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Seven Essential Tips For Using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
Ed Albro writes "Matthew Newton, a columnist at PC World, has a great article up on seven things you'll want to change as soon as you start using Feisty Fawn. Some are as simple as making sure the Alt key works right, another gives you step-by-step instructions for turning on the impressive Beryl interface. 'I could spend a whole 'nother column telling you about all the great packages that are not installed by default, but for now I'll just leave you with this bonus tip: If you're running Ubuntu on a laptop and your Wi-Fi card is not detected or supported, try installing the Ndisgtk package (listed as such in Synaptic, but as 'Wireless Windows Drivers' in Add/Remove Applications). Then select the new System, Administration, Windows Wireless Drivers entry in Ubuntu's menu bar.'"
1) Reformat disk & install Mac OS X
2) ???
3) Profit!
Start off by calling something other than one of the stupid code names that have become the fashion for Linux builds.
What's up with that. It's bad enough I can't get my parents over the interface differences enough to use it. Now I have to also tell them they're running an OS called Feisty Fawn?!?!
Pulease!
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
i shall my Grandma to jump into a root shell and grep the package repository for those drivers, a quick make and compile and she should be good to go
my Cousin on XP however will just plug the card in and install the drivers from the CD
>Matthew Newton, a columnist at PC World, has a great up on...
A "great up?"
Sentence no word.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
http://goatse.ch/
Wake me up when Linux is more ready for the desktop than Windows is.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Don't get me wrong: I'm glad Ubuntu is getting the publicity. What bothers me the most about this article, though, is that he suggests that one of the first things you should do is install Automatix
Automatix is simple, and easy to use. It'll automatically install a lot of important stuff -- but it does so in a bad way. Overwriting files, removing dependencies, messing up the ubuntu-desktop metapackage -- name a brute-force method to deal a low blow to your package management system, and Automatix does it in ways that make developers cringe.
This is not usually a problem initially, but eventually you end up paying the piper; when it's time to update to the next version, things break, and it's Automatix's fault. A large portion of problems people experienced moving from Dapper to Edgy were caused by Automatix; Automatix refused to support those problems, and claimed it was our fault. I don't have a problem with Automatix existing, but until they take responsibility for the problems they cause, I'm not going to go recommending it to users. It does more harm than good.
I was surprised to see that the write up recommended Automatix. I thought it was not going to be needed in Feisty, especially with the Restricted Codecs package easily available from Synaptic. I also was under the impression that Automatix often messed with Ubuntu updates, and it's better to just install via Synaptic or manually (which really isn't difficult, just copying and pasting commands into a terminal...)
Nice to see tips for the newbies to help them set up the system in the way they like best,
but I feel that the system just after installation is already really usable and reliable.
If you are not an expert and you start to turn on Beryl and to play with Synaptic...
I believe that a lot of people will be going back to windows because their system has become
unusable.
Once you're ready to take off, you will discover by yourself these great features.
Just my idea.
marco
there is a show stopper bug in either the kernel or driver for the ata2 interface.
o urce-2.6.20/+bug/107271
it's confirmed now that on many laptops the kernel has to restart the ata2 interface intermittently and thereby lock up your system for up to 30 seconds at a time essentially rendering your laptop useless.
stay on lts or edgy for the time being until this bug is fixed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-s
"Wanna play with my Fiesty Fawn?" should never be used as a pick-up line.
but I just upgraded to Feisty and my system is borked now. Not sure what's wrong. But I'll do a backup and do a fresh reinstall rather than an upgrade.
from what i've heard, keeping a CD in the cdrom resolves this.
If you're running Ubuntu on a laptop and your Wi-Fi card is not detected or supported, try installing the Ndisgtk package (listed as such in Synaptic, but as 'Wireless Windows Drivers' in Add/Remove Applications). Sucks be to you if your only connectivity is Wireless...
Get your own free personal location tracker
How do I use APT to upgrade from my Edgy install to Feisty?
--
make install -not war
I have this problem on a desktop computer, too. :(
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
So the article is basically "How to install a bunch of shit that wasn't installed by default for good reasons". Not a good idea.
Binary drivers that are completely unsupportable.
A package manager that conflict with the default one.
3D whiz-bang eye candy that's unstable, and requires yet more binary drivers to get 3D.
Magic.
This is a seriously valid complaint. The number of arguments I've had with various groups over the years regarding stupid product/version names makes my head hurt. The most recent brilliance I would like to highlight was SeaMonkey. Where the use the name along with the image of a brine shrimp. Given that the term Sea Monkey was created specifically to identify a branded package of brine shrimp, it seems like this is a pretty poor idea for a name and is just asking for a lawsuit. One of the devs got in my face about it and told me I was just wrong. "SeaMonkey" is a browser and the brine shrimp are called "Sea Monkeys" so they can do what ever the hell they want.
...and back to the subject at hand, one of the top rules of branding!
My jaw was on the floor. What a douche.
Make sure people can pronounce your damn product name. How the hell do you say Umnbutooo?!? Is that an African word? What does it mean?!?!
Know your audience... ok seriously is there a single geek here that wants to go around saying, "Gee boys I'm running Fiesty Fawn!" with gusto? Hell no, and what geek is going to suggest it to their friends and family...
