anlari
December 12th, 2005, 02:21 PM
Okay, I installed Ubuntu. I like the overall desktop and applications and such so I am going to concentrate on what I did *not* like. :p This is not a rant, nor a troll. Feel free to suggest alternatives and fixes. If you can, please improve these things in Ubuntu for all new users on the next versions. I tried to look at things as an "average Joe". Some things here are "upstream" problems but uhm.. Anyways.. Here it goes!
Installation
XFS & Grub installation failed, as suggested by the installer. How come? I have used XFS earlier with Grub on Gentoo, Fedora and Kubuntu. (I can't recall how I installed them but it worked in the end very well.) XFS would be nice because it in many cases performs better, especially with larger directories. (At least I can notice the difference in certain cases.)
It was quite positive that the installation detected my Server 2003 and added it automatically on the Grub menu. It is very good for the people who want to casually try Ubuntu out with dual booting. Otherwise the installer is asking all kinds of funny questions an ordinary user couldn't care less about or has no understanding about. I'd ask at the beginning wether to do a “for dummies” installation (which would be VERY for-dummies version) or a more “advanced one” and act accordingly.. Now it's a slightly funny mix.
The looks
The Grub works by default in plain vanilla text mode. Yuch. The bootsplash is ugly and before that there is some rude text about the kernel booting. I used to play some games when 8086 was hot and they had extremely advanced CGA graphics. The bootsplash reminds me of those games for some reason every time I see it. Brown blocky text? Woohoo. Even Windows 95 looked better :razz:
I kind of like the GDM theme. It's neat. Also I like the default mouse pointer theme. It's simple and nice. The default brown look is a bit bad otherwise. The tan would fit nicer as someone pointed on the Wiki. But that isn't the bad part yet. The default gnome icon set looks 90s. There are many other icon sets available but usually they do not change all the icons in menus which is irritating. Getting a consistent modern and good looking icon set seems to be extremely hard task. It's work for hours and hours.
One of the best things KDE has got is their glassy new icon set. No, I don't like what it looks like. It's like those older Imacs and it looks somehow too candyish. It is however quite consistent and replaces pretty much everything. Something like that would be required on Ubuntu.
Furthermore mixing qt and gtk applications can look absolutely horrible. There should be some basic work done that brings them at least slightly closer, preferably get them to look 100% same. (I know it isn't easy task, but on the other hand qt-gtk way it seems to work quite well – getting gtk applications qt'ified...)
I managed to tweak (thanks to the Ubuntu forums) my Opera (which beats Firefox about 100-0) to look consistent enough for the Gnome desktop so I am happy :cool:
I don't want “candy”. I want a stylish simple look. Simple the default look is but it's not very stylish. Perhaps it was that in -95 or so. Does the look matter? Well, I get a working software if I have to select between working and beautiful. But I'd really rather have working AND beautiful.
People throw in screenshots of Vista when they talk about blingbling and start raving about the transparency and enabling composite on x.org. I have been looking at the Vista designs and the transparency is just one part of them. They just have been Designed. They are not perhaps finished and I don't like everything about them but it's a bit fresh yeah.
Quite honestly, if I was Canonical I would throw in some real money to get real designers to make up one simple but good looking consistent theme for all the aspects of the default desktop and booting process. Nerds don't have graphic skills, really. It hurts my eyes. It's inconsistent and plain amateurish all the way.
Default applications
The “add applications” on Gnome menu is a great idea. Users want to get one good software for certain task without getting deep under the hood. That's simple and works very well. I don't agree here with some of the offered applications. Because the mix kde/qt and gnome/gtk stuff. They can look very inconsistent and they pull in “a few” extra libraries. Please, try to stay on either side always when there's a chance.
Also the added menu editor is a good one. Lack of it on default Gnome is a horrible mistake by that project.
Automated updating tool is superb. Thanks for that. Also the synaptic otherwise is good when/if you need more power than what the easy “add applications” offers.
The PDF Cups printer driver would be a great addon. I don't have a printer myself but make documents and such for others to read. Using Linux and they Windows usually PDF is the safe bet. It's also a safe bet to print at work etc from the PDF instead of trying to get other file formats work. (No, OOo isn't the only application I use.) I didn't find easy way to add it myself either.
