"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 17:59:52 -0600
From: Ernesto Vargas, [email protected]
Subject: email to pager gateway

I'm trying to find an e-mail to pager gateway. So for example if I send a e-mail to [email protected] it will send it to the pager system but if I send and e-mail to [email protected] leave the message in my pop account. Additional to this is not to specify each pager our company has more then 25,000 and is growing 1,000 per month.

Thanks,
Ernesto Vargas

Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 14:44:52 -0600
From: "MARK C ZOLTON", [email protected]
Subject: SyQuest EZ 135 and Linux...

For quite some time now I've been wondering how to set up my SyQuest EZ 135 removable disk drive under Linux. If you haven't seen one, it's kind of like a ZIP drive, but less of an industry standard. I got it for free, otherwise I don't think it would have been worth it. Anyway, I have about six 135MB disks for it and I'd like to give some of that to Linux. Any ideas? I've seen a driver around before, but I don't remember where to get it.

Mark

Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 17:01:00 +0300
From: admin, [email protected]
Subject: chroot how to?

I have been trying to lookup information on chroot command. i am trying to see if I can restrict my users to there home directories. Same concept like anonymous ftp. So each user will have his or hers own work space. Is there any documentation ? Thank you for your time. I have Red Hat5.0 and 5.1.

Khriss,

Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 05:32:21 -0700
From: "Wizard Saturn", [email protected]
Subject: problem mouse

I have Genius Net Mouse (with a Magic-Button for making browsing easy, hardware scrolling). I use Read Heat 5.0, but I cannot use Magic-Button for scrolling in Xwindows.What shall I do for using it.

Thank you in advance.
alexey

Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:47:35 +0100 (BST)
From: Sean Kelly, [email protected]
Subject: Recognising the AMD K5-PR166

I'm wondering whether any other readers have used the AMD K5-PR166 with Linux. It's just that my system seems to think it's a K5-PR133 and states that it's running at 100MHz. Also, the BogoMips value indicates that the processor is running at 100MHz. Anyone any advice?

Thanks in advance,
Sean.

Date: 08 Jul 98 16:10:03 +0000
From: James Spenceley, [email protected]
Subject: PPP help

I'd like to set my Linux box up as a PPP remote access server. Can you give me an idea of where i can find some info on how to do this ? Or maybe someone who has done it with a positive outlook and an email address. Any help would be great

Thanks
James

Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 02:20:45 +0200
From: silvia ballmann, [email protected]
Subject: Linux AND Lanprinter

Can I manage 800 lanprinter with one Linux system? Thanks.

bye, Thomas

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 16:50:41 -0700
From: al00584, [email protected]
Subject: DStealth Linux FVWM driver

I have a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Virge card. In initial drivers even 16 bit display modes were patchy. Now I'm wondering if there would be new drivers developed which are stable since. Furthermore I seem to have trouble installing and uninstalling files. No Uninstallshield equivalent of windows??

Keep up the great service.
Andrew

(No need for an uninstall with Linux, rm -rf will remove all the way down a directory tree. Be careful when you use it though. Also, if you feel the need to write C code to this, there is an article in the August issue of Linux Journal about how to write a "deltree" command. --Editor)

Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 10:07:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: [email protected]
Subject: CHAOS

I would like more information on the CHAOS article in the July (#30) issue of LG. Are there any HOW-TO's on how to set a thing like that up? Since I cant afford (OK, to cheap to buy..) one of the new systems, a little network of cheap PC's sounds fun.

GreatDane

Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 00:08:57 EDT
From: [email protected]
Subject: notebook

I have an OLD laptop that is probably only good for a doorstop or running DOS. (I did download DR. DOS, and may give it a try, but am more interested in putting a Linux system on it if possible. It is a DTK model DLT-3311 which has a whopping Cx486dlc 33 Mhz processor and 4 MB of ram. It has a monochrome monitor, and runs windows 3.x slow. I can't find any more ram for it and am interested in finding out if there is a distribution of Linux, BSD, or something of the like that would turn this into a suitable companion for sales calls, including a database, pim, and anything else slick I could get this to do until I can afford something less paeliolithic.

