fairly
recent Konqueror configured to identify itself as IE.
Chris
12:53 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Chris Cannam wrote:
On Monday 08 Dec 2003 4:13 pm, Dave Phillips wrote:
And Robert Jonsson wrote:
Does anyone here do on-line banking via a
Linux browser ?
Yes, with three UK banks and investment sites, one of which has a
fancy IE-only site. All of them work absolutely fine with a fairly
recent Konqueror configured to identify itself as IE.
Yep, works with all the swedish banks that don't
use a separate application
(windows only) for the authentication, some do though.
There was a time when my bank didn't support mozilla (or konqueror for that
matter which is my current favorite browser). It was however easily fixed by
changing how the browser authenticated itself. Changing the authentication so
it gave the same response as IE was enough for most functions.
Excellent, thank you ! I'm planning to set up KDE for their interface,
I'll configure Konqueror as necessary.
Best,
== dp
12:15 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Yep, works with all the swedish banks that don't use a separate application
(windows only) for the authentication, some do though.
There was a time when my bank didn't support mozilla (or konqueror for that
matter which is my current favorite browser). It was however easily fixed by
changing how the browser authenticated itself. Changing the authentication so
it gave the same response as IE was enough for most functions.
/Robert
12:53 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 16:09, Robert Jonsson wrote:
"Identify as IE" is inherently evil, event though necessary to make
sites work. It distorts statistics collected by webservers and gives an
inflated view of IE's market share.
Edward Barrow
My only
concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Yep, works with all the swedish banks that don't use a separate application
(windows only) for the authentication, some do though.
There was a time when my bank didn't support mozilla (or konqueror for that
matter which is my current favorite browser). It was however easily fixed by
changing how the browser authenticated itself. Changing the authentication so
it gave the same response as IE was enough for most functions.
1:18 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Dave:
Some HP devices I have working fine with Linux are:
- HP Deskjet 500: It works fine after more than 11 years of daily printing.
- HP Scanjet 5200C: It is now connected via a USB port. It works fine
as a copier or a scanner.
- HP Officejet V40: HP made drivers for it. HP is now committed to
Linux. HP is making Linux drivers for everything.
- It works fine as a copier and scanner.
- It prints very well both color and B&W.
- It does not work as a fax sender/receiver (from the PC) yet (
Winmodem???). You can send/receive faxes manually.
HP Deskjet 692C: It was printing very well in color and B&W. It is
broken. I sent to a local HP representative to have it fixed... It is
still broken.
I have also been able to see images and videos directly from a HP
digital camera connected to the USB port and mounted as a scsi hard disk.
I also have a 128MB Immation Mini disk ( key disk) that plugs in to the
USB port as a scsi disk also.
Another USB devices: my Palm m130 and a CreativeLabs Webcam.
My headache: The CNR AC97 modem. Works fine with cu and minicom.
Freezes with PPP.
GZS
Dave Phillips wrote:
Greetings:
My thanks to everyone who replied to this subject. Lots of good ideas,
I'll definitely put some of them to use.
Here a few more notes on what I plan to do :
Red Hat (Fedora?) or Mandrake install
totally GUI for the user
Crossover stuff (thanks for the reminders!)
And here's what they have for peripherals :
a scanner, not sure what kind
an HP printer (610C ? 810C ? I'll find out later... )
Things they need to do include :
Web browsing
print from Web (color, b&w)
on-line banking via Web browser (I'm afraid IE may be required,
don't know though)
print from file manager (color, b&w)
operate scanner
basic image editing
Their net connection is DSL through SBC/Yahoo. I don't expect problems
with that, I had the same connectivity at my old
apartment, no problems with various Linux distros.
They don't have games installed, they don't really run any apps beyond
the browser. My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Best regards,
== dp
--
This Message is sent from my Red Hat 9.0 Linux server
Machine Registration number 205692 at http://counter.li.org/
.-. Gustavo Zamorano S.
