[Coco] Thoughts on modern computers (sort of off topic)

[Frank Swygert]

I've put Mint 9 on an older Athlon single core (1.2GHz) computer and 
gave it to a friend's early 20s grand kids, who couldn't afford a 
computer, and had minimal experience with one. They love it! Admittedly, 
they are really just playing a few games I loaded on it (relatively 
simple stuff, not powerful enough for major animation) and using it as a 
"juke box" (I loaded several hundred MP3s), but they have no problem 
with using it at all. Mint is Ubuntu based, but the main design 
philosophy is ease of use, ready to run off the CD/DVD. They pretty much 
have it. I didn't have to tweak anything on Mint 12 (quad core AMD 
machine)... yet. With 12 they started using Gnome 3, which I dislike, 
but you can switch to MATE easily. MATE is a fork of Gnome 2 that is 
essentially the same as G2 with a few tweaks. I know my message was 
long, but read again! Unless you have some odd or just came out 
hardware, Mint is pretty much good to go. But we can disagree!! 
-------------- Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 08:23:03 -0500 From: Louis Ciotti 
<lciotti1 at gmail.com> Very good points. But my point is linux is still 
not for a total newbie, heck even widows can be daunting for someone 
totally green. I am talking about someone who has never used a computer, 
I know probably impossible to find in a modern society, you know almost 
like when I was a kid and being first exposed. With the CoCo after 
connecting it up a totally green used could sit down with the book and 
be making programs in short order. I just do not see that happening with 
any modern incarnation of a computer. On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 6:13 AM, 
Frank Swygert <farna at amc-mag.com> wrote:

> There can still be issues on occasion, especially with specific hardware.
> I bought a Turtle Beach sound card because it had digital output and was
> supposed to work with Linux, then had some issues getting it to work
> because the most recent versions of Ubuntu based Linux distributions had
> switched from ALSA to Pulse Audio sound. The TB card worked only with ALSA.
> Once I figured that out it took a little research to figure out how to
> change the sound, but that's really the only "big" problem I've had. A
> newer sound card would fix the problem as well. I stuck Mint 12 on my main
> desktop and it has so far found everything.. .even my HP scanner. I'll be
> plugging a USB to parallel printer adapter in soon, wonder how it's going
> to like that?!! I watched Linux for a while, wanting to change. Tried a
> distro or two but passed until about two years ago. Then I found Mint. I
> tried the live CD and it found everything and seemed to work fine. The acid
> test for me was to put it on my wife's computer. She didn't do much more
> than e-mail and some internet games (like Farmville), but if SHE could
> easily use it I'd say it was pretty much ready for mainstream use. Had a
> hard time getting her printer working (new model Canon all-in-one, hard to
> find a Linux driver but with a little searching did... HP and more common
> brands work easier), but other than that she had no problems. I set up my
> HTPC computer with it a year ago, and as I stated, recently switched over
> my main computer to Linux. I installed XP on both (dual boot on the HTPC
> for some games, in Virtual Box on my main one just in case I need an app
> that doesn't run on Linux or there isn'[t an equivalent). I've only used it
> on the HTPC a couple times for games, not on my main one yet.
-- 
Frank Swygert
Editor - American Motors Cars Magazine
www.amc-mag.com