The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[MoodyBlues]

Yep, webmail only. At one point I was switching ISP providers, mostly doing dialup days, so I just decided to use webmail.

I'm another webmail user.

Since I'm on different machines, IMAP looked like a godsend to me, but in practice it's a lot for even a high throughput Internet connection to handle. And since web technology has gotten so good, I've been happy to keep all my e-mail on "the cloud".

Sorry, guys, but I'm firmly in the 'relying on cloud storage for ANYTHING is stupid' camp. My reasons--which I've probably written about before --include the obvious: no Internet connection, no access to your files; no electricity, no access to your files; the cloud server is hacked, no access to your files; etc. Not worth the risk to me. Please keep in mind that having lived in Tornado Alley (Dallas) for many years, I KNOW power and Internet outages! Way too well. Sucks. And, ironically, after moving back home to California, I had an almost three-week Internet outage a while back. I simply cannot imagine being unable to access my files--including my old mail--due to a power or Internet outage.

Even if you like the portability factor of using web mail, you can still use a real e-mail client, too. Just think of it the other way around from how I do. What I mean is, my e-mail client (SeaMonkey) is set to automatically check for and download mail every few minutes, NOT leaving copies on the server (Earthlink). You could do it the other way, letting your e-mail client download mail but choosing to leave the mail on the server.

I used to use Kmail, and still like it very much.

KMail is nice--it's one of the clients I've tried for the hell of it--but SM's e-mail/newsgroup client is so much better. It has every feature I could want, and then some I wouldn't have thought of!

 

[Prinny]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't like the cloud idea!

 

[Dngrsone]

I don't do cloud storage, but I do use gmail.

I had the same problem:multiple machines from multiple locations, so i was an early hotmail adopter then a gmail adopter.

Frankly, it is fairly rare for me to need instant access to my email; and now, I can access it from my cell...

 

[saptech]

Sorry, guys, but I'm firmly in the 'relying on cloud storage for ANYTHING is stupid' camp. My reasons--which I've probably written about before --include the obvious: no Internet connection, no access to your files; no electricity, no access to your files; the cloud server is hacked, no access to your files; etc. Not worth the risk to me. Please keep in mind that having lived in Tornado Alley (Dallas) for many years, I KNOW power and Internet outages! Way too well. Sucks. And, ironically, after moving back home to California, I had an almost three-week Internet outage a while back. I simply cannot imagine being unable to access my files--including my old mail--due to a power or Internet outage.

Even if you like the portability factor of using web mail, you can still use a real e-mail client, too. Just think of it the other way around from how I do. What I mean is, my e-mail client (SeaMonkey) is set to automatically check for and download mail every few minutes, NOT leaving copies on the server (Earthlink). You could do it the other way, letting your e-mail client download mail but choosing to leave the mail on the server.


KMail is nice--it's one of the clients I've tried for the hell of it--but SM's e-mail/newsgroup client is so much better. It has every feature I could want, and then some I wouldn't have thought of!

So now you're living in Earthquake Alley, huh? I'm living in Tornado Alley currently (Missouri), and one struck not too far from my area Tuesday. But we didn't have any power outages this time. I used to really like SeaMonkey suite also, but gave in to Firefox & Thunderbird.

I have used both, clients & webmail, but started using webmail more & more thanks to Linux in my early days of using it. I would pull email from the ISP but ended up reinstalling Linux. I've also had my ISP lose email, web storage files before also, along with switching ISPs often. It turned out best for me to use webmail, which helped me to be able to read my mail while at work. I wasn't able to setup my ISP on their computers.

 

[saptech]

Does anyone still use an email client with Linux? I haven't really used one much, though I may install Thunderbird just in case.

Anyway, here's a new client, at least to me, and it sounds interesting. It is by the creator of Shotwell Photo Manager.

I'll have to check it out myself.

Geary: a beautiful modern open-source email client | Indiegogo

Wow, I'm surprised Mageia have it in the repositories. I thought I was going to have to install it from source. I did a check and it's there. I just installed it and will use it with Gmail.

Alot of software Mageia doesn't have in the repositories you would think they should have. Since they're getting ready for the final release next month, I'm pretty busy helping with finding bugs.

 

[mikedt]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't like the cloud idea!

Neither do I. I keep email in the cloud, just for convenience of been able to access it on any device. But I've also got it in Thunderbird as well on my PCs.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I don't do cloud storage, but I do use gmail.

I use gmail, too, but only because it was necessary when I started using an Android phone. But my e-mail client handles my gmail mail, too; I NEVER log in and actually use gmail.

I had the same problem:multiple machines from multiple locations, so i was an early hotmail adopter then a gmail adopter.

I've always had multiple machines, but I access my mail from all of them. Locally.

