DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Making DSL a little easier

Hi everyone
I work in IT as a lowly technician and everyday I get people coming into our office saying the usual 'windows seems to have crashed...I seem to have a virus.....the computer is rebooting....e.t.c".

I am staggered by the amount of people and I've worked in I.T along time now.

I really like what you guys are doing and I will give you some money when I can ( promise!).

I'd like to install DSL on all their machines. I do think that DSL needs a firefox a bit more like Ubuntu....it seems a bit simpler to use...i don't know what thats down to ( fonts, spinning wheels when waiting )....as most people need something simple to go on the net.

You've done a wonderful job and I am amazed by the whole thing. People need something simple! It needs a way of making backup really simple ( it is now, I know but maybe one button backs up everything in a sort of hibernate mode)....imagine someone new coming to the table who's never used linux before...

I for one am going to install it on laptops and PCs and show my friends.

I wanted to watch Youtube tonight but had no idea how to get flash going.
These little things mean all the difference between getting people to use it and people giving up....

I do find (if you don't mind me saying) that the installing programs (Mydsl) is ok but there's loads of windows scattered all over the screen after a bit...need a way of making this simpler....

Also need a way of e.g. opening a word doc and some word processor opens just like that (file associations) - I know you can do it but I'm still figuring it out...let alone a new user.

Don't get me wrong...you've done a brilliant job. I am going to move over to DSL now....

One thing I wanted to do was have a number of exact copies of my DSL on USB sticks so if one goes wrong you can carry on with another....is there some way of mirroring a backup or something...so I can put 2 or 3 usb sticks in the PC and it copies everything to the sticks...that way if one goes down I can carry on working.....I am just trying to find out how to achieve this now...

It would be useful to have an easy to use chat faclity...sometimes when I'm stuck I could really do with firing up an icon on the desktop just to ask a quick question...I do appreciate people are busy and can't always reply but if there was a quick way they could see you screen/what you are trying to do then maybe it might make sorting problems out easier. Then again I appreciate often problems need to be documented for new users.....maybe some video tutorials would help how do to basic stuff....

Anyway thank you for all your hard work.
blip x

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I'd like to install DSL on all their machines. I do think that DSL needs a firefox a bit more like Ubuntu....it seems a bit simpler to use...i don't know what thats down to ( fonts, spinning wheels when waiting )....as most people need something simple to go on the net.

That's not simpler... that's cosmetics

Basic programs are loaded into DSL - not just because of the 50mb size limit but also because it's the minimum for the same amount of functionality. For non bitmapped fonts other DSL users seem to like using xfstt... Similar browser: try a gtk2 version of FF

For hibernation there's suspend, though I believe that depends on your hardware (acpi/apm etc.) and that the 2.6.x has better support. There's some posts by Juanito that may be of help.

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Also need a way of e.g. opening a word doc and some word processor opens just like that (file associations)

File manager: there's emelfm and roxfiler

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I wanted to watch Youtube tonight but had no idea how to get flash going.

You'll need a gtk2 browser (which may be more pretty...) and flash 9. With your reference to Ubuntu, I had no idea how to install flash on it either. Searched the forums and google, and yay, it's there. But maybe it's a bit obscure due to its proprietary nature (and limited architecture support)?

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is there some way of mirroring a backup or something

You could just save the backup.tar.gz ... but if you need the whole device you can use `dd` - and back it up like any other disk drive.

btw, there's a couple threads about all of these really... (if you need more info, etc.) but this should be enough to get you started

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imagine someone new coming to the table who's never used linux before

That someone might start with a distro that is more familiar to Win/Mac users.

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there's loads of windows scattered all over the screen after a bit...need a way of making this simpler.

I'm not sure what you're saying here, but if you have too many windows on your desktop try utilizing your virtual desktops. There are 4 of them initially, but the number can be easily increased.

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I wanted to watch Youtube tonight but had no idea how to get flash going.

Flash is proprietary software. DSL is 100% open source. The two concepts are not compatible. The latest Flash also requires Gtk2 and a Gtk2 browser, which are not part of DSL. They are available through myDSL. Alternately you can go with the older version 7. One place to find it is http://freshmeat.net/projects/flashplugin/?branch_id=2730

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file associations

Edit /home/dsl/.emelfm/filetypes.

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One thing I wanted to do was have a number of exact copies of my DSL on USB sticks so if one goes wrong you can carry on with another....is there some way of mirroring a backup or something...so I can put 2 or 3 usb sticks in the PC and it copies everything to the sticks

I believe you can do this with "dd". http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man1/dd.1.html

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It would be useful to have an easy to use chat faclity

naim, nirc, and nicq are in DSL. Personally I don't care for them, but others are available through myDSL.

As you probably guessed, I'm more prone to suggesting how to solve your troubles than helping DSL become "easier" =o)

Thanks everyone! Those are all very helpful and useful suggestions - I will re-read. I don't like Flash particularly ( or anthing non open source) but I would love to watch my youtube clips easily in DSL....as I'm new to it all it can take me a whole weekend to do something simple / get something installed...but I am picking it up. Dare I say if I'm finding hard and I work in I.T I imagine your 'average' user ( !) would have given up by now. I do understand though to get everything into 50mb some compromises have to be made...and unlike windows there is no bloatware here...which I love.
I am really getting into DSL now...I'm using it as my main OS and it's great.

Last night I got some things working after a long time....(alsa and midi) - I was really pleased I'd got so far. Unfortunately this morning I've switched on the PC and DSL seems to be trying to restore ( from my Kinston 512MB stick) but it's not getting to the desktop. Perhaps something has corrupted? I'm not sure how I can tell this....it's been sitting for 10 minutes and doesn't seem to want to launch X.

That's why if you don't mind me saying maybe it would be a good idea at some stage to be able to use 2 or 3 USB sticks that are mirrored so if something corrupts one can carry one. Perhaps the web / offline storage is the way to go - I see DSL can do this which is fantastic. You mentioned to use 'DD' to copy / backup files...do I use this after I've left the DSL desktop or before ( and it is just the whole backup.tar.gz I back up and that's it?).

Just to clarify about the 'lots of windows' thing....I find when I open MyDSL and install programs I find I get the info window opening of the software, the 'download to' window window and the actual download manager window all 3 of them. Then if I am installing a big program and I want to install something else I get another 3 windows again (am I making it clear? lol) and I end up having to close down an awful lot of windows after installing 2 or 3 programs. I do find that the MyDSL window sometimes 'blanks' or 'corrupts'...perhaps that's down to my PC /graphics card.

Sorry if I sound a bit petty! I am just trying to imagine some of my friends sitting down with it and installing it/ coming across some of the problems I have.

What's weird today is that when my backup USB stick corrupted ( if that's what has happened ) now Fluxbox is loading instead of the other window manager ..I don' t remember ever setting it to this. MMM. Anyway that's for me to sit down and work out!

Thanks for your replies, I hope I didn't moan to much....just chewing the cud.........

PS I did a search for 'flash' in the add/remove programs of Ubunut and then it just installed. It was pretty (suprisingly) painless.

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