Please will you simplfy puppy linux more

[cindy]

Ive been using puppy linux now for about two years, and although I am very happy with the speed and lack of viruses, sometimes there are just too many codes and technical language used for a lay-person. when I am confronted with this sometimes I just give up. Us senior citizens (Im in my seventies) find it difficult to learn all these new things, we just cant retain as easily as when we were seventeen.

I really think thats its a grand thing that so many people from all over the world can be involved in creating something that gives others so much pleasure. Thank you for all your hard work.

Cindy Rood

[ttuuxxx]

Hi Cindy
Which parts do you find difficult to use? It would be helpful to know what you were doing when you gave up, Puppy has so many applications, scripts etc it would be very difficult to change it all, So could you please narrow down to what really you find difficult so we might have a chance to look at what parts are frustrating for you and others. Thanks for your time.
ttuuxxx

[tlchost]

sometimes there are just too many codes and technical language used for a lay-person. when I am confronted with this sometimes I just give up. Us senior citizens (Im in my seventies) find it difficult to learn all these new things, we just cant retain as easily as when we were seventeen.

I can understand your frustration. I am an instructor at an aduclt education center, and have set up a lab where seniors can "get aquainted" with computers.

It appears to me that Puppy, as nice as it is, requires more technical awareness than a lot of folks can either master or are willing to learn.

Frustration with printer, video and sound support seem to be high on the list.

The advantage to Puupy is that there are quite a few folks here that can and will help you.

Thom

I really think thats its a grand thing that so many people from all over the world can be involved in creating something that gives others so much pleasure. Thank you for all your hard work.

Cindy Rood [/quote]

[Lobster]

Please will you simplify puppy Linux more

We Can. We Will.
The next Puppy will look better and be simpler.

Any suggestions welcome . . .

It would be helpful to know what you were doing when you gave up

[droope]

That's what us people like to hear


Printer configuration kinda sux, to say the least. That's my idea. I dunno what the ip of my printer is, unluckily

[Aronzak]

One idea I had was to modify a few of the scripts that run at startup/shutdown. The script that starts X doesn't really need to mention Xorg or xvesa, it could just say 'normal mode' and 'backup mode'

Also, an easier way to set up sound would be nice.

It's great that people all over the world can benefit from what a few people work on.

[tlchost]

Any suggestions welcome . . .

I'm not interested in hearing that I'm a heretic, slave of Microsoft and that kind of crud....BUT

A. Have a look at http://portableapps.com/

You'll see a lot of windows apps that don't require writing to the registry...and I have used a lot of them via the wine that is in Muppy-Minisys.....I would hope a derivation of the new puppy would address wondows users who are willing to experiment with Linux, but also want to run windows apps.

B. Include Firefox...simply because whether we like it or not, many sites require that one uses Explorer or Firefox...and it's very difficult to use Linux if you are effectrively locked out of a site because your are using a linux browser.

C. Upgrades and deletions - There are tons of things in many distributions that are neat and tekkie gizwidgets....and for many users they are useless and simply take up space....make it easy to remove them. When Firefox or Opera tells you there is a newer version...have Puppy be able to handle the version upgrade....you will reduce the grumbles from windows folks who routinely say "yes" and have no tekkie chores to accomplish.

D. Begin to view Puppy as a tool...rather than the end line....I use the computer to "do" things...and most of my students need an OS that lets them do things....they have little interest in being computer Gurus or OS experts.

Thom

[Aronzak]

I didn't know that there was a version of wine available for Puppy. There you go. Portableapps integration would be great. Nearly all of the programs work flawlessly in wine. Unsurprising, given that they're open source.

If it would be possible to make a wine .pet package, someone could make a script to install wine then run the menu. This would be useful, as you'd be using the same programs across platforms, with the same data.

Firefox is based on the precursor to seamonkey. Both are cross platform. You might be thinking of Dillio? I haven't seen any problems in seamonkey. Puppy now includes flash.

A better update system would be useful, but considering that the whole distribution is only ~100M, I don't think that there's much there that isn't needed, and it's probably easier to get a new version of the whole thing than update programs.

"Begin to view Puppy as a tool...rather than the end line"
Point, but some people do install this as a desktop OS on computers, such as donated hardware etc... But yes I think that it can and should have a less technical focus still.

[Aronzak]

Hey cool, wine works well. Follow instructions here.

Portableapps works almost perfectly. See here.

It might be easy to make a script to automatically download and install wine when anyone clicks on an .exe file. you could also test that portableapps is installed.

See attached image. How do you embed them?

[ttuuxxx]

Hey cool, wine works well. Follow instructions here: http://www.puppylinux.org/wiki/applicat ... rious/wine

Portableapps works almost perfectly. See here: http://portableapps.com/apps/compatibility

It might be easy to make a script to automatically download and install wine when anyone clicks on an .exe file. you could also test that portableapps is installed.

See attached image. How do you embed them?

I really dislike MS and the politics behind it, but Your right those apps are great, I've used them all on windows before, maybe a sfs package ?
ttuuxxx

[Aronzak]

OK. I've written a script to automatically download and install wine when PortableApps is mounted in /mnt/home

Man, gotta love Xdialog . It sure makes life easy.