I installed Beagle via apt. Not having used it before I wanted to give it a try. Yes, it works. What I am bugged about is that such tool should integrate with the desktop seamlessly. Meaning a search window applet on the Gnome panel. You know, you could either launch Google (or whatever) search from it on a new browser or Beagle search or whatever. It could be very convenient but I couldn't find a way to get such thing working.
Gnome doesn't support any easy way on how to change the looks of GDM and the Gnome splash? Or then it isn't just on the menus or I just can't find it for some weird reason. All that stuff is still way too hard :-( (But you HAVE to do it or it'll all blow your eyes off.)
I tried Planner when it was an earlier version. Whoa. That's sweet. Evolution is aok too though I have got one personal gripe with it.
(I can't use my national electronic ID card to sign&encrypt email. It just isn't possible because Evolution doesn't use the opensc-pkcs11 and the next generation PGP will be really working earliest somewhere around 2050 it seems. I can use Mozilla Thunderbird for email though if I need the feature. The same goes for Firefox, I need Mozilla to be able to get into the official governmental services with the card.)
Ooh, some more administration tools too. Guisguisguis. Good. More, for every task. Setting up a samba share (if it really worked, I got no Windows here to test with) was pleasant.
Hardware support
The only piece of hardware just didn't just start working was my webcam. Labtec Webcam Pro. I've used it earlier on Gentoo and Fedora, with self compiled drivers from http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html . The ones that are on default Ubuntu installation cause a hard lock of kernel when I try to use the webcam. Oof.
Sound stuff
It would be nice if by default all the applications could play the sounds simultaneously so that no application could block others. Read some howtos and since esd is buggy old software (which is being replaced, I heard rumor that Cox is going to take a look on it for Fedora project) and with alsa it might have weird side effects it's not hard. I'd like to be able to set default alsa (not all applications are Gnome/esd aware) device via some gui and optionally try to enable the software mixing so that all the applications could try to use it at the same time.
CD Burning & medias
I can find the CD burning from Nautilus menus. More intuitive way to start burning couple files for average users would be via right click context menu. That feature doesn't exist it seems. I have seen some chatter about including K3b/gnomebaker/whatever. All those applications are good examples of how one should never implement such application for an average user. They do not want to use applications. They have a problem, they want a task accomplished. “I have this file, I want it on CD”. Asking for stuff like all kinds of settings and showing a GUI that has enough buttons and menus to fly a shuttle is definitely murderous for usability. If someone ASKS at that stage to get a more powerful solution it should be possible (for the ~1% of the burning cases, or the nerds) but for default user it should be as straightforward as automatic as ever possible.
I plugged in my USB memory stick and a new icon appeared on desktop. I got to use it instantly very well. Good.
Non-free stuff
What did I have to add manually? Well, Sun's Java stuff with Netbeans. That installation is quite smooth and simple. Umm, flash from multiverse. Acroread. (Though I think evince would work just fine?) Then some codecs. The eternal and slowly worsening thing about patents and such.. But anyways, wether you like or don't like that laws - they are here. And libdecss (or whatever) is afaik illegal to use on Linux around where I live.
I would pay for legal working DVD player on Linux if someone would sell. I got my music as OGGs and I rarely watch fun video clips (yes, it's fun but I'm glad sparing my time, hehe) and I don't pirate movies... So all I am missing really is the DVD player. So yeah, since no one seems to be offering I took the cough hinted route for getting it to work.
When I heard about Cyberlink making a Linux version I was thrilled. But they made it only for embedded stuff and not for consumer sales. I would have bought their stuff for DVD playing because their player has at least on Windows platform been just superb.
Other
I selected as living in Europe/Finland when I installed Ubuntu. Why is my Gnome panel clock applet using 12 hour format by default? We use 24 hour format. (Yes, it took only ~5 seconds for me to “fix”.)
The complete lack of a good diagram drawing program on Linux. Dia and Kivio are the only ones but both of them draw so ugly widgets (they are pure 70s, man) that if you draw something with it and go to a meeting or such with your diagram guess what happens? Everyone laughs at you. Also the arrows/lines between the widgets act quite bad on those applications. One wouldn't need much. Just a few simplish SVG widgets and an arrow/line system between them. But it doesn't seem to exist in usable working and non-dog-ugly form. (I rather pay for the Visio, which then again just plain can rule if you know how to tickle it.)