.-. | Registered Linux user number 320898
.-. | | at http://counter.li.org/
1:46 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, Gustavo Zamorano S. wrote:
<snip>
waaay-off-topic
- HP Officejet V40: HP made drivers for it. HP is
now committed to
Linux. HP is making Linux drivers for everything.
- It works fine as a copier and scanner.
- It prints very well both color and B&W.
I don't see drivers for this beastie anywhere on HPs site (been looking
for an all-in-one). They ship on the CD or part of ghostscript or
something?
// John Bleichert
// syborg(a)earthlink.net
2:46 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
John Bleichert wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, Gustavo Zamorano S. wrote:
<snip>
waaay-off-topic
I got it from hp.com but I later realized that Red Hat 9 includes it.
It is hpoj-0.90-14.i386.rpm. Let me see...
From hp.com I have been sent to http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/
It includes a command that will open a window that will show what
appears on the V40 digital display. It is /usr/bin/xojpanel.
It will also install drivers required for scanning.
You will probably have to add LANG=C in the script that is at
/etc/init.d if it will not find your scanner. I read that somewhere.
GZS
--
This Message is sent from my Red Hat 9.0 Linux server
Machine Registration number 205692 at http://counter.li.org/
.-. Gustavo Zamorano S.
.-. | Registered Linux user number 320898
.-. | | at http://counter.li.org/
| | | | ___
- HP Officejet V40: HP made drivers for it. HP
is now committed to
Linux. HP is making Linux drivers for everything.
- It works fine as a copier and scanner.
- It prints very well both color and B&W.
I don't see drivers for this beastie anywhere on HPs site (been looking
for an all-in-one). They ship on the CD or part of ghostscript or
something?
// John Bleichert
// syborg(a)earthlink.net
1:21 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 11:13:39AM -0500, Dave Phillips wrote:
They don't have games installed, they don't
really run any apps beyond
the browser. My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Unless the bank is doing something totally brain-dead, this is a non-issue.
It's just a web app like any other.
I've had no problems with either Fleet or Bank of America
using mozilla.
--
Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com
Look! Up in the sky! It's ALBINO-CRIMSON LETTER!
(random hero from isometric.spaceninja.com)
1:38 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
I am working fine with Mozilla with two local banks.
I have a minor problem with one that is 100% MS victim. It is using a
function called span that will open a submenu when you click in a menu.
Span is not supported by Mozilla. I asked them to remove the span
function so the submenu appear there (there is enough room for it) but
Bill Gates is still under control of his victims...
GZS
Paul Winkler wrote:
On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 11:13:39AM -0500, Dave
Phillips wrote:
--
This Message is sent from my Red Hat 9.0 Linux server
Machine Registration number 205692 at http://counter.li.org/
.-. Gustavo Zamorano S.
.-. | Registered Linux user number 320898
.-. | | at http://counter.li.org/
They don't have games installed, they
don't really run any apps beyond
the browser. My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Unless the bank is doing something totally brain-dead, this is a non-issue.
It's just a web app like any other.
I've had no problems with either Fleet or Bank of America
using mozilla.
1:42 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Unless the bank is doing something totally brain-dead,
this is a
non-issue.
It's just a web app like any other.
I've had no problems with either Fleet or Bank of America
using mozilla.
I had really good luck with Mozilla 1.5. The only thing I've found that
doesn't work for me was some real estate sites that had 3D viewing programs
to look at houses for sale. They were using a bunch of Java and I couldn't
get Mozilla to handle that even with the latest Blackdown stuff from Gentoo.
My banks (Wells Fargo and Bank of America) work fine with Mozilla.
- Mark
2:36 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Monday 08 December 2003 12:39, Mark Knecht wrote:
I had really good luck with Mozilla 1.5. The only
thing I've
found that doesn't work for me was some real estate sites that
had 3D viewing programs to look at houses for sale. They were
using a bunch of Java and I couldn't get Mozilla to handle
that even with the latest Blackdown stuff from Gentoo.
I've seen a bunch of 3D views like that and they were implemented
using Quicktime VR. I never cared for them so I haven't found
out whether they work in Crossover Plugin with Quicktime or not.
