Hi all, I visited my parents yesterday and yet again my mother's computer is filled with spyware. Everytime I go there it is slower and slower and odd things keep happening (like icons disappearing ... I've witnessed this myself). I've been considering trying to get her onto Kubuntu, but I have a few valid concerns. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with the following under Linux (any flavor): * Citrix connectivity -- She currently, and very seldom, uses an ActiveX control in IE to connect to her work. Are there alternatives besides using IE and Wine or running a VM? * iPod which is currently registered with her Windows box. I'm not too familiar with this, because my mp3 is not an iPod. * Printing - She currently has a very nice Canon i960 which can print photos. I less concerned about drivers and more about functionality. Her current Windows based software can print wallets, 8x10s, etc very easily. I wouldn't want her to lose that ability. I know some of these answers might be a Google away, but I'm curious on your experiences with this and possibility any other gothcya's that I am not thinking about. If I could overcome these hurdles I think she would actually have a much pleasant experience with her home pc. I've slowly been getting her to adopt open source software, but this would be a big jump. I also think it would be much easier for me help remotely too. Cheers, Mike
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Perry
Hi all,
I visited my parents yesterday and yet again my mother's computer is filled with spyware. Everytime I go there it is slower and slower and odd things keep happening (like icons disappearing ... I've witnessed this myself).
I've been considering trying to get her onto Kubuntu, but I have a few valid concerns. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with the following under Linux (any flavor):
* Citrix connectivity -- She currently, and very seldom, uses an ActiveX control in IE to connect to her work. Are there alternatives besides using IE and Wine or running a VM?
* iPod which is currently registered with her Windows box. I'm not too familiar with this, because my mp3 is not an iPod.
* Printing - She currently has a very nice Canon i960 which can print photos. I less concerned about drivers and more about functionality. Her current Windows based software can print wallets, 8x10s, etc very easily. I wouldn't want her to lose that ability.
I know some of these answers might be a Google away, but I'm curious on your experiences with this and possibility any other gothcya's that I am not thinking about.
If I could overcome these hurdles I think she would actually have a much pleasant experience with her home pc. I've slowly been getting her to adopt open source software, but this would be a big jump. I also think it would be much easier for me help remotely too.
This sounds like a good time to upgrade her hard drive. Put a new, larger drive in her computer and install Kubuntu onto that. Try everything out, and if something doesn't work, put the old drive back in until you can figure out a solution. I'd answer your specific questions if I knew the answers. -- Rich
--- Mike Perry <mwp@sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
* Citrix connectivity -- She currently, and very seldom, uses an ActiveX control in IE to connect to her work. Are there alternatives besides using IE and Wine or running a VM?
$ apt-cache search citrix tsclient - front-end for viewing of remote desktops in GNOME rdesktop - RDP client for Windows NT/2000 Terminal Server The web equivalent: http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=citrix VNC also works for connecting between different operating systems. --Andre ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/
Mike Perry wrote:
Hi all,
I visited my parents yesterday and yet again my mother's computer is filled with spyware. Everytime I go there it is slower and slower and odd things keep happening (like icons disappearing ... I've witnessed this myself).
I've been considering trying to get her onto Kubuntu, but I have a few valid concerns. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with the following under Linux (any flavor):
<snip> I prefer to run windows in a VM rather than dual boot. Set up samba, so she can save files to the linux partition, make a backup copy of the VM once you have it all set up, and save it in case (when) the win vm gets trashed - then you just have to replace it with the backup. One thing to watch out for - I've noticed on debian that vmware will often peg the cpu at 100%. I have to stop and start the vmware daemon when this happens. I don't know if it's a problem on ubuntu. For the iPod, try gtkpod. I only have minimal experience with it, so I don't know what issues might come up. Go for it! Trying to get it all running can't be any worse than trying to remove malware or doing a windows install. I have three non-technical friends running linux - they're happy with it, and I have less maintenance to do than if they were running windows. If you're going to go with a new hard drive as others suggested, you might consider leaving the old drive in. If you set up the win drive as hdb (and play tricks with grub so windows thinks that it's first), then you have less to do if you decide to pull out the windows drive. Greg
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I have an ipod and use citrix on multiple linux computers. The easiest way to get the ICA client is to go to her NFUSE page (where she logs in) and it will have a link. If not, http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?dID=2755&downloadID=3.... I can't quite get it to work in firefox, so I installed the client into my home directory, and have wfica open the files. As for ipods, there are many programs (I've tried out at least 5). It depends on what you want. If she just uses stuff downloaded from iTunes then you are out of luck from what I can tell. I too hate DRM so I use straight mp3s that I ripped myself. Amarok has a plugin that comes with it for ipods, I hear banshee works too. GtkPod is just for ipods (I haven't used it in a few years). I once tried to get iTunes to work under WINE but I haven't gotten that working yet. As for printing, it all depends on what printer you have. Next time I need a printer I'm consulting the foomatic-db first, as my wife always wants printers that aren't supported under linux. I use all of this stuff under Gentoo and Ubuntu, and find it very easy under both. If you need a hand with anything, just let me know. Also as a call to a later post, I would have to agree with NOT dual-booting. First she won't use GNU/Linux. Secondly, you'll have to deal with Windows headaches AND migrating her over to GNU/Linux. I'd say make the jump after you research the ipod and the printer. Just my $0.02 Eric Mike Perry wrote:
Hi all,
I visited my parents yesterday and yet again my mother's computer is filled with spyware. Everytime I go there it is slower and slower and odd things keep happening (like icons disappearing ... I've witnessed this myself).
I've been considering trying to get her onto Kubuntu, but I have a few valid concerns. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with the following under Linux (any flavor):
* Citrix connectivity -- She currently, and very seldom, uses an ActiveX control in IE to connect to her work. Are there alternatives besides using IE and Wine or running a VM?
* iPod which is currently registered with her Windows box. I'm not too familiar with this, because my mp3 is not an iPod.
* Printing - She currently has a very nice Canon i960 which can print photos. I less concerned about drivers and more about functionality. Her current Windows based software can print wallets, 8x10s, etc very easily. I wouldn't want her to lose that ability.
I know some of these answers might be a Google away, but I'm curious on your experiences with this and possibility any other gothcya's that I am not thinking about.
If I could overcome these hurdles I think she would actually have a much pleasant experience with her home pc. I've slowly been getting her to adopt open source software, but this would be a big jump. I also think it would be much easier for me help remotely too.
Cheers, Mike _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
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participants (5)
-
Andre Lehovich -
Eric Martin -
Gregory Avedissian -
Klein, Richard -
Mike Perry