Try this again: is Linux Linpus any good?
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From: David Brown on 2 Jun 2010 09:27 On 02/06/2010 14:23, RayLopez99 wrote: > On Jun 1, 11:36 pm, General Schvantzkoph<schvantzk...(a)yahoo.com> > wrote: >> <snip> >> >> I have exactly this situation with my sister. She has minimal needs, >> basically just web browsing and e-mail and she has absolutely no idea how >> computers work. I've had her running Linux for years, either CentOS or >> Fedora depending on the needs of the moment. I have an account on her >> system that I can ssh into so that I can fix problems or install packages > > Holy moly--I code, am techno savvy, have built many a PC, and you are > ahead of me. I don't know what ssh even means--let me GOogle this-- > Secure Socket Shell--some sort of remote FTP/Telnet way of accessing a > PC--holy sh it!--there's no way I'm going to take the time to learn > this--no thanks General S. Anything more simple? > You are "techno savvy" - do you know what a "command prompt" is? Do you know what a "shell" is? ssh is nothing more than a secure way to get a shell running on a remote machine. It's extremely simple to set up a server - many linux distro's do it by default. For others, it's a simple installation from your favourite package manager or software installation tool. To access the remote machine, you need to have a port forwarding from your NAT router to forward port 22 to the remote machine - just like for any other external access to the computer. You also need to know the global IP address for the remote machine - you can use something like www.whatsmyip.org to find that out. A dynamic DNS service like www.dyndns.com is also very useful. Once the port is forwarded, and you know the target's IP address, you can log in from your machine by "ssh <ip>". If you have a different user name on your local machine and the remote machine, you need to specify it on the command line. If you are using windows on the local machine, you need to install a ssh client - "putty" is the most popular. When you are connected, you have a bash shell on the remote machine. You can do anything you like from there, such as install new software with yum or apt-get. Advanced uses include X forwarding so that you get a remote desktop, tunneling other ports, secure file transfer, etc. Of all the tools that Linux has available but Windows is missing, ssh must count as the biggest gap. No other tool comes close to the power of ssh for remote administration.
From: surferelf on 2 Jun 2010 13:27 In article <2755bc00-e4db-40ac-ac47-bc49570c9f91(a)d12g2000vbr.googlegroups.com>, RayLopez99 wrote: > > This is the fear I have about Linux. Reading your post, and Stef's > post, you both seem to imply that Linux OS's have "life cycles" of > about five years. Now this sounds very logical--after all, most PCs > are obsolete in 5 to 10 years, but the problem is, I don't want to > maintain this PC and the user doesn't have any big needs other than > internet access, mouse and keyboard support, and, maybe, a printer > (though she often goes to the library to print things out--I kid you > not--when the PC runs of out a printer cartridge and she can't find > the neighbor to put in a new one). > > Do you see why I fear Linux? With Windows, even my old Dell 1998 > laptop works fine under Windows 2000, which I upgraded (on 512k RAM!) > to XP. Still works to this day. Your fear is unfounded. Once the "life cycle" is over, the software doesn't self-destruct. The "life cycle" of Win2k ended many years ago, and yet you seem to have no qualms with that.
From: Keith Keller on 2 Jun 2010 15:06 ["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.misc.] On 2010-06-02, General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > On Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:12:16 -0700, RayLopez99 wrote: > > I've had it with you Ray. You go down this same path every six months and > you've been doing it for years. He does it because people keep responding. --keith -- kkeller-usenet(a)wombat.san-francisco.ca.us (try just my userid to email me) AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt see X- headers for PGP signature information
From: Stefan Patric on 2 Jun 2010 17:13 On Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:12:16 -0700, RayLopez99 wrote: >> A friend of mine had similar needs, but was truly technophobic. She >> really thought technology was "evil" and would ultimately destroy >> mankind, but that's another story. However, she needed a computer. I >> installed PCLOS 2007, IIRC, on a old Dell notebook of mine (500MHz >> PIII, >> 256MB RAM) to give to her. It was around 5 or 6 years old then. PCLOS >> recognized and configured everything properly. Plus, I didn't have to >> install anything additional. I was surprised. I manually configured >> the dial up through a GUI interface. That was novel at the time. She >> wasn't going to be using broadband, but I set it up anyway, so I could >> update the system and applications through my broadband connection >> which I did only that one time immediately after the install. She >> used that set up for two years without any maintenance at all, and the >> system never broke. That really sold me on PCLinuxOS as a solid, >> stable OS for general, non-techie users. >> >> > OK, this is interesting. This goes to my "Plan B". I have a Pentium > II laptop from Dell, which has a DVD/CD, and around, I think, 512k > RAM; bought this in 1998, it still works, and runs Windows XP. It has 512k? Don't you mean 512M? I haven't seen a 512k system since my Amiga 500, circa 1987. > a dial-up modem, and I'm thinking of donating this to this girl. But > I would hesitate for her to dial-in using WIndows, since this old > laptop has no antivirus that's up to date. So, for this old system > (note the small amount of RAM), do you think PCLinuxOS would load? > What distro would? All I need for the OS to recognize is the internal > modem (a Dell generic), the USB mouse, and I guess the built in video > card. If you have 512M of RAM, the best thing to do is download and burn the PCLinuxOS 2010 CD, LXDE version--it's a LiveCD--and see if it runs. If it does and everything works on the old laptop, install it on the hard drive and see if it still works. Get the iso here: http://pclinuxos.com/?page_id=188 If PCLOS doesn't work or work well enough, you might try Puppy Linux. http://www.puppylinux.com/ Stef
From: General Schvantzkoph on 2 Jun 2010 17:54 On Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:13:53 +0000, Stefan Patric wrote: Stefan, It's time to stop humoring Ray. You've been on this newsgroup long enough to recognize this particular troll. Ray's been posting the same basic thread for years, the sad thing is that we keep falling for it. There seems to be some form of mutual insanity among the regulars on this newsgroup that allows us to let Ray repeatedly lead us down the same rabbit hole. I'm one of the chief offenders here but looking at the other names on this thread I see several other long time contributors to c.o.l.m who should know better.
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