Alan Mackenzie wrote:
Hi, Matthew!
On Tue, Jul 17, 2007 at 12:52:24PM -0400, Matthew Harrison wrote:
Then my question is now "why in the world are you using Linux?"
You're describing things that aren't an issue at all if you know some
basics about Linux, and if you use a package manager, all of this
virtually disappears. Perhaps you would be happier with an OS that
barely changes for years at a time such as Win2k?
I love using Linux! It's a wonderful system to use! So versatile, so
flexible, free (in both senses). I actually know somewhat more than the
basics of the system. I'm a bash and AWK script enthusiast, and I hack
Emacs. I've set up a qmail server running to connect me with my ISP.
It's _installing_ and _configuring_ the system which I detest. Finding
the necessary info seems a black art. It took me a whole day and a half
to get my printer working, for example. I don't think there's a coherent
description of how to configure the network stuff anywhere. Of course,
it doesn't help that the main IDE controller on my motherboard is hd[gh],
and its hardware address shifts each time I add another card in. Maybe
things would be less bad if I next installed something like Ubuntu.
By contrast, installing Win2k is about as difficult as inserting the DVD
into a virgin machine, but it's really not the sort of system I want.
As for package managers, they're like magic spells. When they work,
they're wonderful, when they don't, they're a nightmare. At least when
you build and install from a tarball, you can see what's going on, and
you can be reasonably sure that the Makefile won't be doing anything
"helpful" behind your back. It was a package manager which failed to
install the OO help file(s) on my system, for example, and it was another
package manager which dismantled Jonathon's X-Windows when he
de-installed Firefox. Unfortunately, building things from source is only
practical for isolated programs.
I'm a full-time Linux user that runs a bleeding-edge Gentoo system on
the unstable branch (meaning, I use the latest of everything on my
system whether or not the Gentoo gods have deemed the software stable)
and this isn't the experience I have with it at all. Updating
openoffice is as easy as typing "emerge openoffice (or openoffice-bin
if I don't want to wait for a compile)" when a new version is
available, and my package manager handles the rest - config files
intact. I really suggest using a different operating system or
learning some Linux basics and using a package manager. There's just
no good reason to be using 1.1.3, really.
There would be no reason to install 1.1.3 from scratch. However, given
that it works on my system, and I can work it on my system (more or
less), the right time to install the new version is when I've got several
days of calm in which I can learn its idosyncrasies in peace, not when
I'm hopelessly stressed out like I am at the moment.
It would be nice to have the help working, though.
I put it to you that the way you continually update your system isn't an
easy natural thing to do at all; rather, it's a highly refined skill that
you've developed over an extended period.
I have downloaded OpenOffice from the official site, and installed it on
Ubuntu linux for the last several versions. I've installed it using an
app called "alien," which is also available on Debian.
I am not a computer-expert by a very long ways, but I've learned to ask
the right questions on Google. (Even there I can't seem to get the
question right sometimes.)
In order not to have to get up on Google every time I decided it's time
to replace my old OpenOffice, I've saved the instructions in my own hd,
so all I have to do is look them up.
Here's the URL for you.
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/oo2install.html
As I understand it, Ubuntu is so close to Debian that you should be able
to use these same instructions. If someone else knows different, please
let me know.
JimW
