Shawn Vs Xavius

[BBOSAK2143]

If you remember and can also see by my signature Xavius is the 3rd OS I am using which I built. Shawn is my "better half" or "ole lady" as I commonly say. Now Shawn was a total Windows user, so she is going to be a tough customer. I am not condoning or condemning "Windows" nor "Xavius", I just figure some information I will list and explain may in turn help newer users. Background is as follows. Shawn has used nothing but Windows since her first computer back in 1998 so for her to brave Linux in any form to me is a huge step! As people we are "creatures of habit" we get completely used to the way something is and we stick with it! So when we can move on and change, is very significant and at points awesome to see!

Sunday, I spent all day loading my OS and adjusting things so would be acceptable to Shawn. I wanted her first experience with a Linux OS to dazzle and wow her! So, I readjusted all the fonts back to standard Sans, as I originally designed the OS with nothing but URW Chancerly L fonts. I also changed themes from Black Beauty III to Purple Popper another one of my theme variations. Unfortunately, she thinks BBIII is just too dark! Then I set up a few of her older Win 95 games in Wine1.6. Went very smoothly and games play correctly. Next, for those games that simply will not play in Wine, I used Virtualbox and installed a copy of Win7 with service pack 1. I also installed all those games into Virtualbox. Remember those games are not high tech. They are simple easy graphics games like poker, slots and cards. Never expect Virtualbox to play games that required a large amount of graphics since it will not work! The system also contains, Mess, Mame, Gnome video arcade, Mupen and playstation portable.

Since Shawn had been basically playing many of these games for months now near evening time, I figured I was pretty much good to go! Wow was I wrong! Nope, she had to put things to the test I suppose! "I simply must transfer pictures from my phone to the computer with Bluetooth" Since I have a flaw with udev I felt my skin crawl!!!!! I thought for Bluetooth would never find that phone!!! Then, to my surprise it did! Of course dummy me, forgot to turn file sharing on! So for newbies and some of us that forget as myself System Tools/Preferences/File Sharing. Of course that still did not do the trick! She was getting tipped and reasonably so! Seems there is something not quite right in Gnome 3.8 so the command "blues-simple-agent" had to be initiated. Once this was done, no problem connection established and files can be transferred with no hassles!

Then last night, I thought surely she would check those games out I had spent hours to get running. Nope! Now Shawn simply had to have a picture centered on the screen. Now the picture was 352x256 or something like that. So, I opened gimp expanded it to about 500x something and figured now we can center it. Of course, Gnome 3.8 does not accommodate that in the graphical sense. So to do this we have to open a command terminal and issue the command "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options "centered" " Is amazing as here we are with one of the most sophisticated desktops in Linux and we are forced to issue a command line for something so trivial! Boo to Gnome on that one! KDE and LXDE still think of these settings for users as not all of us want our pictures stretched or zoomed! Next, well the picture was centered and the rest of the screen was black. Now remember, my Black Beauty III theme was not in use so that is not to blame! When checking into gschemas, I found the coloring scheme as blue/light blue. So how the black is depicted, I have no clue! I also had no idea on how to change these characteristics, so I had her switch to the LXDE desktop to accommodate.

Apparently, she was set on having a pinkish background around the centered picture which was easily accomplished in LXDE. Simply right click the desktop in LXDE and you can make your adjustments, pretty self-explanatory once you click on desktop preferences. Is simply amazing how such a simplified desktop can be so so accommodating with many things! I think I will always have that desktop in any OS I create! Will also show to many builders the value of the different desktops as they all seem to have a different vision of what a user will expect! So least Shawn was happy with the way the LXDE desktop accommodated her picture. At this point Shawn has seen every desktop I have and seems to enjoy LXDE and Gnome about the same as I do! Both just seem to have those menus to where everything is listed and easy to find. Same holds true for Mate, but unfortunately their attachment to Gnome prevents me from having both desktops! Waiting for them to make the break!!!!!