Installation
XFS & Grub installation failed, as suggested by the installer. How come? I have used XFS earlier with Grub on Gentoo, Fedora and Kubuntu. (I can't recall how I installed them but it worked in the end very well.) XFS would be nice because it in many cases performs better, especially with larger directories. (At least I can notice the difference in certain cases.)
It was quite positive that the installation detected my Server 2003 and added it automatically on the Grub menu. It is very good for the people who want to casually try Ubuntu out with dual booting. Otherwise the installer is asking all kinds of funny questions an ordinary user couldn't care less about or has no understanding about. I'd ask at the beginning wether to do a “for dummies” installation (which would be VERY for-dummies version) or a more “advanced one” and act accordingly.. Now it's a slightly funny mix.
The looks
The Grub works by default in plain vanilla text mode. Yuch. The bootsplash is ugly and before that there is some rude text about the kernel booting. I used to play some games when 8086 was hot and they had extremely advanced CGA graphics. The bootsplash reminds me of those games for some reason every time I see it. Brown blocky text? Woohoo. Even Windows 95 looked better :razz:
I kind of like the GDM theme. It's neat. Also I like the default mouse pointer theme. It's simple and nice. The default brown look is a bit bad otherwise. The tan would fit nicer as someone pointed on the Wiki. But that isn't the bad part yet. The default gnome icon set looks 90s. There are many other icon sets available but usually they do not change all the icons in menus which is irritating. Getting a consistent modern and good looking icon set seems to be extremely hard task. It's work for hours and hours.
One of the best things KDE has got is their glassy new icon set. No, I don't like what it looks like. It's like those older Imacs and it looks somehow too candyish. It is however quite consistent and replaces pretty much everything. Something like that would be required on Ubuntu.
Furthermore mixing qt and gtk applications can look absolutely horrible. There should be some basic work done that brings them at least slightly closer, preferably get them to look 100% same. (I know it isn't easy task, but on the other hand qt-gtk way it seems to work quite well – getting gtk applications qt'ified...)
I managed to tweak (thanks to the Ubuntu forums) my Opera (which beats Firefox about 100-0) to look consistent enough for the Gnome desktop so I am happy :cool:
I don't want “candy”. I want a stylish simple look. Simple the default look is but it's not very stylish. Perhaps it was that in -95 or so. Does the look matter? Well, I get a working software if I have to select between working and beautiful. But I'd really rather have working AND beautiful.
People throw in screenshots of Vista when they talk about blingbling and start raving about the transparency and enabling composite on x.org. I have been looking at the Vista designs and the transparency is just one part of them. They just have been Designed. They are not perhaps finished and I don't like everything about them but it's a bit fresh yeah.
Quite honestly, if I was Canonical I would throw in some real money to get real designers to make up one simple but good looking consistent theme for all the aspects of the default desktop and booting process. Nerds don't have graphic skills, really. It hurts my eyes. It's inconsistent and plain amateurish all the way.
Default applications
The “add applications” on Gnome menu is a great idea. Users want to get one good software for certain task without getting deep under the hood. That's simple and works very well. I don't agree here with some of the offered applications. Because the mix kde/qt and gnome/gtk stuff. They can look very inconsistent and they pull in “a few” extra libraries. Please, try to stay on either side always when there's a chance.
Also the added menu editor is a good one. Lack of it on default Gnome is a horrible mistake by that project.
Automated updating tool is superb. Thanks for that. Also the synaptic otherwise is good when/if you need more power than what the easy “add applications” offers.
The PDF Cups printer driver would be a great addon. I don't have a printer myself but make documents and such for others to read. Using Linux and they Windows usually PDF is the safe bet. It's also a safe bet to print at work etc from the PDF instead of trying to get other file formats work. (No, OOo isn't the only application I use.) I didn't find easy way to add it myself either.
