Windows vs. Linux [my usage]

[Qqmike]

Interesting:

Adwww.att.com/SamsungGalaxyS5Get the Samsung Galaxy S5 Free at AT&T® w/ 2-yr Agmt. See Offer Dtls.
Ratings:Sign-up 10/10 - Reception 8.5/10 - Website 8.5/10

It's at the top of my page here:
https://www.google.com/search?client...utf-8&oe=utf-8

But I don't see it or find it when I click the link and search. I got the offer yesterday by snail mail.

[life0riley]

I'm not in a contract and my wife's Samsung S5 wasn't purchased in a contract. It is no interest monthly payments. I figure when her S5 is paid off I can start looking for my replacement. I've had it since 2012 and it just works, so I'm not in a hurry.


Sent via Tapatalk from my iShiny 4s because it still works and I'm too cheap to buy a new one

[claydoh]

Yeah, I plan on getting an LG G4 when my contract expires, Big Red offers no interest monthly payments, so with zero down, I'd pay approx 23 bucks a month for the phone, offset by a similar reduction in the line fees.

I haven't paid up front for a phone ever, but I think the carriers are beginning to ween us off the subsidy thing, yay!

sent via tapatalk

[Qqmike]

Probably should start a new thread on that long, messy issue! (An S5? AT&T just offered me a free one, with a 2-yr contract.) But that's another subject.

[life0riley]

...I'm thinking that over $600 right there, must be the cost of the device? ...

What is a good price for an iShiny alternative? My wife got a Samsung Galaxy S5 for about the same price.


-posted from my iShiny 4S because it still works and I'm too cheap to buy a new one

[Qqmike]

"iShiny syndrome" - I like that.

Somehow I missed that. That's good. In fact, many iShiny users not only don't know about computing, they are not the sharpest pencil in the box when it comes to money, costs of owning and using their iShiny's. Talked to a gal I know pretty well who keeps up with every iShiny, she proudly brought her latest iPhone over for me to see, asked her what it cost. "She says happily, just $30 a month." "What?" I say. "Yeah, $30 a month," she replies. "That's it?" "Well," she says, "yeah, for 24 months." Ok, I'm thinking that over $600 right there, must be the cost of the device? (This gal makes just $10/hr as a caregiver, doesn't own a place yet, drives an older car.) "And do you pay for data or anything?" "Yeah, that 'part' is just $65-$80 a month." What! Well, this IS America, whatever flips your switch, you are free to pay and play ...

[GreyGeek]

"iShiny syndrome" - I like that.

The literacy site won't be of much use to iShiny users because those devices don't have Java installed.

[life0riley]

...

So my question to you is... where do you mount stuff like a CIFS/SAMBA mount? If you don't want to put it under /home? Also, when I put a CIFS mount in FSTAB, I get all these errors at startup and in the end it gets mounted anyway. I know it is possible to mount it anywhere and then it gets listed in the "devices" section and then you can add that device to places.

...

I suggest trying Smb4K if you are not looking for a permanent mount. I only connect to Windows shares on my network when there is a need. Smb4k creates a subdirectory in a user's home folder, and Windows shares are mounted as subdirectories within.

[Teunis]

As mentioned, I teach how to run a computer system.

Among my pupils/students are some that have very little in theoretical skills but also some of the finest engineers and even computer scientists/ academics you can find.
Since a few years some are suffering the iShiny syndrome, they have a tablet and phone and don't know the difference between RAM and storage, don't even think about asking what 'The Cloud' means...
The reason they know there is a difference between WIFI and 3 or 4G is because of the price
Only the adventurous installed a file manager, the rest thinks a photo comes up because you opened the relevant app.

At times it is quite frustrating but I'll persevere

Since recent I like to send them to https://www.digitalliteracyassessment.org/ and only show up in my classes once they've successfully completed a couple of those tests.

Oh yes, a Hard Disk is probably the reason you need a screen protector.

[GreyGeek]

+1
The last eleven years of my working career was spent at a state dept of revenue office that had 30 servers and 450 Windows workstations. Even employees with 15+ years experience using Win95, Nt4, W2k and XP had no understanding of Windows. They could not distinguish between the OS, Explorer (FM), Explorer(browser) and applications. Very few of them understood the similarities or the differences between them. Developers were constantly being blamed for OS crashes. If the clerk inadvertently hit multiple, or the wrong, keys and ended up in an unfamiliar place they were completely lost as to what to do next. Detailed instructions for the steps to take to get from power up to an app's main menu are posted on the wall next to the terminal, but if they lose their way they are lost and either reboot or call for help.

Age doesn't matter. Recent HS grads are just as computer illiterate, even among game players, whose one and only recovery technique is a warm reboot.

Is it any wonder that the majority of the Joe & Sally Sixpacks have dropped laptops for smartphones and "app's".

[Qqmike]

Now speaking in general, psycho-social-philosophical terms only ...


--> People do what they want to do. Period.

No matter the story, no matter the challenge, no matter the odds or the requirements or details, "you" will find a way to not only make "it" work, but you will likely excel at your task at hand..

That's how humans behave. If you want to do it, you will.

On topic here, the world is filled with countless thousands of people who use Linux at a high-competency level, expert, near-expert, or dedicated hobby-est doing every kind of computing task you can think of and some tasks you have never thought of.


