Posted on 03/15/2012 6:32:47 PM PDT by TexasSecede79366
I got a really strange call from an old friend regarding "proprietary Linux".
It would seem that AARP is peddling foolproof old people PCs with "proprietary Linux" installed on them.
It seems my friend got handed a brand new laptop courtesy of AARP that the sound doesn't work. (Aww dam' remember the driver wars?)
My question: Has anybody heard of "proprietary Linux".
According to him it can only be fixed online for a fee.
Linux isn’t proprietary, but the distros sure can be. Red Hat.
tell him to turn up his hearing aid.
Tell AARP to suck a lemon.
They are hated by most people who know what they are.
For their support of ObamaCare they deserve to go out of business. They will never get a dime from me.
Ctrl+Alt+T
home/user> alsamixer
I use Xubuntu 11.04 myself. Extremely stable and I love XFCE user interface.
I’m guessing it’s just a distro (Ubuntu, Mint) with proprietary software.
We would have to know more about which distro and the hardware, but there is probably a user unfriendly (from a n00b’s pov) fix readily available.
“WOW Computer” - junk equipment for a thousand bucks
Give him a CD with Puppy on it and tell him to do a full install. Should solve the problem.
And yes, distros are proprietary. The kernel isn’t.
No matter how much a piece of junk they might have given him, Puppy should work. You need a real computer for something like Ubuntu.
Linux was never meant for this.
I was a Slacker from 4.6 to 13.1 and this just isn't right by any definition. Maybe Patrick can sue AARP?
Yep, AARP really sucks.
Linux was never meant for this.
Agreed. I'm a lot less than 70, and Kernel is beyond me. When I saw AARP was involved, I knew this would go badly.
That’s it! Garbage from hell and you can’t blame Bill Gates. The perfect commie scam!
Give him a CD with Puppy on it and tell him to do a full install. Should solve the problem.
does it even have a CD drive ?
A phb-ette at an support facility that I worked at and under her (nightmarish experience) told me that I needed to get a license to use Knoppix live discs. This was an experienced and knowlegeable admin. She was also lying, duplicitous, and ugly down to the bone.
I used Knoppix as a data recovery tool when Windoze blew out and to test hardware when Windoze had problems to rule out the hardware. 95% it was Xtra Pathetic.
Another jerk IT manager at certain large electronics companty based in St. Louis who didn’t care for me since he couldn’t lie to me said he would never approve of open office use. He said there was a charge for it but would not approve 8 copies of office for east coast facility people.
We had to share one or two that had office. The loons from St Louis would scream and complain about why things took so long. It was explained more than once on the phone, over live on line meetings with cameras, and more than one visit by senior managment.
They said they would get that changed. They never did and acted like their inspection visits never happened.
Where I am now is a sensibly run place from my viewpoint. Linux is used by some developers. I am a hardware person among other things and use Ubuntu live a lot.
Might be so...
LMAO! We must work for the same company.
As a senior (used to do application programming) who uses an old computer commanded by Fedora 10, this post caught my eye. I ran a ‘Startpage’ search and found an AARP forum article referring to the “WOW” computer (http://www.mywowcomputer.com/), which on closer inspection is not a deal I’d go for - $999 ??? But it looks OK. I suspect the “proprietary” part is simply the push-button style user interface the rig runs. Also, the ad relates that the upgrades are good for the life of the computer. Kinda suspect the company has factored in a “retirement” rate for the elders to mitigate the headaches of keeping a system current. Seniors are an untapped technological gold mine.
Mepis on this PC. Love it -now if I can just find a bloody mini-distro somewhat like it that is also Debian based that will run on some older (64 Megs and under) machines, I will be set. Puppy is good, as is Damn Small Linux, but these machines will be for some individuals 60 years young and up that are not computer-knowledgeable so being able to utilize the huge Debian repositories is a major consideration for their creation.
Good point. Thumb drive, then.
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