April 2006 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

what does a good e-mail client need ?
by Gavin Denby 27 May '06

27 May '06

I was reading the cnet article on the need for a mail client to push forward DESKTOP LINUX *E-mail will be the most significant factor governing the uptake of Linux on the desktop, according to a new study. * The Desktop Linux Client Survey 2005, released this week by the Open Source Development Labs, found that the lack of a powerful e-mail application could hinder the adoption of Linux on the desktop. Full story here: http://news.com.com/E-mail+crucial+to+future+of+desktop+Linux/2100-7344_3-5… What I wondered was what does an enterprise e-mail client do that's different from my thunderbird. Is it just the calender? is it notes. I have tried, and hated outlook, probably as I use just e-mail and dont like the complexity of all the other things, but what would happen in an enterprise situation. If you understand this article, can you explain what the novell and mozilla offerings will mean, and will this be the outlook killer. What does outlook do that so vital? Is this another case of its not the same, or are we really missing out on something? any enterprise experince that can help a tech like me understand this ? Is there a really good app for this, could something be done to solve this. After all e-mail is the number 1 app for the net, search is 2 and then web surfing. 2 and 3 are fine, are we missing the boat on 1? I thinks its sufficiently linux related. do we have the Guru's in the lug that could solve this?

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Linux Counter
by Craig Box 01 May '06

01 May '06

Are you listed on the Linux Counter? http://counter.li.org/ (This message bought to you by http://lugww.counter.li.org/groups.cms?&cc=NZ&rc=WA)

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Good introduction to LVM
by Ian McDonald 30 Apr '06

30 Apr '06

For those that are interested O"Reilly has posted a good intro to LVM which talks about how to use this to rearrange your disk into parts basically. Wish I knew all this before I set up my systems.... http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2006/04/27/managing-disk-space-wi… -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Acceptable use of the WLUG Mailing List
by Meeting Reminder bot 30 Apr '06

30 Apr '06

The WLUG Mailing List is the discussion-list extension of the Waikato Linux Users Group (Incorporated). As such, we expect members of this list to adhere to the principles espoused in the official WLUG Charter[1], in particular, Rule 6, which covers the activities on this mailing list. While this is an Acceptable Use Policy, the WLUG Committee do recognise the need for informal discussion among list members, and draconian administration is not the goal here. Please keep in mind, however, that your comments to this list do represent the WLUG, and while it is good to be seen as an organisation with a sense of humour, some comments may do major harm to our credibility as a serious advocate of GNU/Linux and all things Free Software/ Open Source related. List discussion should * be honest * accentuate the positive, without hyperbole or blatant misrepresentation * maintain a reasonable level of spelling and grammar * not indulge in ad hominem attacks * not continue inflammatory or abusive threads * not be unprofessional or petty, especially with respect to the names of other software companies * not promote or denigrate political, cultural, or religious views * not indulge in marketing or advertising, other than on a private sale basis, or advertising of jobs - which may be announced once only * not reproduce copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder * not defame any person or organisation Posters who consistently violate these guidelines will be dealt with at the discretion of the List Maintainer. If you feel you have been unfairly dealt with, you have recourse to any member of the WLUG Committee[2]. Certain mailing list etiquette should also be maintained: * please use only plain text (not HTML) * reply inline or below when quoting, rather than on top * trim quotes (don't reply quoting a 10 page message with a single line of reply) If you have any questions, start reading at http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html. These points have been established over a long time on this list. If you want to question them, please do it off list. As list users, use your discretion when pulling people up over etiquette - please reply off list, and if there is a serious breach, the list administrator will probably have dealt with it off-list already. [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/WlugCharter [2] http://www.wlug.org.nz/WlugCommittee

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Problem with .rpm files
by Leslie Katz 30 Apr '06