Rob
3:07 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Monday 08 December 2003 12:39, Mark Knecht wrote:
Rob,
Sorry if I wasn't clear. These 3D real estate sites are certainly
viewable under Mozilla with the right plugin setup. When I tried to get it
working I sent some messages to both the Redhat and Gentoo lists and people
on both reported that they were able to view them correctly with specific
plugins.
The problem was that I was not able to view them with my setup, and
typically for life in Linux, the suggestions I got from different people
were just cryptic enough that I never found the solution and gave up. (Out
of date plugins required, or conflicts with other things installed, etc.)
I'm certain it was my stupidity and not that Linux/Mozilla (or Konqueror,
etc.) can't do it.
One day someone will do a site like the Plugger-5.0 testing site that
really gets this stuff installed and tested. That's a nice site that goes a
long way towards making sure you can view everything. It helped a lot, but
wasn't perfect.
Anyway, no big deal.
Thanks,
Mark
I had really good luck with Mozilla 1.5. The only
thing I've
found that doesn't work for me was some real estate sites that
had 3D viewing programs to look at houses for sale. They were
using a bunch of Java and I couldn't get Mozilla to handle
that even with the latest Blackdown stuff from Gentoo.
I've seen a bunch of 3D views like that and they were implemented
using Quicktime VR. I never cared for them so I haven't found
out whether they work in Crossover Plugin with Quicktime or not.
Rob 
2:13 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Just another "me too" on this. I have had no problems using mozilla 1.0
and later with various banks over the past 3 years. (united bank, chase,
fleet, wells fargo, abn amro, discovercard, tiaa-cref, sallie mae)
On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 11:13:39AM -0500, Dave Phillips wrote:
They don't have games installed, they don't
really run any apps beyond
the browser. My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Best regards,
== dp
11:02 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
Wow, way off topic, but all online banking functions can be done with
Mozilla (at least with my bank). Also, Moneydance is a Quicken type
program written in Java (i.e., runs on any and all platforms) and
Quicken runs under Crossover Office with online banking as well.
-Joe
On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 11:13, Dave Phillips wrote:
Greetings:
My thanks to everyone who replied to this subject. Lots of good ideas,
I'll definitely put some of them to use.
Here a few more notes on what I plan to do :
Red Hat (Fedora?) or Mandrake install
totally GUI for the user
Crossover stuff (thanks for the reminders!)
And here's what they have for peripherals :
a scanner, not sure what kind
an HP printer (610C ? 810C ? I'll find out later... )
Things they need to do include :
Web browsing
print from Web (color, b&w)
on-line banking via Web browser (I'm afraid IE may be required,
don't know though)
print from file manager (color, b&w)
operate scanner
basic image editing
Their net connection is DSL through SBC/Yahoo. I don't expect problems
with that, I had the same connectivity at my old
apartment, no problems with various Linux distros.
They don't have games installed, they don't really run any apps beyond
the browser. My only concern is wrt the on-line
banking requirements. Does anyone here do on-line banking via a Linux
browser ?
Best regards,
== dp
11:33 a.m.
New subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user] ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 eviltwin69(a)cableone.net wrote:
Dave,
The one thing that I would do (I had to do this for my wife because she has to have
Excel for her job) is to buy Crossover Office and Crossover plugin so that you can load
Micro$oft Orifice and some nice browser plugins. It's well worth the 70 bucks and
then they don't have to worry about format problems. Of course, you do have to own a
copy of Micro$oft Orifice first ;-) Do you get the feeling that I'm not a big fan of
Micro$oft ;-D
Jan
Bull. For a standard desktop user, flash and java work fine in Mozilla.
I've moved half my family over to Slackware/Mozilla/OpenOffice for the
same reasons the O.P. is doing it. It works fine for all of them, nearly
bulletproof. I've even convinced my Sister (with the help of my nephew) to
use Mozilla for web and email and OO on her XP laptop. Been doing fine for
a year now.
