[wplug-erie] What do you use Linux for?

[Grey]

Ahh, now I'm seeing some traffic showing what we have in the way of
people, and skills.

On Thu, Jun 09, 2005 at 10:39:50PM -0700, T Johnson wrote:
>     Great to see some action here, I wish we could breathe some life back
>    into ErieLug. 

It takes time, just like learning Linux (remember the days of debugging
X-Windows mode lines? breaking Lilo? not seeing how any sane person
could use vi(m)? ;-). I like to think that this email in itself, and all
the replies below it, is breathing some form of life back...

>    I've also been looking into using my box to program PicMicro
>    computers. 

Still trying to write my Intel Hex Code C++ program for PIC16C's, and
figured out Parallel port programming under linux (nice little library,
can't remember it's name... email if you want it ;-). Need to get back
to that... Yeah, I know, re-inventing the wheel... 

>    I learned long ago that dual booting
>    works best with separate harddrives, I've set some newcomers up that
>    way as well and just love they're reaction when I use the Linux drive
>    to save all their data from the lesser O.S. before I format and reload
>    it. 

Never thought about it like that before. Laptop's become a pain though.
I still like the advice of dedicating a complete box to it, but the
networking side can be a tough learning curve. Any way, after a while,
like my first box, you'll want to run a webserver for your
house/friends, etc. #grin#

I wonder, most of my machines (bar the laptops) are basically headless,
so I don't always think GUI first, wonder how many others deal with
this.

>    I was a charter member of ErieLug, I really hope there is a future
>    for it. Tom

Keep reading, and writing, I suppose ;-)

>    --- roger <rmail.daemon at gmail.com> wrote:
>    First, Grey thanks for asking the 'right' question; 

#grins# I try to stay away from the flame subjects till later. hehehe.

>    you must be good at parties. 

Erm, Nope... next question ;-/

>    I exclusively use linux, on several different desktops; no exotic
>    hardware - just random parts tossed together.

Old equipment... yeah, I hear you. Managed to get one newer box from
someone, and went a bought a PCI SATA card. Works really well under
linux (although booting to it doesn;t work, and it's not what I wanted
it for).

>    Grey, I will follow
>    your lead and stay away from the distro discussion. I suppose we can
>    save that discussion until we have beer glasses separating us
>    (however, i am interested in hearing some reactions to different
>    distros).

Oh, agreed (both beer, and distro's... ;-)

>    * LaTeX ( i use latex for any printed materials; letters - papers)

Cool, someone who uses LaTeX (in any other user group, that would most
likely sound ALL wrong). I've never been able to get round to that. Any
good places to start looking?

>    * emacs user - i realize this is arguably more inflammatory than the
>    distro issue

... um... Yes #smile# I went the vim/gvim route.. okay, moving on....

>    * Admin a Server at work (soon to expand this role).

Whats the worst problem you find with that? Took a while at our place
too, mainly due to Manager confidence needed to be won.

>    * Programming (not that much recently, some C++ and Perl).

Trying to get back to Tcl/Tk as well.. (too many tangents, too little
time)

>    * For playing: I use gimp - i have never been interested in gaming

Sometimes Linux is a game, and sometimes I win a level or too...

It's good seeing some activity here... anyone else around?

-Grey