Baslinux mailing list

[3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org]

Day Brown wrote:
>
> And it seems like there is a way for BL to park a copy 
> of whatever you want printed in a directory where dos 
> can access it.

Yes, just mount the DOS drive (C: or whatever) from Linux
and copy files into it.  Works with floppies, too.

> bring back in the IBM PROPRINTER II, spray the dried out 
> ribbon with WD-40, and am back in business with 9 pin dot
> matrix pin feed.
> I'd use it with Linux, but the distros I've seen didnt have 
> a driver for it any more, 

ghostscript has a driver named ibmpro.  I imagine that would
work with the IBM PROPRINTER II.

> I sympathize with the newbies. 

That comes as no surprise to me.

> the vast majority of Linux documentation sux. And there is 
> so damn much of it. 

Ah, the old "too much documentation problem".  What a pain.
In the early days of Commodore, we thought it was bad having
no documentation at all, but clearly it's much, much worse 
having too much documentation.

> I have some hope that BL can simplify the interface enough 
> for newbies.

The vast majority of newbies want easy-peasy point-and-click
with built-in wizards to make decisions for them.  BasicLinux 
is not for them.

> There are some distros that are easy to install, but there 
> seems to be a synergy of planned obselescence at work between 
> the hardware OEMs and the distro outfits...  

Your evidence for this is...?

> Debian seemed to have a really good idea with apt-get, but 
> now I find their servers are down, 

Still down, are they?

> so it is totally useless. 

You give up too easily.  Surely there are Debian mirrors that
are still functioning.  

> Downloading and installing dos cdburners or printer drivers 
> is lots easier than Linux. 

You think that because you are an experienced DOS user.  But 
DOS is not inherently easy -- it had a learning curve and most 
users did not climb it as far as you.  

An experienced Linux user (with no experience using DOS) 
would find downloading and installing Linux cdburners or 
printer drivers lots easier than DOS.

Cheers,
Steven