Sunday, July 04, 2004

I still think Linux is worth learning, I just wish it was a bit more user friendly.  :D  I still need to use some apps in win2k pro, which means I have to 1st move all my data into Linux, so I do NOT have to use the LinuxNTFS driver.  Then re-install winNT 4.0, then win2k Pro. I have decided to NOT use win2k pro for Internet access at all to just set it up so I can use MS Office and some other apps I really need to use. Later this year I plan on purchasing a LapTop and have decided to purchase an Apple PowerBook. This way, even though its a lot of work, I will be able to use all 3 platforms, and use the BEST of each of them.  I plan on putting a 3rd HD in my Desktop box, where ALL of my data will reside, so I can access it from any of the 3 platforms WITHOUT corrupting any of my O/S installations.  Then putting a Firewall/Router on the desktop box between the DSL modem and the Ethernet card, so I can use any of the O/S 's I want for Internet access, or to interact with each other. It's just that ALL of this SEEMS like a lot of WORK, and Expense to get the functionality I should be able to have with any 1 O/S platform.  I still hate MS and will try diligenltly to use its products as LITTLE as I absolutely have to. Curtis Seyfried  :D  :lol:  :lol: 7:27:37 AM     Linux, Still an Awkward Alternative (washingtonpost.com). washingtonpost.com - The choice of software to run our computers can get awfully depressing. On one hand, there's Windows XP -- expensive and woefully insecure, but it works on almost every machine out there. On the other, there's Mac OS X -- far more secure, but also expensive and restricted to Apple's own computers. [Yahoo! News - Technology] This is really a sad state of affairs. I've used Microsoft products for 16 years now starting with MSDOS 2.01 and going through and including WinXP.  NOT because it is my choice of companies to do business with, as I think MS is the biggest rippoff monopoly on the Planet; BUT, because it is easy to learn and use and affordable, at least one step at a time. MAC's have only recently become affordable to the average user, even though you will still pay a bit more at purchase, AND, MORE for any Upgrades of hardware or software after purchase. Linux is Affordable, most definetly; BUT, far from user friendly.  Recently feeling that Linux had finally evolved into something that an advanced user could use I invested in a 2nd HD for my Dell P-III 700 mhz.  I then bought a copy of Redhat 9, feeling it was the most widely used. Well, it does work, and I have been able to use it; BUT, there are definetly Problems.  1st - I installed it as instructed after much research, on a Seperate HD from my Win2k pro.  Installed GRUP on the Linux HD and setup the Pc to read ther linux HD 1st so I could choose with GRUB which O/S to use. Well, the installation of Linux blew out my MBR on my win2k pro HD. So I setup linux and started using it. Initial usage has been acceptable, but there are apps in win2k that I need to use. I even installed a number of Open Source apps such as OpenOffice, and other equivelents or ports of apps I need. Eventually I did need to reinstall my win2k pro. What a horror. Because I had installed win2k pro as an upgrade to winNT 4.0 I needed to reinstall winNT, then win2k pro, then reinstall ALL my applications programs.  Well, that took an entire day. So then I had a working Linux and win2k system. Well, I really wanted to give linux a good try. I installed a driver to allow me to access my win2k pro NTFS drives so I could access the data on them. That worked fine.  I then installed WINE so I could run some windows apps in Linux, that worked fine. In fact I am running RadioUserland on Linux through Wine right now. So that worked fine. But, I still want t be able to use both O/S's. Well, in using the Linux2NTFS driver eventually it corrupted my MBR on my win2k pro drive.  So, I've been using Linux for the past month now exclusively.  It is bearable with a number of drawbacks. 1. When I install, well actually compile, or make, an app in Linux, it puts it where it wants to, if I read fast enough I can see that USUALLY it will put bin files in the /usr/local/bin BUT, not always. Linux also does NOT create a launcher on the desktop so I can just use the app. I have to find the appropriate bin or sh file and do this myself, sometimes with success sometimes not. For instance, I installed HydraFax to be able to Fax documents from Open Office, like I can using WinFax Pro 10.0.  Well I still can't get it to work even though it installed with NO errors. The Networking/Internet access was easier to setup than on win2kpro, and I've found it to be a faster DSL connection than when I ran it in win2k Pro. 2. On Linux I installed an Apache/Mysql/Php distro put together by ApacheFriends, a group in Germany.  On win2k pro I had installed Apache2Triad and it worked fine right out of the box.  ApacheFriends Xampp/Lampp ALMOST works out of the box.  Everything BUT, MYSQL works, and no matter what I've done I can NOt get MySql working !  I need this since most of the PHP apps I use NEED MySql, but they do work as far as they can with no db. 3. One of my biggest gripes with Linux though is that no matter what I do I can NOT get JAVA apps to run.  I installed j2sdk1.4.2_04 just as I had in win2k pro. JavaWebStart WORKS !  BUT, I can NOT get regular apps to RUN !  I've manually updates the .bash .bash.profil;e and other config files that various people have advised me to do.  I've Exported the PATH, I've even setup .sh files with the JAVA PATH manually written in.  Nothing Works.  I even did a 2nd install of JAVA, no change.  BUT, 1 really wierd thing that did happen.  After doing all of the above, I have been ABLE to get JAVA apps with an installer to recognize and use my JAVA installation, AND to APPEAR as though they have successfully installed the APP.  BUT, the APP will NOT run. I get main class not found and other errors that I 1st got when I started using Java in win2k pro, BEFORE I learned how to write classpaths. 7:13:50 AM

