[geeks] And The Linux Weenies Wonder Why They Aren't Mainstream...

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 01:16:09AM -0600, Bill Bradford wrote:
> Ubuntu, with the EasyUbuntu add-on for the multimedia codecs, etc?

I though of that, but I wanted the eye candy of KDE. I also wanted an
RPM based distribution as I am used to it. Ubuntu is based on Debian and
Gnome.

The other problem with Ubuntu is "critical mass". From my hasty exploration,
I found that Fedora has the most varied support from other people.

I do like Ubuntu and have recommended it to people with no linux 
experience. It's a well thought out package, it just has different aims
than I do. 

So far, I've been very happy with Fedora. The biggest problem was there
is no package available for FireFox 1.5. There are several RPMs but one
required a library I could not locate and the other was incomplete, it
installed half way and left me with an unusable FireFox.

In the end it turned out that Xine did all that I wanted for media files
except play TV. I think it does that, but I never set it up. Xine even
plays multi sound channel DVDs correctly. I had a lot of fun with a 
THX demo DVD and Pink Floyd's DSOTM.

Red Hat included a program called TVTime which works fine for now. 

Eventualy I will put a larger hard disk on the computer and connect it
for real to a (TV) program source instead of a coax on the floor across
my living room to my kitchen table. Then I might want to run MythTV or
some other mpeg recorder. 

If I were going to do it from scratch, I would have bought a DVD video
recorder so that my wife could operate it. However the computer (P4
1.7gHz) was free, I had to add the hard disk and replace the sound card
because Linux did not support the original card well. I had a ten gig
hard drive and a good four channel card already as "spare parts".

The person who gave me the computer was moving back to the U.S. and was
going to take her TV card with her. When I took it out, I noticed it had
a PAL B/G tuner on it and offered her $45 for it. I figured I could not
get one that cheap new here and she could get a correct one in the U.S.
for that. 

It also has a nice video card with an Nvidia chipset and an S-Video out.
There is too little VRAM on the card to play my son's games, but there is
more than enough for watching TV.

Geoff.
-- 
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