- wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

Committee meeting minutes
by Craig Box 20 Jul '04

20 Jul '04

Hi everyone, Another month, another committee meeting; to check we're all worthy of re-election in the upcoming (September) AGM, check out the minutes at http://www.wlug.org.nz/CommitteeMeetingTopics.2004-07-21. Also, I've wikied Gavin's summary of the DSE computer expo at http://www.wlug.org.nz/DickSmithElectronicsComputerExpo. Regards, Secretary Reminder Bot

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DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got the T-Shirt
by Gavin Denby 20 Jul '04

20 Jul '04

May I offer my hearty congratulations to all those who both helped out and those who popped in and said hi, hundreds of Open Office CD's as well as Knoppix /morphix CD's were given away, Many people had a first look at open source, and Hundreds of WLUG brochures were taken by interested people. DSE staff tell me they had a really good weekend with PC sales, and the response from staff was that it went well and they felt positive about doing something like it again. (They Had some good specials so I dont think we get the credit for this) Sunday saw Bruce bring in the OS Revolution video which was played on a PC in store, It got a lot of interest, and helped us move CD's and flyers. Also Bruce and family set up some addictive games and got the kids playing, as a result there will be a lot of new frozen bubble players wanting to boot up linux for another game. I found people very responsive, and pleased to know that there was some choice in NZ, they were also very keen to realize that Kiwi's were involved in Linux and Open Source projects, and that we had a group here in the Waikato. It was a very pleasant way to spend a day. A lot of people also were very interested in the more technical aspects of linux, and what it could do, and some with older PC's were pleased to learn of projects such as Feather and other minimal Linux's for their boxes. We also discussed hardware, and what would work best in a linux/windows PC. Staff asked us to assist with questions, and seemed happy to have our experience and independence there for customers to bounce ideas off. In short, if there was a PC question on Linux, we probably heard it. Great work team. We showed the best face to the community, and came across well. You earned your shirts, wear them with pride. Thanks also to Chris and Ross from DSE for allowing us to be involved, we hope that DSE and their Customers got as much from the weekend as we did. Also well done Daniel and the rest of the committee for organizing all this and making is flow for those of us who did a shift. I'm going to bed now with a new respect for those in retail who are on their feet all day, and spend all day trying to help people with their problems. Again well done to all who gave up time to help out. Look out for new sign ups to the mail list.

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Suse Live CD
by Oliver Jones 20 Jul '04

20 Jul '04

Howdy Guys I've always wanted to have a look at SuSE but don't have too much time to frig around installing it etc so the Live CD version looks like the ideal plaything. Anyone got a copy of this? I'd rather not give Telecom more money than it deserves and on business ADSL they really ask us to bend over. So if someone is willing to send me a copy I would be most appreciative. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Director » oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 Deeper Design Limited » +64 (7) 377 3328 » www.deeperdesign.com

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FW: [wlug] Linux Distro comments
by Chris Day 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

I'm working on over 30 new products on for the retail channel. We are just working on a RealTek Gigabit PCI NIC. Plugged it into a box with FC2 loaded and spent another 15~20 min getting FC2 to work with the card. Its a multiboot desktop - so tried MDK 10 & MDK 9.2 - they both detected the card and autoconfigured it. My point is not how we went about it or other technical things to do with various distro's. We look at things from a consumers point of view - have to, we get the calls when it doesn't work. Mandrake will, 8 times out of 10, work with many of the products that just should work with Linux. Actually, Knoppix is pretty good also - between the 2 of them, we can generally get most of the tings that should work, to go. To put it another way, if I have to spend the companies money on development in getting a device going with a distro, I'll chose the latest edition of Mandrake knowing that we will also be able to get it working with Knoppix once we have nailed MDK. My 2c Regards, Chris...

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FW: MYOB Accounting Package Registration
by lindsay 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

Come on gang... Surely there's someone else who uses MYOB... Let's make the market big enough to justify a Linux release... -----Original Message----- From: Jamie_Macintosh(a)myob.co.nz [mailto:Jamie_Macintosh@myob.co.nz] On Behalf Of sales(a)myob.co.nz Sent: Monday, 19 July 2004 15:26 To: Lindsay Druett Subject: Re: MYOB Accounting Package Registration Hi Lindsay As fare as I'm aware there are no plans to make the product work on a linux based system, Unfortunately there is just not a big enough market to justify a linux release. Thank you, Kind regards, MYOB Sales Advice Phone: 0800 60 69 62 Fax: 0800 94 96 96 Email: sales(a)myob.co.nz http://www.myob.co.nz Lindsay Druett <lindsay(a)wired.net.nz> 16/07/2004 09:36 p.m. To: sales(a)myob.co.nz cc: Subject: Re: MYOB Accounting Package Registration Another question... Is there any plans to develop MYOB so that it runs on a Linux platform (using X-Windows such as KDE, Gnome, etc) as well as Microsoft Windows ? sales(a)myob.co.nz wrote: > > Dear Lindsay > > Thanks for your email, > > We are very sorry for the inconvenience and we are working on the > website issues regarding registrations, I however will forward this on > to the appropriate persons. > > Thank you for your insite, > > Kind regards, > MYOB Sales Advice > Phone: 0800 60 69 62 > Fax: 0800 94 96 96 > Email: sales(a)myob.co.nz > http://www.myob.co.nz > > > > > >

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Re: Re: [Fwd: [wlug] Yoper V2 final released]
by Stephen Pearce 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