Monday, June 07, 2004

I've been seriously playing around with my new Linux RH9 installation, since I've definetly decided NOT to repair and re-install my win2k drive. I can access all of my data on the win2k drive, isnce it is in seperate data vurtual drives, from Linux. I can also run some of the windows apps I want through WINE, like this one. I've been using some win2k apps through wine for hours at a time to see if there are any problems after a session runs for a few hours. I haven't found any problems yet. So, wine is a good solid wi2k emulation app, that has good stability. But, I've also been finding out that Linux has its own shortcomings. The bottom line is though, if my Linux distro fails or corrupts, worse case senario is reinstalling the O/S ONLY from scratch. The applications and data are still there, and I do NOT have to re-install EVERY app from scratch like you have to with win2k. So, as my transition away from MS Windows, and MS products altogether this is the 1st step. Now I have a brand new warrenteed 40 G HD with Linux on it, and onlt 5 gig used, and a 20 gig HD, with my old windows and its data and applications. I can clean that up anytime and use it as a backup drive. This is great because I was using a ZIP 250 meg, Parallel port drive, which was real SLLLLLLow. As far as compatibility with MS Office products and documents. I've been using Open Office for some time now on Windows, and find it has reached a point in matruity that I can easily replace MS Office with Open Office 1.1, and the soon to be released v. 2. OO handles existing MS Office documents with ease and with little or no curruption. It also saves to MS format with accuracy so I can provide someone with a MS Office only box with any files I create, and visa-versa. The next step is to really get to know the linux distro, and find out what it has to offer. I think maybe this fall I'll invest in a copy of Redhat Linux Enterprise so I have a stable, supported distro. Does anyone have any suggestions as to an alternative Linux distro that offers stability and support ? Then later this year, or early next I'm going to invest in a MAC PowerBook. Even though I've been using PC's for 15 years - DOS v. 2.01 through win2k, some MAC and now Linux; I still find it amazing. To think that all of this is really littles "0"'s and "1"'s, or actually posative or negative charge on disk, is incredible. Just the changes I've seen in the last 15 years are huge. To think, God willing I could easilly live another 30 - 40 years, my ancestors regularly lived to 95. Either we'll see great changes or end up with Soylent Green or Planet of the Apes. Most likely planet of the bacteria. I remember my grandfather telling me back in the 1960's, when he was in his 90's, the change he had seen in his lifetime. He grwe up in an America that was just embracing hte beginnings of electricity and horse less cariges to live to see a man walk on the moon, live in his livingroom, on color TV ! 5:21:16 AM

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Well it took me some time to get back to the weblog. I installed some new applications in my Linux installation and one of them knocked out my ability to activate my network connection. It turns out is was the new version of gtk. After reinstalling from scratch linux the missing file appeared with a x-gtk as an ending. I will say though that even with the beginners problems I've had with linux, I still like it bette than MSWin2k. For one thing during the initial linux install it wiped out the boot sector of my win2k drive. Re-installing windows means reinstalling winNT, reinstalling the win2k upgrade over that and then re-installing EVERY application individually since win does not register them. The linux was just re-installing linux, without repartitioning and without re-formatting, and booting up. All the apps work with no reajustments. 6:15:18 PM

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Well, In Feburary my Radio installation Desktop Weblog Corrupted and I could not get it working again. I tried, Radio Userland Tech support tried, I uninstalled and reinstalled the software to no avail. Well, a few weeks ago I added a second HD, with a Redhat Linux 9 O/S installation. Tonight I came across a reference on a weblog to running Radio on Linux using WINE !! WELL, it WORKS ! More later 7:49:59 PM

© Copyright 2004 Curtis Seyfried. Last update: 7/4/2004; 7:27:40 AM.