Any info you could send would be greatly appreciated, as well as being a big feather in your Karmic hat.

Thanks in advance, Kent

Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 08:18:28 +0000
From: Abduraghmaan Phillips, [email protected]
Subject: Intel Celeron Processor

I would like to know whether Linux will have any problems with the Intel Celeron Processor.

Thanks, A. Phillips

Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 12:19:00 -0700
From: Antony Chesser, [email protected]
Subject: The Other Side of the Story

In the article, Installing Microsoft & Linux, by Manish P. Pagey, we were treated to a (possibly justified) diatribe about the difficulties in integrating Linux and Win95. However, to have a more balanced view, one might also note the following:

I like Linux thus far. But I never mistake what I like with that is simpler for the average person out there to use. Linux is as user friendly as a hurled brick. Installing Linux puts you at a $ or # prompt with no clue of where to go afterwards. I'm a Novell CNE with many years experience working with PCs and networks, so I'm not daunted by a non-intuitive prompt. And I already had a WIN95 machine set up so I could access the net, download the truly excellent Linux Journal online, and get support on how to install RPMs, etc. Had that not been the case, however, I'd have been hard pressed to iron our the wrinkles in my install, or to know which files to edit, or programs to run, to do basic configuration. By comparison, win95 starts off in the gui mode, allowing for rather intuitive productivity immediately. And yes, I agree...it IS less stable. But crashing once a week (and I don't, by the way... I applied the service pack to it, and I am very stable) is still far better than not being able to even find out how to connect to the net.

When Linux finishes installing, you're left with a # prompt. When WIN95 finishes installing, you've a fairly intuitive GUI that allows you to quickly and easily install and run programs, connect to the net, and **apply updates without re-compiling the kernel**.

So is win95 better than Linux? Nope. But neither is it inferior. Each tool for the right job. If someone wants to set up their own PC and get working quickly, the average person without experience in EITHER of the OS's will have an easier time with win95. The trade off for that is that yes, it IS less stable in the long run, and yes, you DO have to pay for it. But considering that for the novice, the alternative is a PC that he/she cannot use, the answer seems clear that one should get the more easily installed and usable system. And that is not yet Linux.

I believe firmly that it one day WILL be. Many of the Linux Accolytes have decried the attempt to enhance the functionality and ease of use for Linux as the equivalent of "Starting down the Dark path of the Force." (shrug) A bit melodramatic, if you ask me. Consider this... that if we don't make it more user friendly, it will STAY a tiny share of the home and small business market, which in turn means less software written for it, and less call for us to support it for a living. Which, given all it's virtues, seems a shame, doesn't it?

Let's keep the tight, elegant kernel that is Linux, and add ease of use to it. If we do this, then like IBM's iron fisted dominance of the PC market that faded, so too will Microsoft be "The Giant That Was." However, if we insist on keeping Linux the OS that commands a religious like fervor with a select few, and keeping it un-usable for the vast majority of home and small business users, we'll continue to watch Mr. Gates... the richest man in the world... sell upgrades to a kludgy OS for more money than ANY current version of Linux gets. And we'll hear his laughter.

Antony Chessor

Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 20:01:16 -0400
From: Kevin Fortin, [email protected]
Subject: RedHat Service Pack 1

A badly organized yet sketchy editorial, upon these themes:

Just when Linux was starting to get a little more of the limelight, Red Hat releases a new version of its popular distribution, the regrettably buggy RH5.1 (a few weeks ahead of whatever product from Redmond).

Many Linux beginners will probably start with Red Hat, because of the ease of installation and the collection of software. bo Many or most beginners who want to give Linux a try will be installing on their home machines, and will want to connect to the Internet by modem afterwards (sorry -- PPP module not supported by kernel). Note: this feature makes it difficult for home users to download patches from FTP sites.

Furthermore, all users might want to install additional RPMs from CDROMS (sorry -- unable to mount iso9660 filesystem).

