July 2004 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

RE: [wlug] DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got theT-Shirt
by Gund Wehsling 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

Hi For home users who are not LINUX friendly or technical, I would like to highly recommend SUSE 9.1 Personal. Single CD install, detects all my 'funny' hardware at home, no complicated install Q's, has simple desktop with a browser, mail client, OOo. Can be mistaken for XP by the untrained eye. My apologies if this has been covered before, I am new to this list. It is a free download from www.novell.com. Just my 0.02c -----Original Message----- From: Gavin Denby [mailto:redhat(a)ihug.co.nz] Sent: Monday, 19 July 2004 1:13 p.m. To: Waikato Linux Users Group Subject: Re: [wlug] DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got theT-Shirt Update to my last. I popped into DSE today to sort out some final bits, and on the way home called in to the PC company, they are selling off a lot of old stock and new machines, bit all are OS free, Apparently, many people object to paying the $150.00 tax to Microsoft when all they want to do surf the net,e-mail and type the odd letter. Many are asking about linux, we discussed the usual modem issues, but as they can get and sell some cheep serial modem to overcome this I think there may be plan developing. Anyway I am dropping off some copies of the WLUG brochure, and taking some distros in, and we will look at the possibility of me preloading some machines for them. I am thinking Knoppix for testing devices, mandrake for new users (lots of software) I wonder about fedora, and maybe Xandros community as these will show up at lug meetings looking for a ... how do I .... ??? I also would consider Yoper/CollegeLinux /Debian .. in fact anything that will work as long as the support is there either from the wider community or the LUG, but I suspect many people will want to bring these to a lug meeting, rather than use a forum, at least at the beginning. I know we just did an installfest, so what was the experience, and what would be a good distro for a new user, if the Lug is to offer support. Its the last part ... Helping the new user, that is of most concern. I pushed WLUG as an issue, since there will be a learning curve. I would appreciate helpful comments here, but the tide is turning, and people are looking for a Linux for their home PC. Its time to see if We are ready to step up to the Plate. This is not an excuse for a distro war, rather a chance to say what we can help new users with. Gavin Denby wrote: > May I offer my hearty congratulations to all those who both helped out > and those who popped in and said hi, hundreds of Open Office CD's as > well as Knoppix /morphix CD's were given away, Many people had a first > look at open source, and Hundreds of WLUG brochures were taken by > interested people. > > _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: [wlug] Linux Distro comments
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

I made the micro$ comment in ignorance. My apologies. Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > * Greig McGill <greig(a)hamiltron.net> [2004-07-19 12:34]: > > Please quit with the "MickeySoft" and micro$oft. > > We are a group who lists advocacy as one of its goals. > > Good advocates do not descend to name calling. > > Thank you for saying it.

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Re: [wlug] DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got the T-Shirt
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

Hi All, Might as well add my own views. The first Linux I started was Mandrake 9.2 It nearly installed properly on the fourth install (due to user incompetence) I liked what The programme did but found it difficult to find information that I could relate to when I needed to install or amend some thing. Shortly after I went to the install fest and installed the fedora core 1 system. This was frought with problems even the people at the meeting were not able to resolve all the issues so I waited for Fedora core 2 Which is now installed. I think that if I was not so determined to eventually figure this out (even if I do have to nag you guys to death :)) I would have returned to the micro$ fold by now. However I am still dual booting windows/fedora The problem I see is that of dumbing down linux will attract even more dopey sods like myself So you need to be able to have a simple programme that can be supported by most of you... ----- Original Message Follows ----- > Jonathan Purvis wrote: > > > I'd recommend against new users running Debian (dispite > > my running in at work and home) for the following > reasons: > > > * Unstable is unstable[1] and stable is very out of > date at the moment > > > * X configuration is horrible/non-existant > > * If you forget to load the module for your network > > card early on in the installer, it won't ask you for > > network configuration and you'll have to spend half an > > hour hunting down the required configuration files * > dselect lets you remove dpkg > > I'd tend to agree with these points, I personally run > debian and and had forgotten these things as stuff long > gone but from a new user these are quite possibly > relative points. > > That being said some of these points may not be such an > issue on a pre-installed machine > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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DSE powerhouse - A huge thank you to all
by Chris Day 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

On behalf of DSE(NZ)Ltd, I wish to express our appreciation to those who participated in the recent DSE Powerhouse weekend. Our goal was to provide consumers (and staff) with an overview of what GNU/OpenSource is all about. Despite the lack of forward advise and some planning on our part, I believe this was a job well done by the participants and all those others who offered online support & advise - it is really great to see such enthusiasm. From our perspective, the demand for software like GNU/Linux & OpenOffice is building steadily and it really is great to see community involvement like this. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and are here to offer assistance where we can. Kind regards, Chris Day Senior Buyer DSE(NZ)Ltd

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Speed Comparison between 23 distros
by Andreas Girardet 17 Jul '04

17 Jul '04

Hello fellow NZLinuxers Here a post of the results of the comparison between 23 distros on speed and many more categories. http://www.yoper.com/forum2/index.php?showtopic=953 Here a little ranking http://www.yoper.com/comparison/desktopcomparison.html Hope you'll enjoy it. Cheers Andreas