"Hey guys, you should run the new Umbboobto, Fiesty Fawn"... which get the response of "Gee fella, is there something you're trying to tell us? We'll still love you. It's ok. Do you need a hug?"
I am sooo sorry. I just can't take it.
The right-hand alt key is not configured... does anyone actually use the right-hand keys (alt, windows, menu context, ctrl, and shift)? I have never ever used that part of the keyboard.
1. Uninstall Ubuntu
2. Install Vista
3. Rock On
Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
All he gushes over is some useless eye candy such as Beryl and the system crasher Automatix.
/. editors: fix your damn shit. Plain Old text makes more sense than HTML formatted
Oh yeah fixing your resolution...an the Linux zelots STILL claim Linux is SOOOO easy to use any average luser can set it up sure.
notice to
I got permanently modded -1 because I dared to question Israel on
And gluing a penny to the top of your PC lets you use imported software.
It's true! Try it!
If it bothers you that much then why can't you say that Ubuntu 7.04?
My computer was up and running with the default install. However, it was running at a less than optimum resolution. So, I used a Ubuntu's new tool to install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers.
So, of course, my 8800GTS does not work with Ubuntu's version of NVIDIAs drivers and xorg crashed. Which is total BS since Nvidia's latest drivers (which have been around for at least a month) work with the 8800GTS.
Why alienate users?! They should have delayed the release.
(Also, where is the Fiesty Install Guide? The only one I can find is the 6.10 Install/Help Guide. Why isn't documentation released the same day as the binaries. WTF!?!)
(And...where is support for my Creative X-Fi Sound Card?!!? This isn't Ubuntu's fault, it is Creative's and ALSA's fault for not getting their asses in gear. I don't want to wait till 3rd Q of 2007 for support!!!)
Not sure I'd say that those seven tips are essential, because two of them are mutually exclusive (5 & 6).
Apparently, an OS has not "made it" until a pack of drunken transvestite art students post pictures of themselves using it to teh intarweb. There are literally millions of drunken tranny art students in the world, surely some of them must be using Ubuntu? Come on, we need pics!
Here are some naming suggestions for future Ubuntu releases:
Angy Akata
Busty Beaner
Crackhead Coon
Ditzy Darkie
Eerie Erkel
Fisting Feminazi
Grubby Goombah
Horny Ho
Irate Inky
Jumping Jigaboo
Kinky Kike
Lame Limey
Morose Moolie
Nappy Nigger
Obscene Oreo
Pimply Popolo
Queefing Queer
Reeking Rafter
Sleazy Spic
Tipsy Tranny
Ugly UncleTom
Venomous Velcrohead
Wretched Whigger
Xenophobic Xena
Yellow Yenta
Zany Zebra
Make sure people can pronounce your damn product name. How the hell do you say Umnbutooo?!? Is that an African word? What does it mean?!?!
i haven't seen anyone having trouble pronouncing it in the real world. it's you-boon-too.
and yes, it is an african word. it's a humanist idealology, fitting with the ubuntu motto of "linux for human beings".
though i do agree with you that the codenames are silly. still, there's no need to add it to the name.
i also don't get a lot of software names, but hey, they make it, they name it, and i might use it.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
(mods - this is serious, don't mod me into oblivion.)
... wouldn't it be appropriate to say "If you are outside of the areas covered by these patents, get these free implementations, otherwise go here to purchase legit ones" ?
Am I mistaken that this columnist is directing people to install unlicensed patented software?
Fluendo likely went through considerable paperwork hassle to make MPEG2, 4, and Windows Media codecs available for sale, and Thompson has a licensed MP3 decoder plugin for XMMS
Some nice FUD there. My laptop works fine - upgraded yesterday without a hitch. All laptops aren't useless with 7.04. Windows has some bugs too, shall we keep that off laptops (or mod some Microsoft laptop FUD to +5)?
the nvidia-glx-new package supports the 8xxx cards. There's a long story behind why it's called new, and it's all right here:
e stricted-modules-2.6.20/+bug/96430
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-r
Don't blame launchpad for the funkiness, they had to work around nvidia's move of de-supporting a huge amount of cards that are still currently very popular.
What are the new features of the latest version of Ubuntu aside from the 3D desktop toggling? I haven't read much about it, and wondered if there were any breakthrough tools or features.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
Save yourself sanity. Don't use devices that only have windows drivers running through NDISwrapper. You'll get only a tiny fraction of the functionality, it'll break all the time. My experience has been that devices with in-kernel drivers are worth whatever premium. Always get the intel wireless on your laptop.
... just image how terrible it is when you are using another OS's buggy binary-only driver. You have that mental image. Now add demons pouring acid down your throat. You're approaching the reality of NDISwrapper. I think half-broken internet access is worse than no access. You just get tempted to believe that you can really get whatever from the net, only to find that when you count on connectivity, it breaks.
NDIS is the lowest level of hardware "support" in Linux. If Stallman warns about binary blobs or nonfree drivers because you don't know what the code is and the drivers stop working after the company stops maintaining them
Who is this PC World joker, anyway?
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
Because I didn't get any sleep last night doing work building a PHP based video repository system front end that I'm hoping to tie into LDAP at somepoint for a security layer.... in the last hour I've finally hit my silly zone though and I really I should go home and get some sleep but then I would be missing my 9-5 work hours. Blah!
