Installing and newbies

[Neil Winchurst]

On Thu, 08 May 2008 11:34:05 -0300
Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:

> 
 Konqueror isn't the KDE file manager any more (personally, I think
> that's a crime, but it's a choice that the KDE developers - not Kubuntu -
> has made).

It is still the file manager for me.

 And the install CD _should_ be in sources.list by default.

Why is that? If I am going to install something I don't want the
version that is on the install CD because it might by now be out of
date. I want the version from the repositories. Or am I missing
something here?

  Yes, printers should be automatically discovered, but printer
manufacturers are _so_ bad about providing drivers that it's a
miracle _any_ of them work.

I commented on that because my printer is quite old and it was found
for me automatically when I installed Edgy eighteen months ago.
 
The kmix problem is similar - most soundcards > work out of the box,
but if manufacturer's won't properly support Linux,
> it's not Ubuntu's fault.

There has been some comment on the list recently about sound not
working after an install, so it's not just me.

> > 
> > The following programs were not included with the install so I added
> > them afterwards :-
> > 
> > firefox, thunderbird, opera, gnucash, kedit, kdf, mysql, gimp, Sun
> > java, flash.
> 
> Not a single one of those _belongs_ in a default install.  Konqueror is
> KDE's browser, Kontact is it's PIM, kedit is a crippled little brother of
> kate, mysql is a full-scale RDB (how many _geeks_ even need one of those),
> java _wasn't_ free (iirc, it is now, but still may not be redistributable
> from Canonical servers), gimp isn't even a KDE app, and flash is just evil. 
> kdf has _some_ value, but I'm still not sure it belongs in the default
> install.  I use it rarely.
> > 
Well we will just have to disagree here. I never use konqueror as a
browser only as a file manager, nor kontact nor kmail. For me Firefox
and Tbird should be default installs and most certainly the Gimp. It
may not be a KDE app but it's the best we have for working with
images. As for kedit and kate, I use them both.

Java *is* included in the repos and it installed very easily. I know
that lots don't agree with using flash, but I don't mind. Firefox
offered to install it, I accepted, and it was done, literally, in
seconds.
 
> > And the point of all this? Well, after my experience with Edgy and, in
> > all, six years using Linux all the above was simple. But for someone
> > new to Linux I think they would need some hand-holding to get
> > started. I still feel that more needs to be done to get newcomers to
> > feel confident with Linux.
> 
> And, as always, I insist that's true of Windows too.  How many people
> install and configure Windows themselves?  They either buy it with Windows
> installed (and often never even add a single program) or their corporate IT
> guys configure Windows.  If you bought a system with Linux installed,
> things like the bundled printer, the wireless and the sound would all be
> working.
> -- 
As I mentioned in one of my other replies to my email, we are so
lucky to have choices in what we use, and all for free. And we have
the freedom to go our own ways so easily. Great.

Neil Winchurst