Automatix [WAS: Re: ubuntu-au Digest, Vol 22, Issue 1]

[Tom Schinckel]

Chris Jones wrote:
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 20:49:47 +1100
>>     
> From: Sridhar Dhanapalan <sridhar at dhanapalan.com>
> Subject: Automatix [WAS: Re: ubuntu-au Digest, Vol 22, Issue 1]
> To: ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com
> Message-ID: <200712052049.59946.sridhar at dhanapalan.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Please don't recommend Automatix. It is seriously broken in design and
> often 
> does more harm than good. More information at 
> http://mjg59.livejournal.com/77440.html 
>
>
>
>
>
> Sridar,
>
> It seems that you have a major problem with Automatix.
>
> Just because you don't like it, use it or support it, that's no reason
> for me to recommend it to other users.
>
> And that link you provided is crap!
> It proves nothing more than a bloke who is simply analyzing it to the
> last 0's and 1's and debunking Automatix.
>
> If I Googled the issue, I'd find just as many sites in support of
> Automatix.
>
> In fact, a recent poll on UbuntuForums.org showed that more people
> like/use Automatix than people that don't.
>
> Well guess what Sridar, Automatix is software. And software ain't
> perfect.
> I bet I could find x amount of problems with the Ubuntu OS itself if I
> analyzed it enough.
> I'm sure any advanced geek here would know that it isn't perfect and has
> many issues indeed.
> But it doesn't mean I shouldn't recommend Ubuntu to other users. Why,
> because (once again) software ain't perfect.
>
> Automatix is simply a third-party application which should be used with
> care. Just like ENVY, Synaptic, GParted etc. that has the ability to
> tinker with valuable pieces of the OS file structure.
>
> And Ubuntu Developers ARE NOW working in collaboration with the
> Automatix Team.
> Things might have been different prior to Gutsy. But that was then and
> this is now.
>
> Next time Sridar, get your facts right instead of blabbering out the
> usual crap.
>
>
>   
Automatix, among other things, spits on the rules about Ubuntu 
packaging. Not to mention that the developers are dicks who refuse to - 
wait for it - help people whose systems have been bricked thanks to it. 
They refuse to acknowledge anything wrong with.

Automatix was useful back a few versions ago - I even used it. But these 
days it's not much harder to use Synaptic, Gdebi, Restricted Drivers et 
al. So I really don't see the point.

Ignoring the technical reasons (and boy, there are technical reasons), 
you shouldn't use it on the basis that the devs refuse to help people 
when their software screws up  and that you can do just about everything 
else as easily by hand.