Hey Roman,
Sorry this reply has taken so long. I was away in Frisco for the past five
days ....
> Hey Larry,
>
> > Have you seen the June 2000 issue of MaximumPC? The main article is
> > How to Freshen Windows 98 for a Clean Start. So there are others
> > out there like me who just can't seem to keep win98 from corrupting.
>
> Where can I read it ?
I'm not sure if they have that article up on their site yet but try
www.maximumpc.com
> > Nope. I don't use windows enough anymore to bother., but I don't
> > think the average user would know how to either or probably have a
> > recent backup.
>
> I'll grant you that, but in my opinion he'd be lost in Linux.
lol ... maybe they should try an imac ;-)
> > reget is your friend. I've downloaded several distros on a 28.8 in the
> > recent past.
>
> I guess you don't have to pay for local phone calls (to your ISP).
Hell no. I consider it a therapeutic way for me to stick it to the phone
company.
> There was an article, or, more of an opinion by John Carmack on /.org
> and there were many replies saying that either the Linux versions of
> their games do not work or they come out too late after the the
> original release, which makes them buy and play games under win rather
> than under Linux.
I caught part of that article and was a bit bummed. However, they were able
to recover the cost of the
port and this is a totally different scenario then when Loki ports the game
for a company as they take the
risk of it not selling instead of the original developer/publisher. I think
a large part of the broken game
problem has more to do with people not having a new version of their distro
or they have a distro that
really just doesn't cater to gaming.
> >> Multimedia players - the reason why I like WinAMP more than XMMS is
> >> that plugin writers support it more than XMMS. That means that my
> >> favorite plugin (Geiss, www.geisswerks.com) runs with WinAMP and
> >> not with XMMS. Is there a way to make it run under Linux ?
>
> > No, but we're catching up. Also, Mandrake/xmms does come with some
> > plugins from the initial install.
>
> I found only one, which was... well, I've seen better.
I think you'll prefer the 7.1 plugins to 7.0 ....
> > XMMS can use winamp skins. Personally, I don't like most winamp
> > skins and prefer a look more like Sonic which XMMS can do.
>
> Don't know Sonic. Do you mean Sonique ? And what is better about it
> looks compared to usual look of XMMS or WinAMP ?
Yes, I meant Sonique. I should probably stop writing mails late at night.
Just personal
preference ..... I guess I'm getting tired of the square winamp skins.
Don't get me wrong,
there are awesome skins for winamp and xmms, I just want something a little
different for
the time being.
> > Grip rules. I personally have quite a bit of experience with
> > encoding mp3's in both linux and win98 and I far and away prefer to
> > do it in linux.
>
> Why ?
It is easy, full featured and free. I was disappointed with a few of the
windows encoders because none
of them actually did everything that I wanted. Either they were limited to
128 or didn't do cddb or
cost bucks. Originally, I would rip the cd in windows transfer it to my
linux box and encode it there
with kblade. When I found Grip on the Mandrake distro,I was just overly
impressed and ripping/encoding
everything in sight. Grip can rip, cddb, and then encode for free. I
always encode my personal cd's at 320
in the belief that quality is most important. Some of my friends complain
about it, but hard drives are
expected to be about $100 for 100gb next summer, and I also have a cd-r, so
why not go for the best sound.
> >> Apart from that - I lacked a file manager at least equal or superior
> >> to Windows Commander. Is there anything under Linux that can offer me
> >> WC's power and effectivity ?
>
> > I've never seen WC so I really couldn't say. Is it part of windows
> > or a commerical program?
>
> It is shareware. www.ghisler.com
I'll take a look when I get a chance. Right now I have about 999 more
emails to get done.
> > Even so, if it is more powerful and efficient then a bash shell,
> > I'll eat a penguin.
>
> Well this would be like comparing the DOS command prompt to Norton
> Commander. Some might prefer the prompt, but I find that I can do
> things faster in NC.
>
> See, probably the major cause why I discontinued using Linux was that
> I haven't found anything like WC. I have WC to run on startup and I do
> everything from there - launch apps, browse my disk, copy, move,
> create dirs, there even is a command line so you don't have to run any
> terminal windows, it has built-in compression and decompression, FTP
> client, file compare... well I haven't seen anything better so far
> concerning all-in-one and having to run another util for everything I
> need to do in Linux is uncomfortable for me. Even if it only would
> mean to press alt-F2 or open the console - in WC I don't have to do
> that, I just type the command.
There is quite a bit to address in those last two paragraphs, but I want to
just make two points. First, comparing
the dos cli to bash is like comparing doom to quake3 .... no contest.
However, that isn't the main point I want to make.
People tend to have preferences based on many reasons and sometimes it is
because we are not aware of what the
other side is capable of doing. I know I've done this on many an occasion.
With respect to WC, I think that you'll find
KFM can do much of what you have listed. For instance, kfm is capable of
the following:
launching apps
browsing disks ... hd, fd, cd
copy/move/create both files and directories
ftp
web browser
image viewer w/ thumb nails
This leaves the following three items which either don't exist in kfm, need
more clarification, or I don't know how to do
it with kfm.
command line -- doesn't appear to exist in kfm ... I could be wrong though
commpression/decompression -- not sure what you mean by this one. Possibly
a winzip like front end, proprietary
compression
algorithm, or hd compression supported by the os.
file compare -- again, not sure if you mean a something like a md5 check or
just comparing dates and sizes.
At any rate, it would appear that wc is more fully featured then kfm;
however, kde2 is right around the corner. You
may also want to take a look at Xemacs which is purportedly the most
complete editor/environment in existence. I
have read elsewhere that a true guru will log into their computer in the
morning, open emacs, do everything that they
need to do for the entire day from emacs .... web, email, ftp, cp, mv, etc
.... and then close emacs and log out at the
end of the day.
> OK, but why do I have to do everything in text mode and using commands?
> I would do that when I am experienced and find it faster, but for
> now I prefer utils like DrakConf which make it easier. Power made
> simple.
You don't have to do everything with a shell; However, there are some
distinct benefits to using a shell.
First, experienced users often know how to do something with a shell and
will just tell someone to
do 'ifconfig' to find out some network information rather then going to the
trouble of figuring out what particular
distro the person is using and what gui configuration tool is available.
Another benefit is execution speed. Typing
'mv oldname newname' is often a much faster way of renaming a file or
directory then clicking on it, clicking
properties or rename, and then typing in the new name. I believe you
realize this though. Second, I think it is a
misnomer that everything gui is easier then using a shell. For the most
part, a gui seems easier for two reasons. First,
it prompts you with the copy/move icon or whatever. This benefits the
ultra-newbie who will forget cp and mv. Second,
people are just more familiar with using a gui for these tasks now. The
newbie learns to use explorer from a not so
newbie friend and then just comes to expect that everything else should be
the same way. There was a time when people
feared using program manager because it was unfamiliar. Simple role
reversal here. In general, gui's make the easy
stuff a bit easier and the hard stuff a whole hell of a lot more time
consuming (if it can be done at all).
gotta run .... 998 more emails to go ... until next time.
--
Larry Hignight Descent 3 Beta tester Caldera Linux 2.4
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5:00pm up 26 days, 1:08, 5 users, load average: 0.09, 0.06, 0.09
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