[mdlug] Reading material, food for thought

[Peter Bart]

On Mon, 2007-01-15 at 17:58 -0500, Robert Adkins wrote:
> Peter Bart wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-01-15 at 13:38 -0500, Ingles, Raymond wrote:
> > <snip>
> >   
> >>  However, on reflection I think he's *right* about multimedia. I simply
> >> could not have switched my parents or my family to Linux if they couldn't
> >> watch viral videos on YouTube or in email. EasyUbuntu or Automatix helps
> >> but not enough. And even setting those up is irritatingly awkward. I had
> >> to make multiple visits to my parents house to get the right codecs
> >> installed because repositories were down or whatever.
> >>
> >>  Making that easy and straightforward would be a *huge* plus for Linux
> >> evangelization. I like his idea of "The Codex" and I would *love* to
> >> help make that happen. I don't see anywhere I can make a contribution,
> >> but I sure as heck would if I could...
> >>
> >>     
> > <snip>
> >   
> >>  Sincerely,
> >>
> >>  Ray Ingles                                            (313) 227-2317
> >>     
> >
> > Ray,
> > 	For the record, I thought Ubuntu was very easy to install. Including
> > all those extras for cd/dvd/mp3/video/flash following the instructions
> > on the Ubuntu website and the Ubuntu forum. It did take me several days
> > to get it right. That is until after I installed Opensuse 10.2. Now that
> > was easy!! I was pleasantly surprised.
> >
> > Regards,
> >   
> 
>     They are up to 10.2 now? Damn, here I am with only 10.1 on my 
> laptop... I am so behind the times...
> 
>     -Rob

	Yes they are. 10.3 is in beta. I can't speak for 10.1, but the
difference from 10.0 is night and day. I just configured and tested an
Epson CX4800 printer/scanner in a matter of minutes. No downloading, no
arcane command line commands, nothing. Click, click, wham bam thank you
Ma'am!
	Just be careful if you're connecting usb devices controled from a
machine installed in VMware. VMware hasn't yet caught up to the way the
new kernel handles usb devices.
-- 
Peter Bart <peter at petertheplumber.net>
http://petertheplumber.net