LinuxQuestions.org - Feedback on New Q&A column on OpenSource.com

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Because LMDE is based on Debian, it is super-stable!
I use it on my main PC and I've never encountered even a slight buglet!
I find it's much more straightforward (with the Cinnamon DE) than Ubuntu.

Quite amusing about that youthful bit!
I started out with FORTRAN, COBOL (on punched cards), then PL/1 followed by RPG
I was in my 50's before I even tipped my toes in the Linux water.
First tried Mandrake/Mandriva on a dual boot set-up.
This was rather unstable.
Tried Ubuntu, but they kept mucking about with the DE; final straw was Unity.
So I tried Mint - which is still very good; but its not a rolling release so major upgrades require a complete re-install.

LMDE is no harder to install or use than Mint but it is a rolling release.
Do give it a try.

Jeremy Boden: Did you start writing the column yet? I took a look a couple of times, but did not see it.

I think he's confused, in that he thinks you're jeremy who runs the site.

Gents, jeremy asked for feedback on his column, could we kindly keep this one on topic, rather than commenting on Linux or distributions, etc.? I myself am interested to see the ideas that come up as well.

I've already asked once for this thread to stay on topic. I just posted the second article to the new column.

https://opensource.com/business/16/9...et-programmers

If there's interest, I can also post the content here to LQ. Thanks to @josephj for the suggestion, I've updated your account to Contributing Member. Keep the feedback coming.

--jeremy

Smell that coffee !

Quote:

Originally Posted by fixer1234 (Post 5585316)

Linux poses challenges for non-technical people that are different from those faced by computer-savy newcomers. The kind of orientation and paradigm shift that would be especially useful to non-technical people requires discussion that is too long to fit well in a forum or Q&A format. Something like a series of blog posts would be better suited (collectively, they would make good chapters of a book). Consider making that a part of the endeavor.

Impressively presented, good show!
I totally relate to this, from BOTH points of view.
I was computer-savvy when I made the switch to a mousy-GUI Linux, and found the transition fairly easy.
Now, having been away from civilisation for quite some time, I have returned to find that I am only moderately computer-savvy (and that only when compared to the illiterate dumbed-downs my kids' generation produced); Linux has circled back to being command-driven, and I often feel much like an 80s noob trying to comprehend DOS (again).
The orientation of ex-savvies will bolster their failing spirits when confronted with the new paradigm; if they did it before, they can do it again. I'd wager the bulk of non-technical people, however, will take one look at the current Linux madhouse and head straight back to Winblows.
I started a blog on LQ, "Linux 001", for newbies, non-techs, and returning warriors aghast at the mess, like myself. It would certainly turn into a book, or at least a manual, for us determined morons who cling to the belief that Linux is the last great hope for cybermankind, and that the pains taken to repatriate ourselves will all be worth it some day.

Bad links in 5610128 not tooooo bad.....

[QUOTE=goumba;5610128]................. (links) >> How to become a hacker
Getting started in system administration - As a Linux user, you are the administrator! [endQUOTE]

That first one is false advertising, but brill ! The site is actually a verbose-but-Buckleyesque historical treatise on the hacker language and culture; unimpeachable, fascinating, from someone who knows their stuff!
That second one looked worthwhile, but I am only getting a "page not found" error. {8--(

Goumba rules.

I've posted the latest column to LQ. Keep the feedback for future entries coming.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ct-4175590677/

--jeremy

Think this will never work proper

Quote:

Originally Posted by jc1742 (Post 5584994)

One of the problems I've had from the very beginning is one that can easily be dismissed as "not really a linux problem", but it's an ongoing problem for anyone trying to diagnose problems on a failing system: I have a collection of boot CDs and USB drives, but it can take a lot of tries to guess how to tell a given box's boot loader to boot from one of them. The hardware folks have done a good (i.e., bad) job of making PC-like boxes inconsistent in how this most basic of all startup code works. I wouldn't be surprised if someone has collected a pile in info on the topic, but I haven't found it. Is there (or would it be possible to start a project to create) a collection of the various ways that one wakes up a box and tells it to boot from file system X on gadget Y?

Linux does get involved in this in an important way: Since linux has drivers for nearly every kind of file system that's every existed, and has the original unix/posix low-level binary access capability needed for troubleshooting and repair, it's often the support guy's system of choice to diagnose and fix problems on lots of non-linux boxes, especially those running Microsoft systems, but also various others. But doing this effectively requires knowing the magic key sequences that bring up a portable linux system on a plugin file system.

I first got involved in this back in the early 1980s, before linux existed, when I worked at a company that had a big central IBM system with VM and lots of OSs. The engineering staff all used unix systems, and we got a release of unix that ran on VM. I found myself writing software that could "mount" disk partitions from other OSs, run diagnostics on them, and often fix problems. The IBMers, of course, hated us for this, but their favorite OSs mostly rejected such partitions on the ground that they were damaged. Unix didn't care, and would accept any partition as a binary file, which our software could read and write on a sector basis.. Since then, I've often got involved in similar tasks on smaller machines that don't have an equivalent of IBM's VM system. This results in the usual problems of wildly inconsistent ROM boot software, with never any documentation in sight. It'd be very useful if we could do something to fight this problem.

(Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised if others are working on such problems. But google seems to be no help in finding them, probably because they don't use consistent terminology to describe what they're doing. ;-)

I think the problem is in one way round that people doesn't know the other people who work on this what could be sorted and solved by a thread like this but the other guys that develop some more secured Hardware will ever get in with new ways to make it safer and they will, by doing this ever, keep lots of poeple out, as they trust them not. This will create ever the problems above and worse. I think only about EFI for example. But I wish it gets sorted as it is today.

Being a newbie how can I contribute to Open Source projects?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ach Shah (Post 5633923)

Being a newbie how can I contribute to Open Source projects?

You should start your own thread in 'programming' and ask that. This thread was started by someone else for another discussion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by szboardstretcher (Post 5633925)

Originally Posted by Ach Shah View Post
Being a newbie how can I contribute to Open Source projects?

You should start your own thread in 'programming' and ask that. This thread was started by someone else for another discussion.

I disagree. I think that's a valid proposal for a Q&A column topic.

That said, I do believe opensource.com has an article on that very topic in the pipeline, so stay tuned Ach Shah.

:doh:

I disagree with myself as well. Actually a great question for this thread, and one that people ask a lot. Didn't see the other page before I replied.

Quote:

Originally Posted by notKlaatu (Post 5633934)

I disagree. I think that's a valid proposal for a Q&A column topic.

That said, I do believe opensource.com has an article on that very topic in the pipeline, so stay tuned Ach Shah.

I'd agree it would be a great topic for The Queue, although if it's already being covered elsewhere on Opensource.com that probably means I won't cover it. Thanks for the suggestion.

--jeremy