Parent is not off-topic, and has a point. Using code words rather than version numbers is seriously problematic
when identifying to a new user whether or not they are using the newest version, and to whether or not the packages
they are installing are obsolete.
My personal complaint is the lack of contiguity between releases. I'd really like it if I could install from an old system disk and update it to current without getting "Your system is obsolete" during an update...
Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
OK, let's get this straight.
Pretend I am a tech-illiterate typical PC user, with little to back up my choices apart from how professional each OS appears. Here are my choices:
1) Windows Vista from Microsoft, one of the world's largest software firms.
2) OS X Tiger, by Apple, world leaders in design and usability.
3) Feisty Fawn with "Beryl", whoever she is, written by a whole bunch of random geeks.
Someone *really* needs to realise the best product does not always get the most users - get with the programme... bad names don't sell good software! Even if it is free.
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
If you're using an RT2500-based wifi card (it's a pretty common one), get the Windows driver and install it using ndiswrapper. If your wifi card is the only way your PC can access the Internet, make sure you get everything ready before you install Feisty.
My RT2500 worked fine on 6.x as long as I wasn't using WPA (which had to be set up manually and crapped out every hour), but the card won't connect at all with 7.x. From what I can tell it has something to do with Feisty using newer RT2500 drivers, which seem to be buggier than the old drivers.
Instead of disabling the right alt key as a 3rd level chooser, enable the Euro key by enabling "Add the EuroSign to the 5 key". Then the Euro actually works, by pressing right alt+5.
/. comment system ate them.)
"Menu is compose" is also useful if you don't use an international (dead keys) layout. Press the compose key (context menu) to type special characters like ë é è ê and others. (I used " ' ` ^ . and , for those. If you only see 4 characters, then the
I've always pronounced it oo-BUN-two. I never bothered to look it up and it wasn't anywhere obvious.
Looks like we were both wrong on one syllable.
http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq
How do you pronounce Ubuntu?
Ubuntu, an African word from Zulu and Xhosa, is pronounced "oo-BOON-too".
My problem with upgrading recently was how Ubuntu handled my Grub menu.lst. The box I am referring to has /hda1 as a FAT drive with the system restore junk for WinXP. /hda2 is WinXP. /hda3 is Linux. One of the late alpha (or was it early beta) updates redid the menu.lst to map to UUID numbers instead of the more user friendly /hdX series.
/hda1 is Linux, and /hda2 is WinXP. Naturally, the latter is right, and I haven't the time to go back and correct the box so that it points to the right partition. I would, if I knew enough about UUIDs.
The problem is that it thinks
Could somebody explain why we left the old way?
My other issue is the FF series uses a more recent driver for my Linksys wireless PCI card---a release that has been broken since December. The professed solution is to recompile. I used to use Gentoo, so I can handle that; but this is Ubuntu---I shouldn't have to.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
Simple workaround: kill the hald-addon-storage process. Your laptop won't autodetect when CDs or DVDs are inserted anymore, but it stops the lockups.
Nice job linking to an unconfirmed bug. How do we know this isn't your fubared hardware causing this problem? And based on your sample of one you conclude that all folks with laptops should avoid Feisty? That's a load of bull.
Feisty has worked fine on my laptop for one month since I installed the beta release. These people work very hard testing the kernel on many different systems, including laptops.
From the Ubuntu FAQ's, it's pronounced "oo-BOON-too", so apparently some people do have trouble pronouncing it ;)
And gluing a penny to the top of your PC lets you use imported software.
It's true! Try it!
It works, but make sure Lincoln is facing UP. If you glue the coin heads-down, ol' Abe gets pissed and sends gamma rays thru your RAM, randomly causing errors and crashing. ECC RAM helps, but eventually the wailing of the damned will get to you. The only way to fix this without prying off the penny is to 'apt-get install van-helsing'. The van-helsing package will take care of your undead problem, but will probably trash your filesystem.
(yeah, it's Friday and I want to get out of here...)
sudo eat my shorts
Just wanted to point out that Hyperic HQ, an open source systems management project, supports Feisty Fawn "out of the box" today. Actually, we support most Linux distributions out of the box.
If you're looking to monitor and/or manage your Ubuntu machines, you may want to check us out - http://www.hyperic.com/downloads/
-John Mark
Hyperic Community Manager
Hyperic Community Manager
So, when I get to the command prompt, I should type sudo apt-get remove nvidia-glx, and then sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new ?
*Sigh* I am annoyed that this new tool didn't detect which version of the proprietary driver I needed!!!
There is nothing wrong with the operation of Alt Gr. In the past there was a problem when distributors of Linux were too stupid to realize that not everybody only uses english.
As for Beryl I got a good laugh on this. The first time I had that accidentally enabled on Fedora I thought that some Trojan was in action. It took me a while to figure out how to disable this nonsense because I didn't know what was doing this. When I switch from one desktop to another I want a quick switch. Whoever came up with this 3D flipping of the screen must have been on crack.
There's a new note in that thread that there's a work around available at the end of this thread
After installing the VMware tools the scroll wheel on most mice will become disabled. To fix this:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf (Or with what ever text editor you wish.)
1. sudo -i (To become root.)
