Some Lubuntu feedback

Thu Jun 27 13:39:52 UTC 2013

I will give my opinion about some:

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 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?

> You can also give a try on SMplayer...

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?

> XScreenSaver is gonna be replaced by an "LX app" on next releases...

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?

> I use external projector frequently, the option of activating and
deactivating the VGA output on notebooks is released when you have the
equipment linked to it. It's quite simple options, resolution and
frequency. There's no config. but clone the view, but works!

... about the imagem programs, they might also be changed in a near future.
For editing, I guess you might also want to give a try on fotoxx 13.06
(there is an onlder version on repos) and pinta.

Comparing to MS softwares, Abiword is compared to MSWord, and leafpad
compared to notepad.

2013/6/27 Zeth <theology at gmail.com>

> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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 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?
>
> 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?
>
> 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”.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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?]
>
> 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
>
>
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