Making it easy - Automatic download and install

[Joe Crawford]

> I guess my knowledge of the licenses is a little foggy.  I don't quite
> understand why packages like blackdown and eclipse are not allowed to be in
> the universal tree?

I don't understand this either. I assume there is a good reason, I'm
sure its to do with legal liability.

But its no reason not to have excellent user friendly support of such
tools. If we create software that does what the user would have to do
to get it working, we've solved the problem!

> Installation of the nvidia driver has already been made trivial, though a
> single command is still necessary to enable it.  If someone would like to
> wrap this in a point-and-click GUI, that might be useful, but I can't say
> that I like the idea of cluttering the menu with it.  What is needed is a
> proper graphical configurator for X.
> 
> Our Xperts are hard at work on X.org, but there's certainly room for someone
> else to build such a thing if they have the necessary interest and skills.
> 
> Ubuntu already installs the kernel module by default.
> 
> --
>  - mdz
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
 
> Anyways, the point-and-click gui sounds like synaptic for the most part.  I
> don't know what you mean by proper, I believe synaptic is pretty good for
> what it does.  So I don't know what you had in mind as this X configuration
> tool.
 
This indicates that my idea is being looked at from wrong perspective.

Perhaps I can explain this better.

"Trivial" isn't the same as easy.

We are familiar with Linux. We are probably even familiar with Debian.
We know what synaptic is. We know a special video driver is required
for license reasons. We know that is why 3d accelerated programs run
slow on linux boxes that don't have that driver.

We also know that Java has restrictive licensing. We know some java
enables websites won't work unless we go to install in, an we realize
that we can probably go read a faq and find out how to do this.
(That's what I did!  :)

We are very aware of many of these issues.

The "beginner user"  however, does not. They don't know they are
mssing a driver for full 3d acceleration. They don't realize that
java's not working, and they assume firefox must not be goodenough to
see these sites. They assume the same when clicking "get flash" on a
webpage doesn't work.

All of such things immediately send signals to users that the system
they are using is inferior. I know this because I've installed linux
for friends, and if I don't set up all this stuff for them, I get tons
of complaints. Usually, I either fix it, or they go back to windows.

So going back to the nvidia driver. All the utilities in the world
won't make it easy. If the user isn't prompted during install, (or
once they've enter the gui) with a dialog box that says something
like:


#################
Install Nvidia Video Drivers?

The software necessary for your video card to run its fastest can be
automatically downloaded and installed for you.

It has restrictive licensing and is not open source like the rest of the system.

I will however make your system much faster displaying and working
with graphics, especially 3D graphics.

Would you like to automatically download and install this software?
#################

> > Installation of the nvidia driver has already been made trivial, though a
> > single command is still necessary to enable it.  If someone would like to
> > wrap this in a point-and-click GUI, that might be useful, but I can't say
> > that I like the idea of cluttering the menu with it.

The biggest advantage to a point and click menu or auto appearing text
based dialog box is that the user knows it exists. The command you
mentioned is useless to a new user unless they know about it. If we
can create something to tell the user about it, we can certainly
create something to do it for the user.



Now for the other things, an obvious first step is to get
java-sun-install like we have flash-install, and do the same for any
other programs that warrant it. I agree, that is a good start.

The big reason I am trying/wanting to help is that I want to make
Linux easy for everyone. I want my Mom to be able to install Linux!

Ubuntu is well on its way to being that good. The install was flawless
for me. I'd just like to make it even better! We want as much to work
"out of the box" as possible, without violating our promise to keep
the os free.


Sincerely,

Joe Crawford
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