2. nano
3. In the Section "InputDevice" for your mouse change the line under "Protocol" that says, "ps/2" to "ImPS/2".
4. Restart X. (ctrl-alt-backspace, reboot, etc)
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
>And gluing a penny to the top of your PC lets you use imported software.
>It's true! Try it!
It works, but make sure Lincoln is facing UP.
Unless you're in the southern hemisphere, then you make him face DOWN. C'mon, people, not everyone lives in the USA! *sheesh*
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.
S-video out isn't OS controlled, if you have it plugged in to the tv at boot it will work. Period. Also, double monitors (i.e. one desktop over two screens) is simple too. If you have ATI, just use the command line aticonfig --dtop=horizontal --overlay-on=1
t ors.html/
Or if you just installed the ATI drivers then run aticonfig --initial=dual-head
For more info, and NVIDIA instructions see http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxAndDualMoni
--Drive carefully. 90% of people are caused by accidents.
this isnt even close to ready for the desktop
it doesnt even support the ati mobile chipsets
I tried on two different machines and it failed both times
whereas debian 4.0 is fine on both
back in the day we didnt have no old school
Never use sudo with a graphical application (like gedit) but instead gksudo. You could mess your your permissions for good. Sudo is for command line apps only.
The Nvidia drivers are somewhat of a pain. Try the guide here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowt o/Nvidia
That wouldn't be a problem if you were using a drive manufactured in the southern hemisphere. The discs spin the other way there.
Make that some laptops. I'm running 7.04 on a ThinkPad T30 and I've had no problems at all.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
"
:-)
Windows has some bugs too, shall we keep that off laptops (or mod some Microsoft laptop FUD to +5)?
"
You must be new here
now there are tips for "making sure the Alt key works right"
> S-video out isn't OS controlled, if you have it plugged in to the tv at boot it will work
That's funny, it's controlled by the video driver on my laptop (SIS741) under Windows XP. Why wouldn't it be OS-controlled under Linux?
That doesn't really make sense. I used to get furious at winblows because it made me reboot because I wasnted to change my DNS server. Now you're telling me that I have to *hard reboot* a Linux box because I want to plug in a TV? I mean, WTF?!
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
That wouldn't be a problem if you were using a drive manufactured in the southern hemisphere. The discs spin the other way there.
Spinning discs? What century are you living in? You need to move to the solid state!
I disagree with using 'Automatix'. If you just installed the package ubuntu-restricted-extras you would of achieved the same result (flash, mp3, sun java6, dvd etc support).
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Works just fine. And I'm on Dapper. (6.06)
It's Altgr+E, right next to Altgr+3 (pound) and Altgr+4 (dollar).
I guess it depends on your keyboard layout and settings.
Yeah, because it's so hard to figure out the proper versioning sequence of Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft, and Feisty Fawn...
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
I use the right alt with the left arrow key to go back in my browser. I usually use the keyboard when I can...
Zombie Lincoln doesn't care if you're using bubble memory, Winchester drives, floptical disks, or these newfangled solid state drives you kids are using these days. If he's not facing the right way, you will suffer the consequences.
sudo eat my shorts
Does your computer have an Intel "Morningwood" processor?
You know, my hardware works with Ubuntu, so I used get pissed that people say things like "Ubuntu never works" and "horrible hardware support" or "the live cd fails to boot", but when you go to the effort to link to a launchpad bug about it, with several subscribers, I'm forced to admit that Ubuntu is not perfect. And I think its fair to warn people, especially when one of the computers affected is a laptop built and sold with Ubuntu on it. Point is, your personal situation is one point -- an anecdote, not data.
It's better to acknowledge that your users may encounter problems than pretend they don't exist. Normally, I'd point to this flaw as why you should try out beta releases of Ubuntu, but this was found fairly early on, and still hasn't been adequately fixed. On the one hand, Ubuntu doesn't write the linux kernel, so there's only so much they can do on most fronts and offer for free to the public. On the other, Ubuntu made some pretty strong promises that most people probably interpret differently than the Ubuntu Foundation does. Most people would assume that fixing driver bugs would be part of the support commitment, but the Foundation seems most concerned (and rightly so) about security fixes.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
You don't need to reboot the whole machine, just restart the x server.
:-)
I've had quite a bit of difficulty getting my s-video output to work under Ubuntu, as well. I'd be more frustrated if it wasn't for the fact that it isn't exactly a piece of cake under Windows, either.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
Absolutely not! I'm not debating whether the product itself is good - I'm a professional developer, and we're currently working on some embedded Linux projects, so I know the ins and outs of the benefits. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Linux has come along leaps and bounds, and I would seriously consider it for the desktop if I were switching.
That's not the point, though. My boss, an IT-literate (as opposed to tech-literate) guy who has run a web dev firm for 8 years, is looking at it from a business perspective and it not familiar with the various distros. If his IT consultant suggests Ubuntu "Feisty Fawn" over Windows, it's not good enough to say it's better as he has no benchmark in real day-to-day terms, so he *can only* go on his perception of the brand.
"Vista" is not linguistically clever as a name, but it is focus grouped and you can guarantee MS spent a fortune working out, completely separately to the software development, how the public should see their product - and this is regardless of any actual features. Just look at Windows ME - it took a good few months for home users to work out they'd been conned into choosing an inferior product.
