Wish I still had my EEEPC, but I dropped it off a roof alas trying to
align a security cam. As best I recall, MX was the only distro with a
smart enough version of Grub to recognize the M.2 "ssd".
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 23:05:50 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Wish I still had my EEEPC, but I dropped it off a roof alas trying to
align a security cam. As best I recall, MX was the only distro with a
smart enough version of Grub to recognize the M.2 "ssd".
Q4OS worked for me. It took a couple of attempts. KDE Plasma 5 was a
little too much but the lighter Trinity DE is usable.
It originally had Xandros which wasn't bad but it didn't support WPA2
which became a real problem. It wasn't the hardware since Q4OS handles it with no problem.
I snapped on up when they firs came out. Small enough to throw in a motorcycle saddlebag and not HD, which I doubt would pass the Harley Shake'N'Bake environmental testing for long. Also cheap enough that it wouldn't be a heavy loss if stolen or destroyed.
"Bookworm" distros - which I've oft called The WORM, have finally
improved. I think the original was just released Too Soon and a lot
of little stuff hadn't been ironed out yet. Deb is supposed to be
SOLID, they shouldn't have done that. We'd have waited a few more
months.
SOMEWHERE I have a rather large XP laptop - bought it for my Mom to
do word processing but she was just too old to 'get' computers. It
had a big screen. Can't FIND the damned thing though ... it's stuck
behind a shelf or cabinet somewhere. It'd also likely be OK with
Linux. Dunno how cooperative the BIOS would be for booting alas.
On Mon, 11 Aug 2025 00:42:07 -0400, c186282 wrote:
"Bookworm" distros - which I've oft called The WORM, have finally
improved. I think the original was just released Too Soon and a lot
of little stuff hadn't been ironed out yet. Deb is supposed to be
SOLID, they shouldn't have done that. We'd have waited a few more
months.
I did not upgrade my work box from Bullseye because of the early reports
of Bookworm problems. Raspberry Pi OS is derived from bookworm and has
been dependable although that's a rather limited test.
SOMEWHERE I have a rather large XP laptop - bought it for my Mom to
do word processing but she was just too old to 'get' computers. It
had a big screen. Can't FIND the damned thing though ... it's stuck
behind a shelf or cabinet somewhere. It'd also likely be OK with
Linux. Dunno how cooperative the BIOS would be for booting alas.
I've got one of those and it's probably stuck behind the same shelf. For a while I had a stack of laptops on my desk and finally stuffed some away. There is a really old Compaq tower in the shed that I'm not sure would
even boot. Can't remember but it might be vintage Mandrake.
The many little BookWorm problems were very REAL.
IMHO it was released at least six months before
it should have been. Also stuck with BullsEye for
as long as practical.
Prob - the PI-5s were all tuned for BookWorm.
Had to set them aside for nearly a YEAR because
of that.
In any case, don't be in TOO much of a hurry to
toss those old laptops with XP/Vista - just DUMP
the Win and install a Linux. The old boxes can be
backup units, servers of various kinds if you're
into more complex things.
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
The many little BookWorm problems were very REAL.
IMHO it was released at least six months before
it should have been. Also stuck with BullsEye for
as long as practical.
Where are your bugreports? Did we fix them?
Prob - the PI-5s were all tuned for BookWorm.
Had to set them aside for nearly a YEAR because
of that.
Hm. Are you talking about Raspberry Pi OS or about Debian?
"We" up there means Debian.
Greetings
Marc
On 2025-08-11 05:05, c186282 wrote:
In any case, don't be in TOO much of a hurry to
toss those old laptops with XP/Vista - just DUMP
the Win and install a Linux. The old boxes can be
backup units, servers of various kinds if you're
into more complex things.
True, but often they waste electricity. For some people, this is a concern.
On 11/08/2025 10:21, Marc Haber wrote:
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:Dunno.
The many little BookWorm problems were very REAL.
IMHO it was released at least six months before
it should have been. Also stuck with BullsEye for
as long as practical.
Where are your bugreports? Did we fix them?
Prob - the PI-5s were all tuned for BookWorm.
Had to set them aside for nearly a YEAR because
of that.
Hm. Are you talking about Raspberry Pi OS or about Debian?
"We" up there means Debian.
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
The many little BookWorm problems were very REAL.