[Strangely, when I upgraded an RH4.2 system to RH5.1, I did not have trouble with PPP or CD-ROM support, but when I did an RH5.1 installation from scratch, I did have problems. On that troublesome system, I reformatted and reinstalled RH4.2.]

Many (or at least I) passed over RH5.0 (because I had read it needed a lot of patching) and waited for RH5.1 to come out.

The Linux press doesn't appear to have commented on this situation. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but I haven't come across any product reviews or editorials in the on-line Linux press chastising RedHat for rushing a defective product to market (ala Microsoft).

In spite of the above, "Me, I'm a Red Hat Man".

I'm no expert user, but I am a fan of the Linux phenomenon and certainly of Red Hat, and I guess I'm just disappointed by the possibility that potential newcomers might be frustrated and turned away from Linux by the current Red Hat distribution.

I wish the people at Red Hat well, and will probably even send some money their way, in appreciation of their 4.2 distrib as well as their ongoing efforts. However, I might wait for RH5.2 or at least give the most crucial of the RH5.1 patches enough time to make it onto the official CD pressings.

[To be fair, I should note that I obtained RH5.1 on a $1.99 CD from CheapBytes, but from reading the newsgroups, I don't believe that this undermines the points made above. Also, I don't imagine that RedHat's own commercial CD releases and their FTP site would be much out-of-sync, and CheapBytes probably relies on the RH FTP site for its pressings.]

Kevin Fortin

Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 11:59:33 +0900
From: Tom Holroyd, [email protected]
Subject: Compaq Unix Support

Since the recent acquisition of Digital by Compaq, I think it's important to let everybody know how they can show their support of Linux on Compaq's AXP platform. Jon Hall, Unix Software Group Senior Leader inside Compaq, and also Executive director of Linux International, has posted the following announcement to [email protected]

url: http://archive.redhat.com//axp-list/1998-June/0567.html

Remember that if a major player such as Compaq started shipping machines (and not only axps) with Linux pre-loaded, it would do much for Linux popularity.

Since sending them all one at a time to Mr. Pfeiffer will only make him pissed off in the long run, you are welcome to send them to me, and I will roll them up for him, and present them all at once. I would suggest including in the letter (along with whatever else you want): Your name, Your occupation, Whether you are buying the machine for personal or business use, How many machines per year you buy (ONE is an o.k. number!! Even one, every two or three years...he will understand, and they mount up over many people), What type of machine you would buy (Alpha, Intel), What size (how many megs memory, disk, etc.), and Whether you would be interested in buying support. Put as the subject line: YET ANOTHER UNIX USER

I will guarantee you that my immediate management will look at them, at a minimum, and I am fairly sure that they will get all the way up to Mr. Pfeiffer, at least as a report. -- Jon "maddog" Hall, [email protected]

Dr. Tom Holroyd

Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 12:04:27 +0100 (BST)
From: Karsten Ballueder, [email protected]
Subject: Portable GUI C++ Libraries

I have just read your article about "Portable GUI C++ Libraries" and found it to be not very well researched. The information given about wxWindows is outdated and a bit inaccurate.

You mentioned that Version 2.0 "is rumoured to be available in the near future". Fact is, it has already been available in different alpha releases for quite some time. While the code is still under development, it is worth mentioning that it is already very usable and=20=

the turnaround time for bug fixes is quite low. At present there are two implementations of wxWindows 2.0, the Windows version, available from the main wxWindows web page mentioned in your article, and the GTK based Unix version wxGTK, available from http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~wxxt/ . Both versions are ready for development right now ( We are using it to implement quite a large e-mail application, http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/M ). A third version,=20=

based on Motif is under development.

You also mentioned the "side project" of a port of wxWindows which doesn't require the Motif libraries. This "port", called wxXt has been=20=

around for many years and is probably the most-used wxWindows version on Linux. It provides a complete Motif-lookalike interface, without requiring Motif.

I find that if you look at the newer wxWindows releases, especially wxGTK, they provide a much more complete environment and a much improved user interface than other toolkits. Unfortunately, your screenshots based on the older Motif version don't show this.

