Marius Amado Alves wrote:
* Window/Desktop System * I manage to get a decent resolution working with twn. Now, can I change to a more modern system? How? I tried to install kde and gnome with apt-get but failed upon dependencies. What do I need to put in mysources.list? (I don't have CDs yet, just a cable connection.) In the meanwhile: how does one close windows in twn?
You've probably installed stable, which is ancient. stable is suitable for a server machine, but for a workstation, it is my opinion that stable is just too obsolete. Change your sources.list to testing, or even unstable (leave the "security" line left at stable), and then do an "apt-get update" followed by an "apt-get dist-upgrade". Of course this assumes you don't mind risking a few "gotchas" by moving to these more volatile systems.
With the newer software that you'll get from testing or unstable, I think you'll be able to get KDE and/or Gnome installed. Of course, twm is one extreme, and KDE/Gnome are the other extreme. You could go for a middle-of-the-line window manager/environment, by apt-getting something like icewm, wmaker, blackbox, ion, metacity, sawfish, etc. I prefer icewm myself, as a general rule, but it's a matter of taste.
* Printing/CUPS * I managed to install cupsys via apt-get and added a printer with the web interface, but this printer does not show up in the print dialog of theapplications. It's an HP DeskJet on the parallell port. What am I missing?
[Rant]I'd love to help you, but printing on Linux is _still_ a black art. I've been using Debian exclusively on my boxes for about four years now, and I generally just avoid printing if I can. Of course everyone's going to come back on this comment and say "Use CUPS! It's ultra easy!" or "You did replace the obsolete lpr with lprng, right?" and such, but then you still have to tell Mozilla to print to "qtcups" or to "lpr -PmyPrinter --use-secret-incantation" and configure OpenOffice.org (somehow . . .) and, and, and, and it's just black magic as far as I can tell. And I'm not a stupid person. So the short answer is, "Good luck!"
[/End_of_Rant] -- Kent