[lug] Linux for Dad

Andrew Diederich andrewdied at gmail.com
Sun Aug 17 15:27:30 MDT 2008


On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 10:55:29PM -0600, John Dollison wrote:
<snip>
> I called System76 to see about buying a pre-loaded system, but they said their boxes don't have dial-up modems, and that dial-up support is problematic in Linux. The guy also warned me that even though there aren't Windows-style "critical updates" all the time, the constant updating of packages means that there could be even more downloads under Linux than under Windows.  Another issue is that System76 uses Ubuntu, which follows Debian's strict all-free guidelines.  That means more downloads and tweaks for dad, for things like DVD support (VLC / libdvdcss), Google Earth, etc.
<snip>

I'm writing this on a new system 76 laptop, actually.  Getting DVDs to
play was a little harder than I would have liked.  I made it harder by
using a broken DVD while troubleshooting.  (Netflix has sent me many
terrible DVDs lately.)  I don't need a modem, but the wireless works,
and the built-in webcam is supposed to work, though I haven't tested
that yet.  

What I like about system 76 is they take a standard distribution and have 
a single package that contains all their tweaks.  It must make it much, 
much easier for their QA staff.

-- 
Andrew Diederich



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