Open Sourcers seem to display a (slightly charming, admittedly) naivite about how marketing works - eye height, smells and audio are a big part of supermarket sales, for example, and unless thought is put into the tiny details like that, Linux will never get the chance to display its strengths to the wider world. That would be a terrible shame: once users get over the initial hurdle of acceptance, there's certainly enough there to keep them playing with the new platform's improvements.
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
Well this was a tough predicament, and there's no great way to go about fixing it that I can think of. This was a last minute (week) change ubuntu did in order to _not_ alienate 50%+ (out of my ass figure, but it's damn high) of their userbase.
I suspect the next release will deal with this in a more respectable way, and grant my personal apology that two of my machines led me to contribute to this problem, but for now we'll have to deal with it.
Yes, I believe you can do:
sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-glx
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new
and it will work.
That's no guarantee, as I haven't tested it myself (The best I have is a 7900).
Wow. That's fantastic. I used to use Linux in various incarnations as my main desktop OS. I root for it every day to continue improving. And it has improved, in so many ways. But it seems to be approaching true polish and usability on an asymptotic curve rather than a more linear progression. When even what are widely considered the best, most usable and user friendly distributions of Linux continue to be shipped out with bad showstopper bugs in full release versions, and basic usability features like automatic determination of your video card and monitor specs are still unreliable, it isn't there yet. Fail.
I still see an awful lot of terminal commands in that article and in the wiki links for fixing problems. I can
And what the hell is the deal with X11 anyway? Is it really that difficult to build in some fallback safe video modes for unidentified cards or screwed up config files, or to do whatever else is necessary to make sure that the user will ALWAYS be able to get back into his GUI desktop without expert help? That's a rhetorical question, the answer is no. It isn't that difficult to build in some simple fault tolerance in places where inexperienced users often get bitten, trapped and frustrated. How exactly is the user supposed to go search the wiki online for help fixing X11 when he only has one computer available and he can't figure out how to get X11 to start? Come on people. I should not be reading recent articles from users of the most recent and popular distros that talk about getting stuck at the command line. Fail.
I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy or something, but in my opinion this stuff should be top priority for anyone building a distro aimed at non-geeks. Even geeks appreciate a system that's simple to tweak or fix with a few clicks, if the number of migrations from Linux to OS X is any indicator (count me in that group). I'm waiting for the day when a Linux distro can hold a candle to OS X, but in terms of usability it really seems like there has been only marginal improvement over the last few years. So many prerequisite desktop features still have the feeling of being hacked together out of spare parts. The individual components may be coming from standards but the overall system still has no feeling of coherence. If anyone else actually wants to see a Year of the Linux Desktop someday these simple issues have got to be addressed or it will be a loooong time coming.
Note that I have made statements here about my feelings, impressions, and opinions, so don't try to argue with me as if we're talking about factual data. If there were a distro out there that could change my mind I would have already heard about it and tried it out by now. Yes, I continue to test drive recent releases periodically, and no, they haven't changed my mind at all. "Desktop Linux" simply isn't anywhere near the level of usability and coherence it will take to actually threaten Windows or Mac OS X and begin to dominate the home computing world. Developers are aiming way too low.
there is an easy way to deal with it, have the restricted device manager detect what kind of video card you have and install the correct driver. This should have already been implemented for deciding whether to install the legacy drivers or the regular drivers.
being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
Make sure people can pronounce your damn product name. How the hell do you say Umnbutooo?!? Is that an African word? What does it mean?!?!
i haven't seen anyone having trouble pronouncing it in the real world. it's you-boon-too.
There's a video somewhere where they interview Nelson Mandela and ask him what Ubuntu means. In that, he pronounced it as U-(the same sound as the word food)-bun-(short, as in book)-tu(long again, as in food).
Seeing as I'm Australian, I pronounce the U at the beginning of the word with a y sound at the start. Mandela however didn't do that, and I'm expecting Americans won't either.
So how do I resolve this for my X60, which doesn't have any sort of optical drive?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
You're actually supposed to use the version numbers.
From the FAQ: Note: The official way to refer to a released version of Ubuntu is by the number, not the name. Thus the current version of Ubuntu is 6.10, not Edgy Eft. (Apparently it's a bit outdated.)
Grammar Nazi
Wait a minute. Drake. Eft. Fawn. Gibbon. D, e, f, g... It's almost as if... as if starting with Dapper Drake, they had implemented some kind of diabolical, yet ALPHABETICAL SEQUENCE in their naming scheme! Good lord, but these Ubuntu chaps are clever!
*shifty eyed glance*
Too clever, by half, I say!
Documentation is boring. Nobody wants to do it. Most people try to make writing documentation as easy as possible for themselves, instead of making it as easy as possible for the reader.
Copying or creating a few command line instructions is much easier than creating a bunch of screen shots and circling where to click. That's why even when there are multiple easy ways to do something with a nice GUI, almost all documentation is for command line methods.
I don't blame anyone at all, but it really is a shame.