Next thing is going to be getting Shawn used to the browsers! Personally am betting Firefox will be her choice, but one never knows. Right now, least as of last night she quickly turned on Vbox and used the updated Explorer 11 on Windows. I told Shawn will be simpler just to use the system's browsers and set bookmarks as I do! Have it set for Ultimate and a few other places on Chrome. Yes, am a google addict! Sure the other browsers are set, but is hard to break me from Chrome at many points! I know the same holds true for Shawn and Explorer/Bing! Sure Bing has improved since its start, but personally still do not believe in all the hype it gets. To me is no better or worse than anyone else. Same holds true for Google and everyone else out there! I was also very very sorry to see Alta-Vista go and quite shocked! I tend to use every search engine possible at many points! Anyway for now will end this, but will continue to post as information that may have value for new users arises. I hope what information I have documented will help others fresh to Linux be able to have the best experience possible! On the fun side when she went to the bathroom, I hit the super key(windows) and w. When you have compiz going, you know it looks quite wild! Love the animations and effects, just something no other OS's but Linux/Unix think about doing!!!!

[BBOSAK2143]

Trying to anticipate Shawn's next move, I thought she might want to get bookmarks set up, but now was time for games! As I stated before she absolutely loves those Casino games! How I wish one day I can give her the real thing, but that is not the point now! I had her game all set to Win95 in Wine1.6. I opted to use the older version so we will not be slammed by updates. Unfortunately, I did not do the same with Blender! Anyway, on Gnome she went to engage the game, disk is a bit shot so gave her a hard time. So, I had her switch to LXDE. I really prefer that desktop for games that are not solely related to Gnome! Gnome is responsible for many tasks especially when we have gdm assigned to it! So, I had her go to the LXDE desktop and play the game instead where it seems to function fairly well, that is until the DVD drive which is IDE and wore out disk slowed it down and it freezes. So, today later on will most likely image it as to take the strain off the system. At present I can not replace the IDE items with SATA to speed things up. Remember since 12.10, IDE is slowing things down, these are faster systems!

As to anticipate her next move, I decided to dive into mupen64plus. For those not familiar it is a Nintendo 64 emulator. Now it does not have a graphical interface, so for some can be a real hassle. Most sites will only explain how to download and install, figuring we are all Einsteins and just know how to run it! Remember, even though I have done a few things in Linux, am no pro, still learning. So this area was new to me. An internet search revealed a way to engage the game but did absolutely nothing but claim the file did not exist. I was very upset someone would post information that does not work! The post claimed initiating command mupen64plus, drag/drop file into command window! Doesn't happen! What does work and most effective to get it off of command line and easily used is to simply right click file and assign command of mupen64plus. Now every time I get one of those files I can now right click and hit mupen64plus and presto game will start! For some games there will be expansion packs, meaning ways to save your game so you must also have those. Unsure how you do them at present but will eventually find out. Am not a big gamer. Just here and there will mess with them an hour or so! Anyway, even though I have a joystick hooked up(usb) mupen will not recognize it!

Now once we open the game by right clicked mupen64plus assigned, we notice it is not in full screen! So we then must hit ctrl and alt to bring it into fullscreen. Next we want to get it going. So We are generally using keyboard keys shift and ctlr to engage the game. Controlling is fairly well described on many pages and are very accurate. I just felt the above descriptions and explanations will help users that may be interested in these type games. Is fun to take the stress of the day and spend a little time playing here and there! Now this morning will probably get Shawn's computer set so will be easy to play these games along with some of the old games that play on Mess and Mame. Mess and Mame are pretty simple to use and usually all games are easily set to right click and engage just as I have just done for Mupen64plus. Of course remember with Mess and Mame to download the bios's. They then have to be installed into usr/share/games/mess/roms and usr/share/games/mame/roms. I did also get the playstation portable game player for Linux but have not delved into that yet. When I do, rest assured I will document under this post how to use it. Same goes for expansion packs mentioned above as I now have the N64 Spiderman game and know I will want to play it as I always had great laughs out of it! Also insight from other members here that are more well versed in games will be greatly appreciated as to help all of us that are not!!!!

More info to come as I continue on with Shawn's experience as a new Linux user. Xavius is just my own version of Ubuntu Linux which has many similarities to Ultimate as far as programs. Learned from the greatest, so have to have the greatest!!!!! Still, is not as great, but does pretty good! Normally, I would have seen Shawn as leaving Linux within a few days, and am quite surprised she has opted to give it more of a chance!!!! Have to remember we are not young anymore and sometimes is very hard to change our ways!!!! Nothing is to be taken as ill-will towards Windows or Linux. All I ever mean to do is just help newer users as I also learn things! Til next time take care and enjoy all you do!

