Ubuntu good for Desktops, bad for Laps. Going back Mac.

[JGreenidge]

After a week of using Jaunty 9.04 I'm going back to Tiger 10.4.11 on my iBooks. I like Ubuntu-Jaunty very much, but there are unresolved power management issues that must be resolved before it does prime time on laptops and notebooks, mainly the inability to adjust the screen brightness (battery eater) with the standard F-keys, and Ubuntu keeps your HD spinning whether you're working or not. I hope to backup my Jaunty partition for resurrection later on since I'm going back all Mac on my iBook, but Retrospect and Synk can't even see the Linux partition to back it up, and I found no such hints or solutions on this page.

So I would like to suggest that this board create a permanent root topic featuring a list of newfound unresolved issues/solutions like this so that one doesn't have to go jungle hunting thru thousands of posts to see whether someone's found any remedies or hints for a particular issue. Beyond this, until Ubuntu generally becomes more "plug and play" non-geek in installation, it's going to unnecessarily put off potential curious users. I hope the Ubuntu engineers address this shortcoming.

Good job running this board.

Jim

[cyberdork33]

After a week of using Jaunty 9.04 I'm going back to Tiger 10.4.11 on my iBooks. I like Ubuntu-Jaunty very much, but there are unresolved power management issues that must be resolved before it does prime time on laptops and notebooks, mainly the inability to adjust the screen brightness (battery eater) with the standard F-keys, and Ubuntu keeps your HD spinning whether you're working or not. I hope to backup my Jaunty partition for resurrection later on since I'm going back all Mac on my iBook, but Retrospect and Synk can't even see the Linux partition to back it up, and I found no such hints or solutions on this page.

So I would like to suggest that this board create a permanent root topic featuring a list of newfound unresolved issues/solutions like this so that one doesn't have to go jungle hunting thru thousands of posts to see whether someone's found any remedies or hints for a particular issue. Beyond this, until Ubuntu generally becomes more "plug and play" non-geek in installation, it's going to unnecessarily put off potential curious users. I hope the Ubuntu engineers address this shortcoming.

Good job running this board.

Jim
Thanks for your feedback. Just to verify, you are talking about powerpc releases?

[JGreenidge]

Thanks for your feedback. Just to verify, you are talking about powerpc releases?

Yes, I was pertaining to PPC iBooks both G3 and G4 and likely MacBooks as well. When I see the high-techie remedies for the Mactels to simply fix their function/arrow keys and screen brightness, I hope there's another better boot-up built-in (script?) solution than putting curious non-geek newbies -- for whom you want to make things as simple and uncomplicated as possible to try Ubuntu out -- through all that.

Jim

[cyberdork33]

Yes, I was pertaining to PPC iBooks both G3 and G4 and likely MacBooks as well. When I see the high-techie remedies for the Mactels to simply fix their function/arrow keys and screen brightness, I hope there's another better boot-up built-in (script?) solution than putting curious non-geek newbies -- for whom you want to make things as simple and uncomplicated as possible to try Ubuntu out -- through all that.

Jim
Most of making those things "just work" involve folks such as us working to find the problem and discovering ways to fix them, and filing bugs, making patches, etc. I think that the mactel support is pretty good. The brightness keys and such are difficult because it is specialized hardware, I think the arrow key thing was just a bug. These things have to be discovered before they can be repaired.

As far as a script, if you would like to make a script for each Mac model out there (or one that can alter itself based on the model) that automatically implements fixes / workarounds, by all means, please do. Maintaining such a script would be a nightmare. (several models, several Ubuntu releases, plus changes being made everyday). I think the time is better spent finding a fix, filing a bug, submitting a patch, or documenting findings / workarounds.

The "findings" topic you suggest is really about PowerPC, which, unfortunately is no longer officially supported by Canonical. The weight of this task rests solely on the community. For the mactel world, we document these things in the wiki:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MactelSupportTeam/CommunityHelpPages

I am sorry that you had a hard time, but if you are happier with OS X, then I think that the best choice for you is to stick with it! I use OS X most of the time myself. Nobody says that you have to use Ubuntu. Good Luck in your future endeavors!

[stream303]

Beyond this, until Ubuntu generally becomes more "plug and play" non-geek in installation, it's going to unnecessarily put off potential curious users. I hope the Ubuntu engineers address this shortcoming.

I can share your frustration.

One thing to remember is that Apple hardware, especially PPC, is designed to work solely with OSX, and the gang at Cupertino doesn't supply enough information about the hardware to make the Linux devs job any easier. :)

It is actually quite a testament to their abilities that we can get any sort of functional system at all really. Had they wanted to, they could have locked out anything but their own OSX for installation. I'm still amazed that we have access to openfirmware to get a non-oem system installed.

As for Ubuntu engineers for ppc - that is really pointing to the devs for Debian.

Running PPC Linux as a first time Linux user can really be frustrating - especially with older hardware and their own additional quirks. Until Apple opens up their hardware specs, each and every installation is an adventure in itself. Not very plug-n-play. However, as a former consumer-based line that has been surpassed for about 5 years now, I don't see that happening under the best of circumstances.

Ditto for getting Adobe, ATI, and Nvidia to release full specs for their former PPC line.

So, essentially we just try to make the best of it, and have to resort to hacks to make it work at all.

Given the circumstances, Linux is actually doing very well on PPC - not ideal, but it really comes down to a human / business issue, rather than a technical one.