IMHO it was released at least six months before
it should have been. Also stuck with BullsEye for
as long as practical.
Where are your bugreports? Did we fix them?
Prob - the PI-5s were all tuned for BookWorm.
Had to set them aside for nearly a YEAR because
of that.
Hm. Are you talking about Raspberry Pi OS or about Debian?
"We" up there means Debian.
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
The many little BookWorm problems were very REAL.
IMHO it was released at least six months before it should have been.
Also stuck with BullsEye for as long as practical.
Where are your bugreports? Did we fix them?
Prob - the PI-5s were all tuned for BookWorm. Had to set them aside
for nearly a YEAR because of that.
Hm. Are you talking about Raspberry Pi OS or about Debian?
"We" up there means Debian.
Prob - the PI-5s were all tuned for BookWorm.
Had to set them aside for nearly a YEAR because of that.
Hmmm ... how many people now that can repair/tweak
old Seletrics and such ? Rare art.
In my case I did not upgrade my production x64 Linux box from Bullseye. I
did put Raspberry Pi OS on a Pi 5 and it identifies as Debian GNU/Linux 12 >(bookworm) in neofetch.
KIND of the same thing - PiOS is just a customized Deb
At one point I rented a Selectric in case I wanted something fancier than
dot matrix for a client proposal and i didn't want to buy a daisy wheel.
When I left town traveling light I called up the office rental place to
see where they wanted it returned. 'Don't bother.' I left it on the
sidewalk and it was gone the next day. That was in '88.
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
KIND of the same thing - PiOS is just a customized Deb
And still, don't rant about Debian when you are not positively sure
that the bug was not introduced by a Derivative.
And "deb" is debian's package format. The Distribution is called
Debian. So viel Zeit muss sein.
On 2025-08-11, rbowman <[email protected]> wrote:
At one point I rented a Selectric in case I wanted something fancier
than dot matrix for a client proposal and i didn't want to buy a daisy
wheel. When I left town traveling light I called up the office rental
place to see where they wanted it returned. 'Don't bother.' I left it
on the sidewalk and it was gone the next day. That was in '88.
I'm electric, I'm eclectic, got an IBM Selectric.
-- National Lampoon, channeling Bruce Springsteen
I've uploaded a set of Selectric servicing manuals to Bitsavers.
On Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:20:53 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
On 2025-08-11, rbowman <[email protected]> wrote:
At one point I rented a Selectric in case I wanted something fancier
than dot matrix for a client proposal and i didn't want to buy a daisy
wheel. When I left town traveling light I called up the office rental
place to see where they wanted it returned. 'Don't bother.' I left it
on the sidewalk and it was gone the next day. That was in '88.
I'm electric, I'm eclectic, got an IBM Selectric.
-- National Lampoon, channeling Bruce Springsteen
I've uploaded a set of Selectric servicing manuals to Bitsavers.
I have a nagging, mostly repressed memory of a scheme to turn a Selectric into a printer that involved a cubic crap load of solenoids...
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/13/turning-an-ibm-selectric-into-a-printer/
If he used an Arduino it must have been a recent attempt. I don't think
Don Lancaster was involved in the original hack. If he had been it would
be programmed in PostScript. He did come up with this gem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Typewriter
On 8/11/25 4:22 PM, Marc Haber wrote:
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
KIND of the same thing - PiOS is just a customized Deb
And still, don't rant about Debian when you are not positively sure
that the bug was not introduced by a Derivative.
Ummm ... the problem wasn't seen on a Pi, I used
those for other things, but a BeeLink mini-PC.
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
On 8/11/25 4:22 PM, Marc Haber wrote:
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
KIND of the same thing - PiOS is just a customized Deb
And still, don't rant about Debian when you are not positively sure
that the bug was not introduced by a Derivative.
Ummm ... the problem wasn't seen on a Pi, I used
those for other things, but a BeeLink mini-PC.
Then stop trolling, be clear, and file bug reports. Your presence her
is not helping anybody but your ego.
On 8/12/25 12:36 AM, Marc Haber wrote:
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
On 8/11/25 4:22 PM, Marc Haber wrote:Then stop trolling, be clear, and file bug reports. Your presence
c186282 <[email protected]> wrote:
KIND of the same thing - PiOS is just a customized Deb
And still, don't rant about Debian when you are not positively sure
that the bug was not introduced by a Derivative.