Unless the target user is a really hardcore MS Office user, there is
nothing they'll need CodeWeavers for. If they are, that's a different
story. Just my 2 pfennig.
Sorry for the OT follow-up.
-----Original Message-----
From: "linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu"
<linux-audio-user-bounces(a)music.columbia.edu> on behalf of "Dave Phillips"
<dlphilp(a)bright.net>
Sent: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 08:39:40 -0500
To: "A list for linux audio users" <linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu>
Subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user] ebayguy: looks
like he figured it out
tim hall wrote:
// John Bleichert
// syborg(a)earthlink.net
PS: Watching my nine-year old and various friends
use my system, I'd say the
Linux Desktop for casual users is here, given the availability of technical
support. IMX it's the configuration that is difficult, not the installation &
usage.
Hi Tim:
A few days ago I wrote to the list and recounted a story about setting
up a Windows 2000 system for some
very non-computer-savvy friends of mine. Well, that saga knows no end: I
had to go to their house yesterday
and get it going for them again. It's true that they are *really* in the
dark about their machine, but it's got so
ridiculous that I've decided on a new plan. I'm going to set up a Linux
box for them and see how they do with it.
These people do very little else but use a Web browser (what they call
"the computer") so I want to see just how
hard or easy it would be for them to use a modern Linux system. It'll be
an interesting experiment, and if I have to deal
with the system at least it will be a real OS with real tools and the
real possibility of actually fixing it if it breaks.
Win2K is nice, but what a vacant system ! I can't believe people have
paid so much and received so little in return
for their money.
Anyway, if this experiment works I'll report back to this group. The
folks using this box aren't music/sound people,
but I do plan on setting up XMMS, RealPlayer, and possibly xine or
Mplayer for on-line video feeds. Let me know if
you have any suggestions for making it as easy as possible for them to use.
Best regards,
Dave Phillips
2:10 p.m.
New subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user] ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
The one app my wife uses for which I don't know of a free software
replacement is MS Publisher. Does anyone have any experience with this
and know if it will run under crossover office? If so I could probably
convice her to switch to a linux desktop.
-Eric Rz.
On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 09:46:31AM -0500, John Bleichert wrote:
On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 eviltwin69(a)cableone.net wrote:
Dave,
The one thing that I would do (I had to do this for my wife because she has to have
Excel for her job) is to buy Crossover Office and Crossover plugin so that you can load
Micro$oft Orifice and some nice browser plugins. It's well worth the 70 bucks and
then they don't have to worry about format problems. Of course, you do have to own a
copy of Micro$oft Orifice first ;-) Do you get the feeling that I'm not a big fan of
Micro$oft ;-D
Jan
Bull. For a standard desktop user, flash and java work fine in Mozilla.
I've moved half my family over to Slackware/Mozilla/OpenOffice for the
same reasons the O.P. is doing it. It works fine for all of them, nearly
bulletproof. I've even convinced my Sister (with the help of my nephew) to
use Mozilla for web and email and OO on her XP laptop. Been doing fine for
a year now.
Unless the target user is a really hardcore MS Office user, there is
nothing they'll need CodeWeavers for. If they are, that's a different
story. Just my 2 pfennig.
Sorry for the OT follow-up.
2:41 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Monday 08 December 2003 13:08, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote:
The one app my wife uses for which I don't know of
a free
software replacement is MS Publisher. Does anyone have any
experience with this and know if it will run under crossover
office? If so I could probably convice her to switch to a
linux desktop.
Some people have reported success running Publisher 97 and I
think 2000 under cxoffice, but it's not officially supported.
I'd join the discuss(a)wine.codeweavers.com list and poke around
the archives a bit....
To get this at least marginally audio related, I have
successfully run Buzz (sort of like a tracker with aspirations
towards doing almost everything Jack does, but only for windows
and orphaned for a few years) under cxoffice with good results,
albeit only to get some .wav files of the stuff I'd already done
in it so I wouldn't lose the data.
