Marie,<br>
<br>
For capture software there's a couple of options out there.&nbsp; I've
got a fire wire card in my machine so I've been using &quot;Kino&quot; to capture
the raw DV off of my camcorder and it works great.&nbsp; It's a basic
but functional NLE that supports encoding to mpeg2.<br>
<br>
I don't have any recommendations for business plan software, though I'm
not quite sure what a business plan would look like, I thought it was
just a regular document?<br>
<br>
As for RealPlayer, I haven't touched it in a couple of years, but POS
has never really worked that well for me.&nbsp; They came out with the
helixplayer, but it was worse than Realplayer!&nbsp; I do listen to a
couple of stations via shoutcast (using xmms, which is Linuxes version
of winamp) but those tend to be rather hit or miss.<br>
<br>
Hope that helps!<br>
Tim.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/22/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Marie I MacDonald</b> &lt;<a href="mailto:mimsresearch@gmail.com">mimsresearch@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Greetings all,<br><br>I thought I'd write and update you on my newbie experience with Linux<br>et. al. To refresh your memory, my old laptop died just as I had been<br>given a new Linux box and just before the Spring semester had started. I
<br>really was feeling stressed. But here are some high points of the past<br>month:<br><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* Novell distro installed (and reinstalled (twice!) after a<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;glitch) and updated without a hitch.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* Evolution is now my email client of choice for two reasons: I
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;couldn't figure out how to install Thunderbird and I wanted to<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;sync my Palm to something.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I'm successfully popping all my Gmail and myrealbox accounts (13<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;total). I've never seen my filters run so fast (for junk and
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;legit mail).<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* Palm Zire 21 now works beautifully with Evolution. I keep it<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;simple and don't need more than the personal calendar.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* Open Office installed and updated. I'm using <a href="http://2.0.1.3">
2.0.1.3</a> and have<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;begun using Impress to create a presentation for school.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I have taken advantage of the desktop functions, using five work<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;spaces and putting buttons on the tool bars. I love how smoothly
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;my desktop works and allows me new workspaces.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* Novell client for Linux working beautifully to connect me to the<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;server upstairs (thanks Bob!)<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I've been playing around with the GIMP image editor and in my
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;opinion it is as robust as Photoshop (which I know very well).<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I have successfully completed all the Novell Linux Desktop 9<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Learning Center modules. The training was good and I would<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;recommend it for new users.
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I am successfully running Music Player and copying my CDs to the<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;network. I can now burn a CD/DVD.<br><br>Here are my observations/complaints:<br><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* While I've used both YaST and Red Carpet to install programs,
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I'd like to see something developed to click and run<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;installation programs, much like the .exe files most are used<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to. Coming from that environment into a Linux environment, this<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;is critical. If you want to make Linux more attractive for
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;desktop users, software installation has to be easier. The<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;average office user *ME* does not know how to work with code and<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;such to install programs.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I'm still trying to find video capture and editing software. Any
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;recommendations?<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* Now I also need software to create a business plan. Any<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;recommendations?<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;* I would love to listen to radio station web streams. I live in<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the boonies and get no radio reception. I do have RealPlayer on
<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;this but so far it hasn't worked for grabbing a radio web<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;stream. I miss my Boston radio stations.<br><br>Well, that's all I can think of for now. Oh, I did meet a wonderful<br>teenager from Worcester who is very knowledgeable about Linux. His name
<br>is Stephen and I just wanted to send a shout out to him. I urged him to<br>joint WLUG--he's a gem.<br><br>Finally, I appreciate everyone here for all the marvelous advice,<br>encouragement and patience. I consider it an honor to be part of your
<br>group. Thanks for letting me in!<br><br>All my best,<br>Marie<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Wlug mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Wlug@mail.wlug.org">Wlug@mail.wlug.org</a><br><a href="http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug">
http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>I am leary of the allegiances of any politicians who refers to their constituents as &quot;consumers&quot;.