In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Ron Briscoe wrote:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

[Big Snip]

There are modern RISC OS computers. Very high cost though.

Are you saying that a Raspberry Pi is expensive?

No. But it's not what most would consider a desktop computer. Or a laptop,
come to that. But certainly a cheap enough introduction.

You can buy a PiTop (laptop kit parts) for £190.99 (plus vat) from RS
and you then add your Rasberry Pi.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

On Fri, 16 Dec 2016 12:23:12 +0200, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

snip

After all, if *you* could do everything you wanted with just Linux you
wouldn't still be running Windows programs on Windows VMs or in WINE
would you eh. ;-)


I am down to just two CAD programs and they run better in a VM than they
ever did on native windows.

Whilst that's handy for you, it also helps prove my point that 'even
you' currently can't just use Linux. And that's fine, I use all sorts
of OS's for all sorts of things but what I don't do is advocate any
one as the best thing since sliced bread for *everyone*.

Say 'I prefer Linux' or 'I can't get Windows to work reliably' but
don't suggest that one OS is crap for everyone.

TBH I probably dnt even need Core Draw as
there are equally good vector graphics programs, but I am used to ot.

Quite, and that's a perfectly reasonable and rational thing to say.

3D CAD is the only thing I need windows for.

And repeating my point that you still *need* Windows ... and even as a
Linux advocate you are not alone.

But what you (advocates) are heard saying is 'all cars are cr*p, I'll
stick with my bike' but are happy to get a lift home in a car when
it's pouring with rain.

About once or twice a year these days.

But that is once or twice a year more than 'most Windows users' need
Linux for anything. And that's not a slur against Linux, it's a
statement of the way it is *because* Windows is the de facto desktop
OS and so 'of course' more programs and drivers will be written
directly for it and more hardware will be made with it in mind.

I would love to be able to find an instance where giving someone Linux
actually makes their day better or the usage of their machine easier
but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. But unlike you, I'm not a
Linux (or any OS for that matter) advocate and so (of course) help
people with whatever solution works best for *them*.

I'm only a advocate because life got better when I moved to Linux.

And that's fine, for you, but as an atheist I don't go up to believers
and call them names for making the choices they have or the ridiculing
their chosen way. You don't often see me calling Linux 'Linsux' or
'linux' but I regularly read 'Windoze' or 'Winblows' etc.

That was eary 2000's. Since the its just got easier.

For you. Ok, today I bought two 'so called' 256G SD cards and was keen
to test it. I downloaded H2testw on the W10 laptop, unzipped it, ran
it and was testing the first card with seconds.

I had a second PC (a little Atom netbook) and it boots Mint 18 Mate
faster than it boots XP so I booted into Mint because I had seen
mention on the site that mentioned H2testw that there was also
something for Linux. I started at http://oss.digirati.com.br/f3/ and
used a mixture of the CLI and Synaptic and readmes to try to do what
was required but got nowhere. So, I rebooted into XP and was soon
testing the second card on that. Same program unzipped and ran on a 13
yea old OS and the newest one with no 'difficulty'. That's the sort of
thing I come across all the time and that's why Linux isn't 'easier'
for me.

Now, when you have started to offer 'help' re getting that sort of
thing going your help strangely seems to stop very quickly. Some might
assume that means you don't have the solutions either ... and that's
fine but at least be 'a man' and admit that's the case, rather than
trying to keep up this false pretence that Linux is always 'easier'
than Windows, even for you. ;-)


If that happened
to be Linux (as it hasn't to the exclusion of Windows for the
must-have programs as yet), I would be very happy, well till it went
wrong and they *expected* me to be able to fix it. I have done so but
I was very much out of my depth, and that is in spite of building,
installing and maintaining PC's (and servers running Windows, Netware
and OS/2) for many many years.

It seems very little of the skill (that seemed to be more than
sufficient for every Co I've worked for or individual I've helped)
that I gained from dealing with DOS, CPM, Windows, OS2, Apple OS, OSX,
Netware or even Android has been any use to me re maintaining Linux.

I never maintain linux. I just hit the button and it updates.