[BBOSAK2143]

Coming back with some information for those wondering about mupen64plus. Now if you remember I talked about right clicking the file to play and assigning it a command of mupen64plus. There is also a frontend for mupen64plus called m64py. It can be downloaded at sourceforge as a deb. Once installed you can use it to point it directly to the N64 files you want to open. I did try this program/frontend but was not satisfied with the workings for adjusting it for a joystick since there was absolutely no effect. Now this may not be the case in someone else's system. As I am using an older joystick(Logitech Attack 3) I can see there is no listing in usr/share/games/mupen64plus/InputAutoCfg.ini which will initiate my joystick. Luckily, I found an article on google which explains about adding your own configuration settings to this file so your joystick will work. Below is this example and for those having the same problem hopefully this will help when you go to use a similar joystick on mupen64plus. Many of the newer joysticks are listed in this file, so I suggest you open this file and check thoroughly before adding these lines.

[LOGITECH ATTACK 3]
plugged = True
plugin = 2
mouse = False
AnalogDeadzone = 4096,4096
AnalogPeak = 32768,32768
DPad R = hat(0 Right)
DPad L = hat(0 Left)
DPad D = hat(0 Down)
DPad U = hat(0 Up)
Start = button(9)
Z Trig = button(7)
B Button = button(0)
A Button = button(2)
C Button R = axis(3+)
C Button L = axis(3-)
C Button D = axis(2+)
C Button U = axis(2-)
R Trig = button(6)
L Trig = button(4)
Mempak switch =
Rumblepak switch =
X Axis = axis(0-,0+)
Y Axis = axis(1-,1+)

Another issue I was faced with was I had the xorg drivers installed for joystick. Contrary to belief xorg drivers are no longer required to use on a Linux OS unless you intend to use the joystick for a mouse! Yes, you can do this! I saw the effects last night and it did work the system quite well with the joystick! For using with mupen64plus had no function since the proper configs were not in the file listed above! Since I was a bit upset at the keyboard idea, since for me is very very unreasonable to expect anyone to play some action game on a keyboard to operate multiple functions, I did delete that section from the config file! I do not suggest that as some games will not require multiple keys and may work more appropriately by keyboard!Formerly, I stated by initiating ctrl and alt will engage fullscreen. I was wrong and apologize. Apparently, it also takes Enter, Ctrl and Alt in combination at the same time! Frontend I tried m64py had a listing for fullscreen but was darkened out. I am not sure if something I did in my OS prevents fullscreen from happening. Still for me since the frontend was not really doing much for me, I simply uninstalled it! I have no problem right clicking and selecting mupen64plus. So basically since the frontend would not take care of the joystick, I found it no value to me.

Just hoping this helps those curious and in need of a little relief from the daily workings of programs. Meaning, I am not someone that highly indulges in these video games, but at points is fun to play and just need a little relief from daily stress of working on things! So, I know there are plenty of others out there that feel the same way and just hope my posts can save a bit of googling!!!! Will continue this post as I go on and learn more that will help for new users or for those of us not so new, of programs that do not function exactly as we expect them to!

[BBOSAK2143]

Shawn is still going with Xavius, but am having one hell of a time to ween her off Explorer!!!! To me is quite shocking as we all know Explorer is probably one of the poorest browsers out there these days!!!! Now, I decided since Konqueror is so close to Explorer's looks to set the start page to bing on it and see if I can get her to stop using Vbox/Windows7 to get to her email!!! Shawn does not get on Explorer as much as I get on the web, but still uses it enough and want her to get the best out of it! I mean, I use nice little tools to push the faster connection and block out all the adware junk! Of course learned that mostly from Ultimate which does the same!!!! I guess TheeMahn feels the same as we all do!!! Who needs to get garbage when they are searching for important information! As I always say, Xavius is close in its workings to Ultimate so always will run most of those same great tools. Of course Xavius is a little more bloated, but it comes from my deep exploration of Linux. Am simply doing my best to learn as much as I possibly can! Anyway, Xavius is making a huge hit with Shawn due to the fact it shuts down like a light switch! Can almost say is close to the speed of hitting the power switch on the computer!!! Processes goes down and boom shuts off! Microsoft lost both of us as users due to the fact of the shutdown and boot process.

