Notes from the Mousepad

How about replicating an installed package list this way:

dpkg --get-selections | grep '[[:space:]]install$' | awk '{print $1}' > packagelist.txt on the old machine,

then:
sudo apt-get -u install `cat packagelist.txt` on new machine,

That should work. Only disadvantage is that you’d have to download the installed packages from the ‘net onto the new machine, rather than having them available via a CD. The advantage, of course, is that you have burnt one less CD, and will automatically download the most recent version of your packages.

Apt on CD looks pretty awesome for For x/k/ed/ubuntu and debian users . . . There’s got to be a way to back up all of your installed .debs without the gui, but this will be useful for most desktop users. And I like how it allows you to share the packages that you already have installed with other folks. Something like this would come in handy for Xubuntu, which isn’t installed with a very rich set of multimedia apps, for example.

From this wikipedia article:

Much like Windows XP Starter Edition, [Windows Vista Starter] will be limited to emerging markets such as Brazil, Colombia, India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, mainly to offer a legal alternative to using unauthorized copies. It will not be available in the United States, Canada, Europe, or Australia.[4] It will have many significant limitations, such as only allowing a user to launch three applications with a user interface at once, not accepting incoming network connections, a physical memory limit of 256 MB, and will run only in 32-bit mode.[5] Additionally, only AMD’s Duron, Sempron and Geode processors, and Intel’s Celeron and Pentium III processors are supported.

This is one of the reasons why I’m glad GNU/Linux is available in versions that are both free as in freedom, and in versions that are free as in beer. It’s sad that Microsoft considers Windows Vista Starter an acceptable way to cater to emerging (read: third world?) markets. No wonder GNU/Linux is seeing much greater levels of acceptance in other countries compared to the U.S. – who would want to pay for an operating system with so many restrictions tacked on top of it?

I went to the organizational meeting for Free Geek Chicago last Wednesday night, and got pretty inspired about what the group doing.

Free Geek Chicago is kind of like Habitat for Humanity, but for computers. Basically, people can work at the facility for 20 hours (over several weeks), and then earn a free computer. People can also buy computers from us, but for the most part it is kind of like a work-study program because your 20 hours of volunteering is spent learning about computers. You learn how to do an initial test of a computer, take a computer apart, test the individual components, put the computer back together, install an OS, and then do a final test of everything to make sure it works. We also test all RAM, and use a drive-wiping program to remove all data from the hard drives that people have donated.

Because we’re working with computers that have been donated by people, the computers are usually at least a few years old, and aren’t exactly super powerful. Still, we usually get decent PII’s and PIII’s, which certainly have enough horsepower to do most day-to-day tasks. Our distro of choice is currently Xubuntu, so it’s nice to see Xubuntu being used to benefit others.

If anyone in the Chicago area has a computer that they’d like to donate, or would like to volunteer at Free Geek Chicago, please visit the Free Geek website via the link above. We’d be glad to have your help and support.

In regards to Dell’s explorations/websites/surveys regarding Linux on the desktop… I think it’s good they’re asking, but I don’t expect something soon. And if it happens, I don’t think that we’ll see any discount on computers because of them having Linux on the desktop. And I don’t expect any support from Dell (or anyone else) if they (or another major PC builder) puts Linux on the desktop.

For me, the cost item isn’t a big issue because you can already get a computer for $500-$600 that is plenty powerful to do anything you need (except for maybe gaming). And the lack of Dell (or whatever company) support isn’t a big deal to me because we all know how to get on IRC or go to a forum for our support. That’s where the best support comes from, anyway.

To me, the issues are hardware compatibility, having a free-as-in-freedom OS, and getting another option other than Microsoft, and I would actually be willing to pay a bit more for those things. Maybe $50 more for a $600 computer. After all, if I spend two hours trying to set up a wifi connection because the wifi hardware isn’t totally compatible, isn’t that worth at least $20? If I have to do some tricky work to get suspend / resume working, isn’t that worth another $20-$25? And being able to completely wipe my drive and take off Novell’s Suse Linux because I want to put on Xubuntu, but still have everything work . . . Isn’t that worth a few more bucks?

If it takes a few more dollars to make Linux on the desktop financially viable for the hardware vendors, then I’d be willing to pay it.