Q4OS ... Please call your office...

HAL_2000 · 2020-05-23 08:10

I am newly exploring Linux, a decades-long Windows user, and still bitterly clinging to Windows 7 (which is working fine, thank you very much).

I was very pleased with how easily Q4OS installed and more pleased still at the ease of XP-theming it with a single, easy download.

Ausgezeichnet!

Then the fun stopped with the difficulty in getting things like sound, video and wireless cards recognized, things which Ubuntu-based distros did in their stride as the first installation was still in progress.

I would like Q4OS to be my new OS of choice, but lack of driver support is a deal killer.

I say this not as just an individual, but as representative of a potential class of a lot of new Q4OS users, seeking to avoid Windows 10.

On its WELCOME page, Q4OS writes:

We are currently seeking business partners to accelerate development, in order to build the perfect operating system for professional use. If you would like to participate, fund or make an investment in Q4OS, please contact us at partner@q4os.org.
https://www.q4os.org/

I run a business myself, and one rule of business is: you have to answer the phones when a customer calls.

Now, in this instance, people might not be calling a telephone number, but folks ARE logging into the Q4OS Help Forum (screen cap attached). What does this picture tell us?

Many questions. Very few responses.

I would very much like Q4OS to do well. The install went well (aside from the lack of driver support). The install looks beautiful. It handles even older hardware and a small amount of RAM like a champ.

But driver support is paltry.

Businesses need scanners and printers and wireless devices to work. Scanners and printers and wireless devices need drivers to work.

Please, please, please (or, since Q4OS is Germany based: <<Bitte ! Bitte ! Bitte ! >> make driver support to be a seamless aspect of installation, or at the very least, provide an automated application that will sniff out newly attached hardware and direct the browser to a repository of drivers for automatic installation. Other distros have something like this.

As far as I can tell, this is the only aspect holding Q4OS back from being a challenge to Windows and a new home for those fleeing the tyranny of Redmond.

Consider this. Even though Windows is bloated, buggy, controlling, invasive and expensive, it has over 88 percent of the desktop / laptop market. Even though Linux, all its highly splintered distros combined, is FREE, secure, light and fast, has a total desktop / laptop market share of less than 2 percent.

PLEASE step up on user support (including all those who love Q4OS and post voluntary, helpful responses... you are emissaries, for better or for worse, of this operating system). And in particular, easy-to-implement driver support, keeping in mind that your target market are both private OS users and business users, not all of which have IT managers, who have been using Windows.

This is your opportunity, but you have to answer your phones.

Dai_trying · 2020-05-23 16:36

If Ubuntu does everything "in it's stride" and you like Q4OS why don't you try the experimental Q4OS Ubuntu version (Quark) it might suit you better.

q4osteam · 2020-05-23 17:47

https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3028
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ubuntu … s/testing/

HAL_2000 · 2020-05-24 04:48

Thanks for the response fellas.

Q4OS - still suitable for reviving 32-bit architecture with one-click Windows theming?

How about distro code-named QUEST, with a very lightweight TRINITY desktop? (But wait, I think you posted this as post #45 "We are planning to make Trinity desktop as an option accessible via the Desktop profiler, while separate it completely off the default install.")

[Proposed] Q4OS QUEST Features: in bullet points:

- Lightweight and fast OS
- Revives 32-bit architecture boards
- Runs easily on 1 Gig RAM and less systems
- Easily Windows 2000 / XP / 7 themed (XPQ4 theme package)
- Automatic recognition and installation of Sound, WiFi, Webcam, etc. drivers
- Trinity Desktop Environment

That sounds excellent.

Please let me know so I can load and test it !

Last edited by HAL_2000 (2020-05-24 05:44)

HAL_2000 · 2020-05-27 22:22

@q4osteam, dude you *know* I've been looking for something like this. Why didn't you say something?

FreeXP
https://freexp.sourceforge.io/

Did you make a Legacy 32-bit version?

Also, do you have a 32-bit version of your experimental QUARK? *

If not, can you make a 32-bit version? (code-named QUADRANT).

[T-Shirt seen in CERN caverns: 'Beware of Quantum Ducks: Quark Quark']

Last edited by HAL_2000 (2020-05-27 22:23)

bin · 2020-05-28 05:45

This is simply Q4OS with the XPQ4 desktop tweak and WINE pre-installed

You can make it yourself with a handful of clicks.

HAL_2000 · 2020-05-28 06:40

Well, yes, that much I know. Why a -32 bit version of this would come in handy is because I am making a series of basic machines for a classroom.

If the initial setup essentially automates a series of steps, that can be a great time saver. The lockdown will be ending soon and free time will suddenly become restricted.

All things being equal, this package has a lot going for it, for this particular use.

So... this distro, in 32 bit?

bin · 2020-05-28 09:09

So, you start with q4os-3.11-i386-instcd.r1.iso and install Wine and the XPQ4 desktop tweaks - and that's what you get.