Aside, re "average Windows users" ...
Speaking of average users, have you spent time with any who use Windows? We all have. Talk about being lost. Most average Windows users have no clue about their system, how to tweak it, how to fix it, how to adjust things (like printing or photo management), how to use the Windows filesystem (which is a real mess, imo, look at 8.1 with its redundancies--the average user has no clue what all those folders are for), how to use the Control Panel, on and on and on. They're afraid of their PC, they've learned to fear it. The average Windows users I've known through the past 15+ years just accept and live with their Windows systems, no matter how broken or bogged down or limited or quirky it becomes--they have a whole list of questions and to-do's, things to fix "someday."


As for the above-average user experience in Linux, clearly the Linux world is alive and well.

[GerardV]

I know the Dutch are not always the most sensitive in their communications, they can be outright blunt, but as a fellow Dutchman I would like to ask you to slow and tone down because here we prefer to meet as friends that reach out for each other.

+1

[Teunis]

xennex81, you have some unusual expectations of how to interact with your computer and by using KDE you've found the right DE

Because your ways are unusual no one has (yet) made a DE that caters for it and with my experience as a teacher for a certain computer system I can tell you that if ever someone is going to cater to your wishes it must be because YOU put down the money.
I'll use the word for a third time, you expect the unusual.

You've found the right DE because no other environment is more geared towards user configuration than KDE.
If you really want to you can set up a global shortcut for Win+R to bring up a console or even that KRunner. (Since years I use Meta+Z, it only requires a single finger)

I feel but don't understand the anger in your writings, we use KDE for what it is and what it offers, that's more than what we left behind or could find elsewhere...
It' offers Power by means of Freedom.

I know the Dutch are not always the most sensitive in their communications, they can be outright blunt, but as a fellow Dutchman I would like to ask you to slow and tone down because here we prefer to meet as friends that reach out for each other.

[SteveRiley]

Particularly Steve's comments I have a hard time with because they seem to amount to nothing more than "what's your problem?"

Exactly. Because your "complaints" about Dolphin's behavior aren't logical. Dolphin (as an example) requires much the same style of file system navigation as Windows Explorer.

The problem is that it keeps from becoming an intuitive experience. Of course I have years and years of experience in Windows and am used to the Windows way. Likewise I have years and years of experience in Linux but that is only the shell. I obviously do not and cannot have years of experience in Kubuntu in this way, seeing as it is just a current offshoot and KDE was also not what it was before.

While operations in Dolphin are similar to those in Windows Explorer, the underlying mechanism is tightly integrated with how file systems in Linux behave. Of course, while successfully operating Dolphin doesn't require an understanding of FHS, knowing the FHS is certainly helpful.

I find personally that I keep sticking to the shell because it works better than the GUI, but still it doesn't work very well.

Windows has gone to great lengths to purge the CLI from day-to-day use (though see, as an exception, PowerShell). Most Linux based distributions have not chosen to adopt this goal. Certain operations are much more efficient at the CLI. Seems that you're experiencing this.

Even in the DOS shell I had better tools to traverse the filesystem hierarchy, it may also exist in Linux, I haven't encountered it yet. It was a QCD tool for "Quick Change Directory" that could graphically traverse a directory tree by visual indication -- all in text mode. It could easily be made in Linux and I might even want to make it, just not yet.

https://www.google.com/?q=linux+quick+change+directory

Is it really so hard to search for solutions rather than to write lengthy treatises about how the free software you're using doesn't behave in exactly the manner you wish?

Currently what has always worked well for me is to press Win+R (it would pop up a run box much like ALT-F2 but in a better location)

Alt+Space is another choice for KRunner. See also System Settings -> Shortcuts.

Also it's statements like these -- "much like ALT+F2 but in a better location" -- that make you seem antagonistic. You ask for advice and you criticize at the same time. Like in this thread: sithlord48 offered some suggestions and your first response was to argue.

For example, my music has been always in like G:\audio\albums and that's quick for me to type and open, I do not need to press Win+E (for explorer) and then get the mouse in my hand to select the right file path (which is hard in Windows) (although currently you can add it to your library locations).

Baloo, the file indexer in Kubuntu, maintains a list of all folders. KRunner has access to this list. You can press Alt+F2 (or Alt+Space) and simply type the name of a folder. It will appear in the list. Cursor to it and press Enter. This works even if you don't add folders/subdirectories to Dolphin's Places.

So what works is that it is not yet INTUITIVE for me in Linux which means I end up frustrated because I have to think about what I need to do, every time

I'd argue that nothing about any operating system is intuitive. Manipulating software is a learned behavior. Some of what you know from Windows will work in Linux and KDE. Some of what you know won't. The more time you spend with KDE, the more "intuitive" it will feel.

and every time I don't know how to do it (ie. go into Dolphin (which one) select Home (oh right, that's my user folder) (Home is not even called Xen, which would make sense to me)..

Right-click Home in Places and change the label to whatever you want. As in Windows, in KDE the right-click context menu is a powerful thing. Here is an example of a system feature that's shared between the two desktop environments.

[Wheel Inventor]

Is it possible to elevate Dolphin to root privileges and have some visual indication of that WHILE IN THE DOLPHIN WINDOW?


Is it possible to open any file from Dolphin with root privileges through the default user actions (open file) as in "open this file with root privileges"? I believe someone mentioned that, that it is possible?

Root Actions: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php...?content=48411




Simple Root Actions: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php...?content=72762

For example, /home/xen/ would look like:


projects --> /store/projects
audio --> /store/audio
video --> /store/video
documents -> (its own folder)


But unfortunately in KDE these folders get capitalized with Music and Video and you can't get rid of that.

? - xdg-user-dirs: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/

Manual way to edit: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...er_directories

KDE gui

KDE4: KDE System settings > Account Details > Paths
KF5: KDE System settings > Applications > Locations