Some Lubuntu feedback

[Nio Wiklund]

Hi Zeth,

You have some very interesting points in your letter. Thanks for sharing
tips and ideas :-)

I have answers and comments only to a few of them, I'm sure other people
with know about the other points.

Best regards
Nio

On 2013-06-27 14:53, Zeth wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I installed Lubuntu on some old computers and liked it so much I am
> using now on all my family’s computers, including brand new ones. 
> 
> Even on a new computer, I want my computer’s resources (and electricity)
> to be used on the programs I am actually using, rather than the GUI
> Shell which I only see 5% of the time or less.
> 
> I do not want to be another clichéd Unity hater and understand that
> Canonical needs to compete with Mac OS X and Windows 8 to reach the mass
> market, but personally I prefer the lightweight feel of Lubuntu and
> prefer the LXPanel menu over the Unity Launcher which always seems to be
> in my way.
> 
> I am also a parent and Lubuntu is easier to lock down for child use
> (there is less to remove to start with), and children seem to get quite
> confused by the Unity Dash overlaying the screen (and the automatic
> shopping results are not appropriate for children).
> 
> So I am a big fan of Lubuntu, and thought I should share some small
> criticisms in case it is helpful for the developers to get feedback.
> 
> 1. When you first install Lubuntu, you are presented with just blue
> background. You might want to consider some kind of welcome app? Or open
> the browser at a welcome HTML page? Indeed there is not a lot of inline
> help in general.

Yes, I have seen that in several distros, for example Linux Mint.

> 2. When you right click on the empty desktop, you get a second
> interpretation of the main menu which is a bit redundant and confusing.
> I was expecting a menu with options such as "change wallpaper" and "open
> desktop in file manager" etc.

Are you talking about 13.04? It is almost like what you want in Saucy
(13.10) alpha (but no 'open terminal').

> 3. In a fresh install, when you put a DVD in, nothing happens - no media
> player. When you open GNOME Mplayer, and ask it to play a DVD, it moans
> about finding nothing at /dev/dvd/ (probably because the system has
> mounted the DVD under /media).

I think this is because there are patents, that restrict what can be
delivered by default. But the rules are different for what the end user
can download. Linux Mint solved it with a button on the welcoming
screen. I think that is a good solution.

> I then installed VLC media player, now when I put in a DVD, it offers me
> VLC which then plays the DVD without complaining about mount points. So
> not now a problem for me since I prefer VLC anyway but you might need to
> look at the configuration a bit. If it can all work with VLC then surely
> it can with GNOME Mplayer?
> 
> 4. When you lock the screen or suspend, you get XScreenSaver, which does
> not fit with the look and feel of Lubuntu at all. Can this be skinned in
> the same theme as Lubuntu?
> 
> 5. The monitor settings tool lxrandr is rather limited, there is no way
> through the GUI to configure more than one monitor or an external
> projector. I installed arandr which solved that problem - perhaps arandr
> should be part of the default install?

Interesting!

> 6. The settings in general are quite a mess, and the default install of
> Lubuntu gives you duplicate menu entries for “Online Accounts” whatever
> that is (I have installed 13.04 on several machines and you always get two).
> 
> 7. ”System Tools” then “System Profiler and Benchmark” (hardinfo)
> doesn’t fully work. I have tried it on several computers and always the
> same results, you get a succession of three frozen pop up windows, which
> if you close the main window then eventually renders, some choices in
> the GUI will result in more of these frozen windows. Are you missing
> some dependencies?

This is a known bug for hardinfo. I have reported about it since 13.04
beta. It works correctly in the Openbox session of Lubuntu, so I think
there is some mismatch with LXDE.

> 8. I am not sure about the choice of Times New Roman as the default font
> but in general Abiword is fantastic. However, I do not like how the
> Lubuntu file manager is configured to interact with Abiword.
> 
> I opened Abiword, then I typed a document, then I clicked on File then
> Save, then I typed in a filename, then I pressed the Save button.
> Instead of saving the file I get a big red exclamation mark telling me
> to “Please select a folder below”.