See, for those that do not know, I live on 2acres of property in Tennessee. During the summer is time to do the gardening! Well, 2 years ago, I needed to get some supplies from the store 17miles away in Columbia. I needed to get online find a few things then proceed to Columbia, come home and work in the garden. Well, I went to boot old Windows 7 up and I sat there for 30 minutes! Why???? In Windows you have no choice if you have automatic updates engaged! I sat there in flames ready to put my fist right through the monitor! I am completely serious and honest here folks!!! Think about it! It gets hot out here in the summer! Best to get things done before is 100 degrees!!! So I sat there waiting and waiting just to get to that desktop and knew there simply had to be a better way! Now on the shutdown, I generally did not care. Still when I found my computer was not shutdown at 2am or 6am when I got up, I was also highly upset! Computers are not meant to run and run and run! Some do this and eventually they wear out and much faster!

So anyway, soon as I arrived on Linux, I was grinning as I could just boot up do my store search and proceed on my way!!!! I would be done with things early afternoon before the sweltering heat! Now the point about shutdown finally wore on Shawn! She has been swearing at that Windows shutdown for years!!!! I can not blame her at all on that!!!! With these 2 points I would not ever think about a Windows phone either! Knowing how my luck runs, I would turn the thing on to make an emergency call and it would be updating!!!!! Probably would be dead before it turned on!!!! Seriously, the update on boot/shutdown totally reversed any good feelings I had towards Windows! Sure I have run that OS with ask me to update setting, but one update and it just bounces back to automatic!!!! Sorry, I do not think anyone could even pay me to use that OS full time again!!!!!

Am just happy Shawn has seen some of the points I have been telling her about Linux. Everyday she is enjoying her games on Wine and seems to have taken a real liking the LXDE desktop!!! I thought she might like KDE, but pegged her wrong!!!!! I can not blame her in the least on LXDE as I also find myself using that desktop quite a bit!!! Response is there and very and I mean extremely dependable!!!!! Originally, I stated about playing games on Windows in Vbox. I am real sorry I misinformed people. I did not try the games in full screen. Once this was attempted there was failure. Of course since I have built in graphics, the same may not hold true for others. So to remedy the situation, I installed most of the games Wine for Shawn and worked just fine!!! Have a couple Casino games of hers that will not work in Wine and are even described as not working at WineHQ! Wine by far is still an awesome piece and am still amazed at its functions.

Recently, I have been hired(least hopefully!) by a company to do a job. No specifics as I never publish names of perspective employers. Anyway, there was some training for it I needed to do. Wouldn't you know once again I was faced with "You have to have Windows and Silverlight!" HA HA Do not think so my frenzito! This is why I really love Wine now!!!! Am sorry, whenever there is a way to avoid Windows I will take it at whatever cost!!!! I am loyal to Linux! I blame TheeMahn for making the most usable and dependable system ever! I mean, when I got Ultimate installed first time, I was all smiles! Anything I wanted to do happened!!! Sorry I could never say the same for Windows, because it is just not true for me! After learning how he does it, I embarked on the same principle and am pretty darn close to the same thing now!!!! Anyway, I found from http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/pipeligh ... linux.html I could just get all that Microjunk working through integration of Wine and the browser. Works like a charm, did all I needed to do for that job and am all set and no headaches from using Windows!!!

I am sorry if I have offended anyone about Windows, but is just my opinion and feelings! I get very upset when people look down at Linux. To me is terrible and not fair! Linux has the greatest developers this planet has ever seen! Simply look in your menus and revel at all those luscious programs!!!! Engage them and presto task is completed! This is the major point that means the very most to me is to complete a project! Then I have the choice of how I want my desktop to appear! I do not have to force anything! I simply apply a new color scheme for a theme and there it is looking like Picasso himself made it for me!!!! I love that fact severely and lavish it every single day!!!! Sure it took time to learn, but every second, minute, hour, days, weeks, months was well worth it!!!! I do not have to buy a thousand dollars worth of programs to create these effects, I simply have to study and learn! To me is awesome!!!! So, I will also thank all the developers who have worked years to make this possible! You deserve the very highest respect and admiration from all of us and is about time someone mentions it!!!!!

Anyway as time goes on and I can bring something to help newer users with adjusting to Linux, will by all means do it!!! This is the sole purpose of this rant! It is not to brag about the creation of my OS. It is simply to inform new users how to deal with certain aspects. At some points information is not always available or is not very dominating on the web. Since everyone here has helped me as I adjusted to Linux, I will continue to strive to do the same for those starting with Linux. Nothing mentioned is meant to offend anyone in anyway as all I ever hope to do is just help!!!!