so far mr.movies, you've put forth absolutely ZERO evidence to support your claims. So go ahead and keep tossing around the names. I really don't give a damn what you think.

Keep it up, chovy and you'll be a jr. member before this discussion stops.

i'll be sr. before i let this little punk get away with his shenanigans.

Did I say something wrong?
DOS was the beggining, than came APPLE with his little cute ICONS, everybody got hooked on APPLE (McINTOSHES).
Everybody said ``to hell´´ with DOS.
...and than came WINDOWS...wu]ith the cute little ICONS...and the world was haapy and f@#$ APPLE.
Of course we had others OSs available, such as ORACLE, IBM, and others that I don´t remember the name. NObody developed as many programs as did MICROSOFT.
I am not a MICROSOFT fanatic...but...give something similar to MICROSOFT programs, that I can pick up in a grocery store, borrow from the neighbor (for a minute), buy a box full at auctions for 99cents a dozen...
I don´t want to sit and scratch my head to develop a payroll sheet like you can do in EXCEL.
You might even think that I´m narrow minded, but I not.
I tried LINUX...but did not like it. I found it too complicated for me.
I guess ``my´´ government thinks likewise.
MICROSOFT is not perfect and never will, but the majority is still putting up with viruses, problems, defects, and upgrades after upgrades.
I think LINUX is on the same boat...I SAID I THINK...because I´m not sure.
IF there is a pool of expert LINUX individuals (and I am sure there are), they should band together and develop all the programs that MICROSOFT developed, to included all the programs that aaalll the other companies programed for the WINDOWS platform...design them for LINUX...at a real affordable price (no more than $20.00 a program)...and you might have a winner.
So far I cannot walk into a store and buy PHOTOSHOP CS for LINUX from the shelf.
There also should be someone that could write a program for LINUX that when installed on a WINDOWS platform would convert all the MICROSOFT stuff to LINUX automatically. WHAT A THOUGHT!!!

Any LINUX takers??

8>)

n0v0n

Man, are you scary I’m really shaken in my boots now. Little155 does that stand for your little 1.55 inch wanker, must be…

Maybe I should stay inside the rest of my life you little boys are so tough.

Linux definitely has a learning curve, and if you're trying it out on your own without any official training of any kind, it's going to be more difficult, unless your one of those self-starter types who can learn from forums and googling.

I admit, Windows is so popular because it's ease of use, and they got in with IBM (the first pc maker) at a very early stage.

The cost to the government of upgrading/managing virus ridden windows networks is probably more than the cost of training employees on learning linux.

As far as programs go, people already have written alternatives to MS software products, most of which have been ported to Mac, Linux, and Windows :-)

Gimp is a great alternative to $600 photoshop
Open Office is a great alternative (and standards based I might ad) alternative to MS Office.

The only win app I still buy is Quicken, becuase it kicks ass over GnuCash.

Nice to see you come around Linux is also very good as a Email and WEB server and for programming has a complete set of tools for free which you can't beat. I use Star and Open Office and like them also now that Nero has an alternative burn tool for linux that is a plus as well.

Yeah, I still use windows as my primary desktop solution, we use a remote vpn client at work, which only works on windows. I would prefer to run Linux, but managers just aren't into it.

at home I still have an XP box so I can use Quicken and nero+dvdshrink. My fileserver runs linux+samba and apache, etc.

I plan on dual-booting my athlon64 into Linux (and XP) soon enough though so I can use Linux as my primary desktop, at least when I'm not working from home.

A few years ago I tried SUSE (don´t remember the version) and really got lost.
Than I tried MANDRAKE and got lost too.
You are correct in saying that without proper training you won´t get nowhere. It really takes a long time to switch off your inner MS WINDOWS switch.
What is your suggestion for a LINUX starting point? Is there anything easy & free available?
I am also pretty sure that one day the EMPIRE (MICROSOFT) will no longer strike back.
Yes, MICROSOFT sometimes piss me off too.

A lot of people recommend trying knoppix or gnoppix (kde vs. gnome desktops). It's what's called a "live cd", in which you simply boot up, and everything is loaded into memory.