Sorry to bother you again, Could I send my Hamilton mate around to you to pick up that modem and the Yoper cd please .. if so .. what phone number and/or address shall I give him? Thanks Stephen > > From: Gavin Denby <redhat(a)ihug.co.nz> > Date: 2004/07/15 Thu PM 10:01:46 GMT+12:00 > To: pearce(a)ieee.org, > Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: Re: [Fwd: [wlug] Yoper V2 final released] > > Pulling it now from the nz website > > should be here in a couple of hours. > > I'll be onsite at dse in hamilton on sunday 10-4. if you wanted to pick > it up. saves postage > > > > Stephen Pearce wrote: > > Has anyone downloaded this to cd .. > > I recently tried to down load from the nz web site > > but was unsuccessful .. possibly due to internal > > problems from the site I was trying to dl from .. > > is there anyone who would make me a copy .. I pay/ > > refund media and postage costs > > tnx > > Stephen > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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RE: [wlug] DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got theT-Shirt
by Gund Wehsling 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

Hi For home users who are not LINUX friendly or technical, I would like to highly recommend SUSE 9.1 Personal. Single CD install, detects all my 'funny' hardware at home, no complicated install Q's, has simple desktop with a browser, mail client, OOo. Can be mistaken for XP by the untrained eye. My apologies if this has been covered before, I am new to this list. It is a free download from www.novell.com. Just my 0.02c -----Original Message----- From: Gavin Denby [mailto:redhat@ihug.co.nz] Sent: Monday, 19 July 2004 1:13 p.m. To: Waikato Linux Users Group Subject: Re: [wlug] DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got theT-Shirt Update to my last. I popped into DSE today to sort out some final bits, and on the way home called in to the PC company, they are selling off a lot of old stock and new machines, bit all are OS free, Apparently, many people object to paying the $150.00 tax to Microsoft when all they want to do surf the net,e-mail and type the odd letter. Many are asking about linux, we discussed the usual modem issues, but as they can get and sell some cheep serial modem to overcome this I think there may be plan developing. Anyway I am dropping off some copies of the WLUG brochure, and taking some distros in, and we will look at the possibility of me preloading some machines for them. I am thinking Knoppix for testing devices, mandrake for new users (lots of software) I wonder about fedora, and maybe Xandros community as these will show up at lug meetings looking for a ... how do I .... ??? I also would consider Yoper/CollegeLinux /Debian .. in fact anything that will work as long as the support is there either from the wider community or the LUG, but I suspect many people will want to bring these to a lug meeting, rather than use a forum, at least at the beginning. I know we just did an installfest, so what was the experience, and what would be a good distro for a new user, if the Lug is to offer support. Its the last part ... Helping the new user, that is of most concern. I pushed WLUG as an issue, since there will be a learning curve. I would appreciate helpful comments here, but the tide is turning, and people are looking for a Linux for their home PC. Its time to see if We are ready to step up to the Plate. This is not an excuse for a distro war, rather a chance to say what we can help new users with. Gavin Denby wrote: > May I offer my hearty congratulations to all those who both helped out > and those who popped in and said hi, hundreds of Open Office CD's as > well as Knoppix /morphix CD's were given away, Many people had a first > look at open source, and Hundreds of WLUG brochures were taken by > interested people. > > _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: [wlug] Linux Distro comments
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 19 Jul '04

19 Jul '04

I made the micro$ comment in ignorance. My apologies. Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > * Greig McGill <greig(a)hamiltron.net> [2004-07-19 12:34]: > > Please quit with the "MickeySoft" and micro$oft. > > We are a group who lists advocacy as one of its goals. > > Good advocates do not descend to name calling. > > Thank you for saying it.

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Re: [wlug] DSE powerhouse - Read the Book, Saw the Movie, Got the T-Shirt
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 18 Jul '04

18 Jul '04

Hi All, Might as well add my own views. The first Linux I started was Mandrake 9.2 It nearly installed properly on the fourth install (due to user incompetence) I liked what The programme did but found it difficult to find information that I could relate to when I needed to install or amend some thing. Shortly after I went to the install fest and installed the fedora core 1 system. This was frought with problems even the people at the meeting were not able to resolve all the issues so I waited for Fedora core 2 Which is now installed. I think that if I was not so determined to eventually figure this out (even if I do have to nag you guys to death :)) I would have returned to the micro$ fold by now. However I am still dual booting windows/fedora The problem I see is that of dumbing down linux will attract even more dopey sods like myself So you need to be able to have a simple programme that can be supported by most of you... ----- Original Message Follows ----- > Jonathan Purvis wrote: > > > I'd recommend against new users running Debian (dispite > > my running in at work and home) for the following > reasons: > > > * Unstable is unstable[1] and stable is very out of > date at the moment > > > * X configuration is horrible/non-existant > > * If you forget to load the module for your network > > card early on in the installer, it won't ask you for > > network configuration and you'll have to spend half an > > hour hunting down the required configuration files * > dselect lets you remove dpkg > > I'd tend to agree with these points, I personally run > debian and and had forgotten these things as stuff long > gone but from a new user these are quite possibly > relative points. > > That being said some of these points may not be such an > issue on a pre-installed machine > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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DSE powerhouse - A huge thank you to all
by Chris Day 18 Jul '04

18 Jul '04

On behalf of DSE(NZ)Ltd, I wish to express our appreciation to those who participated in the recent DSE Powerhouse weekend. Our goal was to provide consumers (and staff) with an overview of what GNU/OpenSource is all about. Despite the lack of forward advise and some planning on our part, I believe this was a job well done by the participants and all those others who offered online support & advise - it is really great to see such enthusiasm. From our perspective, the demand for software like GNU/Linux & OpenOffice is building steadily and it really is great to see community involvement like this. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and are here to offer assistance where we can. Kind regards, Chris Day Senior Buyer DSE(NZ)Ltd

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