install parties?

[der.hans]

Am 23. Jul, 2001 schwäzte Tara Johnson so:

> I have heard rumors that you guys throw installation parties every so
> often...is this true?

Tara,

the Linux Stammtisch is pretty well everything goes. We usually have a
couple of people helping with installs, etc. You just missed the one for
this month :).

> I would love to have someone help me get my system working right...I just
> need all of the hardware set up so it works....for some reason Mandrake
> wouldn't install, so I had to go with Slackware.  Slackware is nice as
> it has all of the latest stuff, but it doesn't quite work "out of the
> box" like Mandrake does, and after spending two solid days with it I
> just got frustrated, I'm sure if someone else knows what they are doing
> better perhaps they could help me with all my hardware?  I would /really/
> appreciate it.

We have a few Mandrake junkies that show to the Linux Stammtisch, so it
shouldn't be a problem with that. Of course, I still recommend debian ;-).

> I'm not a newbie, but this is the first time I've gone after replacing my
> whole desktop system with Linux; I have set up dedicated systems before,
> but this is my first attempt to really make the switch to Linux and stop
> using Windows on my home desktop system....so I would like things such
> as my scrolling mouse wheel to work, sound, USB keyboard, etc.  Perhaps

Scrollmouse is easy with X 4.x[1]. In my experience sound with Linux 2.4.x
has mostly been very good. USB keyboard is working on PPC, so I presume it
works on x86 as well. Dist should be mostly irrelevant.

> also my scanner/digital camera/printer as well, but what I really need

Those things I don't know :). Lots of support for scanners and printers.
More and more for cameras. Usually at least some sort of mostly painless
workaround if no direct support for the cameras.

> is to just be able to get to a stage where I can use Linux for all of my
> regular computing needs (web development, email, IM'ing, playing mp3, and
> browsing)

Don't IM, but have been doing the rest exclusively from GNU/Linux for
several years.

ciao,

der.hans

[1]
Section "InputDevice"
        Option      "Protocol"          "ImPS/2"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping"      "4 5"

-- 
# der.hans@LuftHans.com home.pages.de/~lufthans/ www.DevelopOnline.com
#  C'est la Net - der.hans