I installed Beagle via apt. Not having used it before I wanted to give it a try. Yes, it works. What I am bugged about is that such tool should integrate with the desktop seamlessly. Meaning a search window applet on the Gnome panel. You know, you could either launch Google (or whatever) search from it on a new browser or Beagle search or whatever. It could be very convenient but I couldn't find a way to get such thing working.
Gnome doesn't support any easy way on how to change the looks of GDM and the Gnome splash? Or then it isn't just on the menus or I just can't find it for some weird reason. All that stuff is still way too hard :-( (But you HAVE to do it or it'll all blow your eyes off.)
I tried Planner when it was an earlier version. Whoa. That's sweet. Evolution is aok too though I have got one personal gripe with it.
(I can't use my national electronic ID card to sign&encrypt email. It just isn't possible because Evolution doesn't use the opensc-pkcs11 and the next generation PGP will be really working earliest somewhere around 2050 it seems. I can use Mozilla Thunderbird for email though if I need the feature. The same goes for Firefox, I need Mozilla to be able to get into the official governmental services with the card.)
Ooh, some more administration tools too. Guisguisguis. Good. More, for every task. Setting up a samba share (if it really worked, I got no Windows here to test with) was pleasant.
Hardware support
The only piece of hardware just didn't just start working was my webcam. Labtec Webcam Pro. I've used it earlier on Gentoo and Fedora, with self compiled drivers from http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html . The ones that are on default Ubuntu installation cause a hard lock of kernel when I try to use the webcam. Oof.
Sound stuff
It would be nice if by default all the applications could play the sounds simultaneously so that no application could block others. Read some howtos and since esd is buggy old software (which is being replaced, I heard rumor that Cox is going to take a look on it for Fedora project) and with alsa it might have weird side effects it's not hard. I'd like to be able to set default alsa (not all applications are Gnome/esd aware) device via some gui and optionally try to enable the software mixing so that all the applications could try to use it at the same time.
CD Burning & medias
I can find the CD burning from Nautilus menus. More intuitive way to start burning couple files for average users would be via right click context menu. That feature doesn't exist it seems. I have seen some chatter about including K3b/gnomebaker/whatever. All those applications are good examples of how one should never implement such application for an average user. They do not want to use applications. They have a problem, they want a task accomplished. “I have this file, I want it on CD”. Asking for stuff like all kinds of settings and showing a GUI that has enough buttons and menus to fly a shuttle is definitely murderous for usability. If someone ASKS at that stage to get a more powerful solution it should be possible (for the ~1% of the burning cases, or the nerds) but for default user it should be as straightforward as automatic as ever possible.
I plugged in my USB memory stick and a new icon appeared on desktop. I got to use it instantly very well. Good.
Non-free stuff
What did I have to add manually? Well, Sun's Java stuff with Netbeans. That installation is quite smooth and simple. Umm, flash from multiverse. Acroread. (Though I think evince would work just fine?) Then some codecs. The eternal and slowly worsening thing about patents and such.. But anyways, wether you like or don't like that laws - they are here. And libdecss (or whatever) is afaik illegal to use on Linux around where I live.
I would pay for legal working DVD player on Linux if someone would sell. I got my music as OGGs and I rarely watch fun video clips (yes, it's fun but I'm glad sparing my time, hehe) and I don't pirate movies... So all I am missing really is the DVD player. So yeah, since no one seems to be offering I took the cough hinted route for getting it to work.
When I heard about Cyberlink making a Linux version I was thrilled. But they made it only for embedded stuff and not for consumer sales. I would have bought their stuff for DVD playing because their player has at least on Windows platform been just superb.
Other
I selected as living in Europe/Finland when I installed Ubuntu. Why is my Gnome panel clock applet using 12 hour format by default? We use 24 hour format. (Yes, it took only ~5 seconds for me to “fix”.)
The complete lack of a good diagram drawing program on Linux. Dia and Kivio are the only ones but both of them draw so ugly widgets (they are pure 70s, man) that if you draw something with it and go to a meeting or such with your diagram guess what happens? Everyone laughs at you. Also the arrows/lines between the widgets act quite bad on those applications. One wouldn't need much. Just a few simplish SVG widgets and an arrow/line system between them. But it doesn't seem to exist in usable working and non-dog-ugly form. (I rather pay for the Visio, which then again just plain can rule if you know how to tickle it.)