b #pound
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#pp
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ignore this idiocy
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Whenever you have computer problems, don't contact tech support, write to your local news. (I'm assuming she wrote an actual physical letter and mailed it, seeing she couldn't use Mubutu)

The girl's fault is in not doing just a bit more research in making a big-ticket purchase.

Verizon's fault is in being Verizon. (seriously, telling your users to use these proprietary discs or whatever instead of learning how to support Linux just a little bit like a decent customer service organization should)

Dell's fault is in selling these computers to average Joes and standing behind Ubuntu without knowing how to instruct users in doing basic things like setting up your Internet without using the Verizon CD.

The Linux community's fault is in not realizing, after all these years, that not everybody on the planet has the amount of time, knowledge, and desire needed to get their damn computer working.

I thought Ubuntu was designed to be useable by illiterate village children in remote central Africa?

huh.. I guess I wasn't up to speed.. so Dell teamed up with Ubuntu. I was thinking this was a third-party used Dell or something. At least in Madison, you'd go to a computer co-op and you'd never get a computer with anything besides a Linux-based OS, and you could opt to have it run Windows, or Leopard, whatever it was back in the day and they'd install it for extra. But factory-direct PCs were always Windows.

That's a pretty ballsy move on Dell's part: I like Ubuntu but it doesn't advertise what it cannot do, like play a lot of games, sync up to an iphone without it being a huge pain in the ass, things that Windows and OSX users take for granted. And sure, programs like ABIword are 10000x better than Microsoft Word, but if you don't know what you're doing I can see it being a huge pain in the ass.

Verizon just sucks. I understand that talking someone through something like a bashscript can be like talking to air, but how hard is it to tell someone to click on that little backwards triangle-looking thing at the upper right hand corner.. then again maybe the CSRs can't do that, because Verizon needs to be your homepage.. argh.

I don't know why they wouldn't advertise that; not syncing up to iphones is one of it's strongest perks.

I like how the News solved her problem by calling tech support.

Actually, now that I think about it, getting the news media to call tech support for you might not be such a crazy idea. Joe Average has a problem, and who cares? They've already got your money, what are you gonna do? But an investigative reporter with a looming deadline and no sense of shame calls, and suddenly it's all, yes sir no sir happy to be of service sir.

If I had sicced CNN on EA, I'd still have my Simpsons Tapped Out save. :(

Not Ubuntu's fault? That distro owes this girl a college education. Dell can buy the books. The UPS guy who brought the computer to her can drive her to school. The Malaysian kid who built it makes her breakfast and a sack lunch, half of which she routinely discards. No one is lined up for dinner or housekeeping yet but she's still trying to find the names of the person who fulfilled the order in the warehouse and the tech support person, and see where their strengths lie--if one's a gimp, he gets kitchen, and otherwise it's basically a cook-off.

don't forget that it always thinks you have at least 6 updates at any given time..

The P.C. I Bought
It Was An Ubuntu Dell
It's Hard To Pronounce.

-Ezra Pound

[anywhereigoyougo@localhost ~1]

ee cummings

I have sold you
a Dell
that runs
on Ubuntu

and which
you needed for college
for internet
and Microsoft Word

Forgive me
I did not know
you were so dumb
and so willing to call the news


- William Carlos Williams

This is the story all about hoo
My laptop flipped, got Ubuntu
And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there
I'll tell you why I dropped out for a semes-tare

- Abby Schubert, trying to explain to her mom and dad why she needs them to put her in an off-campus apartment

What's the obstacle you're running into? I've been able to get that scenario working, or something similar anyway: put the DSL modem in bridge mode, set up a Linux server w/2 NICs as the router, connect one NIC to the DSL modem and the other to an Ethernet switch.

Also, the most reliable routers I've ever used are old Linux boxes. Even decade-old computers are just fine for the low processor requirements of routing.

The biggest obstacle I'm running into is my own laziness. Also, the cable is in someone else's name which makes getting information out of time warner more difficult. Family dynamics apply. When it comes to some awspects of networking, I'm no smarter than our young abby. Also, my own laziness.

Sounds like the main problem is you need to move out of the basement. At your own house you can hook your computer up directly to the router because it's not in moms bedroom.

It can be done without putting the modem in bridge mode too; the Linux box / router can instead up an IP address from the cable modem dynamically and the rest should work the same. So long as you're not doing VoIP it should work about as well as the bridge mode approach. (VoIP doesn't do well being behind multiple levels of routers; the cable modem is one router, your Linux box would be a second router.)

No, I have my own place, and i have access to the router. Basically, it's the Verizon thing all over again. The router came with an installation CD that automates everything, but it only runs on Mac or Windows. I need to know how to interpret the information from my system in order to run the much less automated Linux community software. I'm waiting for next Linux User Group meeting.

I could do this a lot sooner with a bunch of googlling, posting and reading, and maybe eventuality I will, but I don't need to have more than one computer online at a time badly enough to overcome my laziness.

Why don't you train one of your cats to do it? Make the lazy sobs work for their keep?

If you're not a fan of slightly-convoluted configuration programs, maybe you should just give up on Linux and get yourself a nice smart phone or tablet.

It's not worth explaining, but i already solved the problem that caused me to get the router. It'll be awesome to get it working. I'll be able to tweet from the toilet, but if I wait long enough, the answer will drop into my lap. Or maybe I'll just get in the mood. But I got everything I need right now.

Okay, I did it! I'm now connected wirelessly to my network through the router, and typing on my xubuntu laptop. I did it the same way I've always done it. I installed Windows, downloaded the windows drivers, ran the windows software, set up the network, and it's going to be fine forevermore. So now I can reinstall Linux.

Yea I could have used a virtual machine, but installing a virtual machine on my slackware box would have been a whole nother song and dance. I had the root system on a separate partition from /home, so no data was lost.

Wireless! Thank you Hedy LaMarr!

The reality, I think, is that getting a tech call from Abby is a huge headache.