[Coco] OT: Vista and MS patent application, Linux

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that Mannequin* may have mentioned these words:
>Roger Taylor wrote:
>
>...
>
> > Linux can be free for all, and shipped to us for free, but that's not
> > going to be the reason people ditch Windows, nor will they give up
> > their addictions, ways of thinking, simplicity, habits, business
> > requirements, etc. for an OS that doesn't have a "just make it work"
> > concept.  I love Linux, but it is just the opposite of "just make it
> > work".  It's more like, "learn how to program, then recompile the
> > kernel or drivers and see if that makes it work".  ;)  Not gonna happen.

It doesn't *have* to be that way... but it can. Depends on how "much" you 
want to get out of your hardware...

Example: I have a *wacko* laptop - Fujitsu Lifebook P2120, Crusoe 933, 
512Meg RAM (maxed) and I have XP & 3 Linux installs on the critter - 
Slackware, Debian & "Linux from Scratch"; i.e. compiled *completely* from 
source with all the settings that the Crusoe loves.

Winders: Won't play a DVD without dropping video frames (30+%), b0rking the 
audio and maxing the CPU.

Slackware/Debian Linuxen: Same thing; everything recognized, no recompiles 
or anything... but DVD's are a nogo.

Linux from Scratch: Perfect Video (even scaled fullscreen on the 
wide-screen 10.4" LCD), Perfect Audio, CPU utilization in the 45-60% range, 
and I can *start* OpenOffice (albeit a little more slowly) without dropping 
a frame, and the app is perfectly usable.

Ontopically:

Winders: MESS runs... barely. I get about 80-110% normal CoCo speed using 
it. Portal-9 works well, and interfaces to MESS OK. However, I use a Belkin 
serial->USB dongle to run DriveWire as it doesn't have an onboard RS-232; 
and the closed source drivers are buggy and can blue-screen my Winders, 
usually just at the *wrong time*.

Debian: I installed MESS, but it's not happy about running... dunno why. 
Didn't look into it, because for now, Winders at least works. Slackware: 
Didn't install it, haven't had time to find it...

Linux from Scratch: [ Insert evil laugh here ;^> ] 500+% CPU speed, runs 
68K Emulation over 100% speed (tho not by much, IIRC - been a while since I 
ran 68K schtuff) which is *pointless* in the others...

A perfect solution? Only if you have 6 *weeks* or so of spare time to 
compile *everything* for it... ;-) LFS Live CDs are available now, so you 
don't have to worry about starting on an incompatible base system (read: 
Fedora Core ;-)... It takes about 3 days to compile the base LFS system on 
my laptop (sometimes less) but by the time you start amassing graphic 
libraries (PNG, GIF, JPG, etc) neccessary to run the extra shiznit that 
most programs need, and the fact that I use apache/MySQL/PostgreSQL/etc. 
quite a bit, those are "musts" as well (No, not prefermented wine juice... 
;-) so it does take me a while to get the critter *just right.*

But if you *do* have that 6 weeks, it's *sooooooooooo* worth it! ;-)
And you will learn a *lot* about Linux.

>Oh... and no having to build a new kernel. I haven't done that in years. :)

Unless you want a *much* more efficient (memory & CPU) Kernel... but you 
are right - the current module system is *very* good at grabbing what the 
hardware needs & just running with it.

BTW, I've heard SimplyMepis is a very good beginner distro as well... but 
I've not tried it. I've been a Linux geek for over a decade now, and I 
don't take the easy way out... ;-) [[ Well, except the SuSE 9.2 Pro install 
on the wife's machine... she likes the pretty pictures, I like the simple 
administration. ]]

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | "Profile, don't speculate."
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers |     Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch at 30below.com          |