Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

[Thain]

The only great thing I see in Lucid is that I actually got it to install on my machine this time! I was an avid Kubuntu user for years until I could no longer run it, and I mean on any of my 6 machines. There was always a problem. The install went well, and it even got the graphics and the mouse right. (Which is an amazing feat)

I would rank Lucid as a 1st Beta rather than an LTS. There are multitudes of bugs and things not working without a major overhaul. First of all, there is a media player, Dragon player, but no useful codecs are installed until you try to play something and it says you have to download the "extra" files. The files necessary to play media files should come with the player (wouldn't you call that a dependency?), what if you don't have the internet to rely on?

The widgets on the desktop did not stay where I put them at first, now after a re-boot, my clock is all messed up with huge hands that cover the entire desktop. <-- signs of NOT LTS.

Akonadi is still not operational, where am I to keep my contacts? ALL major OS's have a PIM. Very few are released that this feature does not work. <-- signs of NOT LTS.

The fonts in Firefox are really hard to read. so much so that even with an O, the top and bottom of the O are cut out completely.

A lot of programs to be installed have no decent default settings. ALL major OS's have default settings that the OS can operate on "as-is" and if you don't like the way it works, THEN you change the default settings. Not here, too many of the programs I installed, and that were installed during install, require you to know the command line options for a program you've have never used before with little or no help in setting it up.

UBUNTU SHOULD HAVE SORTED THIS OUT YEARS AGO.

It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to install and enjoy an OS. Ubuntu has been on the straight path to practically asking it's users to go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for install tips. I have been involved with different OS's for over 25 years, and the only one that rivals Ubuntu as the hardest to install is OS/2 from IBM. At least they had the excuse that it came on 22 floppy disks.

I will continue setting this thing up, unless I give up, and post an "After Overhaul" review.

[Telengard]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

The files necessary to play media files should come with the player (wouldn't you call that a dependency?), what if you don't have the internet to rely on?

I think I may be able to explain that.

$ aptitude show w32codecs
. . .
Description: Win32 codec binaries
 This package contains Win32 codec binaries, required for the decompression of video formats that have no open source alternative.

 This package is in Medibuntu because of its non-free license.

 This package isn't supported by Ubuntu: DON'T REPORT BUGS TO UBUNTU!
. . .

The fonts in Firefox are really hard to read. so much so that even with an O, the top and bottom of the O are cut out completely.

Granted, font rendering in Firefox is horrible on Kubuntu. The only solution I've found is to install the msttcorefonts package, but even that only helps a little. You can force Firefox to use fonts of your choice, but that setting is applied to all web pages AFAIK. This is a good reason to stick with Konqueror, which renders pages much better IMHO.

Not here, too many of the programs I installed, and that were installed during install, require you to know the command line options for a program you've have never used before with little or no help in setting it up.

Dunno what to say to that. Since this is your rant I'll take you at your word, but some examples would be nice.

I really can't address your other software woes because they all involve programs I never use. Sorry.

It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to install and enjoy an OS. Ubuntu has been on the straight path to practically asking it's users to go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for install tips. I have been involved with different OS's for over 25 years, and the only one that rivals Ubuntu as the hardest to install is OS/2 from IBM. At least they had the excuse that it came on 22 floppy disks.

LOL. My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. Most people nowadays would probably say that it was extremely hard to use because there was no such thing as a desktop or even a GUI back then. IMHO computers were much easier to learn and use back then because they didn't try to be more than they were. Modern operating systems try to be all things to all people, and frequently fail to meet users specific needs because no two people have the same needs and expectations of their computer.

[Snowhog]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

Posts like this don't serve a useful purpose. If you are having problems, then create posts for them that provide information that will be helpful in getting them resolved.

Contrary to your statement, many, many people - myself included - have had no problems with LL 10.04, even during installation.

[Telengard]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

@Snowhog, isn't there a forum for rants like this? Or did we decide against that?
(/me has been sleeping a while.)

[Snowhog]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

If the OP was just intending to 'rant' then sure. And, he did post in Soapbox, which is for 'everything else' not fitting into the provided sub-boards here in Kubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (LTS). I guess I have to work a bit harder on not getting my defenses up. Oh well. I'm human. :P

[Telengard]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

Oh well. I'm human. :P

Maybe we should make a new global rule that all rant threads must be tagged "[RANT]" in the subject line to differentiate them from help requests. It would make the mods and helpers lives a little easier at the very least. It is quite annoying going into a new thread hoping to offer help to some poor fellow who's system has gone wonky only to find a page or so of vile, judgmental screed directed at our distro (and by extension our community.)

Just a thought.

[dibl]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

The loudest critics are the least contributors. At least, that's my observation. 8)

[Thain]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

Telengard said,

"Dunno what to say to that. Since this is your rant I'll take you at your word, but some examples would be nice."

Just one "for instance" right off the top of my head. When I first installed Lucid, I ,of course, started to check everything out. Where the options for things were and what options I had to play with. I started first with the clock, and noticed that there was an option to say the time. I like that feature at times when I tend to forget the time. After turning it on and waiting for the announcement, a pop up window came up and simply said something was not found. (I forget the file name, but it has to do with text to speech.) So I went to package manager and downloaded it, which came with KMouth. When KMouth opens, there is a configuration screen with options to set for the program. The very first option is the command line options. What command line option? I've never seen this program, or used it, so how am I supposed to know what to put in this box?


