Change the default settings of Kubuntu to improve the first time user experience

[Rohan Garg]

Hi

Please not that we cannot ship some multimedia things like libav due
to patent issues as a result of which apps like vlc cannot be shipped
( and by extension, same thing goes for chromium though I am not
entirely sure about that, maybe someone can offer a better explanation
of why we can't ship chromium as the default ).

<snip>

>
> -change the default /home folder icons (music, doc, etc)

Please propose these upstream (  kde-devel at kde.org should suffice,
unless someone proposes a better list ), I can't think of a reason as
to why this should be in Kubuntu and not in KDE itself.

 -add avatar and
> wifi connecting support to installer
Oh yes, this would be really cool to have, who wants to volunteer? :D

 -add KDEWEB accounts, run it on the
> first kubuntu start after installation

I'd like to hear Alex Fiesta's as well as other Kubuntu Developers
opinions on this, there is also no release of WebAccounts at the
moment, so we should keep that in mind.

I also think that it shouldn't be run when the desktop starts because
you want to start working straightaway, but that's just me.

> -add notification-helper for kipi plugins (first gwenview start)

Probably should be added to the list of packages the
kubuntu-notification-helper asks the user to install when it starts up

> - add default wallpaper package or atleast a
> few cool ones

We do ship the default wallpaper we get from KDE, Elarun for Raring,
Ariya for Quantal

> -improve lightdm default them: move system buttons to center,
> use monochromatic icons, 48x48

Please send mockups and code to David Edmundson :)
He's d_ed on Freenode, channel : #kde-lightdm


> -switch to chrome/chromium. All new to
> kubuntu people ask about chrome/firefox. It's best browser anyway ;)

Firefox doesn't really have good KDE integration by default which is
why we've rejected it in earlier releases ( Plasma Download
notifications, File Dialogs, Button placement, etc etc)

As for Chromium, see the first couple of lines of this reply.

> -finally fix or remove the sharing KCM form systemsetings. Why is this thing
> stuck for so long?! -make user configuration USER FRIENDLY! Let it be a KCM
> not a standalone app. This sucks ;)

Alex Fiestas is working on this, though I haven't seen a screenshot or
anything :)

Not to mention user management is currently broken in Raring due to
python3 migration. We are coming up with better alternatives and will
probably decide once Alex shows us his new user management KCM.