Regards, Karsten

Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 00:09:07 +0000
From: general, [email protected]
Subject: LG30 article by Manish Pagey

The most intelligent statement in this persons article was " Because I'm stupid thats why". This article was not anything of general interest but only a tirade about Bill Gates and Microsoft.

If your Linux is so great why must you degenerate the efforts and products of others. Evidently, you people all live in the ivory towers of academia and not the real world. Manish cites that the Feds and the state ag's are after MS.

His vehemence smacks so much of hate that they may come for him next for committing "hate crimes or if not hate crimes the incidence of a hate crime", to quote one great liberal mayor here in Marxachusettes.

Why must all of Linux literature be permeated with the stink of egotistical minds rotting putridly in the sun. Linux may be the operating system of the future, that is if we can get by humid putrification of your egotism.

Quite frankly, LG should hide in shame for printing such childish gibberish. When I downloaded your recent issue to my Linux box, it was with the hope that it might enlighten my experience with another operating system and broaden my limited computer knowledge.

However, this trash will not deter my efforts to learn about Linux as it has presented quite a challenge to run both it and W95. Here's hoping that you and others can present a journal that will teach not disgust.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Robert E. Lee

I frankly don't have time to read every word of every article. I try to avoid articles that are just hate mail. Obviously, I missed on this one if it is as bad as you say. People are always asking for articles about installing both Linux and Microsoft and the problems incurred while doing so and this one looked to fit the bill. I am sorry you were offended and that I did not do a better filtering job. Thanks for writing -- Editor

Thank you for responding to my e-mail. However, my feelings were not of offense but of total irritation that the Linux literature at all levels is saturated with the debasing of others and their operating system.

There are forums where people can vent their dislikes but they do a disservice to the Linux community by littering Linux literature all of types their personal dislikes of others and their efforts.

Linux is being touted as the operating system of the future and it could very well be that some day it will mature to this status. However, the Linux community will have to mature with it if they expect this to happen. The type of article will only repel people rather than attract them. Sell the features and benefits of the Linux operating system and people will use it, denigrate others and their efforts and Linux will languish.

Perhaps, it would be timely to include the 'Advocacy Mini How-to' by Paul L. Rogers in a future edition in an effort help Linux users understand that tirades and even snide remarks are counter to their goal of promoting Linux and are destructive instead.

Thank you for lending an ear.
Robert E. Lee

Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 20:00:20 -0400
From: "Donald N. McKay", [email protected]
Subject: Promoting Linux

I listened intently to the Internet audio broadcast when Steve Jobs supplied the voice over to the great race between a 333 MHz Pentium II and Apple's G3. Of course, for those who did listen, we were to learn that G3 ate Pentium's lunch when the two processors 'drag raced' through a run-time application of Photoshop followed by animation, courtesy of Macromedia Director. After listening to the Inter-cast, the world suddenly became aware of the power of G3.

So.... Why not host a drag race on the Internet between Win 95, Win NT 4 and Win 98 and Linux? Hell, throw OS/2 Warp and Novell in there also. (of course, using identical computers - processors, networking cards, etc.). Ballyhoo the event with home page and search engine banner ads (paid for by Red Hat, Caldera, and anyone else who'll make a buck out of the event). Invite C|NET, Andover Net and ZDNet to cover the event. Run Linux on Apache or however the Linux-meisters see fit, but let's see once and for all just what this OS can do not only for speed but for reliability. Then, and only then, will people not only take notice of the product, but will, in fact, try it (buy it in some cases) and use it.

What do you think?

Don McKay

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 13:18:39 -0300
From: Michael Rasmusson, [email protected]
Subject: the cruel reality

Note: This essay assumes that the DoJ (Department of Justice) is nonexistent.

While I am a vocal Linux (and Unix) advocate and am deeply alarmed at the thought of a Redmond controlled world, once in a while it helps to sit down and examine reality.

