[GLLUG] Ubuntu Woes
James Zaldivar
zaldivarj at michigan.org
Wed Mar 23 09:46:10 EST 2005
Semi-related question regarding Ubuntu:
Will it, like every other Debian-based distro I have tried, run into
problems after a few upgrades or dist-upgrades due to their mixing of
repositories? Do they maintain their own? Every other Debian-based
distro I have used eventually required some kind of repair to apt's
package lists because they mixed repositories and an upgrade along the
way caused a mismatch.
-----Original Message-----
From: linux-user-bounces at egr.msu.edu
[mailto:linux-user-bounces at egr.msu.edu] On Behalf Of Eric Miller
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 9:30 AM
To: Chick Tower
Cc: linux-user at egr.msu.edu
Subject: Re: [GLLUG] Ubuntu Woes
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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> linux-user at egr.msu.edu
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