But, what happens once you reach Zesty Zebra?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
So I put feisty on my iBoook because it is fasster and cleaner to write little python scripts than OS X. and it is great. I decided to keep gnome instead of fluxbox... just cause I am lazy... and there are a few little bits that are useful for a laptop... battery monitor, app launcher, etc. and honestly I don't know what is the best window manager anymore anyuway... but gnome seems to not be quite the goat it was...
but damn... why would I want to kluge all of this garbage that they talk about in the article to slow the thing down to commercial speed.
I have feisty for having 4 terms and a few emacs sessions... and it is kickin fast... even with the bloat of gnome...
I just don't understand these "helpful" articles.
If I wanted a helpful article, it would be how to set up fluxbox on feisty and identification of some dock/wharf apps that allow for laptop status monitoring. That would be cool. Not... how to slow down your graphics card, run a key binding and dupe pron.
Still... yeah, it is cool to see the pissant crap of the mainstream at least make it into the mainstream howto's
I am just dirgressing tooo mcuh.
dammit... whiy isn't fluxbox a simple option at install?
argh/.
"When even what are widely considered the best, most usable and user friendly distributions of Linux continue to be shipped out with bad showstopper bugs in full release versions, and basic usability features like automatic determination of your video card and monitor specs are still unreliable, it isn't there yet. Fail."
You know, I've been wondering this for years: is this caused by bad engineering, or is it because there are too many different broken hardware out there? I'm increasingly suspecting that it's the latter: you have to write thousands of different workarounds for thousands of different bugs in thousands of different kinds of monitors and video cards.
Am I the only one who hasn't experienced any video hardware problems in Linux for 6 years now?
*Is* it? Sure, command line looks harder, but is copy & pasting a single command in the terminal and pressing Enter, really harder than clicking on 10 buttons in a GUI? Wouldn't the first be easier because it's just 1 action?
To people familiar with a command line, copy & pasting can be easier. But for people who aren't, it is much much more difficult.
For a distribution aimed at advanced users who prefer the command line over GUIs, it would be perfectly fine, even desirable, to provide mostly/entirely command line instructions. But for a distribution like Ubuntu, documentation should be for GUI front ends whenever a GUI front end is available. Ubuntu is clearly aimed at people who aren't familiar with the command line.
Some people think it's a better idea to get new users to learn the command line, but I think that's a terrible approach. An operating system should conform to its users, not the other way around.
Yeah but the guides don't teach you commandline - they just tell you to copy & paste some text verbatim. There is nothing to learn. Why is that difficult?
And back in 1997, there was a book called "Windows 95 voor Kinderen" ("Windows 95 for Children") - you can guess that the book was for. The book was accompanied with a floppy disk with some software. The book's installation instructions tell the user to install the software by:
1. Clicking on Start->Run...
2. Entering "A:\install"
3. Clicking on OK.
This is essentially the same as copy & pasting a command. Yet nobody experienced this as difficult. So why is a commandline experienced as difficult even when you're doing nothing more than copy & pasting?
Even if all a user has to do is copy some text, open a terminal, paste the text, and hit enter, they may still have problems. Most tutorials don't include instructions on how to open a terminal. Many users don't know how to copy and paste text, and rewriting is error prone and possibly dangerous. Users may be confused when Ctrl+V doesn't paste the text.
/dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, etc. Most commands for Ubuntu assume the user is running Gnome.
And it's usually not just copy and paste. What if an error occurs? What if the user need to enter information? What if the command depends on their setup? Most people won't know if / is on
Even if that doesn't cause problems, it's still very scary if hundreds of lines start spilling out onto the screen, and it's very scary to be doing something without any understanding of what's going on. The command line is just plain scary to most people, and it's important to make users feel comfortable.
What's a terminal? Isn't that a place where planes and trains stop so people can get on and off? What's a command line? Am I supposed to line up somewhere? Copy what? Paste what where?
I know that like most geeks you don't realize or are unwilling to accept it, but you are an elitist. You judge how easy computing tasks are based on prior knowledge so extensive that you don't even consciously remember most of it, you just use it as if you were born with it. You think of this unconscious knowledge base as a set of skills and assume that all people have these skills, and that if they are confused by something you find simple they obviously aren't trying hard enough.
I know this because I'm also afflicted with this condition. I often deal with computer-illiterate people and have to bite my tongue to avoid saying something disdainful like, "How the hell can you not know how to copy and paste something into a terminal window?". They just don't. You have to accept it. When you're designing software, you have to constantly stop and ask yourself, "Do I know how to do this because it's really obvious, or because I have knowledge that helps me understand what to do?" You have to think, "Will someone who has never even seen a computer be able to understand how to fix this, or be able to easily search for and accurately find help for this issue from within the software?" If the answer is no, that's a bad sign for usability issues.
By the way, why are you comparing a single terminal command with 10 clicks in the GUI? Biased much? I know a lot of things are easier to accomplish in the shell, but worst case scenario of transferring any action to the GUI should be at most 6 total clicks. Any developer that can't get access to an action below 10 clicks is an idiot and shouldn't be working on usability issues. A smart developer should be able to provide a path to any commonly needed action within about 3 clicks or less. Doesn't the user also have to click something in the GUI just to open the terminal? Eh? Think about that.
