Linux

DGM said:
I loaded Ubuntu on one of my computers. My son wants to play a certain game that requires Java. I down loaded that no problem. Now Linux wants me to enter my password. I never gave it one, really I didn't. It doesn't believe me.

I read through the instructions for installing "Java self extracting" and they lost me at "change the executable.... "

Help.
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Sounds like you downloaded Java from the web site. As others have pointed out, you can just install it from the repos (and it's better tested that way). Open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre

You'll have to enter your user password. After that, your game should work.
 
phaed said:
Sounds like you downloaded Java from the web site. As others have pointed out, you can just install it from the repos (and it's better tested that way). Open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre

You'll have to enter your user password. After that, your game should work.
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Thanks, Got that to work.

So far, I think I've got it figured out why this is free.

:rolleyes:
 
DGM said:
So far, I think I've got it figured out why this is free.

:rolleyes:
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You're right. Linux is probably not for you.

There's obviously no value to be found in anything free, if it requires a little more effort. You should probably give up on the whole notion of "learning something new" and go back to your safe, nonthreatening world of allowing Microsoft to make everything easy on your mind.

:rolleyes: indeed.
 
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John Albert said:
You're right. Linux is probably not for you.

There's obviously no value to be found in anything free, if it requires a little more effort. You should probably give up on the whole notion of "learning something new" and go back to your safe, nonthreatening world of allowing Microsoft to make everything easy on your mind.
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Or, if he just want to pay, he could buy a Red Hat Enterprise license.

Jay
 
jt512 said:
Or, if he just want to pay, he could buy a Red Hat Enterprise license.
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But that's still Linux!

He'd still have to go to the trouble of learning a new OS, his wallet would just be a few grand lighter.

Of course, the fact that lots of tech-smart corporations actually pay big money for Linux kind of flies in the face of the implication that it's "free" because it sucks.
 
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John Albert said:
But that's still Linux!

He'd still have to go to the trouble of learning a new OS, his wallet would just be a few grand lighter.

Of course, the fact that lots of tech-smart corporations actually pay big money for Linux kind of flies in the face of the implication that it's "free" because it sucks.
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Funny thing is, if it weren't free, he would probably have less trouble getting used to the software, because he would have invested in it monetarily, so he'd be more inclined to invest time-wise as well.

Whereas now, the implication (if it is that) is that "if it's for free, you should just be able to jump in and know how to use it from the get-go, otherwise the investment ratio doesn't make sense".
 
Installed Ubuntu on Wednesday. liking it so far. Yet to find anything major I want to do that I can't.
 
Using Mint 12 with the "new" Cinnamon Desktop (Gnome 3 Shell fork), and it's quite nice. All the software available from ubuntu, with a much more familiar desktop I am used to. Very nice. :)
 
I've been using Linux Mint 11 for a few months now, and I like it so far. I used Ubuntu for a few years before this, while I was still using Windows. I can do almost anything I want, except use my Brother printer or my webcam when talking with family or friends(I don't understand why they want to see my ugly face). I've been doing all I can to fix these problems, but I am stuck. I refuse to go back to Windows just because of these issues. I'm sure there is a solution somewhere, and I am studying Linux as much as possible to find out.
 
Zelenius said:
I've been using Linux Mint 11 for a few months now, and I like it so far. I used Ubuntu for a few years before this, while I was still using Windows. I can do almost anything I want, except use my Brother printer or my webcam when talking with family or friends(I don't understand why they want to see my ugly face). I've been doing all I can to fix these problems, but I am stuck. I refuse to go back to Windows just because of these issues. I'm sure there is a solution somewhere, and I am studying Linux as much as possible to find out.
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Printing with Linux is mostly done through CUPS, though it's still fallible.

And the last holdout as far as a pain-in-the-neck-to-configure is figuring out webcams.

The interesting thing I found out is that Win7 doesn't support my older notebook webcam, but Linux sure does. Go figure.
 
I bought a logitech USB webcam (el cheapo) and it works fine with an app called "Cheese" (Gnome).

Have yet to record anything because it has the flaw mentioned, it shows (moving, gasp) images of me! Not pretty.
 
Donn said:
I bought a logitech USB webcam (el cheapo) and it works fine with an app called "Cheese" (Gnome).

Have yet to record anything because it has the flaw mentioned, it shows (moving, gasp) images of me! Not pretty.
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My cam works fine in Cheese, but won't work in Kopete. I already have the image conversion program it says I need to install for it to work, but it still doesn't work. I keep getting an error message saying "Jasper" is needed but it is already installed(broken package? I tried to fix the package but still doesn't work). I had similar issues with my mic/head set, which was solved by buying a cheapo Logictech headset. Apparently, the old one wasn't supported by Linux.

I've never compiled or written programs for hardware before, but I am considering learning how to do all this. It can be frustrating, but it's also very rewarding.
 
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ubuntu, you're fired!

Sigh, I've been using ubuntu since the warthog days, because it 'just worked'.

I'd deferred updating from 10.10 because of this insane UI jiggery pokery (tried it, tried to put XFCE back, didn't work. The new UI seems to really want click-to-focus, rather than focus-follows). I'm glad I had a sacrificial machine to test with!

However today 10.10 decided it was time to update firefox, not for a bug fix but to go to 9.0 and consequently many web sites are unusable for me. The symptom is a lockup and some kind of timeout. and videos no longer work. I've turned off plugins (AdBlock + Ghostery), and tried reinstalling it to no avail. Synaptic refuses to let me lock to an earlier version too.

Just why would one update across several major firefox releases in a maintainance-mode release?

Going back to Fedora releases today, (rather than what I'd planned when 10.10 gets EOLed). I'll probably not bother doing the kernel recompiling I used to do :)
 
I have always been puzzled at the glowing reviews I've seen for Ubuntu. Between its broken security model (by default, knowing the primary user's password also gives you root access), its cluelessness over runlevels (1=single user, 2=3=5=GUI with full networking), and its tendency to break its own X configuration (I've spent hours sometimes trying to get flat panel monitors to work at their preferred resolution and get dual-heads working), I'm not impressed with it.

My preferred distro is Fedora, but it's not without its problems either. They push the envelope pretty hard, with the effect that fifteen years of experience in some area of Linux (init.d, networking, X setup) have a tendency to go out the window with each major release because Red Hat decided to toss the old model and bring in a totally new one. And you have to upgrade from time to time, because if you don't you can't get software to to compile any more. Authors use the latest and greatest releases, and it seems no one writes software these days with an eye to having it compile against older libraries.
 
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