Tag Archives: linux

You May Be a Computer Elitist Snob

Posted on February 25, 2011 by ehurst

I love people. They are far more important to me than anything else on this plane of existence. When complete strangers ask me to help with their computers, I’m glad for the chance to do something good for another human. … Continue reading →

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Open Source GUIs Are Awful

Posted on February 25, 2011 by ehurst

I’ve been studying this pretty closely for about fifteen years now, and I find the development of the Open Source GUI, particularly on Linux, is really depressing. I no longer suggest Linux to folks because I care too much about … Continue reading →

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Debian Squeeze: Browser Wars

Posted on February 20, 2011 by ehurst

All browsers suck. Some suck less than others, but none of them are actually good. (Note the sarcasm warning.) I’ve been testing and tweaking the various graphical browsers available for Debian Squeeze: Iceweasel, Epiphany, Iceape, Opera and Google Chrome. The … Continue reading →

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Basic Computer Help Service

Posted on February 16, 2011 by ehurst

This is an outline of what I do when people bring me a computer which isn’t working properly. Aside from undoing mistakes and diagnosing hardware failures, most of it consists of cleaning up the operating system. There are no secrets … Continue reading →

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PySol on Debian Squeeze

Posted on February 5, 2011 by ehurst

PySol is not in the repository for Squeeze, but it is for Lenny and Sid. I have read several discussions and the bug reports, but aside from a supposed lack of maintainer, the only issue with PySolFC is making sure … Continue reading →

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No Debian for the Clueless

Posted on February 1, 2011 by ehurst

It crossed my mind I could start a new project. Given Debian was about to release their newest — “Squeeze” 6.0 — and I wanted to install it on my laptop, it seemed I might write a few articles here … Continue reading →

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RHEL 6 for the Clueless: LibreOffice as Update

Posted on January 28, 2011 by ehurst

Today Red Hat issued a security update for Open Office on all three versions which had it (4, 5, & 6). If you don’t have access to RHN, you would be crazy to try building it from the SRPM. Frankly, … Continue reading →

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Not Migrating: Windows Security Considerations

Posted on January 25, 2011 by ehurst

Just because I’m convinced Linux has a better security posture than Windows does not mean Windows is useless. And sometimes you just don’t need that much control to get things done. Frankly, a badly configured Linux box is as easily … Continue reading →

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Sanity and Self-Sufficiency

Posted on January 23, 2011 by ehurst

In a previous post, I noted my interest in Linux and Open Source was primarily a matter of self-sufficiency, though I phrased it as a matter of having control over my computer. People want such control when they are ready … Continue reading →

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RHEL 6 for the Clueless: More Servers

Posted on January 19, 2011 by ehurst

Because RHEL is essentialy an industrial grade commercial product, you’d have to expect it can run more types of server than most people would ever need. We covered the Samba server in a previous lesson as the most common need … Continue reading →

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