Dapper Flight 4 Testing

[Miquel Torres]

Hello, I just downloaded the Kubuntu Flight 4 live-CD and tested it.

First I roughly followed (where applicable for Kubuntu) the Testing/Short
testing protocol (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Short).

I encountered no problems apart from number 10. When starting Adept a pop up
says "could not find mime type, applications/octet-stream" and "no mime
types installed". Also, attempting to update from Adept, having enable the
universe repositories caused it to crash. Adept notifier registered the
changes though, and changed status.

After completing the Short Test, I investigated a bit more and have the
following to say:

- If in the boot menu, a big resolution is chosen, it will be used in the
boot splash and shutdown processes, but usplash is displayed in a tiny
portion of the screen (centred). Short report: it doesn't scale with
resolution. I'd rather have it like breezy than having to use magnifying
glasses.

- Also while booting and as in breezy, the uspalsh progress bar stays far
too long at the beginning, and completes the second half in just a few
seconds. It gives the subjective impression that boot time is longer than it
already is. No need to time how long it takes for each service to start or
something like that. Just giving the progress bar a bit of a head start
would suffice.

- The worst problem I found was while trying to configure the printer. When
you start System Settings -> Printer it says "Error- System settings unable
to retrieve the printer. Error message received from manager. Connection to
CUPS server failed". I was unable to add new printers.

- GParted: it has too menu entries. One in Settings and another in system. I
think it should be in utilities.

- Selecting more than a few files with the mouse causes a slow down. This
actually happens since Breezy and I know it is due to the admittedly nice
blue semi-transparent effect. But try selecting more than 4x4 icons and it
is just too slow. In dapper it hasn't got any better. It should be either
optimised or changed to a more modest effect.

- Adept: It is nice to see that Kubuntu finally has a working update
notifier. The work of Peter Rockai is really important for Kubuntu to
succeed. I also saw some screenshots of preliminary work of what should
become a simple software installer and they are very promising
(http://blog.mornfall.net/tech/). 
	That said there are a couple of issues to solve. When installing or
updating/upgrading your software or even your OS, stability is of paramount
importance. All the features in the world won't help if Adept continues to
crash so often (although it must be said it never once screwed my system).
So please make that a priority. I already helped with Adept 1.0 bug
reporting and design ideas and I'll help again this time.

	Next there is the question of usability. The new Adept (1.89) GUI is a bit
confusing, although inexpert users shoudn't need to worry about that. But
all 3 programs are just a bit rough on the edges and wouldn't mind a
beautifying either. Adept could profit a lot from working with the
openusability guys. And I don't mean for Peter to just submit adept for
usability testing, but to really work WITH them. To see what I mean read the
blog entry

http://holehan.blogspot.com/2006/02/kuroo-gui-for-gentoos-portage-meets.html.
It wouldn't be a month's work. Just a session or two working together could
make a difference.

	Other than that, IMHO Adept notifier should be simply called "update
notifier" and "Adept Installer" be named "Software Installer",
"Install/remove software" or something like that. A distinction must be
made: tech-savvy users can use Adept Manager. But users who don't care
should be able to just use an "update notifier" and an "install software"
program, without having to learn first that they are called Adept something.

And that's about it. Comments are appreciated ;-)

Regards

Miquel


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