oldefoxx
June 22nd, 2010, 07:04 AM
Why the title? Because it is suppose to get your attention. Did it work? I guess so. So what did you decide? I have no idea unless you respond with a post of your own.
Lost? That is often what happens to me. Here is an example: You are fairly new to Ubuntu or a beginner, and you get through the download and CD burn process, and your efforts to install Ubuntu seems to pay off. Next day, you boot up, and Ubuntu starts, but it shows a small box on a black field and talks about being unable to do more than start in low resolution.
Now what? You wiped out Windows with the install, so you lost your PC, right? So this is of course not good. You decide to get Windows back on it and forget all about Ubuntu. Can it happen? At least the small box, black field, and notice about low resolution has, to me, on a number of occasions. So what did I do instead? I booted up the LiveCD, got back into a normal state, and from there I had the option to search for what might cause this and how to deal with it.
Did I come up with an answer? Not really. Working from he small box itself, I tried what it offered, but I was always in conflict with the X-server, so nothing happened. One of those deep mysteries, I guess. How did I finally get around it? I started over with a fresh install. Fact is, though CDs are designed to handled digital, my years of experience with thousands of them show that they can be very prone to errors. Different brands have different dyes used on the backside, and the quality of those dyes and how they work with different CD/DVD drives is never certain. At least not certain until you get into having to burn and use a number. And sometimes numbers count. Burn a few different CDs of the same download, or repeat your download and burn new CDs, and you may not have any problems on the next install.
Does that count for something? I guess on whether you run into a related problem, then you might think so. But where to put it so that others can find it?
And now we are to the crux of the matter: Where to put it. The choice of category means that many will not see it. I could put it under Absolute Beginner, General, Installation or maybe one of the other remaining categories. And if I pick a category and someone on the other side does not see it as a good fit, they just move it. Besides, it does not hang around. There is always something newer to deal with.
Maybe it should just be fixed. Great idea. Except that means figuring out how to start a bug report. You run all over, from link to link, and it remains hidden. You might smarten up and use Google, then type in ubuntu bug report, and you follow some of what it finds, you might get there. Hurray for you.
Except now you need to know what package to report on, or the process ID that was effected by it. Excuse me? How am I suppose to know thinks like that? I just have a situation to deal with, and report if I can, and you want me to solve a problem for you, like tell you exactly what was involved when this happened? So I look around for package info related to video, and I go with that. Then I'm asked to look over all existing bug reports and see if it is already reported. I would say that is pretty much a case of others wanting you to do some of their work for them. Sorry, I've already put hours, even days into this, and it has got to stop somewhere.
If I got a bug report in, then months later I am likely to get an email that I identified the wrong package, and I need to submit the bug report with the right package identified, Either that or someone hasn't been able to cause the same thing to happen, so the report can just be discarded. I might get a genuine response, but it is usually for me to just try and walk someone through the whole process that caused the problem. Sounds okay,
but I might be two versions of Ubuntu beyond that point by then.
This is not what I call promising. I try an alternative, which is to just post the problem and see what answers come up about it. If no answers, then I might go into some detail of how I worked around it. Then someone always grips because I did not keep it short and simple.
It's sort of like where is the Suggestion Box, or even if there is one? Compare forums to floors, and threads to cubicles, and the fact that the suggestion box is on the main floor just inside the HR office isn't going to go very far. Nobody likes HR in the first place, not if you have a real job to do.
So what is wrong here? Well, you have heard my take on the bug reporting process, but some people manage to use it. And the broad categories of the forums and constant push-back of posts to make room for new ones isn't really helping either.
Someone got on me once, well actually several have, but at different times, that I should be using a Q and A approach to the forums. Really? I thought forums were places for discussions. Seems that Q and A is better suited when posting to an Expert directly. One question, one answer, the final or best one, and you are done. Forum threads run more to Q-Q-A-Q-A-Q-A-A until somebody gets tired of asking, or there are no more forthcoming answers.
Someone might ask, "Yeah, but how about FAQ?" FAQs mean go see if someone else has asked before, then take the answer the got and go away. Actually, it means Frequently Asked Questions", but you get the idea.
FAQs have little to do with topic or category. You going to sit there and read though a bunch of FAQs, just hoping you can find one that sounds like it relates to your own problem? Go someplace else and just ask the question and get on with it, that is what I say.