Ummm ... the problem wasn't seen on a Pi, I used
those for other things, but a BeeLink mini-PC.
here is not helping anybody but your ego.
Gee ... BIG splintery stick up yer ass !
Try to be helpful/informative/enlightening instead.
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone with
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and 🙂
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone with
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and :-)
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone with
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and :-)
You can still buy Oki impact printers - but the
PRICE is now horrific. Still, if you do lots
of multi-page forms/receipts ....
On Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:20:53 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
I've uploaded a set of Selectric servicing manuals to Bitsavers.
I have a nagging, mostly repressed memory of a scheme to turn a Selectric into a printer that involved a cubic crap load of solenoids...
https://hackaday.com/2012/06/13/turning-an-ibm-selectric-into-a-printer/
On 2025-08-12 05:25, c186282 wrote:
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone with
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and ?
Not cell, but landline VoIP, yes. I can connect one to my router and it
would work.
I tried with a younger cousin, a phone with buttons that does pulse
dialing. It worked. Which means my ISP or the router manufacturer
implemented pulse dialing logic into the home router.
That was my introduction to tilt-and-rotate codes, which is what was
punched into the tape rather than ASCII or EBCDIC.
So if you connect a cellular box with an rj, intended for rural homes,
to a rotary phones, you would get a rotary phone in the cellular world.
On Tue, 12 Aug 2025 10:18:23 +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote:
So if you connect a cellular box with an rj, intended for rural homes,
to a rotary phones, you would get a rotary phone in the cellular world.
/me immediately brings to mind an old “Dr Katz” scene where he shows his son Ben the mobile phone he got with a rotary dial on it, and asks if
maybe he was ripped off ...
On 2025-08-11 11:25 p.m., c186282 wrote:
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone with
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and :-)
Search for "Cell2Jack" or "XTLink BT". There are ready-made devices to
do exactly what you want.
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone withSomebody probably makes a modern version of a Nokia Premicell?
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and :-)
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would
do that
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into at least DTMF tones. Don't
think a Pico would do that, might req at least an old Pi with the
fair fakesound jack.
c186282 wrote:
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone withSomebody probably makes a modern version of a Nokia Premicell?
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and :-)
On 13/08/2025 06:37, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would
do that
with PWM.
On 8/13/25 6:18 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 13/08/2025 06:37, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would do that
with PWM.
Umm ... probably. Not SURE how much 'fidelity' is needed to work the
phone system though.
Big, black, steel and Bakelite - could smash in someone's head with
it if need be :
On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 23:27:28 -0400, c186282 wrote:
On 8/13/25 6:18 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 13/08/2025 06:37, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would do that
with PWM.
Umm ... probably. Not SURE how much 'fidelity' is needed to work the
phone system though.
Captain Crunch!
On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 22:22:27 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Big, black, steel and Bakelite - could smash in someone's head with
it if need be :
I really miss those phones that had handy little hammers attached with a curly cord. After a fraught conversation with my wife I made full use of
the feature. The next morning I took the remains to the front desk of the motel and said 'It fell off the night stand'.
She and I have gotten old and our phone conversations no longer result in destruction although I gather her iPhone has a cracked screen and is on
its last legs.
Back when Ma Bell owned the equipment I took mine back to the phone store.
It was perfectly fine but I'd gotten tired of basic black and gave it a
face lift with some acrylics I had laying around. They just shrugged.
On 8/14/25 12:04 AM, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 23:27:28 -0400, c186282 wrote:
On 8/13/25 6:18 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 13/08/2025 06:37, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would do that
with PWM.
Umm ... probably. Not SURE how much 'fidelity' is needed to work the >>> phone system though.
Captain Crunch!
Air whistle - probably a pretty pure tone.
In any case, some objective experiments will
show .....
My GUESS is that the phone network is pretty
tolerant - but that's to be proven.
If it IS tolerant then even 8-bit sound from
a Pi or Ard oughtta do it.
On 8/13/25 3:05 AM, Andy Burns wrote:
c186282 wrote:
Now ... how to merge a rotary-dial phone withSomebody probably makes a modern version of a Nokia Premicell?
a cell phone ? I've got this mid-50s rotary and :-)
You mis-understand ... I want a 50s rotary phone
to literally call/receive cell (with a little help
obviously). Granny had one.
