Re: [TCLUG:10969] GNOME configuration questions/musings

[Christopher Reid Palmer <reid@pconline.com>]

On Thu, 9 Dec 1999, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:

> >How do you know it's X, specifically, that is crashing? 
>
> I assume that when I get dropped out of the GUI to my command shell
> (gives the 'explicit kill or server shutdown' message, on several lines),
> that's X crashing. :)

No, not necessarily. Any program exec(1,2)'ed from X will cause your whole
X session to die if it dies (GNOME, I'm looking in your direction). That's
why I asked you what kind of stability you get if you run twm(1).

> FVWM2 is pretty stable; running xterms and IRC client (X-Chat). I've
> had it crash once or twice; but I think I can attribute that to
> Netscrape in all cases.

Yeah, Netscape can monkey with your X session. I've had good enough luck
with versions 4.08 and 4.7.

> I forget which X server it is; whichever one is for my Matrox Mystique
> vid card, bundled with RH 6.1.

Yeah, same as me; you should be using the standard SVGA server which is
the one that supports the MGA-based cards. Again, I've had wonderful
stability; it's a bummer that you're having trouble. I'm still inclined to
blame it on an X client rather than X itself.

> >> I still have to load the CD-ROM module by hand;
> >Do you have some proprietary CD-ROM interface? 
>
> 2x Sound Blaster, connected to the SB16 Pro sound card. uses the
> sbpcd module.

Ahh. Yeah. Personally I like to compile such things right into the kernel,
since it seems less problematic.

> I just need to go back and poke at /etc/conf.modules and /etc/fstab
> some more.

Well, good luck.


[MUA]

> I've used Pine once or twice; and must say that I despise it.

Blasphemer! ;) Personally I think it's just about perfect.

Another good, if baroque, MUA is exmh. It's Tcl/Tk-based for blazing speed
:P but is very, very configurable. Dig around for other options on
Freshmeat.net, there are many.

> Mutt looks interesting; I'm looking into it.

Frankly, if Pine doesn't appeal to you, Mutt probably won't either -- not
that you shouldn't try it out. It's quite good.

> what do people think of KMail?

I think, 'Man, I would have loved to have been able to find it, back when
I was experimenting with KDE.'


> b: read mail via POP3, and be able to queue up messages to send,
> while offline.

That's why I suggested Netscape -- easiest way to do those things.

> I'm not a big fan of Netscape's mailer interface.

Who could blame you for that. :)

> I've heard of Fetchmail; never learned exactly what it *does* tho.

It does the POP part of what you describe above. You need it, an MUA and
an MTA to have a complete package.

> My experience with mail on Linux is setting up Sendmail on
> constantly-connected systems.

The big difference is that Sendmail will whine if it wants to clear the
queue and can't because you aren't connected. Other than that, no big
deal.


--
  Christopher Reid Palmer : http://www.innerfireworks.com/