Last week, the Ubuntu guys released Ubuntu 8.04, named "Hardy Heron". Instead of posting 24408 news items pointing to different reviews of this new Ubuntu release from all over the world, we decided to collect a few of them over the weekend and present them all in one gulp. I have a feeling some of you might like not seeing three Ubuntu items every day.
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Member since:2006-01-10
That's true to an extent.
I mean, I used a mac at school for the first time. I ended up mucking my usb drive because I couldn't find the eject button for the USB (On window I know its the icon in the tray...even if it is annoying). On MAC, apparently, u drag the drive to the trash. Not exactly intuitive to me.
Anyways, the point is what the operating system SHOULD do to make the transition easier. Sometimes, these things sound totally stupid, but they would help.
Consider the windows Start button. For one, it is labelled Start and not just some obscure item. I think when it first came out, an arrow would blaze across the bottom to tell you to click start. Pretty simple and you might think who would need that.
I realized how useful this would have been when I first tried office 2007. I explored the ribbon just fine, but I couldn't find out how to save-as. It took me a while to realize the circular icon on the top-left is where you find a 'traditional' menu. I thought it was just decoration for a while.
It's amazing how far tool tips, popout thingies, simple help things can go.
So he made a lot of good points about Ubuntu. Many of which I've ran into personally.
1. Naming (very important). Most of all, don't try and be cute. What is pidgin.im. First the name is odd, but worst... .im domain? I get it's cute for instant messenger, but just stick to the regular.
2. locations. Even for a 'advanced', say you install a program, how do you find out where it installed to or the executable name? I've resorted to clicking to edit the menu, which invokes a separate program...finding the entry and right-clicking properties...totally weird. Why can't i just directly right-click the menu item or it could have a context popup when I'm under the item.
3. Do things automatically. Getting flash...in firefox should be made simple. Fine, don't install proprietary stuff by default, but prompt the user when it is needed, explain why, get their permission and then do it.
Member since:2007-03-25
The cool thing about the Start button: to shut down your PC, you'll need to press the Start button!
Member since:2007-02-17
Umm. His GF is an idiot because FF in Ubuntu automatically pops up the installer when it encounters Flash or java or what have you.
Linus is not windows, they should break the user habit of going from site to site to download apps, when they shoudl be going to the repos. You can;t get more moron prrof the add/remove programs. In windows they should just call it remove programs because that is all its useful for but in Ubuntu Add/remove programs actually gives you a slew of apps to install. So in that respect he's basically asking his girlfriend to work how windows works. He should have told her how Linux works Ubuntu in this case) first and then had her try the system. It doesn't have to be an in-depth tour or anything just simple things like this is how you install software in Ubuntu. Better yet he should have opened the help browser by default, it outlines everything they need to know. I'm sure his gf had the same issues using windows when she first sat in front of it. She will have the same issues using a Mac as well and using a mac is as easy as it gets.
I do Agree that better named menu entries would be cool. Its like people want notification for everything though. This is not windows we don;t need 500 hundred popups giving you an up the minute synopsis of how windows found your harddrive and is preparing itself to pop up another dialog asking you what you want to do with it. Mac and Gnome don't bother with that crap, they just open the folder, no popups no notification, your notification is the fact that you have an open folder and a nice icon on your desktop letting you know that your harddrive is mounted. I like the fact that Mac 9which has very minimal notification popups and relies on icons and visual cues to let you know what is going on) and gnome just get out of the way. In-fact I think Ubuntu has been putting in too many notification popups. I've seen it where there are three on the screen at the same time, unnecessary.
Another thinsg. Why would his gf automatically assume that somethign like limewire would be installed ny default, is it installed by default on a windows machine? I doubt it very much, in-fact you don't even get a default bittorent client. I do agree that the name shoudl be more coherent, but the fatc that transmission is there at all shows the real difference between Ubuntu and windows.
In-fact I want his gf to use a default windows install and see how far she gets, I'd bet money that she wouldn't get very far without severe issues. I'm not talking about an OEM "default" install, I'm talking about a default install of plain old windows. Even on an oem install I see issues down the line for this type of user.
Why would the user have issues with directory names the user should not be mucking about in anything but their home folder where directories are very clear as to what they do. Anything that downloads goes to their desktop. So I don't see the point on this one.
Member since:2005-07-11
Anyway, Ubuntu. Yeah, I like this release. There are regressions for me that I had to manually fix with the help of others with the same problem. I guess they didn't affect enough people.
I got rid of Pulseaudio all together.
That's what I don't understand about Canonical's idea of "Long Term Release". Why are they putting in new, untested, beta, and just-barely-out-of-beta software into an LTS release? You'd think they'd spend the 6-months after LTS -1 prepping LTS -1 to become the LTS, fixing bugs, fixing regressions, fixing apps, and only adding new software that has been well-tested and well-integrated into the system. The LTS release should be more than just a moniker, which is all it is in Ubuntu.
Member since:2006-01-17
Yeah, I agree. In addition, the new GVFS stuff introduced problems that are beyond Ubuntu's control. With Pulseaudio, at least there's the hope that fixes will get into this LTS. But if the Gnome devs fix their bugs in the usual way, eg fixing them for the next release which is only in a few months, then this LTS might never get the fixes.
Member since:
2006-01-17
Regarding the "girlfriend test"; anybody, no matter how smart, is going to have trouble doing things on a new OS. I have multiple degrees, but if you put me in front of a Mac, it's a frustrating time. Not because there's something wrong with the way they do things, but because I'm not used to it. Concluding that things need to change in Ubuntu because his girlfriend had trouble with it is pretty stupid.
Anyway, Ubuntu. Yeah, I like this release. There are regressions for me that I had to manually fix with the help of others with the same problem. I guess they didn't affect enough people.
I got rid of Pulseaudio all together. With it in sound would stutter whenever cpu usage went above a few %. And I had do to some hackery that I found on the webs to get the optical drive to not run incredibly slow and stuttery.
But, my laptop still likes this release better than any previous Linux version, Ubuntu or otherwise.