Rob
3:11 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
To get this at least marginally audio related, I have
successfully run Buzz (sort of like a tracker with aspirations
towards doing almost everything Jack does, but only for windows
and orphaned for a few years) under cxoffice with good results,
albeit only to get some .wav files of the stuff I'd already done
in it so I wouldn't lose the data.
Rob
FYI - Since Alsa went 1.0 I have been unable to get sound from cxoffice.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
1) I got a post from Takashi suggesting that the Wine code for determining
what Alsa is running has a problem.
2) I got a response from one Wine guy saying it would be fixed soon.
3) I got another response from a major Wine developer complaining that my
distro was messed up and not shipping the right libraries.
4) I go no response (that I know of) from Codeweavers.
3:51 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Monday 08 December 2003 14:08, Mark Knecht wrote:
FYI - Since Alsa went 1.0 I have been unable to get
sound from
cxoffice. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
4) I go no response (that I know of) from Codeweavers.
If you're talking about the "deprecated alsa version" thread on
[Discuss], Alexandre Julliard (the first guy to reply to you) is
a Codeweavers employee as far as I know. It sounds like "our
current demo is linked against alsa 0.5, sorry" is where I would
have given up and tried again next version. I haven't actually
tried to run any crossover apps since upgrading to alsa 0.9.6
myself, so I could be screwed too for all I know.
Wine's and cxoffice's interaction with alsa have been a sore
point for like a year now (basically ever since alsa became "a
thing"), but I imagine that's no surprise to you. I guess that's
the downside to mixing closed and open source, but if it's any
consolation, anything you can get working under cxoffice can
*theoretically* be run under a wine you can emerge yourself, if
you spend enough time tweaking.
Rob
5:42 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: Is the Linux desktop really here ?
On Monday 08 December 2003 14:08, Mark Knecht wrote:
Ah, thanks. I did not know he worked for Codeweavers, but I knew he was a
long time wine guy.
I also see that I did get another response from Codeweavers specifically
stating that they built the demo to use Alsa 0.5 and seem to be having
troubles themselves getting beyond that, but were nice about saying that
when Alsa goes 1.0 would be a good time for them to resync, so I took that
as positive.
I'm going to put this one to bed. I hoped that I'd be able to play a few
games if I purchased Crossover Office, but it appears I cannot without
investing some serious time which I don't have.
Thanks,
Mark
FYI - Since Alsa went 1.0 I have been unable to
get sound from
cxoffice. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
4) I go no response (that I know of) from Codeweavers.
If you're talking about the "deprecated alsa version" thread on
[Discuss], Alexandre Julliard (the first guy to reply to you) is
a Codeweavers employee as far as I know. 
11:12 p.m.
New subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user] ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote:
The one app my wife uses for which I don't know of
a free software
replacement is MS Publisher. Does anyone have any experience with this
and know if it will run under crossover office? If so I could probably
convice her to switch to a linux desktop.
-Eric Rz.
I'm not familiar with MS Publisher but I believe it's for desktop
publishing, right? Well Scribus may be worth taking a look at:
http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/about.html
I also use OpenOffice.org draw for simple page layout work.
-tmh
9 Dec
9 Dec
1:29 a.m.
New subject: Is the Linux desktop really here ? was: Re: [linux-audio-user]ebayguy: looks like he figured it out
Tom Hemba wrote:
Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote:
I'm not familiar with MS Publisher but I believe it's for desktop
publishing, right? Well Scribus may be worth taking a look at:
http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/about.html
I also use OpenOffice.org draw for simple page layout work.
-tmh
Thanks for the suggestion i'll check that out.
7708
days inactive
7709
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
27 comments
16 participants
participants (16)
-
Anthony DiSante -
Chris Cannam -
Dave Phillips -
Edward Barrow -
Eric Dantan Rzewnicki -
Eric Dantan Rzewnicki -
eviltwin69＠cableone.net -
Gustavo Zamorano S. -
John Bleichert -
Joseph Dell'Orfano -
Mark Knecht -
Paul Winkler -
Rob -
Robert Jonsson -
tim hall -
Tom Hemba