Frankly, it is fairly rare for me to need instant access to my email; and now, I can access it from my cell...

Get back with me after you've had an Internet outage for a few days...or weeks. Okay?

 

[MoodyBlues]

So now you're living in Earthquake Alley, huh?

Yep--but I grew up here, so I'm good! It was the tornadoes in the Dallas area I never got used to. Well, that and ice...

You know what's funny? My mom, who was a New Joisey transplant to CA and lived here from age 16 to her death last month at 89--HATED earthquakes. I mean hated them. She was high strung already, but throw an earthquake into the equation and she'd be off the charts.

I'm living in Tornado Alley currently (Missouri), and one struck not too far from my area Tuesday.

The closest I can recall in Dallas was one that flattened an entire block a mile from my house. There's something about the absolute unpredictability of tornadoes that really got to me. I mean, you could watch the weather reports and see the different colors representing thunderstorm warning, tornado watch, etc., and you could see where heavy rainfall was AT THAT MOMENT, but since a tornado can form abruptly, and can hop and skip--flattening one house but leaving the one next door untouched--they're just really scary.

But we didn't have any power outages this time.

You're lucky! I dreaded being without power more than anything else. Especially since so many really bad storms happened in the evening. There's just nothing like sitting in a hot, dark, humid house...with candles lit.

I used to really like SeaMonkey suite also, but gave in to Firefox & Thunderbird.

But there's no need! SM is still very much alive.

I have used both, clients & webmail, but started using webmail more & more thanks to Linux in my early days of using it. I would pull email from the ISP but ended up reinstalling Linux.

You've lost me. What did reinstalling Linux have to do with your e-mail? Oh, did you not put your data on its own partition?

I've also had my ISP lose email, web storage files before also,

Yep! That's why I don't trust my stuff to anyone but myself.

along with switching ISPs often. It turned out best for me to use webmail, which helped me to be able to read my mail while at work. I wasn't able to setup my ISP on their computers.

I see. But you could (and in my opinion, SHOULD) still do what I said before, use both a real e-mail client and web mail. Best of both worlds.

 

[nickdalzell]

I haven't used an email program since Eudora. The olde pop3 stuff is obsolete in today's world of email services from Google and Yahoo!. The closest I get is the apps from those two services, although Yahoo! decided to delete access my account due to it 'being compromised' (lies, I actually logged in with my iPhone and they thought someone hijacked it as it was logged in on two different devices with two different IP Addresses so it appeared that way but they lack tech support for 'free' email so I cannot even tell them that so forget them) Google pulled a similar stunt but it was fixed by simply logging in and telling them it was me via radio buttons.

 

[Dngrsone]

I use gmail, too, but only because it was necessary when I started using an Android phone. But my e-mail client handles my gmail mail, too; I NEVER log in and actually use gmail.


I've always had multiple machines, but I access my mail from all of them. Locally.


Get back with me after you've had an Internet outage for a few days...or weeks. Okay?

Actually, I go for vacation for a week at a time and I have no internet.

However, should I need to, I can and do access gmail on my cell. Gmail also pulls from my POP3 accounts...

Also, I suffered a DSL problem for a few weeks, which I believe I griped about in these forums. Again, I accessed my email by phone when necessary.

My point is: your method works for you and my method works for me and neither is better than the other.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Actually, I go for vacation for a week at a time and I have no internet.

That's by choice! The Internet outages I've had were definitely not by choice, therefore I wasn't able to prepare [mentally or any other way] for the lack of connectivity.

However, should I need to, I can and do access gmail on my cell. Gmail also pulls from my POP3 accounts...

Also, I suffered a DSL problem for a few weeks, which I believe I griped about in these forums. Again, I accessed my email by phone when necessary.

I actually forget that other people can do things like read mail on their smartphones. I can't, not easily anyway. Following my brain surgery my eyesight degraded dramatically. Reading on my phone is an exercise in futility. Plus, I also forget that other people get SIGNALS on their phones. I don't. Thanks, AT&T! I get zero bars at home, so without my Internet connection I'm dead in the water.

My point is: your method works for you and my method works for me and neither is better than the other.

Well, the stubbornness in me says otherwise. I can't see how having files always and forever available is a bad thing. Immune to outages, immune to DDoS attacks, immune to hacking, immune to companies going out of business, immune to...whatever. Just makes sense that having your own files available locally is a good thing. If you disagree, that's fine. Whatever works for you is what you should do. Really.

 

[nickdalzell]

I use Dropbox to back up my apk files on my Android devices to not only save storage space but also to avoid going to the Play Store (which i hate and won't use if you paid me) if I ever need to download the app again if I deleted it or flashed a new ROM, but that is the extent of my cloud storage, however my iPad backs up game saves which is nice so should I get a new device I don't have to start over from level one again!

