Ubuntu users in Ontario, Canada?
geo
yaktur at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 24 12:49:02 UTC 2008
Consider the frustration:
The manual is 52 pages long, and in the manual it says to read it completely before commencing installtion - I've already been wasting days on trying to figure out software (human-made software, created by humans) which is in a language which makes no sense at all. It seems as if it's deliberately over-complicated.
Even last night, I blew 2 hours just catching up on these computer e-mails and trying to mess with Joomla - and at the end of the day it's still just a puddle of bits and bytes on my hard drive - and it still doesn't work. :(
I'm even wasting time at work now catching up on this stuff. I come in early so I can read and respond - yet the software will still not even install.
My wife doesn't understand why this takes so long and she waits for me very patiently for these weeks I've been trying to get straight answers in English and just set up something so they can use it at the farm too.
For all of the so-called "advancement" it still seems hopelessly backwards and overly-complicated, making people work even harder when it's supposed to help people work smarter. Ubuntu as a computer environment is good and the family likes it!! It's swift, speedy and runs better than Windows anyday!
But I'm not impressed with this website PHP, htaccess, MySQL, Joomla and other stuff........and there really ought to be a better way for "Open Source" stuff to work so regular people can use it to be productive and not have to take a university course in this stuff just to even understand the manual.
The bottom line? I still can't get Joomla to install - and I don't have hours and $$ to blow on this. I just need it to work right the first time when I run the installer - but the installer won't even run. How good can that be? Imagine!
--- On Mon, 6/23/08, "Stéphane S. Somé" <stephanesome at googlemail.com> wrote:
From: "Stéphane S. Somé" <stephanesome at googlemail.com>
Subject: Re: Ubuntu users in Ontario, Canada?
To: yaktur at yahoo.com, "The Canadian Ubuntu Users Community" <ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com>
Date: Monday, June 23, 2008, 11:20 PM
Did you have a look at the install manual ?
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/docman/?subdir=1
geo wrote:
> I don't have a "search" in my toolbar in Ubuntu so I'm
not sure what
> that refers to.
>
> I did go to the Joomla website and download the installer, un-ZIP it
> and then......when I double-click on INSTALL.php, Firefox opens it.
>
> And re-opens, and re-reopens......in other words, it doesn't install -
> it just wastes my time.
>
> I don't mind books - in fact I prefer books - I'm very much a
> book-hound! I have an old british history book from 1704 and when the
> Antique Roadshow hit Toronto back in 98, they verified it's
> authenticity for me!
>
> But these days I have no money.....after feeding the kids, paying the
> mortgage, the bills, insurance, gas, etc.....you know.....and our
> local library has diddly-squat on computers.
>
> So when I ask on the https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu website, the
> majority of my answers come back from hard-core users, or maybe worse
> - programmers! Not very useful, sadly.
>
> I don't get paid unless I produce - and I don't have the luxury of
> money or time to be able to afford to go to courses or buy books on
> this stuff. Heck, just being able to afford gas these days is a
> challenge enough!
>
> Is it too much to ask to get answers that are good for "regular"
folks
> or professionals? I'm never going to learn all of this configuration
> language, I just need it to work so I can set it up over at the farm
> for the mushroom business as well as for my own personal stuff hosted
> from my computer at home.
>
> Thanks,
> geo
>
>
> Hi:
>
> You don't have to go through the whole Synaptic list, in the tool
bar is
> "search", then you type in Joomla, and if you had updated
the list
> with
> "reload", then you might find things in minutes. It will do
a
> search
> for
> what you are looking for. I'm not sure what Joomla is, and
don't have
> the time right now to find out!
>
> There is quite a bit of stuff there in the Synaptic List, but it is
> Categorized too, so scroll down the list of Categories, and then the
> list is not so big. If you use the "ALL" list, it is Very
Big!
>
> Things can get broken when you start to install stuff, from outside
the
> "list".
>
> I used to be a Windblows person too, but now I don't use Winders
any
> more! There was always too much pressure to buy a new computer every
> week, or a new operating system, when the next version of a game
> demanded it! There were always all kinds of Mal-ware inserted, and
> Vulnerabilities that were not patched fast enough. Always all kinds of
> Panic Attacks about the New Virus, starting up. A new computer would
> start acting very slow, very fast with all the Patches on top of
Patches
> on top of Patches, on top of
> Patches. You don't want Linux to be like
> that do you? ;-)
>
> There are a few Good Books you can get on Ubuntu, and even quite a
list
> of Tutorial Web sites, if Books are not you Cuppa tea.
>
> Alfred!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: geo <yaktur at yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: yaktur at yahoo.com, The Canadian Ubuntu Users Community
> <ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com>
> To: Mark W. Law <bear at wightman.ca>
> Cc: ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> Subject: Re: Ubuntu users in Ontario, Canada?
> Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:52:08 -0700 (PDT)
> Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.199
>
> Hi
>
> I finally found something on how to install Joomla. But it only
confirms
> my problem.
>
> I do have PHP5 and MySql installed (by the Synaptic.....by golly
there's
> too much to choose from, this list should be pared down for us
non-Linux
> folk! It's WAY too much useless information to pick and guess
through).
>
> I've restarted the
> computer to make sure whatever got installed would be
> "done" - typical Windows thing but what else can you do!
>
> I still cannot install Joomla, I still get the same repetition of what
> to do with PHP files, open with Firefox or Save to disk. I click Open
> and it just repeats.
>
> How come these things aren't geared for ex-Windows users?
Don't the
> people at Ubuntu realize that by putting Ubuntu on Dell computers,
this
> invites a whole community of non-Linux people to the software which is
> so stupefyingly complex to comprehend.
>
> I'm not an uneducated person - I have a degree in electronics
> engineering - but my knowledge is in electronics hardware - not in
> software at all. I never touch software in my work an an engineer, but
> I'm a hardware specialist, particularly in Analog electronics
design,
> but not simulated Analog circuits in software - the old fashioned way,
> even in my head is the best way. I have my own
> home lab too.
>
> So you can imagine how frustrating this makes me feel. And insulted.
> Imagine an average high-school educated person trying all of this out,
> what their experience would be like! They would never touch Linux
again.
>
> But sadly nobody listens, even on the Ubuntu forum
> answers.launchpad.net, it seems to be geared towards a
> computer-programmer culture which is a HUGE drawback and will
definitely
> prevent the successful spread of Linux.
>
> This kind of stuff has to be ported successfully - away from the
> influence of Linux culture and enthusiasts - so professionals and
> regular folk who aren't programmers, and who simply don't have
the
> knowledge or time to spend on learning this stuff can still make good
> use of it at home or at work. The computer is supposed to do the work
> after all but some of this software makes you wonder what you bought a
> microprocessor for.
>
> I've been using Ubuntu for
> over a year now. But there are times when I
> get so frustrated and tired of this programming lingo that I just want
> to give it up and go back to Windows (or preferably Mac).
>
> Enough said on that....
>
> I still can't make any use at all of this Joomla stuff and
certainly
> from my experience on the launchpad forum, any attempt to even
> understand what "htacess" is all about, well that's just
for
> people who
> live and breathe computers - I'm just trying to use mine and
simply
> don't have the time to turn it into an on-going lab experiment.
The kids
> use it, my wife uses it - it can't be turned into an on-going
> experiment.
>
> What am I supposed to do? Please advise? I still need a usable
solution
> but something that is aimed at "more stupid" people who come
from a
> Windows or Mac environment, something that will let me get the job
done
> - configure the computer properly without guesswork, and not waste my
> time on
> stuff that should already have been done by the software.
>
> Thanks,
> geo
>
>
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