OTish; Laptops

[The Medway Handyman]

Can you not save from a Chrome Book to a USB stick?

[Bod]

_______________________________________

I dunno, but I have access to all of my stuff *all* of the time and even when the internet is down. I don't use the cloud etc.

[Huge]

I'm afraid your impression is wrong, and has been for several years.

In the recent (last few weeks) I've plugged the following into my Linux (Mint 17) machine;

- HP OfficeJet 4620

- Blackberry Z10

- Tomtom Satnav

- Garmin Satnav

- External USB disk(s)

- Several USB memory sticks

- Logitech Webcam

- Belkin Wifi dongle

- Bluetooth dongle

- Nikon DSLR (two different ones)

And it's all "just worked". No "downloading drivers", no manufacturers disk, just plug it in and switch it on.

Admittedly I did have to install the drivers for my Epson V300 scanner, which took, ooh, 30 seconds to do. Download the files. Double click on them. Done.

[Huge]

Oh, I forgot about my HP LJ5 - but that's worked for years.

[dennis]

Most windows laptops come with a demo version unless you go for one with less than 10" screen which used to come with a full version of office and may still do. The little one I bought the wife came with office 2013 home and student and only cost £169 last year.

If you buy one then they don't cost anymore than chromebooks and can run chrome software, windows software and all the office software you can get for linux.

There isn't really any point to chromebooks unless they are cheaper.

[Bod]

[Fredxxx]

Well, and there's me thinking that schools banned mobile phones! What are they going to allow next?

[dennis]

So did my Brother, but the scanner didn't, nor the FAX and it only worked on USB and not the network.

However on windows it downloaded the drivers and all of it worked.

[Davey]

In just the five or so years that I have been using Linux, I have seen a huge improvement in the way it recognises stuff, including the inbuilt NVIDIA card in the PC. It's all getting better and better.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I spent 3 minuets finding and 30 seconds installing software to read an exfat formatted usb drive...

[Capitol]

And my Brother network printer just works all the time, unlike XP which loses it on a regular basis.

[Capitol]

but on Windows, if it'a aything like mine, it won't scan on all the resolutions available, unlike the Linux scanning app, whose name escapes me at the moment.

[Davey]

Oh-oh: "Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows Vista (32bit, 64bit) / Windows 7 (32bit, 64bit) / Windows 8".

No Linux version?

Ah, here it is, well hidden:

[Davey]

xsane ?

[Tim Watts]

This has 320GB hard drive:

I totally agree with you though.

Chromebooks are a blessing for the likes of schools and parents of schoolkids.

But if they get some options so you can carry your life around with you, that will get my vote.

[Tim Watts]

Disagreed. There's a lot of point in the lower buggerage factor. Try giving a linux or windows laptop to your older relative. You'll get a call every week.

[Tim Watts]

Last policy I read allows both with carefully worded constraints.

The laptops seem to be encouraged. The mobile policy is very sensible. No photos or vids in the school without explicit permissions. Don't flaunt it (or it'll get nicked). Use/don't use in certain areas.

[The Natural Philosopher]

simplescan is somewhat better IMHO

set it to a decent res, and just scan

I am not a fan of scan software that has bells and whistles, I prefer to use the Gimp

[Bill]

In message , Huge writes

Well, just in the audio field where I often work, these didn't:

EchoAudio Audiofire 2 Tascam FW-1884 Edirol UA-4FX Tascam US-144 Various other devices from E-MU, Tascam, Edirol etc. and the ones that work, including the on-board audio present themselves via a conglomeration of mixer and routing interfaces that make productive work a pain to set up.

I understand from others that similar difficulties pop up in their areas.

I will admit that my testing of these was only on Mint 16 and AVLinux, but I've been looking at cross dressing software like Harrison Mixbus, and it's a whole lot easier in Windows even though it has to use Jack

-for-Windows.

I'm not anti-Linux, and I am anti W8 and, so far, 10, but I may have said here before that setting up a security system using iSpy in Windows was a doddle compared with the similar Zoneminder system in Linux.

Maybe it's me.

[dennis]

Does it do firmware updates and maps? Update the sat information for quickfix?

See above.

Does it do firmware updates or just download the pictures?