[juneau-lug] Re: Linux advice for newcomer
- From: Kevin Miller <atftb2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: juneau-lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:28:45 -0900
On 12/15/2009 09:51 PM, Larry Hurlock wrote:
> Am new to Linux. Installed Kubuntu 9.04 and satified with progress
> to date. I have a working system, but would like some tips: 1. What
> is the best media player combination to view/listen to CD's and
> DVD's?
I use mostly SUSE but it's similar to Kubuntu. My player preference for
music is amarok. For DVDs you'll probably have to install libdvdcss
which may be a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (aka
DMCA) in the US. I generally watch video footage in smplayer (I think
that's mplayer w/an improved interface) or VNC. Both work well. I
haven't tried to watch commercial DVDs on this box in several years.
Would rather sit comfortably on the couch and watch them on the big screen.
> To burn same?
K3B.
> What is best way to install these, SynapticMgr or PackageKit?
Don't have either of those on SUSE, but use whatever you're comfortable
with. They'll both probably pull from the same repositories - just
present a different user interface. On my Debian system at work I
usually use apt, but will sometimes use Synaptic.
> 2. My Epson Perfection 1240 scanner (which ran beautifully under my
> old system, Win98 running under Dell 700Mhz machine w/256 RAM) will
> work using xscanimage, but marginally. Xscanimage seems a limited
> graphical interface, and I have tried all combination of settings.
> Xscanimage identifies the scanner correctly, and it scans quickly
> enough. But even viewed on the screen using the GIMP image editor
> which came with Kubuntu, the output seem light and ragged.
Try xsane. I've had pretty good luck scanning with it. Pretty flexible
and as nice an interface as any I've used on Windows systems.
> Of course the machine came with a complete set of Windows programs
> to run it, and I do not expect the same functionality with Linux.
Why not? I would. Even more actually. There are few programs in
Windows that I miss in Linux. For the most part, it does all and more
that Windows boxes do. Sometimes you have to hunt around to find the
right fit though. There's a lot of half baked programs out there and
some real jewels.
> Final printed output is tolerable if I jump to 600 dpi scan and then
> a 600 dpi printout -- through the GIMP image editor. However the
> fonts printing out to the HP 1150 printer are ragged, even when dark
> enough.
>
> Have identified the printer to the system, but printing through GIMP
> seems to do little more than get the printer to act in the most
> simplistic default ways. Must confess that I am don't know enough to
> even guess why the same scanner/printer worked so well until now.
> True, my knowledge of fonts, PostScript, etc is zip.
Shouldn't have to print through the GIMP, unless you're talking just
about scanned images. If that's the case, the printer will only do as
well as the source image. If it's dicey, the printout will be too. If
you print from other programs I'd expect it to be good. Remember that a
scanned document is a graphic image, not a stream of alphanumeric
characters. A letter in a graphic image is just a bunch of pixels. In
a normal document or email or something, it's a specific character.
> If anyone can help with any of the above, would be appreciated.
> Guesses are fine, and more detailed background info will be supplied
> immediately if needed.
Hope this is of some help.
> Thanks,
>
> Larry Hurlock
>
> PS: The printer does fine printing from the Internet.
Ayup. Garbage in, garbage out. And the converse is true as well - good
input, good output.
> Hardware: Dell 360 (2004 vintage) -- 2.8, 1G, 80G. Epson 1240
> Scanner. HP 1150 Printer. HP dvd 1270 24x Multiformat Writer.
> Software: Kubuntu 9.04
That's close to what I'm running. Just upgraded from 1 mb to 1.5
tonight. Rendering videos can take a while, but other than that it's
plenty of machine for most tasks. Darn it. I'd love to get one of
those quad-core, 4 GB smokehouses at Costco, but just can't justify it. :-)
...Kevin
--
Kevin Miller - http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
In a recent survey, 7 out of 10 hard drives preferred Linux
Registered Linux User No: 307357, http://counter.li.org
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