 

[saptech]

I just thought I would pass this along if anyone is interested. We're working on finding any release stopping bugs.

New release date for Mageia 3 | Mageia Blog (English)

 

[nickdalzell]

My kubuntu keeps alerting me to a distro upgrade being available. What are the drawbacks (if any) of not upgrading, and, if i choose to upgrade, what are the chances that my programs (specifically games that took great lengths to run in Wine) will stop working/get wiped?

 

[Dngrsone]

I suddenly have this Backup program popping up every time I log into Ubuntu, and I can't be bothered to come up with a new backup password... it doesn't like the idea of creating a backup that isn't password protected.

WTF did this thing come from, and what hell can I send it to?

... meh, I'll probably get bored, knuckle down and create a password for it eventually.

 

[Dngrsone]

My kubuntu keeps alerting me to a distro upgrade being available. What are the drawbacks (if any) of not upgrading, and, if i choose to upgrade, what are the chances that my programs (specifically games that took great lengths to run in Wine) will stop working/get wiped?

Last time I upgraded through the Update button like that, I [screwed] up the entire install.

If you want to upgrade, then I recommend setting aside a partition or two on your hard drive and install the new Distro fresh, then transfer everything over (or install fresh).

 

[nickdalzell]

I suppose the adage, 'if it aint broke, don't fix it' would apply in my case, though, if enough stuck to that, we would still be running Android Cupcake

 

[Dngrsone]

I suppose the adage, 'if it aint broke, don't fix it' would apply in my case, though, if enough stuck to that, we would still be running Android Cupcake

Not necessarily. There are many reasons to upgrade-- portability (that is, the ability to move to a newer platform with more capability), improved utility, and learning opportunity to name a few.

 

[MoodyBlues]

My kubuntu keeps alerting me to a distro upgrade being available. What are the drawbacks (if any) of not upgrading, and, if i choose to upgrade, what are the chances that my programs (specifically games that took great lengths to run in Wine) will stop working/get wiped?

If you installed it the preferred way, i.e., with your personal data on a separate partition from the OS, you should have nothing whatsoever to worry about--even if you do a fresh install and format the root partition. But as far as doing the version upgrade [which you're being prompted to do], only do it if you want to. I almost never do version upgrades, just as a matter of personal preference. On the rare occasions when I do upgrade, I usually do clean installs, including wiping root. I did recently step through version upgrades on one of my laptops, going from Kubuntu 11.04 to 12.04, and it was basically painless except for a few things that needed tweaking. Nothing major, though.

If you're happy with your current version, leave well enough alone. If the nagging upgrade reminder bothers you, you can shut it off.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I suddenly have this Backup program popping up every time I log into Ubuntu, and I can't be bothered to come up with a new backup password... it doesn't like the idea of creating a backup that isn't password protected.

WTF did this thing come from, and what hell can I send it to?

I have no idea where it came from, as I've never seen anything like that myself. You must have installed and/or enabled SOMETHING that triggered this. What's shown when this thing pops up? What does it say? Is there a program name shown?

As with ALL things Linux, you are in total control of everything on your computer. As for this issue, it's simply a matter of figuring out what it is/where it's coming from and then making it go away.

 

[9to5cynic]

@Dngrsone - next time that backup program starts up, open a terminal and run ps aux | less
that will print out all running processes. You should be able to find it in that list. Or, an easy way would be to run that command twice. The first time output the info to a file (nobackup.txt) and then again with the backup running and compare the files. You'll probably have to manually compare the files because a lot of the data will be different on those two files... but that should point you in the right direction.

 

[nickdalzell]

Could be the uber annoying KDE Wallet thing. Mine did that too wanting passwords for everything and not root passwords, just any passwords as if i am so paranoid that i would need a password just in case someone decided to change my clock!

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Could be the uber annoying KDE Wallet thing. Mine did that too wanting passwords for everything and not root passwords, just any passwords as if i am so paranoid that i would need a password just in case someone decided to change my clock!

Haha, sounds like Vista! "You are checking your clock, cancel of confirm" LOL

 

[mikedt]

Haha, sounds like Vista! "You are checking your clock, cancel of confirm" LOL

LOL yeh... you shouldn't need a password or to confirm anything just to look at the clock. However a password might be required to alter the time though, which is an admin type thing. In a corporate setting they might not want the employees changing the time on company PCs.

BTW myself, I like to see two clocks, one showing Beijing time(CST) and one showing London time.

 

[nickdalzell]

Well unlike UAC KDE wanted to set a password for everything as I used it. Connect to wifi? Set a password. Change the system time? Set a password. Thank goodness I turned that off