Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Linux continued

I've been up in the North woods for the past five days, and while we do have cell phone service, that is the only utility we have at the cabin. The cabin was built in 1880, and it is surrounded by New York's Adirondack State Park. Consequently, the only way to get in is by boat or by hiking (which becomes difficult when you're bringing in a case of wine and 60 pounds of ice for the ice box.) There is no electricity, no plumbing, no...well, you get the idea. We get drinking water from a spring; we get washing water from the lake; we have an outhouse (use lots of lime) for that necessary; we have a wood stove in the kitchen and a charcoal grill outside. Light is via a bunch of Coleman lanterns and there is a big fireplace if it gets chilly. I do bring the laptop with me, but I use it basically as a notebook, and I keep it charged using Xantrex Technology's Powerpack 600hd. All of which is an explanation for why I haven't gotten much further with my Linux adventure.

My major concern with Linux is with the download/installation of software. I have been able to get a couple of packages loaded, but most of them end up languishing on my desktop because 1) I have no clue as to where they really should be placed (Linux has all these stock directories which are supposed to handle just about everything...and would if I could get past my Windows expectations.) Anyhow, while I can d/l and unzip applications in Windows without even thinking, in Linux doing this has become a problem. Like right now I want to install Flash v9 as a Firefox plugin and, although it runs and says that it is done, the newest version of Flash does not appear as a plugin. And now I have a Flickr downloader that I want to put in service, but I can't get it to work. And I am getting frustrated. And that is not good.

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