-=> ROY J. TELLASON wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 RJT> I too prefer software that lets you know what the heck is going on.
 RJT> :-)

 WC> No need now. I think it may have been a syntax error in my editing
 WC> the pppsetup files.

 RJT> Ah.

 WC> Hey I'm not really sure but it's likely.

 RJT> Always something you need to fiddle with...

Got it.
Experimenting with Knoppix dialog boxes I went back to the mini
install and promptly sent SMTP on the first try.

 WC> I'm used to deleting the quotes in pppsetup but don't know if the
 WC> square brackets in Greycat need to go or stay.

 RJT> I don't know anything about that distro.

 Well I've got it figured out but why bother now with the full
 blown GUI KDE desktop and Mozzila's Firebird browser?
 Kmail is a Eudora mail clone right down to the hints
 it launches on loading it.
 I can also shell to command line both as user and
 as root.

 WC> Charles Angelich Burned a Knoppix CD for me and sent it to here :-)
 WC> Arrived today :-)

 WC> Interrupted the boot to boot off the CD drive and KDE launched
 WC> right off the bat.

 RJT> I hear that's pretty good at autodetecting hardware.

 WC> Ya think? It autodetected my ATI card and setup three resolutions
 WC> right off the bat :-)
 WC> I now, boot: knoppix lang=us screen=768x1024 and I'm good to go!

 WC> I've got Star Office and all sorts of goodies here now :-)

 RJT> I got a copy of staroffice a while back (probably no longer current),
 RJT> and never did get around to installing it.

Heh, install it?
Here it's installed right off the boot and has it's own icon.
I've already used it :-)

 RJT> That sounds pretty good to me!

 WC> Are you kidding?
 WC> I've got less than 2 hours total time on Knoppix and I've already
 WC> been surfing on Konqueror and Netscape and I noted Dillo is in
 WC> there as well :-) Telneted as well.

 WC> Roy you need to see this to believe it and I hope you soon
 WC> get your Celeron box up and running and snag a copy of Knoppix.

 RJT> I'll get it going shortly (UPS tracking tells me that the box I'm
 RJT> waiting for is on the way,  should get here today or tomorrow) but once
 RJT> I get a new PS in that box I'll be loading Slack 9.1 on it,  that's the
 RJT> distro I started with and I'm gonna stick with it.  They're not all
 RJT> that different,  anyhow.

 WC> The Windows like KDE GUI is far clearer than Win 98 on the same
 WC> box and monitor.

 RJT> I like it here.  :-)

 RJT> And the thing is,  you can configure a *lot* of aspects of it,  and
 RJT> don't need to be fighting with it all the time like you do with
 RJT> m$-crap.

How true!

 WC> Now I've got to look into increasing the partition size for Knoppix
 WC> to half the drive and loading from the hard drive instead of the
 WC> CD.

 RJT> I expect that given enough time you'll get to the point where you won't
 RJT> worry about whether you give any space on that drive to other than
 RJT> linux.  

 Time will have arrived when I've installed an OLR and Abiword
 MSWord compatable format word processor.
 Haven't looked into Star Office to see if
 it offers a save in MSWord format yet.

 WC> Then I'll see about snagging Abiword and likely my next hard drive
 WC> won't even have Windows on it in any way, shape or form.

 RJT> You're moving in the right direction,  methinks.

 WC> If enough people become aware of how user friendly this release is
 WC> Bill Gates is in deep dodo :-)

 RJT> He's already got a problem,  and knows it.  They can't compete directly
 RJT> with a "business model" that involves giving it away for free.

Especially with his buggy fixpack addicted bloatware.

 WC> Thanks again to Charles Angelich for burning this CD for me while
 WC> Knoppix is still in litigation in Europe and as yet unavailable
 WC> from their web site.

 RJT> I'm also awaiting a package,  hopefully I'll get this celeron box
 RJT> up pretty soon.  I keep getting into absurd .amounts of swap
 RJT> being used...

 RJT> Mostly that's Konqueror that's at fault there,  and mostly when I open
 RJT> multiple tabs or windows on it.  There were a small number of sites
 RJT> that I hit that seemed to want to keep doing that,  opening one new
 RJT> window after another until things crashed.

I've switched to using Mozilla's Firebird browser here, it's
loaded on boot too :-)

 RJT> I did see some of this addressed on their web site,  mostly memory leak
 RJT> stuff, so perhaps the version that comes with the newer slack will take
 RJT> care of the problem.  In the meantime as long as I'm careful about how
 RJT> I use it I don't have much of a problem.

 RJT> And in any case if this ram I have works out okay I'll have to worry
 RJT> about it less,  the MB in that box will support up to 384MB,  and I aim
 RJT> to take it all the way out there when I can.

 Way to go Roy!

 WC> I'll set mine to 128 meg which is half my RAM once I move Knoppix
 WC> to the hard drive.

 RJT> I like to set swap to double the physical ram,  but I guess that

Linux sites I've hit say larger swaps until one reaches
256 Meg RAM then 1/2 RAM.

 RJT> depends on what drive ends up in that box.
 RJT> At this point it's a 1G,
 RJT> which is probably not enough for a full install,  but if I stick this
 RJT> 2G I just acquired in there that should give me enough room for a
 RJT> good-sized swap partition and all of the software.  And then there's
 RJT> the idea of pulling in some of the software from the server,  which I
 RJT> want to try out and see how well it works.  Maybe I won't need that
 RJT> much HD in that box...

 WC> Knoppix is Debian based and appears most user friendy when one
 WC> boots, boot: knoppix lang=eng All the glamorous desktop
 WC> applications came right up slick as you please :-)

 RJT> Sounds like you're having fun all right.  :-)

 WC> Well physical limits as to what I can do in one sitting but I've
 WC> already accompished a great deal with this amazing package.
 WC> I need to find out where the OLR is located in all this stuff.

 RJT> Why do you think there's one in there?  It's not a normal thing for a
 RJT> distro to include,  as most don't know from fido-type stuff.  Or are
 RJT> you referring to regular email?

 Not sure. However I can just snag William McBrine's MultiMail
 binary for Linux.
 I've saved the packages.txt file in Kword to have a look see.

 RJT> I was looking at the prospects of
 RJT> setting up sendmail, fetchmail, procmail,  and all sorts of other stuff
 RJT> here when I discovered kmail under kde,  which short-circuited that
 RJT> whole process,  and I don't need to worry about that stuff.

Yeah, Kmail appears to be a Eudora mail clone,
it's what I'm using here.
Of course I could also use Mozilla's Thunderbird mail and newsgroup
application, also loaded on boot and already configured :-)
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