Maurice Kinal at 1:351/255 wrote in a message to Jim Balcom on 28 Mar 1998 at 
06:27:
MK> 24 Mar 98 21:13, Jim Balcom wrote to Kirk Lang:
 JB> Gawd! I wish these software developers would learn about Linux and 
 JB> port their software over to it so I won't have to run Gates's crap!
MK> Actually there is a wealth of software out "there" for
MK> Linux.  The trouble is in finding exactly what you are
MK> looking for and where to find it.  For example a commercial
MK> seismic interpretation package costs in the order of
MK> $100,000 to licence while there is freeware source code for
MK> a Linux based interpretation package.  Thus if you know C
MK> you there is an economical advantage to running Linux.
Yeah, but.....
I bought my present laptop because of DeLorme's MapAtlas program. It uses a 
GPS receiver that sits on my dash. My laptop fastens to stand that is bolted 
to the floorboard. I fire all of this up, the receiver finds the satellites, 
and then it puts arrows on the computer screen to show where I am and where I 
am going. It also tells me how fast I am going. If I tell it where I wanna 
go, and let it plot a course, then a voice tells me when and where to turn. A 
quick glance to the right, and I can visually see exactly where I am, on a 
map.
This runs ONLY under Win95. It won't run under 3.1, DOS, Linux, or anything 
else.
I bought the HP Photosmart scanner and printer. VERY nice set up at a 
reasonable price. I can scan in negatives and I get lab quality print outs, 
up to 8.5 x 11. Nice stuff.
The printer will NOT work under Win 3.1, nor even DOS! It MUST have Win 95.
ULead's current photo editing program, Photo Image, runs ONLY under Win95, 
and they made fun of me for refusing to switch to Win95. (I since have put 
Win95 on that computer, just so I can do photo processing.)
Yes, XV is a very nice program, and, yes, I can do quite a bit of editing 
with that. But, my version is no wheres near as comprehensive as Photo Image. 
And, as far as I know, there is no way to get a scanner to import images to 
Linux - unless a TWAIN module has come out lately???
Linux does support sound cards, so I am told. My impression is that it 
doesn't do it well. (I'm probably wrong here.) What software is available 
under Linux to edit stuff that is recorded through the sound card?
See, one of my current projects is: When I was in Korea in 1963-64, I 
belonged to a tape club. I would borrow tapes and bring them back to the 
'hotel'/'barracks'/'tent'/'mudhole' where I lived. Several of my buddies also 
had tape recorders. We would set up one recorder to play the tape, and 
sometimes we had up to 6 recorders making copies of that tape. I have nearly 
150 tapes, 2-3 hours of music on a tape, of songs that were popular in the 
60's. (About 50 of the reels were done in Germany around 69) OK, I want to 
put these albums on CD's. In some cases, the stuff coming in off the tapes 
needs to be edited, and enhanced. We were bored GI's in our 20's. Our methods 
for copying tapes was very UNscientific. And the tapes are 35 years old! When 
my tape deck dies, how do I go about listening to them?
(I just sent off a check for $50 today to a guy in Canada for a piece of 
shareware that I got from tucows.com that does a FANtastic job of dealing 
with this!)
(And, how come we can never find a radio station that plays songs from the 
'60's? There are some GREAT songs from that era! And, the 50's! I don't have 
any from then, but one I remember was, "Rosie, Don't Bang On The Piano!")
And, that leads me to ANOTHER thing! :-)
CD-Rom burners. Is there software available under Linux to burn a CD-Rom? I 
just paid $350 for a very nice Ricoh CD-Rom burner with Adaptec software. My 
knowledge is very limited at this point on these, but I'm sure that without 
special software, they won't work under Linux.
OTOH, I popped in a fresh, blank, CD-Rom and fired up Seagates backup 
program, and in much less than an hour I had backed up my 2 gig C: drive onto 
the CD. (This box of CD's cost me $2 each after the rebate, so throwing them 
away is no problem!)
Maybe all of this stuff is out there for Linux. But, when I go exploring, I'm 
not finding it!
So, now I have the ability, under Windows 95 (if I can keep it up long enough 
[Win95, that is]) to make up a CD with hits from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 
90's. (Most of my 70's stuff is on 33 1/3 LP's, with LOTS of great songs 
there, too!)
++ Jim ++
 ...DISCLAIMER: The statements in this message are the personal opinions
    of the author and should not be construed as having any official
    connotations of any kind.
... You need no longer worry about the future.  This time tomorrow you'll be 
dea
--- Alexi/Mail 2.02b (#2)
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