I agree

> Having a 'Recently Used' tab is useful, having it as the default is the
> most annoying thing ever, especially when I have just installed the
> system and have not recently used anything. What is the point of the
> Windows-style default 'Documents' folder if it is not the default
> location for saving Documents?
> 
> 9. Gnumeric is also a nice program, and when you press Save without
> specifying a directory, it fortunately does not default to ‘Recently
> Used’ but just saves in the user’s top level home directory, slightly
> less annoying but why doesn’t it default to Documents?
> 
> 10. The Image viewer is not under Graphics which confused one of my
> family who was looking for a way to open an image. Also this program
> allows you to rotate or flip an image and then save that change, but
> does not allow you to crop the image.
> 
> It seems to be that the only way to crop an image on the Lubuntu default
> install is to use mtpaint. This is a slightly weird program and I am not
> sure who it is really aimed at. mtpaint is friendly for casual users who
> want to crop their photos but conversely it is not going to be used by
> any graphic artist. I would suggest something like Shotwell would be
> more useful in the default install.

I use gimp, which is easy enough to install, but has a learning curve.
Some people recommend gthumb. Feh is good for slideshows.

> 11. I am not really sure who Leafpad is aimed at. Non-technical users
> will use Abiword to type text while technical users will just install
> their favourite editor to get syntax highlighting etc.

I'm lazy enough to use Leafpad when in Lubuntu, but I used gedit, where
it is available.

> 12. Again I am not sure who Audacious is aimed at here, causal users
> will just open media files with the video player (GNOME Mplayer by
> default), people really into their digital music collection will
> probably have strong views and will install their own choice of music
> player.
> 
> 13. I mainly just used Firefox before I started using Lubuntu, one thing
> that is nice about Chromium is that on old hardware, when a site causes
> the browser to go slow, you can kill that one tab and things go back to
> normal, whereas on Firefox you need to kill the whole browser. Maybe my
> experience is atypical since I see from the other mailing list posts
> that Lubuntu has decided to move to Firefox. Not a big issue for me as I
> will install both anyway.
> 
> 14. Transmission is nice but is only associated with traditional torrent
> files, if you go to a magnet link, e.g. this one:
> http://magnet-uri.sourceforge.net/magnet-uri-example-no-js.html ) it
> does not open transmission until you configure it:
> http://askubuntu.com/a/133693 this could have been done by default.

Yes, this would be an improvement

> 15. I have not really used Sylpheed in anger yet but so far it seems
> nice. Pidgin is good, I actually prefer it over Empathy.
> 
> 16. Bundled games are not important, but if you are going to bundle
> games, they seem a bit over-focused on card games, what about, say, one
> of the chess games in the repositories or something?
> 
> 17. Sadly there is no presentation program by default. Does Lubuntu/LXDE
> already have plans in that direction?
> 
> [I have had a bit of a play at hacking on GNOME Ease, which is a nice
> simple presentation program (it is a small wrapper around Clutter which
> does all the work). GNOME Ease looks very pretty but requires older
> versions of the dependencies than are currently in Lubuntu/Ubuntu. I
> started to play with getting Ease to work with the current available
> dependencies but I’m wondering if it would be better to start from
> scratch in QT if that is the way the LXDE wind is blowing?]

I usually install Libre Office and get Impress.

> 18. Perhaps not the usual target machine for Lubuntu, but on a Retina
> display Macbook Pro in its full resolution, Lubuntu/LXDE looks a bit
> insane. You can increase the font sizes to readable size (e.g. 20px) but
> a lot of other things such as the taskbar and program menubars cannot be
> appropriately re-sized and just look very small indeed.
> 
> Anyway, thanks to the Lubuntu and LXDE developers for such a nice
> operating system, keep up the good work!
> 
> Best Wishes,
> Zeth
> 
> 
>