30 Apr '06

Thanks to both Shane and Michael for their replies. Shane, like you, I doubted that rpm would be found in DSL. However, to my surprise, the question in DSL, "whereis rpm", led to the answer, "/usr/bin/rpm". It seems then that it wasn't any absence of rpm which caused the DSL version of alien not to work for me as I'd hoped. Michael, my "real" distribution, if I can put it that way, is Fedora Core 3. Alien's not included in it. I did a search and ultimately found alien-8.21-1.noarch.rpm. When I tested an installation of it, I got on the usual dependency roundabout. The last message I got when I tested an installation of alien plus four additional perl-type rpms was "perl <1:5.8.0 conflicts with perl-base-5.8.8.4.i386". Since the latter file was one of those rpms whose installation I was testing, I took that to be a complaint that the version of perl I already had installed was less than 1:5.8.0. When I checked which version of perl I had installed, I was told it was perl-5.8.5-24.FC3.i386.rpm. At that stage, I threw up my hands, it being all beyond me. As to your kind offer to convert the two rpms for me, one of them is only 93.78 Kbytes in size, but the other is 3.61 Mbytes, a size too large to be passed back and forth by email. In spite of all the above, I don't want to give up trying to get the files converted and installed. It seems a shame if the printer will run in many other distributions, but not in DSL. So if you have (or anyone else has) any further ideas, I'd be very happy to try to apply them. Thanks again, Leslie

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Problem with .rpm files
by Leslie Katz 28 Apr '06

28 Apr '06

For the son of friends who live a long way away, I converted an old laptop to run under Damn Small Linux, so that the son would no longer have to use the family computer. The friends have a Lexmark X1150 PrintTrio and they've asked whether I could get that gadget working with the old laptop, at least as a printer. I've found that many people have been able to get that gadget running as a printer under various distributions, including Debian and Ubuntu. In the case of the latter two distributions, people have downloaded a compressed file from Lexmark said by it to be intended for RedHat Linux 9.0, extracted from it two .rpm files, converted those two .rpm files into .deb files using alien and then installed the two .deb files. After that, they've been able to print with CUPS. Using a second old laptop which I also set up to run under DSL, I've been trying to duplicate the process just mentioned, with a view to giving instructions to my friends to follow on the laptop which they have. I've got as far as extracting the two .rpm files, but am stuck at the conversion to .deb stage. DSL has a version of alien available, but I haven't been successful at using it to convert the two .rpm files into .deb files. The persons who've given instructions about this exercise on the Web seem not to have been troubled very much about which version of their own distribution they were using, but simply reported success in installing the .deb files they'd created. If I could get the two .rpm files converted into .deb files via alien by someone running Debian or Ubuntu, is there any prospect that I could then take those files and install them successfully on my DSL computer? Or is it necessary that the conversion take place on the computer on which the files are intended to be installed? If the latter (which is my own guess), does anyone have any suggestion as to how I could proceed otherwise? For instance, would it be possible to convert the .rpm files to source files and then install the source files on the DSL computer? I'd welcome any advice. Thanks, Leslie

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Canon i250
by John Torrance 27 Apr '06

27 Apr '06

Thank you to everyone who has sent me helpful stuff re trying to set up my printer. No joy yet but perhaps a knowledge deficit that I will have to correct Cheers John

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 26 Apr '06

26 Apr '06

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our guest for April is <''insert name here''>. Location is TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) at the University of Waikato. Meeting will start at 7:30pm.

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Kubuntu installation CD/iso
by Justin Hyde 25 Apr '06

25 Apr '06

Can I borrow someone's Kubuntu CD/iso? I can pick up from wherever in Hamilton. Please reply off list. Cheers Justin Hyde ajh28(a)waikato.ac.nz

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 23 Apr '06

23 Apr '06

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Our guest for April is DanielLawson, now with NSP (http://www.nsp.co.nz/) talking about and demonstrating Xen] http://www.wlug.org.nz/virtualisation ([Virtualisation). Location is TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) at the University of Waikato. Meeting will start at 7:30pm.

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