Big, black, steel and Bakelite - could smash in
someone's head with it if need be :
https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/Uz4AAOSwGVBmt94y/s-l500.jpg
Something like a PI might do it, even an Arduino
with a BT and/or relay shield perhaps. Most of the
extras would likely fit inside the chassis. Might want
a thin base with two little buttons for the newer "#"
and "*" keys.
Two commercial products were suggested - the "better"
one ... even the guru guy was having hell getting it
set up. The other was easier.
BUT, that's less fun that Do-It-Yourself :-)
On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 01:37:16 -0400, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into at least DTMF tones. Don't
think a Pico would do that, might req at least an old Pi with the
fair fakesound jack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0FBoDSxjR8
This is one lecture in the series. The end goal is to synthesize bird
calls. DTMF is a kindergarten project. He does use an external DAC.
On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 23:27:28 -0400, c186282 wrote:
On 8/13/25 6:18 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 13/08/2025 06:37, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would do that
with PWM.
Umm ... probably. Not SURE how much 'fidelity' is needed to work the
phone system though.
Captain Crunch!
On 8/14/25 12:04 AM, rbowman wrote:
On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 23:27:28 -0400, c186282 wrote:
On 8/13/25 6:18 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 13/08/2025 06:37, c186282 wrote:
STILL have to turn the pulse dialing into atOf course it would. Piece of piss. That level of audio is easily done
least DTMF tones. Don't think a Pico would do that
with PWM.
Umm ... probably. Not SURE how much 'fidelity' is needed to work the >>> phone system though.
Captain Crunch!
Air whistle - probably a pretty pure tone.
In any case, some objective experiments will
show .....
My GUESS is that the phone network is pretty
tolerant - but that's to be proven.
If it IS tolerant then even 8-bit sound from
a Pi or Ard oughtta do it.
About 10 years back I went into a country gas-o-mart. They had some
stuff in an ancient NORGE refrigerator - the kind with the big coil
on top. It STILL worked !
If it IS tolerant then even 8-bit sound from a Pi or Ard oughtta do
it.
I'm messing with a pi PICO at the moment for PWM, and crude audio looks entirely possible - especially if you stored the waveforms in flash to
avoid having to calculate them in real time.
On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:41:30 -0400, c186282 wrote:
About 10 years back I went into a country gas-o-mart. They had some
stuff in an ancient NORGE refrigerator - the kind with the big coil
on top. It STILL worked !
Knock on wood but my refrigerator is almost as old as I am and still
keeping stuff cold. No coil on top but the 'freezer' is the heat
exchanger, a small aluminum box with two sections big enough to hold two
ice cube trays. I don't use ice cubes so I don't have the matching trays.
On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:06:42 -0400, c186282 wrote:
If it IS tolerant then even 8-bit sound from a Pi or Ard oughtta do
it.
The MF (multi-frequency) part might keep it busy but I think it's
possible. '1' for example is 697 Hz and 1209 Hz so you would have to synthesize both.
On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:54:32 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I'm messing with a pi PICO at the moment for PWM, and crude audio looks
entirely possible - especially if you stored the waveforms in flash to
avoid having to calculate them in real time.
https://github.com/cleversonahum/dtmf-generator/blob/main/dtmf-
generator.py
I didn't read it carefully but I think this would allow you to create
a .wav for each digit.
What we seems to be lacking here is hard DATA ...
just HOW sensitive are modern telcom systems to 'perfect' DTMF tones
? Dunno if they still filter to detect each freq, or look for some
kind of beat tone. This has probably changed some since the 1970s.
But, the question HERE is how GOOD do the
tones need to be ? Will 8-bit do it ?
On Fri, 15 Aug 2025 01:37:20 -0400, c186282 wrote:
What we seems to be lacking here is hard DATA ...
just HOW sensitive are modern telcom systems to 'perfect' DTMF tones
? Dunno if they still filter to detect each freq, or look for some
kind of beat tone. This has probably changed some since the 1970s.
The whole system that could be manipulated with a blue box changed but I doubt much changed with DTMF. I remember Ma Bell rolling out touch tones
at the '64 World's Fair. They had an exhibit where you could time yourself with a rotary phone and a touch to see how much faster TT was.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37511919@N06/4732168189
The Picturephone wasn't a success like many of the other things of the
future shown at the fair.
https://ethw.org/Picturephone
PSTN is 8 bit samples at 8kHz ...
