[sf-lug] (forw) Re: (forw) Re: SF-LUG meeting notes for Sunday 02022020

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

 
> PCLinux uses Synaptic for the additional items you mention so I fear
> that your bloggers have failed to understand PCLinux.

_Or_ one of many other possible explanations apply, such as the fact
that any blog posting states what is believed to be true as of a certain
date, without the guarantee that said claim will remain supportable into
eternity as things change.  The (detailed and specific) blog claims I
was referring to bore a time stamp of about five years ago.

That aside, moreover, use of Synaptic (or any other package manager
graphical front-end) in no way precludes reliance on cranky local
scripts that pull down and run upstream code:  Some (half-assed)
packages are merely wrappers.

Bobbie, are you _sure_ you ought to be preaching about distro design
internals to someone who's used Linux since 1993 and been part of a
distro design and construction team (the original Linuxcare Bootable
Business Card, on which Knoppix was based, in turn on which all other
live distros are based)?  This typically doesn't work out well for you,
and chews up time for both of us.

I admittedly don't know a lot about PC-Linux OS (having not had more
than casual interest in it, or Mandriva or Mandrake Linux before it), 
and never claim to (nor really wish to spend time picking that up), but 
things like you informing me -- in error -- that use of Synaptic rules
out running scripts to install updates from upstream is illogical to
start with, and then we end up having these follow-up discussions to
dissect the errors.



> Where have i suggested that I indulge in such actions.

I nowhere so claimed.

To refresh your memory, I tried somewhat desperately to fill the gap in
your woefully vague description (the one where the phrase  'the file' means
very different things multiple times in sentences) by providing a
candidate solution to what was my _best guess_ at what the hell you 
meant in your alleged problems description.

You _appear_ to have said that the guest-OS VM worked just fine until
after you shut down VirtualBox and various other things, later coming
back and something-you-weren't-clear inside VirtualBox would no longer
start something-you-weren't-clear.  I impliedly asked, hopefully
whether VirtualBox was still listing the VM you created _but_ that it 
then regretfully informed you it couldn't start that VM when you asked
it to, on grounds of no longer being able to find the necessary virtual
disk files associated with the VM.

That was a candidate explanation, provided even though your supposed
description of symptoms basically sucked and repeatedly used the phrase
'the file' to mean anything and nothing.

I took a shot at your problem.  You're welcome, by the way.  If you want
better help, try providing a competent accounting of your problem
symptoms -- as you already know but have insufficient respect for my
time to actually do. 


> I do not teach anyone much. [...]

I don't care.  That's completely irrelevant to my point.  Which you
appear to have ignored.


> Basics things like getting online, which tools are supplied and a few
> other simple things.

Non-sequitur.  Nothing about that requires years of test-booting
hundreds of live distros and doing nothing but wandering around the
figurative town square for a short while, learning nothing of value, and
then going on to the next live distro.

Every damned distro can get online.  Every damned distro has either 
online information about which tools are supplied or Distrowatch
coverage or both.  Again, all of this test-booting is extraneous to that
alleged need.

> I don't try generally to do complex things.

No, you don't.  I've observed, don't forget.


> My interest is in the usability of the distribution for the person who
> boots it up unknowing as perhaps a beginner might.

Above-cited information is already available for that at less cost in
time and effort.  And, also?  The impression your test-booting gives to
beginners about the 'usability of the distribution' is inherently
distortive, because you _never even install the distribution_.

-- 
Cheers,                     "Why doesn't anyone invite copyeditors to parties,
Rick Moen                   when we're such cool people out with whom to hang?"
rick at linuxmafia.com                        -- @laureneoneal (Lauren O'Neal)
McQ! (4x80)