[GLLUG] Ubuntu Woes

[Eric Miller]

I think if you stick to the main Ubuntu repository it should be fairly
painless. When you venture outside the box - you run into trouble. 

The basic purpose of Ubuntu is to provide a distribution with as clean
and tested a repository as possible. 


On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 09:46 -0500, James Zaldivar wrote:
> 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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