[aklug] Re: A starting point

From: Greg Madden <gomadtroll@acsalaska.net>
Date: Thu Sep 17 2009 - 18:19:10 AKDT

On Thursday 17 September 2009, barsalou wrote:
> To sort of muck out what Jon has been saying to go with Damien's
> intent, I ran across this:
>
> http://www.howtoforge.org/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-9.04
>
> Although I am currently using Ubuntu and liking it, it doesn't have to
> be Ubuntu.
>
> What I like about this article is the list of applications that the
> person is looking to use.
>
> One thing I'd do though is get rid of some of the duplicate
> applications.
>
> Also I heard that pidgin is getting replaced by some other
> application....but it has been popular as of late.
>
> If we can mostly agree on packages we'd like to see...maybe we can
> move forward some.
>
> Mike B.

The howto looks good to me, looks like it covers all the bases, Ubuntu
seems to be well supported for new users, esp those from the Windows
world.

The key to what is referred to as a fully functional desktop is non-free
software. Ubuntu has 'mediabuntu', Debian has 'debian-multimedia' as a
source. In the case of Debian the server is outside the US . I use it.
The part that makes/made this difficult is that you had to remember that
such sites exist, what the url is, and add it to your sources lists.

 There is a warning though about checking your countries software laws to
see if you can use it ... legally. This is the can of worms for Aklug, do
you load or help load software that violates some law you may not agree
with. Can you say software patents.

You can buy a distro that has paid all the licensing fees, Lindows, for
one, so you get the desktop without jumping through hoops. No one I know
is willing to spend the money, we would rather download from one of
the 'off-shore?' servers.

Caveat, some of my knowledge may be outdated, its been years since I
checked on things like libdvdcss.

And lastly, thank goodness, my Debian box has all the 'suggested packages'
for a complete desktop, oops one last thing... Google earth requries 3-D
video support, maybe not a big deal these days.

-- 
Peace
Greg Madden
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Received on Thu Sep 17 18:19:20 2009

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