Snowhog,

My rant really does sound a little harsh with little to no praise, and for that I apologize. However, as it has been said, I have been involved in OS's for many years and have tried them ALL in some capacity. Like Telengard, My first computer was a VIC-20 also, and have had my hands on all types of computer hardware and software ever since. My point being, I am highly critical of any Operating System, and my comments are made more with the end-user in mind. I can fix these problems, however, there are so many of us that are just not technically minded enough.

And, I do believe I did post in the right place... This is what soap boxes are for right?

[Thain]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

The loudest critics are the least contributors. At least, that's my observation. 8)

Really? I was a major contributor when 7.01 came out. I was here everyday answering questions. That all stopped when my upgrades were trashed and I could not get version 8.04 to install. So I went on to windows and beta tested Windows 7, which I was one of the "techs" in the "Migrating to Windows 7" forums, and TechNet.

[Telengard]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

When KMouth opens, there is a configuration screen with options to set for the program. The very first option is the command line options. What command line option? I've never seen this program, or used it, so how am I supposed to know what to put in this box?

I can't tell you that because I've never used kmouth, but the following may lead you to what you need.

NAME

kmouth - A type-and-say front end for speech synthesizers


SYNOPSIS

kmouth [filename] [KDE Generic Options] [Qt⢠Generic Options]


DESCRIPTION

KMouth is an application that enables persons that cannot speak to let
their computers speak.It includes a history of spoken sentences from
which the user can select sentences to be re-spoken.

Note that KMouth does not include speech synthesizer. Instead it
requires a speech synthesizer installed in the system.


OPTIONS

filename
The history file to open.


SEE ALSO

kttsd(1), festival(1), mbrola(1), freetts(1)

More detailed user documentation is available from help:/kmouth (either
enter this URL into Konqueror, or run khelpcenter help:/kmouth).

There is also further information available at the KDE Accessibility
project web site: http://accessibility.kde.org/.

[Thain]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

Telengard,

Thanks for the info, I will see what I can do with it....

Telengard said: "LOL. My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. Most people nowadays would probably say that it was extremely hard to use because there was no such thing as a desktop or even a GUI back then. IMHO computers were much easier to learn and use back then because they didn't try to be more than they were. Modern operating systems try to be all things to all people, and frequently fail to meet users specific needs because no two people have the same needs and expectations of their computer."

It's nice to see there are still some of us around. My VIC-20 had the 16KB RAM upgrade from 8k, and a datacassette. Those were the days. But you are right, it's just not possible to please everyone.

To better clarify my rant, Ubuntu/Kubuntu deserve some praise. I am all in all happy that it's running and I can type these "obscene" observations. lol <-- I did give it a B in the polls.

[Telengard]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

It's nice to see there are still some of us around. My VIC-20 had the 16KB RAM upgrade from 8k, and a datacassette.

Yeah, for such a slow and unreliable storage device the Datasette was quite expensive. IIRC mine cost $60 USD including one free game. Either way, it was far better to have that than be forced to re-type your program every time you power on the machine.

Those were the days. But you are right, it's just not possible to please everyone.

To be fair, I think I can understand your pain a little. Kubuntu has been what I would consider a bleeding edge distro ever since the introduction of KDE4. Heck Intrepid never worked right for me, and all my installs of it self destructed within days or weeks. KPackageKit and Strigi are experimental software at best, at least you'd probably conclude so by reading the number of complaints here in the forums, so I never even use them.

In any case, the one part of Kubuntu you can always depend on is the command line. It is a constant in Linux distros because the principles behind it have remained constant since Unix. So when your fancy desktop apps go kablooey you should keep in mind that most of them are just window dressing: They are nothing more than front-ends for the standard command line tools underlying all Debian distros. (There are exceptions, but I'm talking about the system itself here and not necessarily the applications.)

90% of my comping is done inside Konsole. I can count the number of GUI apps I actually depend upon on my fingers. Most of those have command line equivalents, although I admit I prefer Firefox or Konqueror over Lynx any day.

[Snowhog]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

Snowhog,

My rant really does sound a little harsh with little to no praise, and for that I apologize.

And, I do believe I did post in the right place... This is what soap boxes are for right?

An apology isn't needed, and I'm sorry that I posted my reply 'hastily.' I'm not a Kubuntu snob. I like Kubuntu yes, but I'm not zealous about it. What I prefer to see however, when someone has problems, are to post good questions, with sufficient information, that those here might have a decent chance of finding/providing solutions. Personally, 'rants' serve no useful purpose, especially in a forum that exists for 'helping' Kubuntu users.

Yes, you did post within the appropriate board. Take a bit of time here, and you'll get a feel for some of our more 'interesting' members.

[zlow]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

LOL. My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. Most people nowadays would probably say that it was extremely hard to use because there was no such thing as a desktop or even a GUI back then. IMHO computers were much easier to learn and use back then because they didn't try to be more than they were. Modern operating systems try to be all things to all people, and frequently fail to meet users specific needs because no two people have the same needs and expectations of their computer.

The VIC-20 was simple to use. It did have a desktop, only the interface wasn't what you see today but instead a "READY." prompt. It came with a users manual teaching BASIC. The only difficulty is that you didn't have anywhere to save programs by default. The users manual was VERY well written, better than any documentation you find today for any OS.

If you had a copy of the reference manual, it even gave you a schematic (obviously not simple) and discussed every register and its function in great detail.

We unfortunately really don't have anything like it that exists today.

[zlow]

Re: Lucid needed more time and thought before calling it LTS

Posts like this don't serve a useful purpose. If you are having problems, then create posts for them that provide information that will be helpful in getting them resolved.

Contrary to your statement, many, many people - myself included - have had no problems with LL 10.04, even during installation.

WorksForMe™

Let the author rant. Did it cause you physical pain? No? Then get over it.