This lets you test it out without even touching your harddrive. As soon as you remove the CD, you're back to windows.

I typically read or search for tutorials or FAQs on the subject. You can also search "newbie guide" too in Google with whatever keywords pertain to your distro/problem at hand.

Try googling '"newbie guide" knoppix' in Google (with double quotes).

I have to say though, it's really a matter of what you want to do. I personally think anyone can learn linux, sure it may be frustrating at times, but there's always a solution if you google the right way.

I got my degree in marketing, so I know it's possible without a master's in computer science ;-)

I will look into that

thanks

8>)

The new versions of Sussie and Mandrake are really nice I think Mandrake is a little easier to use as it has a pretty good control panel. You can also use Mandrakes Live version which is like Knopix it boots right off the CD so if you screw up it isn't a big problem. Knopix 4.0 is really nice and now has plenty of games with it. The good thing about running off the CD with Linux is you can surf the WEB and not worry about getting trojan’d or hit. The only issue you might have is with NTFS partitions which you may run into difficulties saving any downloads to although this can be got around.

mr-movies is bipolar i think :-)

Well I had hoped you woke up but it seems you truly are stupid by choice or as I stated can’t read but whatever why waste good time on inept people.

For your girlfriends sake maybe you’ll grow up someday if she lives that long, poor girl.

i rest my case.

Mr. Movies and Chovy.....

Geeze guys, I'm just carrying on with you fellas. (Well no - I mean I am dead serious about DRM and all), but I am just teasing you, chovy. If ya wanna know the truth, I think you're quite smart. (No, really). I only kid around with smart people, cause mostly, I'm a genuis or something.

You can't tell me anything, 'cause like, I'm so-o-o smart, I prackitally know everything already.

and Mr. Movies ....... I 'appreciate your support, but please, let's ALL not call each other names, ok? We're all adamant about our beliefs, but we are JUST bouncing ideas off each other, ok?

Take care, gentlemen.

hear hear gentlemen!

"The correct term is, "hear, hear!" It is an abbreviation for "hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!""

(i love the internet)

Mr movies should get a manager and stop handling himself

David,

What are you talking about I have stayed true to my outlook and reasoning about Linux from the start unlike others who waver back and forth. I have stated that Linux isn't for the average person and why. I also have stated that I enjoy playing with Linux and that it has some, and I mean only some, good points. I wish that MAC and Linux would get better and compete with the demigod’s system. You obviously don't read enough of these threads or can't comprehend which is a shame.

But think what you want, I could care less about your little snippets that aren't constructive or have basis, nothing new I'm afraid.

Chovy... (if you're still there....)

This is what I mean by rampant, unannounced DRM infiltrating our ranks. Here's my latest findings, AND solution:

The 7th-Season box set of the M*A*S*H television series is the newest culprit:



This is a 3-Disc set. All three discs play fine in my two set-top DVD players, but disc # 2 is utterly unrecognizeable in my burner. (An LG model).

The other two discs are recognized immediately by the burner, and rip perfectly, but disc # 2 is a flat-out NO-GO. The burner's front-panel LED flashes incessantly as it scrambles to make heads-or-tails of the disc. Then it just spits out an error mesage.

IN FACT - I even booted into DOS (from a floppy) *directly* (bypassing windows altogether, and any DRM initiatives that might be hiding within it).

Disc # 2 would STILL not be recognized! (The other two were fine and were recognized immediately, even in DOS). This narrowed down the problem considerably.

NO WHERE on the discs' packaging does it mention that we have a "bastard" (copy-protected) disc on our hands.

To add to my misery, I was once reading on some web-site-or-other, a list of current burner manufacturers who support DRM. Unfortunately, LG was among them.

In other words, I have found that IF a) there is a "DRM" flag on any given disc, and b) IF a burner incorporates a chip that can detect this flag, THEN...

The disc cannot be read by that burner. No ripping, no copying, no back-up.

So..... what to do? I have run across more and more and more of these discs lately. (Simpson's, Columbo...). 20th Century Fox is a main offender, followed by Universal Pictures. More are sure to follow. (These are Region 1 discs).

