Is anyone here using UBUNTU? --- Linnux based op system

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:43:54 +0000, Baron wibbled:

What's hard about Ubuntu? I find the Debian config system very thorough...

Another example of popular "mainstream" software that doesn't exist on Linux is something like Delorme's Street Atlas USA or Microsoft's Streets & Trips. (Mapping software which -- while they often have on-line links these days -- come with the entire map set already so can be used away from Internet connections.)

You also have to be careful if you're running, e.g., 3D CAD software such as SolidWorks to be a video card where the card's 3D acceleartion can be "passed through" to the virtual machine -- otherwise your frame rates can easily be decimated.

---Joel

I'm remembering Joerg grousing about an app he wanted (more than just one??) that wasn't packaged for his distro. For several years now, there has been a tool that handles that case as well:

Yup.

Earlier in the thread, there was a swipe at OpenOffice. The fact is that the version-to-version compatability of M$ crap with "itself" is poorer than what OOo provides. Word docs and Excel xls that M$O calls broken and won't open can often be opened with OOo.

Recursive acronyms are fun. WineHQ has an app compatibily database with details.

Having a backup of your WINE apps directory structure can make it dirt simple to get your borked "Windoze" infrastructure back to running.

...and don't forget to clone that Windoze drive for when that HDD self-destructs. Re-installing Windoze and apps is such a chore when compared to a Linux distro.

I've never got my head around Access. I don't know how to make it get things out of a database that I need. I prefer good ol' plain SQL.

robert

You use access queries which are - pretty much - SQL. You can even switch them to "SQL view" during their design if you prefer.

JeffM schrieb:

....

I used to save the documents that a customer wanted to postprocess, in MS-Word X.Y-something. Due to version-to-version (in)compatability they now ask their subcontractors to use the OO-format ".odt". The reason is simple: If they ever encounter a problem with the version, they just download the latest release and can use the document within half an hour.

Falk

Tim Watts Inscribed thus:

Debian is fine ! I guess I'm biased, don't like *buntu... or Mint for that matter.

It is ALL SQL underneath. At least for MS products. That how the servers get queried.

Access is like a mix between VB and foxpro and the old dbase, except everything is pushbutton "visual" now, and lots of modules are pre-composed/compiled. They did go SQL infrastructure though.

I have been messing with it for a couple years now, and still find plain old Excel spreadsheets to be faster with my 48MB DVD database as a baseline. Access takes forever to do ANYTHING and there are only 176k records and it is mostly one table! There is an actors table and a director's table for the one to many and space reduction on repeated director name, which could be done on studios, etc, making the whole thing a bit smaller, but it is mostly one table, and mostly all unique data per record (barcode scans, etc).

I still have trouble simply getting it to put up the director, and the actor list for the currently viewed entry. I never had trouble in Paradox linking fields, doing joins, and such. I am sure it would be easy once I become familiar with their twisted pair of dimes. :-)

ers

I use Suse. You can partition however you want, but you are own your own if doing so. I've found Suse works best with software RAID. In fact, at the time I built some of my PCs, Suse was the only distribution that worked with my Nvidia software RAID. This may not be the case any longer.

I don't like the constant upgrading with ubuntu. Every time you turn around, they have a new "animal" release.

I use KDE as well. I've noticed they have a KDE for windows, but I'm not that brave. Suse has "plasma", which I guess is like a fancy Qt. I haven't messed with it much.

Everyone has their favorite distribution. [I use Suse.]

Have fun with this website:

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com wibbled on Wednesday 27 January 2010 05:04

You would probably prefer the LTS releases then - 3 years support for the desktop version and 5 years for the server.

Agree - the weird names do my head in, but the numbering is sensible and they do generally release on time which makes planning a deployment sane.

I think they do a pretty decent job in appealing to both the "gotta have the latest stuff now!" users with their bi-annual releases as well as the "I just want something that's stable and works" users with the alternative-year releases ("long term support" releases). The problem is that the last LTS edition was 8.04 (April, 2008) and Linux/KDE/Gnome have changed a *lot* since then -- far more than Windows changes in two years. I expect that the upcoming LTS edition this April will be pretty good, and that the pace of change might be slowing a bit.

---Joel

semi-annual

Because with bi-annual it's ambiguous as to whether it's two times a year or every two years?

From dictionary.com:

bi-an-nu-al

-adjective

1. occurring twice a year; semiannual.
2. occurring every two years; biennial.

Hmm... seems like a word to avoid...

---Joel

Joel Koltner wrote:

...like "every other". Does that mean *every second* item or *all* other items? 8-(

or

All this depends on your application. If you are setting up a server, you don't want all those updates. For a desktop, maybe every 6 months is OK. Suse has a simple update scheme, much like windows. You get a notice, you run the update, and thus far I haven't had a problem. [Windows updates are another story. Occasionally, they just won't install.]

It is my experience that there seems to be less software set up specifically for opensuse these days. [Usually Fedora is the target.] It might be the issue that Suse got in bed with Novel and thus became on the hell freezes over list for some developers. However, opensuse does a good job with repositories, and there is much electronics software aimed at Suse due to the influence of Germany. Also, opensuse handled RPM. Once in a while though, you will find it necessary to create links in directories so that libraries will be found by config files, or you tweak the config file for Suse.

I'm not sure Linux is really ready for those that don't want to do a bit of work when installing software. I will say the Nvidia repository was the only way I could get 3D going on my videocard. [There is one for ATI too.] I can run the Google Earth posix binary under suse.

Sticking with electronics, you can get those Ines PCI GPIB cards quite cheap on the surplus market. Ines, being German, has suse support.

I use Suse and Opensuse kind of interchangeably. Opensuse is the free (no phone support) version of Suse. You can buy Suse and get phone support for I believe 6 months after purchase. I did that years ago when I first started using linux. Today, I don't think you need phone support, but the option is there.

The Debian repositories are at ~25,000 apps; Ubuntu's at ~26,000; Mint's, just a bit more.

Last I heard, Fedora's was ~15,000. That last number is a bit dated, I'm sure.

SuSE is wholly-owned by Novell.

Yup. The ten foot pole is often mentioned in that context. ...but, as I mentioned earlier, the *alien* app can handle cross-package issues.

Have you checked the size of any compressed live boot disc distros,like Knoppix?

It has over 10GB compressed onto its 4.6GB DVD image. I'll bet that the number is a bit higher than 26k.

But Opensuse is ...well...open. Dig though Leo Laporte's FLOSS podcasts. There is one which interviews a person from Opensuse and he explains the relationship. The guy doing the interview asks some bonehead question about KDE, but that is another story.

Thus far, no dead horse head has been left in my bed for using opensuse, but the decade is still young. The one-click software installations (when they exist) are great. The only issue you will find with opensuse is the library locations. But that is going to be an issue with any distribution since it depends on which version of linux the program was developed.

I should point out that Sun now gives away Solaris if anyone wants yet another distributions to mess with. I couldn't get Solaris to recognize by software RAID.