[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting Sunday + a bit more

[Bobbie Sellers]

On 09/28/2017 02:18 PM, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

Snip

>      A lot of the Linux compatible browsers you mention are not available in
> the PCLinuxOS64 repositories though I am thinking of seeing if I can get
> Lynx from the said repositories.
> PCLinuxOS is, as I'm sure you know, unusual among rpm-based
> distributions in using the apt suite for package management.
> My guess is that this is why there are (to my knowledge) no third-party
> RPM repos for PCLinuxOS, as there are for Mandriva, Fedora, etc., etc.
>
> However, what I hear is that you can (1) install kpackage, and then (2)
> select and use rpms from third-party repos for Mandriva (which is rather
> compatible on account of PCLinuxOS's history as a fork of Mandriva).

     Thanks for that information but a lot of the old Mandriva stuff 
must be obsolete or superseded by
now and I would look at Mageia repositories first.
> Worth trying, anyway.
     When I have time.
>
> Third-party repos are indexed by distro at:
> http://rpm.pbone.net/
> http://plf.zarb.org/
> http://rpmlinux.org/
>
> Discussion of the matter that starts out with the usual 'We officially
> don't recommend this, but blah blah...'
> http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=130093.0
     Thanks again for the tip.

>>      Well I like full featured stuff as well but will use as many
>> browsers as the OS and the hardware can manage.  I do not care for
>> Google Chrome and its Google dependence but I have it on the hard disk
>> and if someone comes up with something that GC is good for or that
>> only can be seen/heard with GC I might start it up despite my personal
>> feelings.
> I really don't know why people keep talking about the proprietary Google
> Chrome browser but inevitably forget about _Chromium_, the open-source Web
> browser of which Google Chrome is an odd and (IMO) generally less-desirable
> variant.

     Well I mention it because PCLinux put that in the main iso rather 
than Firefox.
     When I saw that I immediately started Synaptic and downloaded 
Firefox.  Later
a bit unhappy with the sort of tab count I was getting in pursuing 
entertainment
files i added Qupzilla and Palemoon.  Firefox is the default browser on 
this machine.

     I guess it has been some time since I saw Chromium but it would
probably be a much better choice than Google Chrome.
>
> I mean, I know why _MS-Windows_ people have this blindspot:  It's
> because hardly anyone ever bothers to build good open source software
> for that platform, so most such packages are perpetually obscure, and
> because there's no infrastructure for vetted package repos.  However,
> I don't understand why so many _Linux_ people share this blindness.
> Maybe it's because of all the advertising dollars Google spends buying
> mindshare for Chrome and ChromeOS.  But I'm disappointed that so many
> Linux people can't see past that.

     Maybe some people have too much to do to get into the details of the
problems with Google Chrome and the differences between it and
Chromium.  I think that might be why the guy behind PCLinuxOS64
chose to use Google Chrome.

     Well I simply don't care for Google and having my mail on some 
cloud somewhere
instead of sitting on my hard disk or my mail server until I have time 
to visit the server
  and delete the downloaded stuff.  Most of the people happy with those 
arrangements
don't seem to be aware of the opening this gives to data miners. I pay 
for my mail server
  and Internet connection and get free Usenet from the famous 
Eternal-September.
I don't trust the security on many of the "free" social media services 
offered to
the vast majority of the computer, phone and tablet users to keep them 
online.

     I presently have little use for Windows but before I made my 
backups I loaded
FOSS software onto the Windows partition,  LibreOffice, Firefox, 
Thunderbird and
maybe Angband.  It has been a year or more since I booted up Windows 8.1.
I hope I never have to do it again.

     Bobbie