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Re: Accessing software programs from disk

Hi Purple Penny,
Many thanks for your kind response - my mail was actually a bit of a late night drunken rant :( - you know, you regret it once you've hit the 'send' button...
Also, I felt a bit bad as it wasn't really helping your cause much so apologies.
Yes, it's a paradigm shift going from Windoze to Linux - I just got frustrated as I was fairly comfortable with previous versions of Debian, but little bits and pieces have changed - the sum of the parts being enough to make tasks I used to be able to do happily different enough that they wouldn't work without digging around in the docs or asking on this list (which is very good BTW). One little example is the way a program called xconsole worked - I have problems with a cheap wireless network card (acx100 - don't ask...) that keeps giving transmission errors so I like to have the xconsole open as it reports me when it starts giving those problems. There's been a small change in how it works from the previous versions of Debian to Etch, and it caught me out...I hope you get my drift as to why I got a little frustrated. On the other hand, the wireless card was a little easier to set up under Etch than Sarge. So swings and roundabouts I guess.
It's like having to relearn everything again which takes time. You know what I mean - kind of like when going from Windows 95 to Windows XP - trying to find all those things that have changed places between one version and another.
Anyway, yes Linux is much more fun than Windows if you like learning new things - and there's always another level deeper you can go if so desire giving the potential for absolute control over the computer and great flexibility of what you can do.
I like Debian because I know (knew...?) it enough to be able to use it - never quite an expert though! I don't hate it at all despite my rant - just having an argument with a good friend :) 

Stick at it - it pays back the time you invest in it.
I have CCed this to debian-user but cut your reply, hope thats OK - glad the "apt-cdrom add" suggestion worked! 

Best wishes,

Martin

violet penny wrote:
...


    From: "Martin Waller"
    To: "debian user"
    Subject: Re: Accessing software programs from disk
    Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:14:03 +0100


    violet penny wrote:
    >
    >
    > If the "... apt-get blah, blah ..." command line thingmee is
    > the only way to do this, then I'll just have to forget it: even
    > if I didn't have M.E. (a fatigue disorder), my middle-aged brain
    > simply isn't capable of dealing with SO much new and totally
    > unfamiliar data at once. It's just too much.
    >
    I used to like Debian because it was free of such stuff - once
    learnt, you could always use it. Even if at first it was a paradigm
    shift. Yeah, there's that apt-get shite, but once you got it it
    was constant.

    But now, well, I sympathise with you - there seems to be too much
    pressure to conform with people's 'windoze' expectations of things
    being 'automagically' updated, things getting updated 'for you',
    'for your own good'. Too many changes to too many key aspects of
    the system to be able to keep up with unless your some college
    student with no real-life mundanities (is that a real word?
    wotevah...) to sort out every day.

    Complexity was never an issue for me, just change for the sake of
    change, and I can't help Debian has somehow lost it's way. Just my
    upgrade from sarge to etch seems to have brought so many changes
    into my system without me being able to control them. I want to be
    in control - that's what I hate about windoze (lack of control or
    choice).

    Two examples - update available packages using dselect front end to
    apt - new kernels automatically get installed! Never used to
    happen. I don't want that by default - never had issues with it in
    previous Debian versions.

    2nd eg - X - used to be a pain to set up, but you knew what the
    'bejeezuz' was going on once it was set up. Etch install - worked
    it out all automatically! Great - but I want (need?) to know wtf
    is going on behind the scenes so I can tweak stuff the way _I_
    want. I'd rather it was hard to configure for _every_ aspect but
    have control than easy to configure in some aspects and hard in
    others. With that I lose two ways - I lose control in some aspects
    and the other aspects they keep f***ing changing every upgrade.
    Smells like s**t to me - eat windoze!

    Expect flames - talk to the hand.

    Once a debian advocate, now an ubuntu-maybe (hurts). I gotta deal
    with 'Redhat Enterprise 64 bit' (F**k!) for my new job, so perhaps
    I shouldn't complain but, well, it's the thought that counts.

    I just get the feel something's changed for the less-good with
    Debian. Maybe thats just the way Linux is evolving.

----- Original Message -----

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