We are missing something here. Forums are not just like floors in an office building, but they are like practice fields scattered all about. Sounds okay, but this field is for throwing,
that field is for catching, the field over there is for pitching,
and over there another catching and squatting field, then there are more fields for running, walking, swinging, and we are even now considering some meeting rooms, where we would talk about things like scoring, base and field layout, foul lines, positions,
names of the positions, purpose of pitcher-catcher-batter setup,
what counts as a foul, what counts as a hit, what we mean by swinging a bat, what a bat is. There is also some thought to having a field named Inning, but it involves so many of the other fields at once that we probably won't go that far. You have questions? Great, Visit the field or fields of your choice and feel free to put your question to anyone you meet there. I am sure that you will get plenty of help. Now if you aren't too sure of your way around here, then we have a newbie meeting room where you can go and learn about what fields there are and what they are called. You go to the fields on your own, and by what you find happening there, you can pick up on the game of baseball in no time. It can't be any easier than that.
You probably don't get my drift. No big deal. I just see a need for something more situation oriented, or more focused on the area where the problem appears or what it involves. Here are a few thoughts along that line:
Wireless Connectivity
Wired Connectivity
Home Networking
Network Security
Problems with Video
Problems with Sound
Problems with Printers
Problems with Scanners
Problems with Fax
Problems with All-in-1s
Problems with Webcams
Connecting Ubuntu to Windows Network
Connecting Ubuntu to MAC Network
Security Software for Ubuntu
Changing Monitor settings
Changing Video Chip options
Choice of 32-bit or 64-bit Ubuntu
Using 64-bit Ubuntu with certain applications (yes or no)
Interfacing Ubuntu with IPOD and other mobile devices
Doing complete and partial backups and restores under Ubuntu
Ensuring that multiple Linux installs are treated separately when installing Ubuntu.
Easy ways and tools for fixing problems with Grub 1 and 2
Easy ways and tools to change boot sequences as set up by Grub
Problems related to getting Ubuntu to boot after being installed
Problems with screen resolution and other screen settings
That is just a quick list. I am sure it can be extended by others. The trick is, expect the situation to occur again, and make it easy to track and follow if it does. Make note of how much of a problem it really is by having people flag if they are having that same problem. Developers know enough about their packages that they have an idea then of where to go to find any problems in their area, and even what people are finding they have to do to get around it. Developers also have the advantage of making specialized search inquiries that might cross one category with another in certain specialized cases. I think there is some potential here, but then that is just my opinion.
Lost? That is often what happens to me. Here is an example: You are fairly new to Ubuntu or a beginner, and you get through the download and CD burn process, and your efforts to install Ubuntu seems to pay off. Next day, you boot up, and Ubuntu starts, but it shows a small box on a black field and talks about being unable to do more than start in low resolution.
Now what? You wiped out Windows with the install, so you lost your PC, right? So this is of course not good. You decide to get Windows back on it and forget all about Ubuntu. Can it happen? At least the small box, black field, and notice about low resolution has, to me, on a number of occasions. So what did I do instead? I booted up the LiveCD, got back into a normal state, and from there I had the option to search for what might cause this and how to deal with it.
Did I come up with an answer? Not really. Working from he small box itself, I tried what it offered, but I was always in conflict with the X-server, so nothing happened. One of those deep mysteries, I guess. How did I finally get around it? I started over with a fresh install. Fact is, though CDs are designed to handled digital, my years of experience with thousands of them show that they can be very prone to errors. Different brands have different dyes used on the backside, and the quality of those dyes and how they work with different CD/DVD drives is never certain. At least not certain until you get into having to burn and use a number. And sometimes numbers count. Burn a few different CDs of the same download, or repeat your download and burn new CDs, and you may not have any problems on the next install.
Does that count for something? I guess on whether you run into a related problem, then you might think so. But where to put it so that others can find it?
And now we are to the crux of the matter: Where to put it. The choice of category means that many will not see it. I could put it under Absolute Beginner, General, Installation or maybe one of the other remaining categories. And if I pick a category and someone on the other side does not see it as a good fit, they just move it. Besides, it does not hang around. There is always something newer to deal with.
Maybe it should just be fixed. Great idea. Except that means figuring out how to start a bug report. You run all over, from link to link, and it remains hidden. You might smarten up and use Google, then type in ubuntu bug report, and you follow some of what it finds, you might get there. Hurray for you.