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Re: DSE Powerhouse this weekend.
by Gavin Denby 16 Jul '04

16 Jul '04

For those helping at the powerhouse, and those who will be popping in to save some money or just chat. For those that gave me shirt sizes, I have some good news. Barring a major catastrophe, we will have some shirts tomorrow, In spite of the limited time, My wife has made a very neat Embroidered Silver, Black and Yellow/Orange Tux and beneath that the letters WLUG in large friendly black cotton. She would have liked more time to improve the stitching, but it works anyway IMHO. The shirt is a polo (collared) Grey in colour and should go with anything you wear. (also it was the only suitable shirt the warehouse had, and I'm cheep, so sue me. For those that didn't give me a size we have one large and one medium size extra, But there are only 5 shirts in total, so If you missed the roster, you missed the boat I have a darker Grey shirt with the same stitching, so we should make it. and look darn close to a team. I'm sure DSE will have a place for us to change shirts. I'll drop off a box tomorrow AM, first thing, so we can have them on site. ... And one last thing, can we have camera's there too, this should definitely be posted to the wiki and there should be some nice photos of Lug members working with the public. See you all over the next 2 days. .. SO GET SOME REST !!! John R. McPherson wrote: >On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 06:00:16PM +1200, Daniel Lawson wrote: > > >>So, here's the current roster, as I have it >> >> >> >>>Daniel Sat 10 - 1 >>>Matt Sat 12 - 4 >>>Perry Sat 11 - 4 >>>Gavin Sun 10 - 4 >>>John sometime on Sunday ? >>>Bruce Sun 12 - 4 >>> >>> > >Ok, in that case I'll go down on Sunday just before 10 to keep Gavin >company :) I'll stay until it's not busy, or Gavin and Bruce get >sick of me. > > > >>DSE have printed off ~400 or 800 copies of the attached doc. >> >> > >heh, that sounds like a lot! Oh well... > >John > >

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[Fwd: [wlug] Yoper V2 final released]
by Stephen Pearce 15 Jul '04

15 Jul '04

Has anyone downloaded this to cd .. I recently tried to down load from the nz web site but was unsuccessful .. possibly due to internal problems from the site I was trying to dl from .. is there anyone who would make me a copy .. I pay/ refund media and postage costs tnx Stephen

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FW: [NZOSS-OpenChat] WLUG / NZOSS support for DSE Hamilton Powerhouse Computer Weekend
by Ross Hamblin 15 Jul '04

15 Jul '04

Further to my message below, we are trying to get an idea of numbers who will be assisting, is it possible to get a list of those intending to attend over the weekend? Alternatively, could those who will be attending mail me off-list and advise which days and times you are planning to be there, and whether you are from WLUG or NZOSS. Thanks, Ross. -----Original Message----- From: Ross Hamblin Sent: Friday, 9 July 2004 16:03 To: openchat(a)nzoss.org.nz; wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Subject: [NZOSS-OpenChat] WLUG / NZOSS support for DSE Hamilton Powerhouse Computer Weekend Thanks to all who offered to attend and assist with this. For those who asked about timetables, we would like to have people present to offer advise and demonstrate OSS/Linux between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July. As it is difficult to make extra space, we will need to use the computers on display in the store which will mean using Knoppix or similar distro which runs from CD. We will be giving away free Open Office.org and Knoppix CDs to customers who attend. We will be advertising this event in the newspaper and it would be good to include your logos if possible, please advise on this or send to me off-list. We also have facilities to photocopy A4 DLE type brochures if you provide me with a PDF or OO.o doc of your brochure we can produce them for you. Regards, Ross. Ross Hamblin DSE (NZ) Ltd. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: openchat-unsubscribe(a)nzoss.org.nz For additional commands, e-mail: openchat-help(a)nzoss.org.nz

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Help with BIOS geometry
by John 14 Jul '04

14 Jul '04

I have loaded a dual boot up system several times, but I recently had my motherboard and harddrive replaced and this time the installation program came up with "unable to align partition correctly, this probably m,eans that another partition tool generated an incorrect partition table because it didnt have the correct BIOS geometry. It is safe to ignor, but ignoring may cause (fixable) problems with some boot loaders" Bloody hell, I "ignored and ended up not being able to boot the computer at all. It did not recognise the c-drive I have since reloaded windows from scratch (my linux partition is on a separate hard drive - but I cannot access it). How can I fix this problem with my BIOS? THanks John

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DSE store this weekend
by Gavin Denby 13 Jul '04

13 Jul '04

In the absence of any replies to my prior offers, I need to know if there is a list of who is one when at DSE, or if any of us are needed at all I must decide by 4pm if I am free to take paid work this Saturday. I offered to help at DSE if required first, and will stand by that if so asked, but at 4pm my offer turns into Cinderellas pumpkin. do you have all the help you need, or have I missed some mail here. DO you want my help with this or are you ok ?? I need to respond to the AK team by 4pm today, so if a committee member handling this could comment it would really help.

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