[H-GEN] HP officejet 6310 and suse10.1

Anthony Irwin anthony at server101.com
Mon Sep 18 19:32:35 EDT 2006


andrew laidlaw wrote:

> After two months or so, that now completes the basic conversion from 
> win98se to recovering all the basic functionality under linux.  So, 
> Thanks All for your inputs along the way, along with my apologies for 
> having been so slow, so often.
>
> I did not really intend to use linux when I set up this machine - it 
> was supposed to be just an exercise to see where the community was at. 

Everyone I know that has spent any real time learning an alternative 
operating system to windows ends a liking it more then windows. A 
handful will still keep a windows box for games or some specific program 
but generally do all their real computer work in another os.

> On the one hand, it was a sufficiently non-trivial and poorly 
> supported exercise that I do not feel it appropriate to recommend 
> linux to other windows users at this time.  On the other hand, once 
> the pain has been endured and a working whatever achieved, there is no 
> comparison with windows based alternatives  

I think you will find that depends on the user. If they think that they 
are doing something technical when then throw an install cd in the 
computer a click next, i agree, next, next and finish then its probably 
a bad idea. But if they are some what comfortable with browsing file 
systems and like playing with things then trying out another os may be 
beneficial for them.

Also for users that do nothing but browse the internet and use email etc 
they would have no problem with it if someone else set it up for them as 
a lot of people are too scared to even reinstall windows and don't do 
any installs or upgrades anyway.

> Stability is not the main advantage (although that's all I'd expected 
> to find).  The baseline software is infinitely superior (and the price 
> is also right!), the  desktop (I'm using KDE) is also superior, 
> applications load in half the time, suspend works properly so one  
> gets effectively reduced boot times, etc etc. 

Yeah I remember when I used to work at an office that used windows and 
they used to think it a bit strange when I would curse at windows for 
doing something stupid. People would say that it was just the way 
computers are and I would say no thats the way windows is if you are 
used to using an operating system that actually operates and not crash 
or do something else equally annoying then it becomes frustrating using 
windows especially if its playing up on you.

Windows programs also tend not to give you many extra options or 
features and try to force you to do things in their way.

> Against my expectations, I now envisage the day in the not too distant 
> future when I dump that other (windows) box altogether.

The more you install linux on different devices you have the more you 
will learn. You should really be happy about the problems you had as you 
learned more from the experience and didn't quit. I used to install just 
about every linux I could get a  hold of onto a spare machine and its a 
great way to learn more.

If you want to play then you could even just get another hard drive 
pretty cheap and just swap them over when you want to experiment. Things 
like linux from scratch is nice to set up at least a couple times as you 
learn about the nuts and bolts of things. Also the gentoo stage 3 
install is pretty good as you get to chroot your system and compile your 
own kernel, boot loader and just about everything else and the portage 
system takes care of dependencies etc.

To do source based distros you need a spare machine cause it does take a 
while to do and its nice to be able to have a production machine and 
play machines. I learned a lot by doing that because you will no doubt 
stuff something up in the process and if its not your production machine 
you can take your time and work out what you did wrong it makes you 
learn more but I guess it depends on what sort of level of knowledge you 
want to have.

Kind Regards,
Anthony Irwin




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