Except now you need to know what package to report on, or the process ID that was effected by it. Excuse me? How am I suppose to know thinks like that? I just have a situation to deal with, and report if I can, and you want me to solve a problem for you, like tell you exactly what was involved when this happened? So I look around for package info related to video, and I go with that. Then I'm asked to look over all existing bug reports and see if it is already reported. I would say that is pretty much a case of others wanting you to do some of their work for them. Sorry, I've already put hours, even days into this, and it has got to stop somewhere.
If I got a bug report in, then months later I am likely to get an email that I identified the wrong package, and I need to submit the bug report with the right package identified, Either that or someone hasn't been able to cause the same thing to happen, so the report can just be discarded. I might get a genuine response, but it is usually for me to just try and walk someone through the whole process that caused the problem. Sounds okay,
but I might be two versions of Ubuntu beyond that point by then.
This is not what I call promising. I try an alternative, which is to just post the problem and see what answers come up about it. If no answers, then I might go into some detail of how I worked around it. Then someone always grips because I did not keep it short and simple.
It's sort of like where is the Suggestion Box, or even if there is one? Compare forums to floors, and threads to cubicles, and the fact that the suggestion box is on the main floor just inside the HR office isn't going to go very far. Nobody likes HR in the first place, not if you have a real job to do.
So what is wrong here? Well, you have heard my take on the bug reporting process, but some people manage to use it. And the broad categories of the forums and constant push-back of posts to make room for new ones isn't really helping either.
Someone got on me once, well actually several have, but at different times, that I should be using a Q and A approach to the forums. Really? I thought forums were places for discussions. Seems that Q and A is better suited when posting to an Expert directly. One question, one answer, the final or best one, and you are done. Forum threads run more to Q-Q-A-Q-A-Q-A-A until somebody gets tired of asking, or there are no more forthcoming answers.
Someone might ask, "Yeah, but how about FAQ?" FAQs mean go see if someone else has asked before, then take the answer the got and go away. Actually, it means Frequently Asked Questions", but you get the idea.
FAQs have little to do with topic or category. You going to sit there and read though a bunch of FAQs, just hoping you can find one that sounds like it relates to your own problem? Go someplace else and just ask the question and get on with it, that is what I say.
We are missing something here. Forums are not just like floors in an office building, but they are like practice fields scattered all about. Sounds okay, but this field is for throwing,
that field is for catching, the field over there is for pitching,
and over there another catching and squatting field, then there are more fields for running, walking, swinging, and we are even now considering some meeting rooms, where we would talk about things like scoring, base and field layout, foul lines, positions,
names of the positions, purpose of pitcher-catcher-batter setup,
what counts as a foul, what counts as a hit, what we mean by swinging a bat, what a bat is. There is also some thought to having a field named Inning, but it involves so many of the other fields at once that we probably won't go that far. You have questions? Great, Visit the field or fields of your choice and feel free to put your question to anyone you meet there. I am sure that you will get plenty of help. Now if you aren't too sure of your way around here, then we have a newbie meeting room where you can go and learn about what fields there are and what they are called. You go to the fields on your own, and by what you find happening there, you can pick up on the game of baseball in no time. It can't be any easier than that.
You probably don't get my drift. No big deal. I just see a need for something more situation oriented, or more focused on the area where the problem appears or what it involves. Here are a few thoughts along that line:
Wireless Connectivity
Wired Connectivity
Home Networking
Network Security
Problems with Video
Problems with Sound
Problems with Printers
Problems with Scanners
Problems with Fax
Problems with All-in-1s
Problems with Webcams
Connecting Ubuntu to Windows Network
Connecting Ubuntu to MAC Network
Security Software for Ubuntu
Changing Monitor settings
Changing Video Chip options
Choice of 32-bit or 64-bit Ubuntu
Using 64-bit Ubuntu with certain applications (yes or no)
Interfacing Ubuntu with IPOD and other mobile devices
Doing complete and partial backups and restores under Ubuntu
Ensuring that multiple Linux installs are treated separately when installing Ubuntu.
Easy ways and tools for fixing problems with Grub 1 and 2
Easy ways and tools to change boot sequences as set up by Grub
Problems related to getting Ubuntu to boot after being installed
Problems with screen resolution and other screen settings
That is just a quick list. I am sure it can be extended by others. The trick is, expect the situation to occur again, and make it easy to track and follow if it does. Make note of how much of a problem it really is by having people flag if they are having that same problem. Developers know enough about their packages that they have an idea then of where to go to find any problems in their area, and even what people are finding they have to do to get around it. Developers also have the advantage of making specialized search inquiries that might cross one category with another in certain specialized cases. I think there is some potential here, but then that is just my opinion.