How "making things simple" makes things complicated

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann It's nothing to do with generations: as I've said, I'm roughly the same age as Hazel. It's simply a matter of personality: I don't do crossword puzzles or sudoku either! But I do get a little tired of the air of superiority adopted by some Slackers… As Marion Bradley once wrote, it's good that everyone doesn't like the same things, or there'd be a terrible shortage of haggis.

more than any thing Slackers are control freaks when it comes to there computers
may be it's assuming every body knows this stuff or it's so simple
to us that makes Slackers seem like they feel Superior to non Slacker
hell I roll my own cigarettes because I like the tobacco for RYO better than the ready rolled cigarettes

Originally Posted by fido_dogstoyevsky I'm stuck with two bits of software I can't do without that I cannot run under Linux, if they worked with ReactOS then I could finally dump windows altogether and be purely GPL or BSD (I do prefer one to the other but can live with either).

What are those 2 softwares?
Cannot Wine run them cleanly? Is there no (FOSS) alternative?

Originally Posted by l0f4r0 What are those 2 softwares? Cannot Wine run them cleanly? Is there no (FOSS) alternative?

Both are proprietary software with no FOSS equivalent, neither likes Wine.

One talks to my (Garmin) satnav. I could live without this at the cost of classifying satnavs as disposable items by putting a dollar value on frustration. As soon as someone releases a unit with a web browser interface I'm buying one (that's an idea that Garmin, Tom Tom et al can use for free - I don't even want credit).

The other talks to DCC decoders (I like my model trains) via a proprietary bit of (ESU) hardware. I'm trying to convince myself that I can live without this, but I'm failing dismally.

For everything else I have FOSS software - sometimes better than the closed source alternatives, sometimes equivalent and sometimes not as good, but good enough to live with. Edit: Except Registax, which runs quite well under Wine.

Originally Posted by fido_dogstoyevsky One talks to my (Garmin) satnav. I could live without this at the cost of classifying satnavs as disposable items by putting a dollar value on frustration. As soon as someone releases a unit with a web browser interface I'm buying one (that's an idea that Garmin, Tom Tom et al can use for free - I don't even want credit).

https://developer.garmin.com/open-source/linux/ doesn't help?

Originally Posted by fido_dogstoyevsky The other talks to DCC decoders (I like my model trains) via a proprietary bit of (ESU) hardware. I'm trying to convince myself that I can live without this, but I'm failing dismally.

Have a look at JMRI and SPROG.

Originally Posted by jefro Automount was a huge thing way way way back when. It basically helped those like me that wouldn't have any internet help for the next 25 years.

Of course, traditional (autofs) based "automount", and the newer DE/file-manager based "auto-mounting" we see today are two very different things. The first is triggered by access, the latter by device availability.


I still prefer the old-school automounter's operation even today, however it lacks GUI integration: which is likely one of the main reasons why it fell out of use.

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann Have a look at JMRI and SPROG.

As far as I can see they can't be used for modifying or loading ESU sound files.

Originally Posted by l0f4r0 https://developer.garmin.com/open-source/linux/ doesn't help?

Just downloaded toolchain from the Garmin site but not tried it yet. Thanks.