But anyway, a gent somwhere else in these forums suggested I try to find an older (pre-DRM) DVD-Rom, and try to rip from that. So yesterday I popped into a local computer shop and bought two discontinued (used-but-tested) DVD readers for only $20 each. An old Hitachi and an old Afreey model, each manufactured in 1999.

In each case, I just unplugged the LG burner's ribbon cable and substituted the new (old) drives.

THEY BOTH INSTANTLY RECOGNIZED MASH DISC # 2, and I got *perfect* rips with DVD-Decrypter!!!

So f-i-n-a-l-l-y, that clinches it! Mystery over. Newly-made burners contain that miserable, wretched DRM Chip. It wouldn't matter if you or I were using Linux in this case - the crippling occurs because of a covert (SNEAKY) unnanounced implementation of DRM. It is a behind-the-scenes, sleazy hidden agreement between the movie (and TV) studios and the hardware manufacturers.

Bye-bye "Fair Right's Use".

OH well........ if anyone else has had the same kind of exasperating problem, (non-recognizable) dvds, I urge them to do the same as I have done. While they are still available, you might want to quickly get your hands on a spare DRM-free DVD-Rom or two.

Mr. Movies !!!! (How ya been, big guy?)

Best to all ..... Mike.

Unfortunately in the Linux world there is no AnyDVD that I'm aware of but for the Windows environment it is the trick as it gets around bad sector formats, CSS, DRM and so on, which an older ROM wouldn't.

Minus the DRM crap your LG drive should be pretty good I've used them and have had solid luck with them. The old Hitachi drives are good to but the Afreey's have given me problems. My favorites are Lite-On and Asus but I like Plextor too if they weren't so expensive. The new Samsung and Toshiba suck, I believe the companies have merged.

In the old days when Macrovision was a baby that's what we did with VCR's. You could also use the RF out instead of the RCA's to get rid of the flicker hash.

Good work A_Klingon

You certainly know your burners, Mr. Movies!!

Yep - indeed, the LG burner is probably the best one I've owned thus far. It's whisper quiet, makes flawless burns, burns at 8x without a quibble, and the loading tray isn't all wobbly and loose.

Too bad dual-layer discs are so pricey or else I'd be using them too.

And yep - that Afreey mode was/is a real clunker. I initially had to poke a paper-clip into the tray-release hole manually because I couldn't get the drawer to open. God only knows how long it had been sitting on the shelf. (The problem worked itself out though after a while).

It took the darn thing THIRTY-FIVE (!!) minutes to rip the bum DVD (it only takes the LG about 10 mins to rip a disc), but what the hell? Point is - it worked - and hopefully it will work when I re-obtain those other box-sets that previously failed with the LG. (The Hitachi took about 25 mins to rip.)

None of us are *ever* going to have any luck though, for a long-long-long time when the new Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD discs come out. It could take years.

Happy ripping!! :-)

...and that is why I keep all my old burners handy.
Old things still work in a modern world.
Remember those BIIIGGG old camcorders that some of us used to make VHS movies?
Still have one of those too.

n0v0n

every rule has an exception

Keeping old burners is a good idea as long as it's still at least semi-functional.

I have found that the laser wears out first - it might not fail outright, but become progressively worse - creating a lot of good burns and a lot of coasters. You never know which you will get. And sometimes I would look at a newly-burned disc and see "bands" where the laser temporarily failed - thus causing a coaster. BUT, the burner could still make good rips.

The electronics might still be 100% perfect but like I say, the laser fails.

I don't know how long standard DVDs will be with us once Blu-Ray takes over. There might be years of co-existence though, because it will take a while for High-definition to catch on in any BIG way, and right now, the studios are making an ungodly fortune from the sale and rental of standard DVDs.

That is my experience also that the laser goes bad, 99% of the time. You can sometimes crank up the laser strength and that may work for a short time but it is a bit of work for the short length of life you'll gain.

The Blu-Ray should have no problems reading your old DVD-5's or 9's the new laser is quicker, more sensitive and provides higher density but should be backward compatible as far as readings your DVD's.