Re: Was OT--Win7 and disk partitions; now using Linux

[Raphael Tennenbaum rtennenbaum@xxxxxxxx]

Paul Lagasse wrote:
> > 2) the cooperation with manufacturers allows them to incorporate
> > proprietary drivers and codecs smoothly, and
> I think things work better now than they did some releases ago (say,
> 7.10) but it still pays to buy a Linux distro preloaded on a laptop or
> netbook -- that's the only way to guarantee that (almost) everything
> will work (wifi and webcams tend to be problem areas). And as for those
> codecs, well, there remain some intriguing legal issues....
now you mention it, I couldn't get my fancy webcam working on this
machine so I moved it back to the XP box. however the little webcam
built-in to the Asus netbook works very nicely under Skype & Ubuntu 9.10.
I defer to your expertise, though I was impressed because when I
installed 9.10 onto the netbook, all the third-party hardware-customized
features developed by hackers that I'd had to install manually under
8.10 had been incorporated into the distro. that users would put in this
effort and see their work so rewarded was something I'd never seen.
> > 3) they've slicked up the way superuser works, which takes a big,
> > confusing step out of installation, and also makes day-to-day sudo-ing
> > easier. call it a pop distro if you want, but it happens to be the
> > best pop distro I've seen, better than Red Hat or Suse.
> I'd be willing to call it a pop distro -- Ubuntu seems to be aiming to
> produce a Linux distro that "just works" for a computer user who no
> longer needs training wheels (out-of-the-box, though, I think Mint does
> an even better job for the average user). And Ubuntu does do a pretty
> good job -- my wife's been on Ubuntu for the last two years with no more
> hiccups than she'd have in Windows -- fewer, probably. For the one or
> two things where she really needs Windows, there's XP on VMware. But
> "just works" is a tall order for Ubuntu with all the hardware and
> Win/Mac-only proprietary drivers that are out there. With time, and a
> little Linux critical mass, that might improve.
> And I think Debian's massive contribution to Ubuntu gets overlooked too
> often (though probably not by Debian fans). All those software
> repositories, as well as the sturdy tools (dpkg, apt-get, aptitude,
> synaptic) with which to install them, are part of the great debt Ubuntu
> owes to Debian. I think it's fair to say that Ubuntu took Debian and
> gave it developmental focus and drive, though the 6-month Ubuntu release
> cycle is beginning to seem a touch counterproductive to me.
are you only using Mint, Paul? I wanted to check something: using
Xywrite under Dosemu under 9.04, when I switch to fullscreen, it looks
really nice, that is to say just like it did on my Leading Edge under
DOS in 1986. however, dosemu Xywrite under 9.10 on the netbook
preserves a border -- it basically looks like windowed dosemu that's
filling the screen -- quite useable, just not what I'm looking for.
my first thought was maybe it was a function of the netbook's display
driver -- which it may be, however, under 9.04, fullscreen dosemu
expanded to "true VGA." if you've got dosemu running under Karmic I'd be
curious what it looks like when you ctrl-atl-f.

-rafe