Linux, at this point in its development, is still too much of a learning curve for the majority of PC users. Most of the Linux users I know, including myself, are software engineers, systems programmers, system administrators, or some other variant of systems professional. All but one use a commercial Unix variant at work. Some PC aficionados showed genuine interest in my Linux box with its various GUIs during its lifetime. The interest seemed to fade when they saw the command line tricks still lurking under most of the more interesting things you can do with Linux, even if these tricks are eventually launched from the window manager. Until the time comes that Linux can be installed, configured and maintained from a fright free interface, it will stay in the realm of techies.

All is not hopeless though. Looking back 20 years to the beginning of personal computing we see that the innovators and early adopters were overwhelmingly techies and electronic hobbyists. We also see that traditional IT types dismissed the early PC as inappropriate for business use. Big Iron would rule the glass tower forever. PC advocates retorted that they would eventually take over and the centralised systems of MIS would be phased out as dinosaurs. Even respectable periodicals like The Economist spouted drivel about PCs replacing mainframes. The reality that has developed since the early 80's has been neither a continuation of Big Iron nor a clean sweep by Wintel. Centralised computing in the form of servers, including the new generation of mainframe class systems, is doing just fine. Wintel PCs have occupied most of the lower niches and are rising into new ones, but will this rise continue until Wintel everywhere is a reality?

Most of the decision makers in IT right now are either managers who were flexible enough to allow PCs into the systems framework back in the 80's or they rose through the ranks during the last 15 years of PC centric computing. Many of them honestly believe in Wintel's manifest destiny. They have either known no other reality except Wintel dominance, or if they have, it was one of IBM dominance. In either case the mind set is very similar. Just like in the early 80's, a closed IS mind set seems dead against branching from the safe and tried road and into new and fresh territory. Fortunately, similar to what happened in the 80's, a few courageous thinkers can see the widening cracks in the Windows.

To these "aware" techies the dream of an inexorable upward rise of the Wintel PC into the world of workhorse systems is turning into a nightmare. More people are starting to see this. The interest in Java, the NC concept, managed PCs, Citrix ICA, all are early signs of a growing dissatisfaction with the legacy of DOS. Windows boxes are notoriously troublesome, but where are the alternatives? Linux is showing itself to be promising, but it is _not_ yet ready to be adopted by the herd. PC makers are aware of this and continue to bundle MS OSes, you're better off with the devil you know.

The great hope of the Windows world is NT. With Windows98 showing itself to be a yet another troublesome incarnation of DOS/Windows, NT is the last refuge.

Strangely, instead of making NT the solid crash proof system people crave, Redmond hacks and bloats up NT in hopes of getting it into higher margin roles that are still too much for it to handle. Redmond pushes, and reacts to criticism of its baby with patches, hacks and bloat. Redmond keeps pushing, and NT continues to show itself as being unready for the big leagues. Redmond say, "Wait! NT version 5.0 will have all sorts of new features and capabilities that will make it perfect for enterprise computing." More likely is NT 5.0, with it's 30+ million lines of code, 24+ million of them new and untested, may just turn out to be the most bug ridden bloated carcass of ugly hacks we've ever seen. Redmond will once again have egg on its face, but this time will it be a permanent stain?

If NT 5.0 turns out to be a huge disappointment, then the alternatives will have to be ready to entice a growing pool of would-be defectors. Linux will have to be more usable and manageable by the WinHerd. It will have to be viable enough to convince OEMs that they can afford to break their devil's bargains with Microsoft. If Redmond trips and once again the lack of viable alternatives allows it to get on its feet and continue building its empire, we have only ourselves to blame. We have two years, can we do it?

Regards,
Mike

Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 10:37:33 -0500
From: "Pronovici, Kenneth", [email protected]
Subject: CHAOS

Please pass on my congratulations on a wonderful article to Alex - his CHAOS system apparently caused my coworkers to think of me, and my WHOPPeRS (Wacky Hastily Organized Parallel Processesing Research Scheme) system, which looks a lot like CHAOS. Only difference is that mine is sitting on my bedroom floor... ;-)

Ken Pronovici

This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, [email protected]
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