[geeks] thinkpad os help needed

[Michael Parson]

On Mon, 7 Jan 2019, Jordan Geoghegan wrote:
> On 01/07/19 13:41, Sandwich Maker wrote:
>> 1. longshot, and straying somewhat far from topic - following a round
>> of os patches, my t500 running w7ultimate can no longer run explorer;
>> one or more of its libs got 'upgraded'... anyone have a w7u install
>> dvd they could send my way? this thing came without media.
>
> Microsoft has Win7 install media available on their website, it just
> requires your product key for verification. This link here should
> work: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows7

There is also a 'make install USB stick' utility that you can download
from MS and run on any other Win10 box to make yourself an installer
drive.

>> 2. more on point, anyone know of any other os besides windows which
>> support the thinkpad trackpointer? it seems to be a pretty box-stock
>> intel reference design otherwise, and i suspect a lot of os would run
>> on it. i'd *like* to run s9 or s10, but not without the tp.
>
> OpenBSD should support the clit mouse. I know the OpenBSD devs dogfood
> hard on their thinkpads, so I would be surprised if there wasn't
> support for it.

I'm running Fedora on my two Thinkpads (T430s for home, X1 Carbon (6th
gen) for work).

>> 2a. i'll also be looking for a unix/linux [whatever] replacement for
>> itunes. the only features i care about relate to its disc-ripping
>> abilities:
>> * 'joinig' tracks so they rip into a single file
>> * rip to aiff
>> * select params like bit and sample rates when ripping to mp3
>> * ability to re-rip aiff files to mp3
>> any suggestion?  i suppose i could just run itunes in wine.
> iTunes is bad juju, if you're gonna run a media ripper solution on Wine, at 
> least use foobar2000.

I've not really investigated MP3 ripping in a long while, though I think
I looked into Amarok as an MP3 manager once.  I'll dig into that more
when I wipe macOS off my 2009 iMac due to no longer getting updates for
it from Apple.

> I personally use the 'cdio' uitility in the OpenBSD base system to grab the 
> raw .wav tracks off the CD's, then I encode them as FLAC or vorbis as needed.

A bunch of years ago, I used 'abcde' (A Better CD Encoder) to rip most
of my CDs to mp3.

-- 
Michael Parson
Pflugerville, TX
KF5LGQ