On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:06:42 -0400, c186282 wrote:
If it IS tolerant then even 8-bit sound from a Pi or Ard oughtta do
it.
The MF (multi-frequency) part might keep it busy but I think it's
possible. '1' for example is 697 Hz and 1209 Hz so you would have to synthesize both.
On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:54:32 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:Its hardly rocket science.
I'm messing with a pi PICO at the moment for PWM, and crude audio looks
entirely possible - especially if you stored the waveforms in flash to
avoid having to calculate them in real time.
https://github.com/cleversonahum/dtmf-generator/blob/main/dtmf-
generator.py
I didn't read it carefully but I think this would allow you to create
a .wav for each digit.
On 8/14/25 3:12 PM, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:06:42 -0400, c186282 wrote:
If it IS tolerant then even 8-bit sound from a Pi or Ard oughtta do >>> it.
The MF (multi-frequency) part might keep it busy but I think it's
possible. '1' for example is 697 Hz and 1209 Hz so you would have to
synthesize both.
I don't think that's so hard. MIGHT have to combine
two pins though - esp on an Ard.
The "fidelity" question remains - how good/pure
do the tones HAVE to be ? 8-bit may not always
be Good Enough these days.
c186282 wrote:
But, the question HERE is how GOOD do the
tones need to be ? Will 8-bit do it ?
Think about it, PSTN is 8 bit samples at 8kHz, so yes ...
On Fri, 15 Aug 2025 01:37:20 -0400, c186282 wrote:
What we seems to be lacking here is hard DATA ...
just HOW sensitive are modern telcom systems to 'perfect' DTMF tones
? Dunno if they still filter to detect each freq, or look for some
kind of beat tone. This has probably changed some since the 1970s.
The whole system that could be manipulated with a blue box changed but I doubt much changed with DTMF. I remember Ma Bell rolling out touch tones
at the '64 World's Fair. They had an exhibit where you could time yourself with a rotary phone and a touch to see how much faster TT was.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37511919@N06/4732168189
The Picturephone wasn't a success like many of the other things of the
future shown at the fair.
https://ethw.org/Picturephone
On 8/15/25 00:22, rbowman wrote:
On Fri, 15 Aug 2025 01:37:20 -0400, c186282 wrote:
What we seems to be lacking here is hard DATA ...
just HOW sensitive are modern telcom systems to 'perfect' DTMF
tones ? Dunno if they still filter to detect each freq, or look
for some kind of beat tone. This has probably changed some since
the 1970s.
The whole system that could be manipulated with a blue box changed but
I doubt much changed with DTMF. I remember Ma Bell rolling out touch
tones at the '64 World's Fair. They had an exhibit where you could time
yourself with a rotary phone and a touch to see how much faster TT was.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37511919@N06/4732168189
The Picturephone wasn't a success like many of the other things of the
future shown at the fair.
https://ethw.org/Picturephone
Would that not be because of bandwidth limitations?
The loss of heat moving off old pentiums is massive...
I wouldnt touch one again.
Wish I still had my EEEPC, but I dropped it off
a roof alas trying to align a security cam. As
best I recall, MX was the only distro with a
smart enough version of Grub to recognize
the M.2 "ssd".
Anyhow, the point is that EEEPCs are still perfectly good Linux
laptops, even if their screens, keyboards and touchpads are quite
teensy.
Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Anyhow, the point is that EEEPCs are still perfectly good Linux
laptops, even if their screens, keyboards and touchpads are quite
teensy.
That was my major problem.
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was
not really an option then.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was
not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth- hungry.
On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and >>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was >>> not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth- >> hungry.
In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
might have been a thing, as well as books.
(*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.
At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
for at least some of these Ubuntus.
But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
not only download the files required for the linux installs without
network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
resuming partial downloads).
This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
work out of the box).
On 2025-08-27 11:33, Nuno Silva wrote:
On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on >>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a >>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked! >>>>>sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, >>>> and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
was
not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
bandwidth-
hungry.
In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
might have been a thing, as well as books.
(*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a
different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.
At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
for at least some of these Ubuntus.
But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
not only download the files required for the linux installs without
network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
resuming partial downloads).