No, I'm sure you aren't the only one who hasn't experienced any video problems with Linux for years. But as I always try to explain to people, you're asking the wrong question. The important question is, has anyone experienced video problems with Linux, and how bad were those problems? Were they able to recover from those problems on their own recognizance? Did it stop them from being able to reach their desktop? Because for most people the desktop GUI is "the computer", and failure to display the desktop to even a single user out of ten thousand should be considered a showstopper level bug. To a user who has no idea how to use the command line (the majority of the masses that distros like Ubuntu are aimed at), it is tantamount to not being able to boot up at all. The GUI should ALWAYS come up short of a major hardware issue stopping the video card from physically working in even the most minimal graphics mode.
Sure, the ridiculous chaos of buggy PC hardware contributes to the problem, but most hardware conforms at least partially to certain standards and works fine. For instance all video cards for years have supported at least the unaccelerated VESA 2.0 video modes. When was the last time you saw a Windows machine fall back to the command line because it didn't have the correct video driver installed? You've never seen it, because Windows happily boots up in a universally supported 640x480x16bpp video mode that works on 99.9% of the cards out there. It's called "VGA". Then you fix the driver and reboot. You can even get online and find/download the driver because you aren't stuck at the command line going, "OK, what the hell do I do now?"
Developers are lazy, that's all there is to it. They would rather write lengthy wiki articles (which obviously an isolated user would be unable to read because he can't get to his desktop and GUI web browser, the only one he knows how to use) in which they describe a dozen steps each individual user can feel free to try for themselves. Would it be that hard to integrate those steps into a GUI that would run those same terminal commands in the background or do that same Google search in order to help the user apply the right hardware information? Would it be that hard to set up the GUI in a way that would allow the user to add or try out some possibly unsupported video modes manually? Nope, it's not that hard, but it's a little bit harder than writing wiki articles, so the users are left floundering.
Hardware identification is definitely not easy, but it could be conquered to a much greater extent if Linux distros would come up with some method of actively gathering precise hardware information into a centralized and automated database. A simple scripted GUI could run all the relevant terminal commands and ask the user a few questions about model numbers and brands, then shoot it all off to the central hardware information repository. The data would be either added or verified, and every time a single user of that same hardware did a Linux install the hardware detection would be automatic. They're doing it for identifying tracks on audio CDs, it should be just as easy to do the same for other hardware.
But my main gripe remains with the lack of fault tolerance and fallback modes. To LInuxites it seems that "safe mode" still translates to "command line", and that just doesn't fly. They can do better.
"I know that like most geeks you don't realize or are unwilling to accept it, but you are an elitist."
Dude, that was an honest question. All I want is some polite discussion and then you suddenly go screaming around and calling people "elitist". Shees, what the hell is your problem?
And no I didn't bother read the rest of my post. As soon as you said "elitist" I know you're just someone with a passionate, irrational hate for technologists.
"Documentation is boring. Nobody wants to do it. Most people try to make writing documentation as easy as possible for themselves, instead of making it as easy as possible for the reader."
Please, can you speak for yourself? Do you have any idea how many hours I spent on writing http://www.autopackage.org/docs/howto-install/ ? I took the time to launch 2 different desktop environments and to take screenshots from 4 different file managers. I circled the exact buttons that people have to click on. I did my best to write everything without using jargon. I tried my best to use as little text as possible, to describe things as unambiguously as possibly, and to layout things as readably as possible. I took the time to make nice thumbnails with drop shadows. At first I even refused to provide commandline instructions and wanted everybody to use the GUI - the only reason why I added it later is because users kept asking for it.
And now you suddenly jump out of the bushes, calling me an elitist? Seriously, you need to stop applying stereotypes to people. Frankly I'm offended. After all the work I've put in ensuring that things are as easy as possible for the end user, you destroy everything and by pasting a stupid stereotype label on me, while ignoring all the hard work that I've done.
You've created some very nice documentation. And although I absolutely do not blame anyone at all, I really do wish such quality was more common.
I see now why you think I called you an elitist, but that was RedBear (207369), not me. I'm HeroreV (869368) and I just said that most (certainly not all) documentation sucks because documentation is hard, not that documenters are lazy or elitist or anything.
Oh, sorry. I misread the Slashdot threading. :(
Well good for you. You say you didn't read the rest of my post as if it were an action to be proud of, so, I congratulate you. But maybe if you and the equally dumbass*/kneejerk/insecure moderator who gave me a "flamebait" mod had actually read the entire post you'd realize that I'm not a screaming luddite at all, I'm just a geek with a different opinion about how "easy" things are for regular people. An opinion based on years of experience with regular people, the kind of people who have trouble with basic email and often forget where the power button on their computer is located. I was trying to make you aware of certain assumptions you base your own opinions on, assumptions that you are probably not aware of most of the time and cause you to incorrectly assume that a particular acivity will be "easy" for everyone.
Whatever "screaming" you heard was in your own head based on your personal reaction to a word which apparently holds a lot more emotional charge for you than it does for me. I used the word in the dictionary sense of you "favoring a select group" when defining the concept of computer usability. You, ME, and most every other geek here is guilty of this unconscious attitude to some degree, usually without completely realizing it. I am making the statement that this is why the usability of "desktop Linux" still gets a failing grade in comparison to Windows and Mac OS X. Because the developers behind it are all part of our unconsciously elitist group of geeks who think the command line is perfectly simple.
