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Darkelve

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Everything posted by Darkelve

  1. in my case, it was even worse: I did not seem to have konsole installed at all! I could not remember how any of the other terminals were called (tried xterm, Gconsole, Gterm, ..., but none worked). Then I got the idea of just installing konsole with the software installer. Then I could get on with the work. Strange how a graphical app helped me out this time... Darkelve
  2. Hey, I frantically downloaded the 3 ISO's friday night, then installed the whole thing. It took a little getting used to, but I was up and running in almost no time. Probably the most 'visible' element, is the new 'style' (boot splash screens and desktop background). These are just awesome, look *very* professional. I think, at this stage, this *is* important for Mandrake, despite the contempt this usually gets from 3l3te people. I read in a lot of reviews that people where disappointed with 9.2. If you ask me, it's because this release isn't such a giant leap from the previous one (I have the 9.0 Powerpack and the 9.1 download edition and 9.1 was a giant leap forward from its predecessor, almost felt like a major new release). My experience, however is a bit different. Sure, there isn't a lot 'new', or 'ground-breaking' stuff (cutting edge), but what was in 9.1 has obviously been improved and polished. The level of user-friendliness in 9.2 is worthy of applause: working with menus and the desktop is much more simple. Of course, having to run update-menus by yourself is not; they could have find a better way to solve that. Just a few facts from my own experience: This version is just... fast. I do not know if that has something to do with my Athlon processor (better support/configuration?), the new kernel or the way Mdk balances its workload, but everything went smooth, even having several programs open while ripping an Audio CD (something I could not dream of doing comfortably in 9.1). The translation (Dutch) has improved in great ways. Most of the 'dumb' translations of last version have made place for real user-friendly, real-world language. Which is very nice. Tuning and managing my system went without a hitch, probably also due to my previous experiences with the 2 older versions. I tried to get my Wireless USB device to work, just out of curiosity (since they said 9.2 added support for USB 2.0 and some wireless devices). No dice, but I *did* see that the feedback it gave me, and the way it tried to handle the chore, was far better than in 9.1 Just half an hour ago, a pleasant surprise: the 'Trust 710 LCD Powercam', which I was unable to get to work last time, proved to work! I'll leave you a screenshot below just to share my joy with you :) I suspect better USB 2.0 support did the trick. The only drawback I had, is that I could not install the nvidia drivers for my Geforce4 (Generic 64MB) card. That is, when I booted X would not start. So I took the advice I read in an article on the web and edited the 'XF86Config-4'-file to change 'nv' into 'nvidia'. However, no dice. When I tried to change the driver back to a generic Nvidia Geforce4 driver (plus changed the string back to nv), I got the same kind of problem. So not knowing what to do, I reinstalled (yeah I know, I know. Blame Mandrake for making their install so easy and fast, 20 minutes, will you!) So 9.2 means to me: a faster, better structured, more polished, more user-friendly and more functional Linux system. Of course, the growing application base (only just discovered acme, Gthumb, Digikam, Pingus, kmymoney2, ...) available in RPM is also a relief while installing. All in all, a worthy version, I think. Darkelve
  3. Well, I got Gthumb working now, great program, exactly what I was looking for for my photo collections! Although it does seem a little buggy (back and forward buttons don't work in slideshow, file information crashes the program); is that because it is so new or because it's a Gnome App I'm running under KDE? It may have been a pain in the butt, but hey - at least I was there to experience the pain! I just read the 'Halloween documents', I think I'm finally beginning to understand what Open Source is all about. And I love every bit of it. Darkelve
  4. Yes!!!! Finally!!!! Need... more... bandwidth....
  5. I do not have any problems with my Mandrake installed system at all. Except this annoyance for not being able to use my USB wireless access device on a wireless home LAN (and my USB digital camera, and my USB 128MB memory stick [Medion]; must be USB I guess... ). I was really thinking about getting it to work, but it has to be a wireless solution because: the walls in and around my room were not built with cables in mind and a solution where the Lan cable lies across the stairway, living room, and kitchen is no solution at all for me. But you do have an excellent point: it will probably be worth all the money/trouble afterwards. One possible solution I thought of was just buying another wireless router to plug straight into my ethernet jacket, then let that communicate with the Intel Pro/Wireless (2011b) access point. I already asked for advice to the person who installed our wireless Lan for us, and he gave me following products for recommendation: * BenQ Wireless AP Router AWL700 11Mbps 802.11b: 117,50 euro * Deonet 54Mbps Wireless Access Point: 152,75 euro * Deonet 54Mbps Wireless Router: 167,75 euro At that time, it seemed a lot of money to me, also because the guy charges €25/hour for installation (dunno how long installation of something like that would take). Maybe I should just buy one and install it myself? Darkelve
  6. Dependency hell... well, seems like KDE isn't the only problem I have. I tried to download the RPMs for rhythmbox and gthumb 2 days ago. To be sure I had all dependencies, I downloaded like, 3/4 of the packages required (even though these might already be present on my system). Doing a URPMI, I still get unmet dependencies for both packages! I just cannot reboot to windows for every dependency I forgot to download. I would not mind downloading the whole darn thing, but that is far from easy either. Honestly, there must be a better way to do this!? Darkelve
  7. Hi, I cannot (comfortably) connect to the net under Linux, so I always download to a windows partition, then add that to my Urpmi sources. Question is: I need a list of rpm's that will have to be downloaded, since I don't wanna download the whole shabang (don't need Xmms-skins to install KDE 3.1.4, for example). So anyone knows of such a list? Darkelve
  8. About the FAQ about the command line: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=4463 I think 1 thing is missing, namely how to create a file (I'm referring to the command "touch", don't know if it has any options with it). Maybe not a big deal, but I spent a long time looking for a way to do this from a CLI, most tutorials just go with the copy/move/... stuff and never mention touch. Anyway, I think it would be good to put it in for sake of completeness. Darkelve
  9. I like KDE, but I must say I'm still running Gnome version 2.2 KDE's a lot more configurable through its configuration tools and seems completer to me. Lots of bells and whistles, maybe, but at least when you want to 'arrange icons by grid' on your desktop you can do it. I dunno if Gnome has that ability, but in Gnome 2.2 I never found it. Either it's missing, which means to me it is less usable, or it is hidden, which means they hid it so well it is -well- les usable.
