oneline article: "Debian Alliance on The Horizon"

Ed Cogburn edcogburn at hotpop.com
Fri Aug 19 10:58:40 CDT 2005


John wrote:

> Ed Cogburn wrote:
> 
> 
>> 
>> 
>>>For some time I've used an IBM USB keyboard that came with a Netvista:
>>>it has a hole for a PS/2 mouse (which makes said mouse hot-pluggable).
>>>I'm pretty sure I've had Microsoft and IBM mice in there.
>>>
>>>Sometimes, I have two mice (like right now).
>> 
>> Now that I've never tried, you got me there.  Ambidextrous?!?
> 
> I'm faily tall and the standard desk is not high enough. So, I have a
> coffee table on the desk, and on top of that a 21" sunscreen. Plus kbd &
> mouse.


I'm using an old wet-bar as a 'desktop'.  I have to use an adjustable chair
so I can sit higher, but I've got *lots* of flat desk space!  Case, UPS,
22" monitor, printer, speakers, DSL modem, and kbd + mouse are all in
reach, along with an assorted amount of other junk.  :)


> Mostly, I stand, but sometimes I sit. So, kbt on top, two mice.


Ahh, I see the difference now, my 'desktop' stands high enough that I can
comfortably use the same kbd/mouse combo whether I'm sitting or standing,
but I sit mostly, out of sheer laziness, and bad blood circulation in my
legs.  :(


> Actually, it the past couple of days I've detached one of them and now I
> simply move the cordless mouse (and sometimes keyboard) to suit.
> 
> Note neither the coffee table nor desk is perfect: atm th screen's a
> little low for perfect compfort while standing, a little high while
> sitting. OTHO I've not ricked my back recently.


In my setup, I'm eye-level with the center of the monitor screen while
sitting, so for me that is perfect.  My only problem is still managing to
run out space for all my junk despite all the room I started with.  Go
figure.


> Sometimes something crashes when I close it, but nowhere nears as often
> as daily.


Well, perhaps I spoke too soon, because as soon as I updated to the last
round of KDE updates in breezy that are happening right now, it fixed
KControl and Krusader!  Yay!  Konq is still fragile and I don't know
whether its Konq or maybe java1.4, but it never leaves any error messages,
it just goes *poof*.  :)  How's this for irony:  one of the websites I
currently can't visit with Konq is.... wait for it... ubuntulinux.org. 
LOL!


> Installing Fedora Core 3 didn't change that (and that possibility is the
> reason I could not consider Ubuntu). But then the whold system died, and
> I'm running ATM in 512 Mbyte (but a different brand of mobo(.


I've already tried firefox, but it bombs on me as soon as try to go to its
preferences menu.  Its no help either.

With these problems you'd think there's something seriously wrong with my
system, but darned if I can tell what's wrong.  It doesn't help that most
of the problems are CTDs and segfaults that leave no error message or any
way to tell what the problem is.


> (there is a BIOS upgrade that might have a bearing on my problem, but I
> could not discover how to update without Windows).


Ugh.  Hardware that can only be supported and updated if you run Windows. 
Blech.  I have that problem with my Plextor CDRW, whose BIOS updates only
come in Windows and DOS flavors.


> Lst I looked kdevelep use kwrite. I don't consider any of the KDE
> editors (or gnome editors) that I've used to be ready for serious use.
> _I_ use vim.


Umm, no, kdevelop uses kate now.  I tend to disagree on one thing, I think
kdevelop3 is as useful as say xemacs, and a whole lot easier to use to
boot.  Its only problem is it can get unstable based on which plugins you
are using.  Despite those problems, kdev3 is what I use now.


> I'd like some of the others to do well too; I've looked at Mephis and it
> seemed to me the driving force there was The Book, but if someone lites
> fire under their tail they could do well.
>[snip]
> Progeny, I think, is onto something, and I hope it does well. For those
> who don't know, Progeny seeks to help whose who (like Ubunto and Mepis)
> would fork a distribution.
>[snip]
> Progeny has ported it to use Debian repositories (it's still supposed to
> work with Red Hat's too)


Except none of these options are openly trying to build a community around
them like Canonical is, similar to what Debian has.  And Progeny is run by
Debian's current Project Leader, I believe, who isn't exactly happy with
Ubuntu right now.  Their Componentized Linux is an interesting idea,  but I
really think something like that should be done at the level of Debian
itself, not at a higher level.





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