To them/you/me, the command line is so simple in fact that it's obviously better than a GUI, no matter who is using the computer. So that's how they continue to design the system, and the regular users are left with a ton of gaps in the GUI where they have to acquire knowledge and copy/paste words they will never understand into a command line terminal that they will likewise never understand. Sure, they can follow instructions, but they won't learn why they're doing any of it or how to know if the instructions are telling them to do the wrong thing. There is nothing about the command line that is better for those who don't understand how it works.
I guess I should put in some smilies and LOLs next time so my "tone of voice" comes across better. Not using any exclamation points!!!1!!!one is apparently not enough to avoid being accused of screaming my head off.
Your loss.
* Too bad you aren't going to read past this word either. You might have learned something.
Oh and you seriously think accusing people of being an "elitist" is going to make your point clear?
Do you have any idea how many hours I spent on writing http://www.autopackage.org/docs/howto-install/ [autopackage.org] ? I took the time to launch 2 different desktop environments and to take screenshots from 4 different file managers. I circled the exact buttons that people have to click on. I did my best to write everything without using jargon. I tried my best to use as little text as possible, to describe things as unambiguously as possibly, and to layout things as readably as possible. I took the time to make nice thumbnails with drop shadows. I let non-technical people proofread the guide. At first I even refused to provide commandline instructions and wanted everybody to use the GUI - the only reason why I added it later is because users kept asking for it.
I did all this hard work for the sake of anonymous end users whose face I will never see. Nor will I ever get any reward for it. And now you suddenly jump out of the bushes, calling me an elitist? Seriously, you need to stop applying stereotypes to people.
This is not an attempt to start a flamewar, however, automatix really f00bared my breezy install, if you want dvd functionality and other nice stuff, i suggest that you read the forums. Beryl doesn't work satisfactory with my setup, using a nvidia card, and on my old rig, using ati, it was even more pain, as ati's driver doesn't support aiglx (compositing). compiz works so-so.. but it looks nice.. :D
Just enjoy it!
i find your lack of faith in science disturbing!
Like I said, your reaction to the word is a personal issue. You continue to make yourself upset even after I emphasized that I'm only using it as a descriptor that also applies to myself. It's a statement of fact, not an accusation or application of a blind stereotype. Furthermore you can't very well hold me responsible for not knowing your life story. I was merely responding to your initial comment that appeared to be very much in favor of the command line as being the easiest way to do things, including somehow being capable of consolidating any 10 GUI actions into a single easy to copy & paste text command.
.EXE/.COM/.SCR/.BAT and other file extensions as automatic executables, for which we've been berating them for years now?
It's very commendable that you've taken the time to create a nice GUI oriented tutorial, and it is very nicely done. I applaud your efforts and thank you for your time. However, and I'm sure you'll throw another hissy fit over this, I have to wonder how the uneducated Linux newbie is supposed to A) know such a tutorial exists, B) know how and where to find it, C) know how to interpret it, and D) why such a tutorial is even necessary or E) whether it's really safe to be telling Linux newbies to make all files with a particular file extension executable by default. Isn't that just as bad as Windows treating all
When a user tries to open an autopackage file prior to doing this procedure, what happens? Nothing? Does some other application open it and display it as a text file or something? Is it somehow made obvious that the user should look around for a tutorial like this? Is it somehow obvious how to search for or get to this tutorial? Because in order to be useful to the uninitiated user it would have to be. It would need to be referenced next to ever single link to any autopackage file on the web, and in a readme file that goes along with the autopackage. But autopackages are designed to work alone, right? So it's going to be rather unlikely that an inexperienced user would quickly jump online and be able to find your tutorial.
As for the tutorial itself: Yes, I know, the pictures should make everything totally obvious and simple. But I know a lot of computer users who would even be confused by what you've presented, not least of all because it simultaneously talks about two completely different desktop environments without bothering to make that fact abundantly clear. It may be obvious to you and me what's going on, but that's because we have prior knowledge based on years of experience. Your step 3 contains no less than four different images which are apparently showing me the same thing via different interfaces and themes. The uninitiated user will be extremely confused by that. A natural assumption would be to think that you're telling the user to go to four different dialogs or tabs somehow and click four different boxes.
Even I, an experienced Linux user (KDE mostly, but I've used GNOME and others), had to look at those images for a minute to really be sure they were all telling me the same thing. There are a ridiculous number of confusing differences in those screenshots even though they only come from two different desktop environments. Those who do not understand anything about the concept of permissions will not understand or learn anything from those images. Although they may blindly follow the instructions they will be confused the entire time about what they are doing and why. I've known many people who went through a procedure many times based on my instructions and learned nothing, because they didn't have any contextual knowledge to understand the first thing about what was actually going on.
I notice you also didn't bother to make any notes about why this procedure might be dangerous, or why they shouldn't do this for other types of files that they can't open, or why they should generally never follow similar instructions from an untrusted email or website. Nor do you explain why your website might be more trustworthy than
If you hadn't done so already in a previous installation I would suggest first off to enable tab autocompletion on the Bash command line.
/etc/bash_completion ]; then /etc/bash_completion
/etc/bash.bashrc.
Which you do by uncommenting this:
# enable bash completion in interactive shells
if [ -f
.
fi
in
Then install basic build tools if you want to code:
apt-get install build-essential
Aar Aardvark