how to write directions

After trying to follow many faulty and just plain stupid instructions on many how to articles, we obviously need some means by which people are required to learn how to write correct and clear directions so they stop causing lots of problems for people who try to follow their bad directions.

After a week on here, I have yet to find correct how to install vlc instructions The boards are filled with troubles caused by trying to follow bad directions. It became obvious that many people writing directions simply do not understand how to write accurate directions... hence the issues many people face which prevent them from doing what they were told to do.

At this point I'm ready to throw the towel in and give up totally on Linux because I can't trust any instructions on here about how to fix the shortcomings of linpus lite because, so far, it has not been possible to follow any of the directions because they are so poorly written and full of mistakes.

 

Aspiration -

Do you think that I get paid for answering questions here? Really? So, my advice is -- get rid of Linux, and buy something else.

As to your vlc complaints -- I would have recommended installing the mplayer codec pack instead, and maybe smplayer. The AAO Linpus comes with a licensed DVD player. Anyway, here is a link to the binary codecs for playing just about any format on the web:

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html

Simply expand the codecs into a directory "/usr/lib/codecs" -- the mplayer supplied with the AAO will take it from there. Need more instructions? Well... it's just like breathing, which you have mastered, right, Aspiration? As a "ps", you will need to use a "sudo" when doing this.

Now, the default player can be adjusted in the file manager. Right click an item, and follow the menu. Also, the DVD playback can be accessed via Media Master. For these reasons, don't erase mplayer. Given that smplayer can then be used as a front-end, the only reason you really need vlc is to view lan streaming videos -- but, as you so eloquently put it:

"I see that in VLC it has a streaming option. How that works is anyone's guess. Too bad itunes isn't made for linux. That would be the cats meow!"

Yes, vlc can stream; no, I am not going to bother explaining how it works, or why you might want it. And, if you don't want it, mplayer will fill the bill for you (plus, even mplayer can stream). With the binary codec pack, mplayer will play ANYTHING - well, you will run into problems trying to decode h264 1080p video, but that's a cpu issue.

 

Thanks for the comment. I will try the codec installation and see where it leads. Does live update install the same codec? I found out that most windows media files seem to work with the live updates I've done. I'm sure I can handle the directions.

As to getting rid of linux, I've tried to. Tried installing xp from the dvd player to a usb fat formatted hard drive and kept getting the blue screen of death once it finishes loading everything and tries to boot xp. So XP can't be installed. There's a lot of talk about installing xp on a thumb drive but I read about the problems people were reporting with blue screens when installing tiny xp so I have yet to sacrifice linux to xp. I was able to make a usb reinstaller for linux which I tested and found it worked great... after several more hours updating it finally gets things working ok except that every update seems to remove my accounts in the messenger program. I'd rather just install xp on a usb drive and boot off that without destroying my linux OS. My mac can partition the usb HD into fat partitions and then its only an issue of trying to run xp installer to reformat a partition but I never get that far. My mac is a power pc so I can't run the xp installer on it. I do have xp running on my mac under Panther OS on my big external firewire HD. Maybe one day I'll try format /s on the usb drive and see if it will boot from the aspire after copying some dos command directories on it.

After reading a lot about linux I'd thought that having it on the aspire one would be great until I started discovering what a person buys into with freeware operating systems. Things like patches come along very slowly since its not an 8 to 5 job for most people but rather a hobby. There are plenty of bugs in the word processor, particularly when trying to print .doc files imported from my mac or seeing random graphics garbage when scrolling. The work around with .doc files seems to be printing the .doc as a pdf otherwise it prints everything sideways regardless of what printer settings are used. I'm not sure if the issue is on my mac's end via bonjour because there was an issue with printing sideways until a print driver patch for the mac happened. Maybe its not fully fixed yet? I was successful installing a bonjour client so I can now print wirelessly as long as at least one mac is running. I now get the basic use out of the aspire that I needed.

 

I would sugest going to a forum based on your distro. I use Ubuntu on my desktop. Guess where I go to get info?

 

Aspiration

Apologies for my general "hissy fit".

Linux is (generally) far better supported than Windows. This is reflected in the depth of hardware support, and in the depth of applications.

No, Windows(tm) applications do not (in specific) run. However, Linux has a feature ("wine") to inter-operate with Windows applications. Without even the need to recompile those applications! But, understand, Windows is NOT Linux, and both have their own apps and operational requirements.

I purchased the Aspire One *because* of the Linux support (specifically, that a derivative of Fedora was the base). I really can't use Windows. I tried, it's too damn confusing. Simple stuff is, well, simple, but other stuff appears too difficult to even contemplate. Don't ask -- you probably don't want to know... Now, Linpus does have a few drawbacks, but, on the whole, I like the quick boot time, and it is recent enough and good enough for most of my needs.

I did upgrade OpenOffice.org to 3.1, but I will note that Microsoft Office(tm) compatibility is still wanting. Personally, I don't care. As you have discovered, PDF format is a fine way to distribute print-ready documents. And, honestly, I have all of my "officey" needs met by OpenOffice.org. If I need to collaborate, I just don't bother to do final formatting until the very end, or suggest we all use OpenOffice.org. After all, a copy of Microsoft Office runs $600 CDN, so we all end up saving money!

Enjoy the codec pack. And, if you do need assistance, don't hesitate. "We are out there". As to installing XP -- if you have 1GB of memory on your Acer, why don't you consider VirtualBox? Google for "macles" and use his instructions for installation. It will even work on 512MB systems, but not quite as well. This will let you run iTunes and other specific Windows applications.

Again, sorry for losing my temper.

 

I've always felt that if you want to complain about something, you should be able to do it better yourself. i also find it rude to complain about something people are doing for free/fun/to try to help. but thats just me, and i try not to fall prey to this "entitled" society we now live in. when one write up doesnt work for me, i just move onto the next one or figure it out myself.

 

I went to the site and downloaded the linpus lite codecs. LInpus doesn't know how to open the .exe file. xarchive doesn't either. So its not possible to install that codec.

 

Exe? What?

Go to the site http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html (same as before), and scroll down to "Binary Codec Packages".

After an introductory paragraph, there is a table. In the table (FIRST entry)
"Linux x86 20071007" with a choice of HTTP, FTP or BITTORRENT downloads

Choose one of these (for your help, try:

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/release ... 07.tar.bz2

which is a link DIRECTLY to the correct download).

Save to disk. The filename will be "essential-20071007.tar.bz2". The "Xarchiver" option of FireFox can handle this format directly. Expand it, and copy (using sudo) as indicated in previous post.