funchords
August 21st, 2006, 02:08 PM
BUM takes on the difficult job of crossing the gap between technical concepts and actions and non-technical users.
I consider myself a technical user, with much experience in Windows internal services but a shaky grasp on the linux ones. I understand the runlevels.
My objective in using BUM today was to turn off services that I am not using. And, after some trial and error, and visiting the BUM web site and reading the documentation (http://www.marzocca.net/linux/bumdocs.html#use), I think I've figured that out. But I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about my experience.
What impressed me positively:
- The opening screen (non-"Advanced") opens to a list of clear and useful descriptions. The description of the behavior of the service boldly preceeds the cryptic name. The descriptions strike a balance between human understandability and technical precision.
- As a somewhat more technical user, the Advanced screen helped clear up some of the ambiguity I was experiencing.
What confused me:
- The Activate/Deactivate terms confused me. I didn't know if I was starting/stopping a running service, or if I was selecting which services would or would not run on the next boot. I expected clearer choices telling whether a service would be affected now, affected on the next boot, or both.
- After applying a change to whether something was Activated or Deactivated, the status of the "Activate" checkmark did not change. I had to quit the application and restart it to see that the change took place.
- For any particular service, the choices in the Services menu item did not match the choices in the right-click menu. The presentation in the Services menu was clearer to me. It was helpful to see the greyed out choices as it gave me clues as to what I could expect to see should I change the current state of the service. It gave me comfort that if I changed it and later decided to change it back, that I would be able to do so.
- If I change some checkmarks on some services (without Applying), then right-click on a service and choose to "Activate & Apply Now," does that "Apply Now" work for all of the services I changed or just the selected service?
- According to the documentation, a Question Mark in the running column either means "BUM is not able to detect if the script is running a daemon" or "BUM doesn't have a nicer description for the service and so it is showing the apt-cache description." I have a question mark next to a few services. Is it the first meaning or the second meaning?
What I couln't find:
- The Help menu item does not lead to help files or documentation. The two choices are "About" and "Report a new service description." I expected to find help like the help I eventually found in the documentation (http://www.marzocca.net/linux/bumdocs.html#use).
- I looked for a "reload" or "refresh" button, but did not find it. I wanted to see whether a service had recently started or stopped, or whether my changes had been applied.
Although I described a few things that slowed me down, I am very impressed with Boot Up Manager. I think it's a great fit for Ubuntu! If I was too overwhelmed by the techno-speak, or if it was simplified to the extent that it was too ambiguous, I would not have been encouraged to continue to use it. I hope you find this feedback constructive and encouraging.
I consider myself a technical user, with much experience in Windows internal services but a shaky grasp on the linux ones. I understand the runlevels.
My objective in using BUM today was to turn off services that I am not using. And, after some trial and error, and visiting the BUM web site and reading the documentation (http://www.marzocca.net/linux/bumdocs.html#use), I think I've figured that out. But I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about my experience.
What impressed me positively:
- The opening screen (non-"Advanced") opens to a list of clear and useful descriptions. The description of the behavior of the service boldly preceeds the cryptic name. The descriptions strike a balance between human understandability and technical precision.
- As a somewhat more technical user, the Advanced screen helped clear up some of the ambiguity I was experiencing.
What confused me:
- The Activate/Deactivate terms confused me. I didn't know if I was starting/stopping a running service, or if I was selecting which services would or would not run on the next boot. I expected clearer choices telling whether a service would be affected now, affected on the next boot, or both.
- After applying a change to whether something was Activated or Deactivated, the status of the "Activate" checkmark did not change. I had to quit the application and restart it to see that the change took place.
- For any particular service, the choices in the Services menu item did not match the choices in the right-click menu. The presentation in the Services menu was clearer to me. It was helpful to see the greyed out choices as it gave me clues as to what I could expect to see should I change the current state of the service. It gave me comfort that if I changed it and later decided to change it back, that I would be able to do so.
- If I change some checkmarks on some services (without Applying), then right-click on a service and choose to "Activate & Apply Now," does that "Apply Now" work for all of the services I changed or just the selected service?
- According to the documentation, a Question Mark in the running column either means "BUM is not able to detect if the script is running a daemon" or "BUM doesn't have a nicer description for the service and so it is showing the apt-cache description." I have a question mark next to a few services. Is it the first meaning or the second meaning?
What I couln't find:
- The Help menu item does not lead to help files or documentation. The two choices are "About" and "Report a new service description." I expected to find help like the help I eventually found in the documentation (http://www.marzocca.net/linux/bumdocs.html#use).
- I looked for a "reload" or "refresh" button, but did not find it. I wanted to see whether a service had recently started or stopped, or whether my changes had been applied.
Although I described a few things that slowed me down, I am very impressed with Boot Up Manager. I think it's a great fit for Ubuntu! If I was too overwhelmed by the techno-speak, or if it was simplified to the extent that it was too ambiguous, I would not have been encouraged to continue to use it. I hope you find this feedback constructive and encouraging.