[Ham-Computers] Linux?

[fkamp at comcast.net]

Is this the list that had a discussion on why more
hams dont use Linux?

I recall seeing such a discussion somewhere about
a week or so ago.

One person suggested investigating Puppy Linux.  I
did.  At first it did not work.  Got some sort of
interrupt handling error.  So I tried it on
another computer.  This time it worked.

I have been playing with linux distros for years. 
Tried Red Hat 5.2, 6.1, 9.0; Mandrake 6.0,
8.1,8.2; Suse, Slackware, even FreeBSD (which is
not Linux).  They all had varying degrees of
installation difficulty and resulted in systems
that were too slow (older computers), with too few
windows compatible applications, and of
questionable worth.  So I always reverted back to
some version of MS Windows.

Puppy is different. It installed to a working
configuration in about a tenth of the time it
takes to install Win98SE.  No fussing with
Xwindows failures, no fussing with Ethernet
drivers, no manual editing of script files.

You end up with a Windows-like desktop with most
everything functioning. Even the configuration
tools work so there is no need to text edit
configuration scripts.  The error messages are
actually useful.  Instead of just telling you
something did not work, they tell you why it did
not work and what to do to fix it.

Adding software applications using the Wget
feature is as easy as a mouse click.  It connects
to a server on the internet, automatically
downloads the software, then it installs the
software without need for user intervention.
Refresh the GUI and the new program is available
for use on the desktop.  There is never a need to
leave the GUI and go to a text console.

Many years ago I tried to impress my father by
showing him how I used basic to control my
computer. He was not impressed.  If fact he got
angry with me for wasting my time.  His idea of a
computer was a machine that worked for you, not
the other way round.  I think he would be very
happy with Puppy Linux.

No, I am not selling Puppy Linux.  It is free,
just like many other Linux distributions.  With
Puppy, you dont have to turn into a unix geek
before you can use it.

Many thanks to whoever suggested taking a look at
Puppy Linux.

Regards,
Frank Kamp
K5DKZ