Alternatively you could contact "Questions or comments ? Contact XPQ4 Team at xpq4@users.sourceforge.net."

Plead your case - offer money or whatever and see if they would do that for you as a 32 bit install ISO

bin · 2020-05-28 11:17

Just downloaded the iso and had a look. It is essentially basic TDE with XPQ4 as the default. BUT having said that I do think that whoever is behind XPQ4 has done a stellar job - icons etc all good.

WINE is not installed - would make it a big download I guess. However it is easy to install via the Welcome screen - shows up as abut 950 mb of space required for WINE - which is larger than the usual 650 - ish. I'll have a look and see what the script is pulling in.

I have always like XP and W7 as user interfaces provided you remember it is just smoke and mirrors!

HAL_2000 · 2020-05-29 01:01

@bin
whoever is behind XPQ4 has done a stellar job - icons etc all good.

I agree. Indeed, that (as explained in my OP) is the very reason that I'm here.

There is a ridiculous saying: "there is no such thing as bad publicity," but of course, there is. But perhaps an even more pernicious Kiss O' Deth, is no publicity at all.

While too new to the World of Linux to offer coding, assuming all goes well, I can introduce many people to Linux in general and XPQ4 in particular.

This is what I've been doing with computers for the last 15 years or so.
https://www.linux.org/threads/distro-ca … post-92473

If for some reason the link doesn't work, as a hobby I've been refurbishing computers and giving them away to kids, moms, recovering vets, churches and even Indian tribes. For some reason, by carefully selecting what gets installed, these machines often move out faster than far newer machines with off the shelf Windows 8 / 10 installs.

For the USA at least (some countries in Central and South America are still using XP !!), XP cannot be used, and Windows 7 support has ended and the drivers taken offline by most manufacturers. Microshaft is certainly burning its boats behind it, ensuring that using Windows installs for this hardware makes sure that they'll not be safe online, or work not at all with a lot of websites.

Then I heard about Linux and the Carnival barker's pitch that 'Linux can breathe new life into older, less powerful machines.'

To that end, over the past several months, I've been downloading and installing various distros of Linux, coded for this specific purpose, with mixed results. Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin and several others seemed to be mid-weights as opposed to light weight installs.

Starting with Lubuntu Netbook Edition, then Lubuntu, then, Linux Lite, then LXLE, then Q4OS, I've tested the lightweight distros, and Q4OS appears to be the fastest install.

Unlike LXLE, it is *very* easily XP themed (or, just about any version of Windows -themed) with a single install, resulting in XPQ4.

So, speed and familiar appearance is important to my target 'market' (those receiving a free computer) of users, who are used to Windows in one form or another.

There is but one (big) fly in the ointment left when it comes to XPQ4: its failure to easily recognize and install device drivers.

During the Ubuntu-based, lightweight installs, sound, video, wifi and even webcam drivers were recognized and loaded in the first instance. Windows-theme'ing those installs has been far more problematic.

Linux is said to be easily and endlessly configurable. Well, I have a specific mission, which is giving 32-bit hardware (mostly desktops with a 2.8 GHz P4 CPU or their AMD equivalent, with 1 or 2 gigs of RAM, and for laptops, 1.6 GHz CPU, often Centrino or Pentium-Ms, with about 1 gig of RAM) a three-year life extension and provide said hardware to kids / moms / vets a basic, working computer.

And, because 99.9 percent of these recipients, if they had any computer experience at all, think and expect a "Windows" interface when they turn the machine on, I try to give that to them as well.

I have already gifted some Linux-revived machines and they do move along, at least as fast as some out of the box Windows 10 machines I've worked on (frankly, some of those Windows 10 machines drag because of all the commercial bloat that's been built into them).

So, an XPQ4 install that can be used on 32 bit hardware suits this task nicely.

An XPQ4 install, which can readily recognize and install device drivers, which is also just as fast and Windows-theme-able as its 386 Legacy install, (e.g. will work on 32-bit machines), is IDEAL. @Q4OSteam

If I can find the solution to the drivers installation problem, that will be even better.

If I can find a pre-mixed Q4OS -> XPQ4 -> FreeXP install, that saves multiple steps AND accomplishes the mission listed above, that's a very good thing.

As it is, failing to see a remedy to the Debian-driver install issue, I am examining Bodhi, MX19 and AntiX, and perhaps Puppy Linux.

And once this inventory is exhausted, with the machines that can actually perform well given to recipients, and the boards that are just too old, recycled, I'll be looking at Linux (perhaps) for a different mission altogether.

Last edited by HAL_2000 (2020-06-01 03:12)

Q4OS Forum

#1 2020-05-23 08:10

Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#2 2020-05-23 16:36

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#3 2020-05-23 17:47

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#4 2020-05-24 04:48

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#5 2020-05-27 22:22

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#6 2020-05-28 05:45

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#7 2020-05-28 06:40

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#8 2020-05-28 09:09

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#9 2020-05-28 11:17

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

#10 2020-05-29 01:01

Re: Q4OS ... Please call your office...

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