Edit: removed old code.

[Aronzak]

Oh, remove the comment in that code. It was to stop downloading the tgz package again.

[Fossil]

Individual portable (Windows) applications.
http://www.portablefreeware.com/

In partial reply to cindy's original post. Just like the spoken and written word, Linux - and any other computer operating system for that matter - will always have an underlying syntax. I agree that for the first-time user some of the questions required to start the operating system do appear confusing and sometimes ambiguous. This too can also be said of the number of different folders required to maintain operation. Who hasn't found themselves confused in first navigating around the sometimes partially hidden folder system? Adding a command to a script, right-clicking to 'Open as Text', all has an element of the unknown to it. Plus, there is the real fear that should something go wrong, how to put it right again.
There is no easy answer. Any computer system must always have a large element of learning attached to it. If all computers were created exactly the same with identical components, only then would the operating system work flawlessly! Perhaps! Until that time, there is always the Forum.

[raffy]

.. it's very difficult to use Linux if you are effectrively locked out of a site because your are using a linux browser.

Hmm, Firefox also runs in Linux natively, and you can also use Windows-based browsers with Wine.

Somehow I felt this is related to the often asked question: "Can Linux do (browse) the Internet?" To which I reply quickly, "Linux is created ('born') in the Internet, so it is at home with the Internet."

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth .. well, try rhinoweb.us for some video tutorials.

[SirDuncan]

Ive been using puppy linux now for about two years, and although I am very happy with the speed and lack of viruses, sometimes there are just too many codes and technical language used for a lay-person. when I am confronted with this sometimes I just give up. Us senior citizens (Im in my seventies) find it difficult to learn all these new things, we just cant retain as easily as when we were seventeen.

As Ttuuxxx said, you'll have to tell us what you found difficult. We can't fix what we don't realise is broken.

You'll see a lot of windows apps that don't require writing to the registry...and I have used a lot of them via the wine that is in Muppy-Minisys.....I would hope a derivation of the new puppy would address wondows users who are willing to experiment with Linux, but also want to run windows apps.

I don't know about using it in the standard Puppy because of size considerations, but you could easily have a squashfile with Wine and a few useful portable apps.

B. Include Firefox...simply because whether we like it or not, many sites require that one uses Explorer or Firefox...and it's very difficult to use Linux if you are effectrively locked out of a site because your are using a linux browser.

I personally prefer Firefox as well, but I know of no site that "locks" you out if you are using Seamonkey and doesn't for Firefox. There are sites that block you if you are not using IE (if you fool these pages by changing your useragent the pages almost always render fine, it's just that the site admins are idiots). There are also sites that use Activex controls, which are Windows only regardless of browser.

Can you name these sites that "lock" you out with Seamonkey? I would be interested in finding out why they do so.

C. Upgrades and deletions - . . . . . When Firefox or Opera tells you there is a newer version...have Puppy be able to handle the version upgrade....you will reduce the grumbles from windows folks who routinely say "yes" and have no tekkie chores to accomplish.

Firefox's default behaviour is to upgrade itself automatically. This works fine in Puppy. If it is turned off for you, go to "Edit>Preferences>Advanced>Update" and tell it to automatically update.

To my knowledge, the only way to update Opera is to download and install the new version. Unfortunately, Opera directs user's to its own download page which does not have a Puppy package, just a generic Linux package. The only thing that we could do is switch to package manager that handles updates and works in the background to check and update packages. This will probably be possible in Barry's new project, Woof, because of its Ubuntu/Debian compatibility. This would also handle updates for every program, which is something that I look forward to.

One idea I had was to modify a few of the scripts that run at startup/shutdown. The script that starts X doesn't really need to mention Xorg or xvesa, it could just say 'normal mode' and 'backup mode'

I suggest that it still tells you what you are actually choosing. Perhaps "Default (Xorg) - Backup (Xvesa)". It should also tell you that that backup (Xvesa) does not do video acceleration and that this may prevent video from playing properly and will prevent the use of 3D.

Also, an easier way to set up sound would be nice.

I don't know what to say about this one, because I have never used the sound wizard. Every computer that I have ever run Puppy on had its sound card detected automatically during start up. Maybe I'm just lucky .

[paulh177]

there are just too many codes and technical language used for a lay-person.

I just want to notice that Cindy has had replies to her post which include
a slab of code, and a suggestion that she might usefully get a "squashfile with Wine"

[Aronzak]

there are just too many codes and technical language used for a lay-person.

I just want to notice that Cindy has had replies to her post which include
a slab of code, and a suggestion that she might usefully get a "squashfile with Wine"

No, the squashfile unnecessary with my script. I probably should have started another thread.

[Flash]

.... See attached image. How do you embed them?

If you meant, "Why doesn't the image I attached show in the browser?", the forum doesn't show attached images wider than 600. I reduced the size of the image for you, so the forum shows it, and also changed its format to .jpeg to reduce its file size further.

The reason for the 600 max. width is to make life easier on forum members who have small displays, or slow (dialup) connections.

[potchan]

Cindy is right, because she is a USER. Please listen to users.

[paulh177]

No, the squashfile unnecessary with my script

um, I think you have rather missed my point ...