www.launchpad.net/~rohangarg

>
> 23 sty 2013 02:33, "AG Alex" <alex at alexgrafic.it> napisał(a):
>>
>> Hi everyone, I'm a new member with few years of experience using
>> Kubuntu..., please be patient with my English, I'm still working on it....
>> I'm writing to talk about Users First Experience improvement in Kubuntu,
>> which is not the best we can do at moment especially for First Time Users,
>> in my opinion of course.
>>
>> The current default configuration of Kubuntu (until 12.10) seems to be
>> targeting just experienced users, which once installed a new system doesn't
>> have any problem to build its own environment around its needs, but they
>> wouldn't have any problem to do it even with a much more full functionality
>> default configuration, while for a new user of Kubuntu it will be impossible
>> even to simply imagine the powerful of the KDE environment with current
>> default settings.
>>
>> So why don't we change the target of the default settings to aim the
>> Newbbie needs instead of experienced users, they can anyway customize and
>> set up everything they need in few steps. I mean, a bit of "sacrifice" for
>> experienced user could become something really helpful for New Users.
>> Even much better of course would be to gives, if possible, a choice during
>> the installation process to set the Environment in few different ways, one
>> could be"Minimal Basic Functionality" (for experienced Users), other could
>> be "Fully Functionality Mode" (to show the real power of KDE) , other again
>> could be a kind of "Learning Mode" where in my opinion Activities can become
>> very helpful, and so on.....
>> But I'm not a developer and maybe it's impossible to do it, or maybe it
>> will be possible just having a much more centralized configuration system,
>> where would be really nice to have a set of tools to export and share any
>> aspect of any single part of of the DE configuration (but maybe in other
>> post we can talk about it).
>>
>>
>> Talking about New Default Settings optimized for first time Users,
>> involves of course few different aspects like default packages installed,
>> default desktop environment include plasma and plasmoids, and than default
>> activities where to show many different aspect of KDE functionality combined
>> with the best applications of Kubuntu repositories.
>>
>> Default Packages:
>> In my opinion there are few change to do on default installed packages,
>> simply because some application are not ready yet to be used, or in some
>> other case, very useful tool are not installed by default.
>>
>> Applications:
>>
>> Rekonq, is not ready yet and I cannot see any good reason to use a "not
>> ready yet software" as a default application, especially because we are
>> talking about the Default Tool to Access the Web, which is a 90% daily use
>> of computer for most of the people out there.
>> I know, there is an installer launcher of Firefox and it's really simple
>> to use, but in my opinion after hours of installation in some case, is
>> really disarming do another installation and write password , simply to
>> surfing the web in a  reasonable way, isn't ? I mean, there are few great
>> software out there, are open source, stable, powerful, already on
>> repository, every day more used......, why don't use one of it by default.
>> Are we sure the best solution is to propose a not ready yet software to do
>> the job ?, even because in my case it means to have any link clicked in
>> Thunderbird opened in Rekonq , even if I change the default browser on
>> system settings to use chromium (it seems to works just if is already
>> opened).
>>
>> Dragon Player, is a good player but maybe there are some other great
>> software like vlc already in repositories, which can gives to the users a
>> much more complete and powerful solution to play with multimedia contents,
>> and I'm pretty sure vlc is one of the first installation "extra" once
>> complete the Kubuntu one, for many users.
>>
>> Talking about Utility, there are few nice utility right on the repository
>> that could be installed by default, and for utility like Ksnapshot already
>> installed would be much better to use a launcher on some panel, where would
>> be nice as well to have some software to screencast the desktop, or even
>> nice tools and some time essentials (depending on your job type), like
>> Kruler, KcolorChooser, KCharSelect and so on..... I mean they are really
>> small and so essential tools in some cases that really makes the difference.
>>
>> We want talk about Yakuake ?, I think there isn't better way to always
>> have as much konsole instances as you need in a practice and nice way, and
>> for new people, would be the easiest way possible to access the konsole when
>> asking support on IRC and someone of us will say "..ok just pass those
>> commands on the konsole.." just pressing F12 in the default Yakuake
>> installation.
>>
>> Plasmoids:
>>
>> There are many good and useful plasmoids on repository, which can be very
>> handy to gives a much more complete idea of what actually can be done in
>> Plasma. Just to mention few of them Quick Access should be much more used on
>> default desktop in my opinion, pointing for example on Document, Images,
>> Videos, Music and Download folders, using few instances of it. Another
>> interesting plasmoid to show could be translatoid , which is a really useful
>> tool when multilanguage contents is your daily works. A calcuator, a
>> converter, and everything can gives a better ideas about what can be done in
>> plasma in a quick and easy way.
>>
>> Activities:
>>
>> Actitivities presets should be based only on application already installed
>> by default, and to have some basic example of content in some cases can be
>> much more comfortable to immediately understand the purpose of an activity.
>> Activities presets with example contents, can be used as well for a kind
>> of teaching purpose, well I guess some basic note or even few html pages to
>> explain something visualized in plasmoids like Web Browser, next to the
>> applications you want to teach opened with example already loaded, would be
>> easier for anyone willing to learn any kind of knowledge.
>>
>>  Functionality:
>>
>> I fill really comfortable with some "extra functionality" enabled like
>> rolling up and down a window just within the mouse wheel, can be very useful
>> if you used to work with a lot of opened tasks. Talking about buttons on the
>> window decorations I use a lot the button to "keep Above Others", and I'm
>> quite sure most of the new user not even knows it can be done, instead once
>> is there it's really easy to understand how and when to use it.
>> Another fancy and some time useful features that can be enabled by default
>> is the ability to change the transparency of a window just pressing ALT and
>> rolling the mouse wheel.
>>
>> I guess a second panel on the top of the screen can do most of the job I'm
>> talking about if well equipped with plasmoid and applications launcher, and
>> would be very easy to remove for the people don't like or don't need it, you
>> don't think so ?.
>> And if using Activities even the top panel (with plasmoids and launcher)
>> could be combined with opened applications and desktop plasmoids for any
>> Activities , would even be funny to create Activities to do tasks complete
>> of documentation, example and so on....., nicely managed with plasmoids in a
>> kind of "tematic top panel".
>>
>> To gives you an idea about how I'm used to work in Kubuntu, here an
>> example of my current desktop , which maybe is to much customized respect
>> the default one, but maybe something in between could be the right solution
>> for the default configuration of Kubuntu.
>>
>> Well, I think to be my first post on this mailing list I already wrote too
>> much, but hopefully I could make you understand why I consider so important
>> the first impact arriving on a completely new Operating System, especially
>> if the system we are talking about has a lot of great and useful features to
>> be showed.
>> I hope so because the current default settings of Kubuntu does not express
>> so much of the KDE + Ubuntu combination potentiality, like instead should be
>> in my opinion.
>>
>> I hope I haven't bored you, and that do you agree with some of my idea to
>> improve the first Kubuntu experience, and if so , we can talk about it as
>> deeply as we needs.
>>
>> Thanks for reading me, and much more for the amazing work you always did
>> keeping Kubuntu alive....
>>
>> Alex
>>
>>
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