  10. Of course this is good for Linux; this brings more substantial investments (money, but also other less tangible resources) to Linux and giving it more credibility. Novell now has a whoop-ass combination of technologies that show all signs of being able to interact nicely with each other. Plus they have more of an ethical reputation than M$, probably also better then IBM. The only real concern is the way they are going to make use of these technologies in their business strategy. Many large businesses looking to cut on IT costs, improving performance, etc. would benefit greatly from an integrated server/network/desktop provider; if they do it right they will respect the spirit of open source. This is also beneficial for them: despite what the monopolie$ might think, the result of a job/project should be to enable the client *not* to rely on them too much; that's basic project management knowledge. Clients won't feel ripped-off, do business with you again and recommend you to other people in the field. (I just went through such a project redesigning our current website, which was a very positive experience; we were lucky :) ) These concerns have been voiced here in a few posts quite clearly. I think it is our duty as Linux-abiding citizens to bring this to the attention of Novell (not only on this board, I mean *substantial* 'evidence'). Maybe they already know (from their employees/partners at SuSe, ...), maybe they do not. It makes sense for them, from a business perspective, to take account of these opinions under their 'risks' tab. Only thing I'm worried about is that IBM will buy them: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33867.html, but if it sees money can be made using OSS the right way, Linux will still gain a boost from that. just my 2 cents Darkelve
  11. I'll say. If even half of what is written in both press releases is true, Linux (and in particular Desktop Linux) will have found a rocket base.
  12. How can you miss it? It's written with giant letters on their website (and, interestingly, a red 'N' of 'Novell' I suppose present in the name Linux). And they are not trying to hide their ambitions: http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2...11/pr03069.html (post also submitted to push this back to the top; people have *got* to see this) Darkelve
  13. From the Mandrake Linux official website: It's official, Ipithus! Now you don't have to go crawling in shame anymore (though we still love you ;) lol ) Darkelve
  14. wait! ... you forgot this one: http://www.w3schools.com/ Darkelve
  15. YEah that was what I was going for, simply Linux :) To get back to Gowator: I agree, a lot of us *do* think like that. What's wrong with that anyway. If companies really want to show off their goodies to us, they had better put some effort into it. "Microsoft Windows <insert here> is the most advanced and secure OS for your enterprise." The most creative advertising campaign? I think not. They should stay more on fact in advertising, I think that is what reaches European minds. That'd be a nice catch-phrase for a commercial: "Simply Linux". Although you could also state that Linux *sometimes* isn't the simplest of things to use.
  16. Oh, I though you were referring to the fact that we were buying Linux (Suse 9.0) and MacOSX while in the US you buy "Ms Visual Studio.net" and "Nancy Drew"
  17. no, but it does run my Deus Ex! I'm so happy :) :) Deciding to stick with Linux provides for a new pleasant discovery almost every day :) Darkelve
  18. so that's what you get for bein a Member?
  19. I tried Red Hat 9 yesterday, just out of curiosity. That 1 hour of actually using it was enough to give me bad dreams the night after. Installation wasn't that bad, but did install an extra partition for /boot (Mandrake didn't). It still took over 45 minutes though. The system didn't mount my windows drives, leaving me clueless to find them. Performance was quite good; while listening to xmms and browsing folders, grip was ripping&encoding without significant troubles or slowdowns. The theme was also very nicely done, although I do think they're too much enforcing the use of Gnome, which didn't work so well for me. Configuring the mouse did not give an option to test the buttons, so after confirming my mouse went berserk and clicking all over the desktop... when that was solved, I looked around a bit. The menus were cluttered as hell. No easy way to import fonts or configure your system. Most of my favorite applications missing... well it felt very unpersonal ;'( I'm sure it's stable and all, being meant for the server, but man, am I going to stay far away from it. :x I installed Mandrake again, was up and running within 30 minutes with all packages I wanted. Configuring everything afterwards was dead easy: "click, click, enter password, copy, configure, ..." Suffice to say I'm now much more appreciative of my Mandrake box... while 9.2 apparently did not bring improvements in terms of ease of use, support and automation, I hope version 10 will. Made me remember Mandrake are actually doing a *really good* job (after my gripes about the Powerpack and advertising on their site). Darkelve P.S. anyone know what Mandrake does with the /boot partition created by Red Hat? (I've overwritten the Red Hat install)
  20. Apple came out with an ibook G4 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/33530.html Someone's been answering my prayers. Now only to find some cash ... :?
  21. Um... let's call it a 'temporary disconvenience' shall we? (I'm not saying it's the greatest thing, but for people who already bought such a device?)
  22. well, then should include a screenshot of that instead, point remains.
  23. This article says it's possible: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12207 Maybe some laptop users will be able to use it? Darkelve
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