Difference Between Automatix and EasyUbuntu (was Re: Newbie Wurkshop)

[Corey Burger]

On 11/14/06, rbil <rbil at shaw.ca> wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-14-11 at 13:27 -0500, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> > >> Please, lets keep seperate the issue of IRC and Automatix. The larger
> > >> issue at hand is actually third party repos. If creators of those
> > >> repos are not careful, and most of them are not, they can easily mess
> > >> up a system when it tries to upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu.
> > >>
> > Then IMO there should be some specific discussion on Ubuntu websites of
> > this issue.
> >
> > The fact is that people _do_ want to load stuff like the Microsoft web
> > fonts, win32codecs, decss, and other stuff that isn't on the core Ubuntu
> > (or Canonical) sites.
> >
> > I'm not impressed with Automatix as an installer, it certainly seems
> > needlessly redundant to someone using Adept (not to mention the fact
> > that it forces a lot of otherwise-unnecessary GNOME cruft onto Kubuntu
> > systems). But it's used, because it looks appealing and there is no
> > definitive information from the community with which to make an informed
> > choice.
> >
> > Searching for "plf", "easyubuntu", "win32codec" or "decss" on ubuntu.com
> > provides zero hits, not even a pointer to where to find other
> > information. (Searching for "win32" takes you to the certification
> > program, of all things!)
> >
> > >> For Feisty the dist-upgrader will try and work around some of these
> > >> situations, but not all of them can be done so. So please, consider
> > >> very wisely when you tell people to use any third party stuff. I say
> > >> use EasyUbuntu because of their devs are also MOTUs and thus have an
> > >> inside view of some of the breakage these third party repos have done
> > >>
> > This is very valuable information, if more people were aware of it
> > Automatix might never be used.
> >
> > When I used Mandriva the answer was easy to find and do; add PLF to your
> > repositories using the "easyurpmi" tool. I wasn't expecting the answer
> > to be so much fuzzier, and so much harder to find, in Ubuntu-land. Two
> > of the main solutions, EasyUbuntu and Automatix, are extra pieces of
> > software -- why do I need these just to find an appropriate repo?
> >
> > Can there not be a semi-definitive Wiki page somewhere regarding the
> > recommended contents of one's source.list file? To someone new to
> > Ubuntu, just figuring out to add "universe" and "multiverse" (and why to
> > do this for a newbie) is non-trivial. It would be nice for people to
> > know whether adding the Skype repo has been known to break any other
> > packages.
> >
> > It doesn't help that there is conflicting information on whether PLF
> > support for Ubuntu is current or not.
> > http://plf.zarb.org/ says it's down but
> > http://packages.freecontrib.org/plf/ looks quite alive
> >
> > How well-respected is the information at ubuntuguide.org?
> > How about http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/doc/plf ?
> >
> > Can you see why it's so easy to do the wrong thing?
> >
> > >
> > > Does EasyUbuntu use 3rd party repos, or does it just automate the process of installing things like codecs?
> > How can one separate the two? Since the restricted packages can't be
> > found on the official servers, _any_ system -- automated or manual --
> > for installing them must somehow point people at unofficial repos.
> >
> > If there was at least documented -- SOMEWHERE -- on the Ubuntu site
> > indicating things such as EasyUbuntu or freecontrib.org it would prevent
> > people from needing to Google the information -- and then finding
> > themselves open to every little idea of how to do things.
> >
> > - Evan
> >
> >
> Yeh, but your suggestion would be far too logical an approach. Better to
> intimidate users away from Automatix rather than make it easy to find
> the "correct" way to get some of these things installed.

Rene, I find your tone rude and insulting. There is a recognition that
there is a need for a better way. There is even a spec about it:
https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/common-customizations
It is a Feisty release goal.

Corey