If that's all you consider to be 'maintenance then no wonder you have
the wrong end of the stick. What if you were updating your Windows VM
and it took Linux out of disk space and it crashed ... and when you
rebooted it complained about having no space and after making some
space you found the Windows VM was corrupt? What would you do, call
someone in to fix it ... re-image the whole machine from the backup
you made hours earlier (like everyone does of course). *That* is the
sort of maintenance (of_the_system_when_broken) I am also including.

Its easier than windows.

Again, 'for you'. Unfortunately, every Linux machine I've installed
for others never seems to get updated *because* it doesn't happen
automatically (although I think some distros can now do some updates
automatically (after telling us for years why it wouldn't ever be that
way ... same with Mint and it's in-situ upgrades ...?).

OOI, if you had to take your Linux machine somewhere for repair (not
re-install), do you have such a place?

It doesn't demand to be rebooted.

It doesn't demand but does recommend that you do ... assuming you have
actioned the updates in the first place that is. ;-)



Maybe that was because MSDOS was simple and most of the rest could be
(mostly) maintained via the GUI which was easily explorable, unlike
the CLI?


No one uses the CLI in linux these days unless they are some kind of
purist geek or running a server with no screen.

Ok, install F3 for me from the GUI and tell me (us) how you did it as
I wasn't able to finish testing them round Mums and would like to set
them going here on Linux ...

(I wonder if this is where TNP goes quiet again g)

Cheers, T i m

On Fri, 16 Dec 2016 17:06:52 +0000 (GMT), charles
wrote:
snip

You can buy a PiTop (laptop kit parts) for £190.99 (plus vat) from RS
and you then add your Rasberry Pi.

I've looked at those a couple of times because I've always wanted a
'laptop' that I could completely look after myself (inc a good access
to spare parts etc).

However, I'm not sure how much use I would be able to make out of a
portable Pi3b (even) based machine?

Now, if there was something like that that also ran Windows them many
I could justify it a bit more (as my greatest use of 'portable'
machines in running OBD stuff and most of it is Windows only). ;-(

Cheers, T i m

On Wed, 14 Dec 2016 21:29:07 +0000, T i m wrote:

On 14 Dec 2016 21:01:23 +0000 (GMT), Theo
wrote:

T i m wrote:
So, plug it into a Pi3 and share it but is it supported by Linux?

Yes, there's a CUPS driver. It's even written by Dymo:
http://www.dymo.com/en-GB/dymo-label...ups-linux-p--1

Cool. ;-)

Works on the Pi too:
https://www.hmazter.com/2013/05/rasp...or-labelwriter

Nice walk through (at first glance) and I will be a good test to see
just how comprehensive it is. ;-)

I spent the best part of half a day today, going through that walk
through (the fact that it was a Pi1b didn't help the speed) and it
mostly seemed to work. My eyes aren't brilliant and my copy-typing is
even worse but I only made a few typos that I eventually corrected
(spotting the errors etc).

I got the Dymo driver downloaded and installed and CUPS configured via
a text html client (links2) but that's where it started to go a bit
awry. It initially looked like the print driver had been installed but
then it had gone, so because I hate the CLI (for reasons given above)
I installed webmin and after following some other walkthroughs (that
covered adding SAMBA so the Windows PC's could see the printer etc)
and resetting passwords that hadn't seemed to be taken (or asked for),
managed to get it all working!

So, I can SSH into the Pi with Putty (but am still stuck with the CLI.
I can get into CUPS remote admin (with the user 'root'?) and can get
into Webmin now back with the std Raspbian defaults.

I've got another Pi3b on the way and that might make the remote
consoles a bit quicker and give me WiFi if I want to make the Pi /
printer fully portable around the house. That will give me a chance to
go though it all again and see if it goes smoother. Rather than using
webmin ... a long time ago you could just type 'startx' and have a gui
for configuring stuff but not have it start automaticaly at bootup?

I was thinking of designing and printing a 3D base that contained the
Pi and a 24 to 5V buck converter so I can plug the Dymo 450 PSU into
the new 'base' and there would be a flying lead back to power the
printer (24V) and a short USB cable.

Cheers, T i m