This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I
overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
work out of the box).
Around 1998 computer magazines in Spain did indeed include CDs with some Linux distribution. There was no way I could download a distro on my
modem. Even if I paid the phone charges, my room mates would roast me
alive.
So I think I got a CD of Red Had and installed that. I finally booted
and got a shell prompt, but I had no idea what to do with that.
So another magazine posted a comparison of several distros, and said
that SuSE was the easiest. Weeks later that or another magazine included
a double CD of S.u.S.E. Linux 5.3 (I still have it) and I installed that
one. Yes, it worked and I could do things with it. It contained help
like "susehelp", a database of known problems. Eventually, I bough maybe
6.2 or 6.3. It came with books in the box. That was fantastic!
In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
might have been a thing, as well as books.
On 2025-08-27, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet, and >>> there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that was >>> not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more bandwidth- >> hungry.
In some countries, PC magazines(*) coming with linux distros on CDs
might have been a thing, as well as books.
(*) Portugal may have had at least a couple issues of some magazines
doing this; Brasil had at least one publication that seemed to have a different distro with every issue, which was also available in Portugal.
At one point in the first decade of the century - no idea if it's still
the case - Canonical would provide (as in by post) CDs free of charge
for at least some of these Ubuntus.
But yes, I can understand the problem. At that point I might have had a
MinGW wget windows binary in a pendrive or something, so that I could
not only download the files required for the linux installs without
network connectivity using e.g. library windows PCs, but also do so
taking advantage of wget's features (most notably input list and
resuming partial downloads).
This was with Fedora (which was less easy, but it's quite possible I overlooked some option or tool that'd have made this much easier) and
with Gentoo (that at least back then made this piece of cake or nearly
that, as you'd get the list with emerge -pf; nowadays I still have to
file a bug (and see if one already exists first, of course) because it
seems the new mirror directory tree scheme makes it so that it won't
work out of the box).
` A friend of mine at the time recommended Mandriva and another friend
with a more rsponsible attitude sent me a DVD with all 6 ot hte 2006
Mandriva iso files from Norway and i sent him something good a few years later.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also
sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet,
and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
was not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
bandwidth- hungry.
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:39 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a
better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked!
sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet,
and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
was not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
bandwidth- hungry.
True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
Ah, fair enough. There was even a period when the Ubuntu project would happily send out CDs for free to anyone in the world who asked.
On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on
Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:39 am. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:02:29 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
Groovy hepcat Lawrence D’Oliveiro was jivin' in comp.os.linux.misc on >>>> Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:56 pm. It's a cool scene! Dig it.
On Tue, 19 Aug 2025 17:21:04 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
After hearing about Ubuntu Netbook Remix, I decided that would be a >>>>>> better option. Unfortunately the UI that came with that also sucked! >>>>>sudo apt-get kubuntu-desktop
Yeah, I know. But at the time I only had crappy dial-up internet,
and
there weren't any free wi-fi spots near me. Downloading software was
difficult at best, and maxed out before it's finished. So doing that
was not really an option then.
Surely downloading a whole new distro would have been even more
bandwidth- hungry.
True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
Generally you also had a complete, working system. Today most isos seem to have just enough to allow the installation to phone home for the rest of
the stuff.
On Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:55:20 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
Ah, fair enough. There was even a period when the Ubuntu project would
happily send out CDs for free to anyone in the world who asked.
I got one of those. I was a little suspicious after the deluge of AOL CDs
but there didn't seem to be a catch.
On 8/28/25 21:04, rbowman wrote:
On Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:55:20 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:33 +1000, Peter 'Shaggy' Haywood wrote:
True, but getting them from magazine cover CDs/DVDs wasn't. Nor was
ordering a disk set from a disk set vendor.
Ah, fair enough. There was even a period when the Ubuntu project would
happily send out CDs for free to anyone in the world who asked.
I got one of those. I was a little suspicious after the deluge of AOL CDs
but there didn't seem to be a catch.
As a former user of Mandriva I have to point out that the catch was Ubuntu
but maybe it was better then. I have a friend a year older than me and
she caught
the Ubuntu mal-ware. She has a 32 bit EEPC and will not be able to get updates
much longer and does not want to spend time learning another system. Not that either of are planning for lasting forever. Just my VHO of Ubuntu,
many fine
people use it and work on it.
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