Can You Say Linux?

[C. Harald Koch]

Warning; I've been running several Linux machines for years; I'm not swayed by
the media hype about how it's going to take over from Microsoft...

In message <B0002641837@plano.greyware.com>, "Holly Lisle" writes:
> 
> (I do think my sound problem may be that I don't have a sound card 
> exactly.  I have a Maestro MPU401 Wave Table Synthesis Device, 
> or something along those lines.)  

Sound cards under Linux tend to be hard; anything stranger than the
soundblaster or the Yamaha OPL3 tends to require source code and kernel
recompilation; not for the faint of heart. OTOH, multimedia isn't integrated
as well into Linux as it is into Windows these days; no MediaPlayer, no
RealPlayer.

> The modem and the printer I just can't get.

RedHat Linux has a very nice GUI tool for printer setup; I'm suprised that
there isn't one for Caldera. Of course, even RedHat will only really talk to
PostScript and HP printers (again, without sourcecode changes). WordPerfect
has it's own printer drivers, though, IIRC, so you should be OK.

PPP under Linux is a bit harder. It has the advantage of being a powerful
networking platform, so you can do all sorts of fun stuff like automatic
demand dialing, quality-of-service stuff, firewalling, etc. etc. This
flexibility comes with a price, however; it's harder to setup.

Again, I have no experience with Caldera's distribution. Recent RedHat's come
with a program called "linuxconf" which allows you to fairly easily configure
all of this stuff; maybe Caldera has it too.

> So . . . who was the Linux user?  Any cheering words as I slog 
> ahead?

Alas, the best way to solve these problems involves a "laying on of hands",
i.e. physical proximity, and it's about a 20 hour drive from here to there...
Maybe someone closer could volunteer?

<grin>

-- 
C. Harald Koch     <chk@ve3tla.ampr.org>

"It takes a child to raze a village."
		-Michael T. Fry