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On Sunday 03 May 2009, Gordon Henderson wrote: > On Sun, 3 May 2009, Brad Rogers wrote: > > On Sun, 3 May 2009 06:22:32 +0100 > > Vivi Griffin <vivi.griffin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > Hello Vivi, > > > > What Gordon says is sage advice, but a little further info; > > > >> I also use an HP PSC 1510 printer / scanner, using HPLIP. > > > > HPLIP is available in Debian. It's currently broken (in testing, at > > least) but a fix is on the way. > > Hm. Now wifey has an HP scan/print unit connected to her XP desktop, it's > a Photosmart 2575 scan/print thingy and I'd quietely ignored until now, (I > have an HP4600 colour laserprinter which eats postScript) when after a > quick look at it, I find an Ethernet socket... > > So maybe I'll have a look at hplip now... > > A quick search finds: > > http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html > > So there's hope! > > >> Also, I like to watch the news and, occasionally BBC IPlayer. > > > > You'll need to install stuff from the debian-multimedia.org > > repositories; http://www.debian-multimedia.org > > > > The stuff there aren't included in the normal Debian repos because of > > certain issues regarding freedom (Debian has a *very* strict list of > > criteria regarding what is, and isn't, free software). Even ordinary > > DVDs won't play under Debian "out of the box", because of the legality > > (or otherwise) of libdvdcss under certain legislations. It can mean > > that, sometimes Debian's package management system will attempt to > > remove a package you have installed because it falls foul of the Debian > > Free Software Guidelines (DFSG). Although that, IME, is rare. If you > > can't live with that, Debian probably isn't for you. > > > > Having said that, once Debian is set up to your liking, you *never* have > > to perform "installs" to upgrade as you do with Mandriva, etc, just > > perform a weekly update for bug and/or security fixes, etc. > > Indeed - and I'd forgotten about the multimedia stuff too. (I don't play > DVDs though and too used to some of my old ways!) > > wget debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16_all.deb.1 > wget > http://www.debian-multimedia.org/pool/main/d/debian-multimedia-keyring/debi >an-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16_all.deb dpkg -i > debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16.deb > > then For the UK mirror, you can put: > > deb http://debian-multimedia.fx-services.com/ lenny main > > in /etc/apt/sources.list and off you go... > > The one package you may need, even if not playing DVDs is w32codecs. This > will let mplayer play (most) windows movile format files, along with > quicktime, real, etc. > > Debian is the purest of pure when it comes to obeying the FSF rules, but > here in the real world, it's not always possible to stick to them - > certianly not in the desktop world yet though. > > Gordon OTOH Viv, if you want Debian without the pain try Simply Mepis 8 or if you want Mandriva without the pain try PCLinuxOS 2009. Both, coincidentally, on the latest Linux Format disk. I run Mepis with no trouble at all, unless I've been a naughty boy with it, and I installed PCLinuxOS on a friends computer in place of Windows and that's been running for 18 months now with no problems. George -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html