[Fwd: Re: AOL access from Linux]

Kenyon F. Karl kenyon.karl at valley.net
Sun May 15 17:18:01 EDT 2005


Linspire 5.0 (www.Linspire.com) currently offers an 'AOL Dialer' in

'Connecting to the Internet Page' which in turn is part of Konqueror. 
Note also that the Linspire Internet Suite has the following heritage 
[Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20050311 
Linspire/1.6-5.1.0.50.linspire2.31]. Since all of that was once known as 
Netscape and lived under the AOL umbrella, there is SOME hope that she 
will survive the separation from Microsoft-AOL software.

Furthermore the whole thing is derived from the Debian Distribution, and 
then tweaked to be as close to 'idiot proof' as can ever be expected for 
any M$ user. The Click-N-Run Warehouse offers about 2000 'free' software 
packages from the Debian Distribution as well as some work by the 
Linspire folks. The closely connected Click-N-Run also offers a varying 
discount on their commercial offerings, all of which are tweaked for 
almost trouble-free download and installation. CNRWarehouse software 
automatically checks for Operating system patches every day and 
downloads the necessary fixes, and likewise checks the currency of the 
application software and offers to update that as well. The $50/year fee 
also covers major Operating System upgrades, and support via E-mail.

Unless something fell apart during the very recent OS update, the 
Win4Lin package (additional cost from their Click-N-Buy scheme) allows 
the installation of a legal copy of the Windows OS (95 to XP) on top of 
the Linspire system which in turn allows the operation of Windows 
software with relatively few Gotchas (do read the fine print and ask 
questions, particularly about peripherals. See the Web Page at 
www.win4lin.com for details or installation on OTHER Linux distributions.

Last but not least, Linspire Live 5.0 is the Linspire equivalent of 
Knoppix and can be used to check for serious hardware problems and user 
acceptance problems before making any changes to the hard disk. Do 
check  the list of Linspire Consultants  for somebody in your area that 
can provide you with the Linspire Live CD-ROM for demonstration and 
checkout purposes, as well as the installation disk for serious 
experimentation. Of course, you might have to promise to become a 
'convert to the TRUE FAITH!' ;-)   Locating a Linspire Consultant in her 
part of Florida might likewise be very  helpful in keeping a smile on 
sweet old lady whenever she unwittingly offends the Silicon Gods.

One more thing, when both you and her can finally hook up to broadband, 
the Linspire SIPphone software (separate and also part of PhoneGaim) 
will allow her to talk your ear off without additional cost, regardless 
of where you try to escape to on this earth. More details on this VoIP 
scheme are at www.sipphone.com! :-(

----------- Original Message -----------

From: "Michael ODonnell" <michael.odonnell at comcast.net>
Reply-To: "GNHLUG" <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
To: gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
Subject: AOL access from Linux
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 12:37:03 -0400


My mother down in FLA gripes constantly about the latest
raft of problems she's suffering with on her XP machine,
and the machine is so unstable that she's phobic about
installing anything new on it, so I want to suggest she
boot something like a Knoppix CD but then she'll be off
the Net because dialup to AOL is how she connects.







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