[GLLUG] Ubuntu Woes

[Eric Miller]

I hear ya. Sorry about the pain. At least we can make distribution
choices unlike the MS camp!

I happen to like gnome over kde and I don't use a modem so I didn't have
the problems you are. I've heard that Ubuntu is slower to boot and run
apps than other distributions - perhaps it will improve over time.

I tried Suse 9.2 Professional last weekend and had a bugger of a time
getting Mono 1.1.4 loaded up. Yast and Red Carpet were a pita. It was
reminder why I dislike RPM based distributions. 

I just downloaded and installed the preview version of Ubuntu 5.04
(hoary) and had better luck with hardware detection. Sound and wireless
are working out of the box. I had to use apt-get upgrade after Synaptic
to do a full upgrade. At least Synaptic was kind enough to let me know.

I'm back on a Debian based distribution and happy.

Viva la difference!

Eric

On Tue, 2005-03-22 at 18:55 -0600, Chick Tower wrote:
> I installed Ubuntu 4.10 on my PC and I've been playing around with it 
> some.  Maybe it's just because I usually use KDE, but I sure didn't find 
> it easy to do things with Ubuntu and/or Gnome.  It feels to me like 
> something big is just sitting right in the way of where I want to go 
> when I try to do things.
> 
> Getting it to use my modem was a nightmare.  I'll bet I entered the 
> phone number at least eight times before realizing it doesn't like a 
> hyphen between the third and fourth digits.  That was only when I 
> noticed that the <Forward> button on the screen became inactive when I 
> typed the hyphen.  No other indication of an incorrect entry appeared. 
> What idiot programmer thought to watch out for "extraneous" data, 
> prevent the configuration utility from proceeding in such a case (but 
> let data entry continue), and not bother to tell the user what's wrong? 
>   Is this what Gnome's famous human interface guidelines suggest?  Then, 
> when I finally figure out that it accepts 7547800 but not 754-7800, and 
> get it saved (another lengthy exercise in futility), I can't get the 
> damn thing to dial out.  So I give up, and when I exit the configuration 
> utility, the modem begins dialing.  Great.  The <Activate> selection 
> seems to do nothing, so why wouldn't closing the application cause the 
> modem to activate?  Seems intuitive to me.  NOT.  Thankfully, my PC has 
> no equipment to allow Gnome to determine if my body position or apparel 
> are satisfactory for its programmers's purposes.
> 
> Then, my Web browsing experience was so slooooow, even for a modem, that 
> it was unbearable.  I don't know if it's because of the Firefox 1.0 
> release candidate that came with Unbuntu, the fact that I'm not using 
> Privoxy to filter out ads, or the connection speed.  I didn't even see 
> any indicator that I was connected, let alone how to check the 
> connection speed.
> 
> I also can't stand the way they've configured Nautilus, the file 
> manager.  Maybe it's the spatial Nautilus I've read about, but it sure 
> is annoying.  It would be nice to see a directory tree somewhere, 
> instead of opening new windows for every directory.  I can't even 
> retreat to the console and Midnight Commander, because mc isn't 
> included!  They can pack in vim, emacs, and nano (with no indication in 
> the Gnome menus that they exist), but not mc?  Hell, they've even got 
> the text of a commercial book, _Dive into Python_, in their help system, 
> but not mc?
> 
> I'm not asking for help, I'm just letting off a little steam.  I really 
> like the ideas behind Ubuntu, Gnome doesn't seem to be difficult to use 
> otherwise, and it looks sharp, but it sure seems to get in my way when I 
> know what I want to do.  It's not like I'm an idiot; I've been using 
> Linux for about four years, and Slackware for the last year or two. 
> Maybe coming up through DOS and Windows molded/warped my mind to make it 
> a poor fit with a Gnome that seems to hide the existence of console 
> tools.  But I'm glad Eric brought in all those Ubuntu CDs.  At least I 
> got a recent version of OpenOffice.org, just in time to do my taxes. 
> And the included "live" CD allowed me to use my girlfriend's laptop to 
> work on my taxes without having to use her Corel Office Suite.
> 
>                                 Chick
> 
> P.S.  Do I even dare to mess with Synaptic?
> 
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