123c5955a742
tech



Hello Wayne - 

--8<--cut 

->> I'm afraid we've _all_ been spoiled by Plug-n-Pray and GUIs
->> and cutesy little icons to 'click' on. It's been a long
->> while for even "the last of the breed" since we used the
->> command-line-interface and a text editor to configure our
->> hardware/software. Autoinstalls are the 'norm' and most
->> want "pushbutton" computing. :-( 

WC> Well I admit I split the drive and partitioned it first.
WC> then I typed "knx-hdinstall" I believe the command was from
WC> root than sat back for 1/2 hour as it installed. 

I'm wondering what KNOPPIX would be able to manage with a fresh
un-Fdisk'd unformatted hard drive prior to it's
install-to-hard-drive routine? 

->> I agree with Tom to a point though. Until KNOPPIX came on
->> the scene there wasn't a really user-oriented version of
->> Linux that I would have been willing to direct 'newbies'
->> towards. 

WC> Add a limited Partition Magic to Knoppix with an
WC> interrogatory panel requiring answers and you're there IMO.
WC> With a raw drive you needn't even do this. 

Unfortunately the 'intelligencia' can't agree on how to
partition a hard drive. A large percentage swear by the "one
huge partition" school of thought, while others like myself
prefer at least two partitions so that image copies of each can
be written to the 'other'. :-) 

WC> I only had to do this as I was dual booting. 

Understood. 

->> DamnSmallLinux tried to move in that direction but was not
->> as advanced as KNOPPIX in auto detection technigues and
->> didn't look as professional as KNOPPIX looks. KNOPPIX is
->> just darn 'pretty' sitting there and knowing that 2 gigs of
->> software is sitting there compressed on that CD is just
->> _stunning_ to a guy like me. I fit W31 onto a floppy but
->> KNOPPIX is just remarkable in my book. :-) 

WC> Same here. I like the "Platinum" style KDE desktop.
WC> Everything here autodetects just fine but I replaced the
WC> software sound card. 

Windmodems, sound on the mb, even video on the mb with shared
memory are all proprietary and as-such would give any OS that
is _not_ Windows fits. A generic copy of Windows would have the
same problems until manuf drivers were downloaded and installed. 

->>>> I realize that KNOPPIX didn't configure your modem for
->>>> you and you said it wouldn't print on your printer. 

WC>>> Go to the GUI "console" under settings and set it up.
WC>>> Same with modem and sound card. 

->> My only suggestion for making any Linux GUI more 'user
->> friendly' would be to have an alternate GUI using Windows
->> terminology (control panel, etc.) to make the transition
->> less stressful for a week or two or three for Windows
->> users. I don't think it would detract from Linux if it
->> could 'masquerade' as Windows for awhile. 

WC> A bit less educational though. The existing GUI root
WC> _control panel_ is pretty close to Windows just uses less
WC> precise Linux commands than required at the command line. 

I'm only referring to some text (terminology) and a few cutesy
little graphics (icons) that could be switched on/off between
the Windows and the Linux versions. Not unlike Windows XP have
the "classic" (W98SE-like) switched on/off for displays. 

WC> I don't think a standard Linux command line has "locate" as
WC> a recursive search but I bet it's an alias for an option of
WC> "ls" I've already found locate to be useful. 

I had created alias for my DOS machines years ago using CED and
began creating them for my mini-Linux installs as well. :-) 

WC>>> As root create adduser "whomever" and allow that user
WC>>> account access to modem, printer and sound card. 

->>>> These are possible areas that could use some attention
->>>> but I suspect that with just a bit of typing on your part
->>>> the modem and printer would be functioning. 

WC>>> I asked a question in a Linux echo having already
WC>>> installed to a hard drive and had the printer and modem
WC>>> setup in seconds. 

WC>>> I retain two pages of trivially simple commands to setup
WC>>> here. 

->> My daughter dropped to DOS on a machine at work to move
->> some files and the people at work panicked and asked her
->> what "that" was. They had never seen the DOS command line
->> before. :-) 

WC> The office computer geek eh ;-) 

Yes, _all_ of my children have had similar experiences. I kept
my computers in the living room (not hidden) since before the
internet was available to the general public and have _always_
been online even before Compuserve was a big deal. :-) 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

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