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lb_leeSneak: So, I decided to really dig into Windows Vista and see what it could do and what I could do with it.
Rogan had already noticed (happily and with relief) that Vista has the things we most valued about Windows 7:
- solid file search (SO useful for multi etymology stuff--Vista and 7 can search within the text of PDFs, .docs, and .odts, while File Search Classic cannot, though File Search Classic gives a list of every mention WITHIN .txt and HTML documents, so they do slightly different, complementary things)
- ability to easily print PDF booklets well (XP CAN... but very badly and ugly, there's no way we can run test prints of our own work that way, and we do that A LOT)
- snipping tool (not necessary, but a nice perk to have--apparently there was an XP version, but I never got it to work)
But Vista still had the XP-and-prior version of MSpaint, which in our opinion is the best, no argument, no discussion.
Unfortunately, it looks like I was wrong about Vista being capable of offline activation. :( It looks to have been the first Windows OS that required online activation; CSOD's previous owner must've activated ages ago and then done a factory reset before selling. (The sole exception to the online-activation-only rule may be Vista's beta version, Longhorn 5048, AKA Build 5048. I suppose when CSOD eventually needs replacing, hopefully years down the line, we can either revert to XP and just deal with those losses, or attempt Longhorn 5048, even though that... sounds like a dicey proposition. Who even knows if the two features we need most would work in beta?)
(No wonder XP is still the third most common Windows OS used by Windows users, though, if it's the one you can work offline!)
Oh well, that's a problem for Future Us. I dug up TweakHound's guide to tweaking Vista, which helped me find all sorts of handy menus to set things up exactly as I liked it (and also help the computer use its resources better). I'll probably pay $5 for the PDF version once our budget rolls over; it was already worth that, I dare say!
All this has led to me digging into and reading... the MANUAL! It's really useful! It's local and offline! Hooray, I don't have to Google it and stagger through a million irrelevant ads and chatbots telling me things that aren't true!
As I've been noodling some with Puppy Linux, I have been pleasantly surprised to have moments where I go, "oh, if only they had..." only to discover they already have it, and that generally, the preinstalled program they chose is better than I expect! And two of them may be of interest to my multi friends!
I know some folks want an offline local blog or wiki for their own use: system mapping, internal communications, personal stuff like that, which they may not want online for people to find. Well, it turns out Puppy Linux just COMES with that preinstalled: PPLOG (for Puppy Personal Log) and DidiWiki. Wikis in general have not been our strength, so I couldn't really fully test that, only that it exists, I was able to open it and run it offline... I assume it would work for someone who actually knows what they're doing!
PPLOG was easier to test; I am a much better blogger than I am a Wiki-er! We were able to run it entirely offline with no trouble on this twenty-year-old laptop. It is extremely bare bones and simple: BBCODE formatting, you can insert images (through link) and URLs. It is locked with a password, which starts with a default but can be changed by you to a proper one. You can comment on the posts (no threaded comments, though), with an author field (Bob and Mori did test comments on my posts!) and each author creates their own password.
I realize that a lot of people probably make noooo faces over the idea of using some weird old Linux that might have a reputation for not being user-friendly, but DidiWiki can be downloaded for Ubuntu (and presumably other Linux things as well). And Puppy Linux in general is made to be run without a permanent install; I right now am using a CD version, with a "pupsave" to my hard drive to keep files and such. (I can also just move the pupsave to a USB or anywhere else, allowing me to make any computer with a CD and USB drive into the same Puppy Linux computer.) If you ONLY wanted to use your secret Puppy Linux for system mapping purposes, you can, and I see no reason why the blog/Wiki files themselves couldn't be easily exported so you could open them elsewhere.
So that might be something of interest and use to people!
Rogan had already noticed (happily and with relief) that Vista has the things we most valued about Windows 7:
- solid file search (SO useful for multi etymology stuff--Vista and 7 can search within the text of PDFs, .docs, and .odts, while File Search Classic cannot, though File Search Classic gives a list of every mention WITHIN .txt and HTML documents, so they do slightly different, complementary things)
- ability to easily print PDF booklets well (XP CAN... but very badly and ugly, there's no way we can run test prints of our own work that way, and we do that A LOT)
- snipping tool (not necessary, but a nice perk to have--apparently there was an XP version, but I never got it to work)
But Vista still had the XP-and-prior version of MSpaint, which in our opinion is the best, no argument, no discussion.
Unfortunately, it looks like I was wrong about Vista being capable of offline activation. :( It looks to have been the first Windows OS that required online activation; CSOD's previous owner must've activated ages ago and then done a factory reset before selling. (The sole exception to the online-activation-only rule may be Vista's beta version, Longhorn 5048, AKA Build 5048. I suppose when CSOD eventually needs replacing, hopefully years down the line, we can either revert to XP and just deal with those losses, or attempt Longhorn 5048, even though that... sounds like a dicey proposition. Who even knows if the two features we need most would work in beta?)
(No wonder XP is still the third most common Windows OS used by Windows users, though, if it's the one you can work offline!)
Oh well, that's a problem for Future Us. I dug up TweakHound's guide to tweaking Vista, which helped me find all sorts of handy menus to set things up exactly as I liked it (and also help the computer use its resources better). I'll probably pay $5 for the PDF version once our budget rolls over; it was already worth that, I dare say!
All this has led to me digging into and reading... the MANUAL! It's really useful! It's local and offline! Hooray, I don't have to Google it and stagger through a million irrelevant ads and chatbots telling me things that aren't true!
As I've been noodling some with Puppy Linux, I have been pleasantly surprised to have moments where I go, "oh, if only they had..." only to discover they already have it, and that generally, the preinstalled program they chose is better than I expect! And two of them may be of interest to my multi friends!
I know some folks want an offline local blog or wiki for their own use: system mapping, internal communications, personal stuff like that, which they may not want online for people to find. Well, it turns out Puppy Linux just COMES with that preinstalled: PPLOG (for Puppy Personal Log) and DidiWiki. Wikis in general have not been our strength, so I couldn't really fully test that, only that it exists, I was able to open it and run it offline... I assume it would work for someone who actually knows what they're doing!
PPLOG was easier to test; I am a much better blogger than I am a Wiki-er! We were able to run it entirely offline with no trouble on this twenty-year-old laptop. It is extremely bare bones and simple: BBCODE formatting, you can insert images (through link) and URLs. It is locked with a password, which starts with a default but can be changed by you to a proper one. You can comment on the posts (no threaded comments, though), with an author field (Bob and Mori did test comments on my posts!) and each author creates their own password.
I realize that a lot of people probably make noooo faces over the idea of using some weird old Linux that might have a reputation for not being user-friendly, but DidiWiki can be downloaded for Ubuntu (and presumably other Linux things as well). And Puppy Linux in general is made to be run without a permanent install; I right now am using a CD version, with a "pupsave" to my hard drive to keep files and such. (I can also just move the pupsave to a USB or anywhere else, allowing me to make any computer with a CD and USB drive into the same Puppy Linux computer.) If you ONLY wanted to use your secret Puppy Linux for system mapping purposes, you can, and I see no reason why the blog/Wiki files themselves couldn't be easily exported so you could open them elsewhere.
So that might be something of interest and use to people!
