[CLUE-Tech] Enthusiasm for Linux

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Fri, 2003-10-24 at 13:37, Chuck Downing wrote:

*snip*

> Now for the need for somebody to work up some enthusiasm.  In the last
> couple of years, I have tried to migrate from Windows to Linux.  I
> have had two distros of RedHat, Mandrake 8.1 and Libranet 2.8.  I have
> even tried Cygwin, UWIN and msys/mingw.  My major problems are as
> follows:
> 
> 1.  While I realize that manufacturer cooperation is required, I have
> been unable to get any of those distros to recognize a winmodem. 
> Several driver-makers make wild promises, but none of them work
> because of dependancy issues.

As you say... manufacturer cooperation required. Sorry to say, but you
probably need to consider purchasing a different modem. The good news is
that you can probably purchase a decent external serial modem fairly
cheaply... in fact, there are probably CLUEbies that have unused
external modems they'd be willing to part with. 

> 2.  I would like to be able to have a "demand dial" approach to my
> ISPs because the ISP which is a local call doesn't do Usenet and the
> other charges by the hour.  Even though they claim to fit the bill,
> Pan, NewsFleX and newsleader don't function as off-line readers.  Pan
> stalls completely and then won't recognize that the computer is
> connected to the ISP, while the others don't even compile because of
> Libranet dependancies.  While I can get diald and wvdial to install
> and run, their performance is so spotty that it is easier to remember
> to manually dial an ISP before asking for downloads.

Can you do this in Windows? 

I'm on a cable modem, so I'll let someone with more dial-up experience
handle this... 

> 3.  Open Office 1.1.0 for Linux can't even recognize characters in a
> file saved by Open Office 1.1.0 for Windows--all apostrophes and quote
> marks show up on-screen as question marks.  Try to explain that to a
> computer-phobic spouse.  In addition, the index to the OO help files
> is so fouled up that I can't find instructions about changing to a
> readable display font.  These problems are solved when printing a
> document, but make OO 1.1.0 for Linux impossible to use.

This is not an Open Office problem... it's a font/character set issue,
if I'm not mistaken... you're probably using "smart" quotes for Windows,
which are quite dumb... you'll see the same problem in Mozilla if you
view some sites prepared with Microsoft tools. 

That said, I haven't run into the problem in OOo myself, using templates
created in MS Word... 

> 5.  I have no idea whether the fault lies with Wine or with Libranet,
> however, I can't get the out of the box Wine to work even with
> notepad.exe from Windows XP.  This is a step backward because Wine
> worked a little with RH 7.2.  Win4Lin worked really well with RH 8,
> but the same install CD claims to be incompatible with Libranet 2.8.

Unfortunately, Wine changes frequently... the Win4Lin problem is
probably due to it using RPMs and Libranet is Debian-based, which uses
Debian packages... 

If you're willing to shell out, you can buy CrossOver Office or try
Xandros, a Debian-based distro that includes CrossOver Office and
Plugin. Actually, I would recommend Xandros quite highly for anyone
looking to switch from Windows to Linux. 

If not, there are plenty of great text editors for Linux. Is there any
reason why you *need* to use Notepad.exe or other non-native apps? 

> 6.  USB connections to PDAs seem to be impossible to make work.  I
> have been unable to find a HOW-TO that is actually understandable.  It
> worked for the author, but not for me.  Even the Sharp Zaurus, which
> is a Linux box, cannot be syncronized using Linux.  Sharp refuses to
> acknowledge that PC-Linux exists!

Again, this is not a Linux issue, it's a manufacturer issue. It does
suck, but this isn't "Linux's" fault. 

> So, somebody please tell me how Linux is the greatest thing since
> sliced bread and how it's the wave of the future and will be in every
> home during my lifetime.

Chuck, one of the problems you're having is expecting Linux to be a free
Windows... almost all of the problems, save the Java issue, are related
to trying to get Linux to *be* Windows. Use a winmodem, use Windowe
executables, etc. 

I can attest to the fact that the switch can be a bit
disorienting/painful, I did it years ago... but if you make the effort
to switch to Linux, and Linux apps, I think you'll have fewer problems. 

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jzb at dissociatedpress.net
http://www.dissociatedpress.net
http://www.corante.com/openmind