Enabled repositories in default install

JDay dlist at ubuntuforums.org
Mon Jun 27 05:52:19 CDT 2005


I think it might be better to enable Universe (and perhaps multiverse)
by default. My reasoning.



Current situation:

A user double-clicks their mp3, the app comes up and gives a scary
error message. If the user doesn't give up on Ubuntu right there, they
might open their browser and google something like "how to play mp3s in
ubuntu". They will get lots of message board postings (which might be of
poor quality or out of date, ie: many guides for multimedia playback
instruct the user to install mplayer from source- probably not the best
option, especially for new users!) or the unoffical guide (which will
enable backports, uses primarily the commandline, etc). Hopefully the
user will end up with what they need, but they run a good chance of
botching their system and they may not really know what they're doing
or why.



How things could be:

A user double-clicks their mp3, the app comes up and gives a friendly
notification. "[filetype] is not currently supported. To enable
[filetype] support, install [package] using [program]." Maybe it could
even have a button to launch the package manager. The user locates the
package and chooses to install it. A notice pops up warning that the
package is unsupported and maybe gives some information on exactly what
this means. It asks the user if they're sure they wish to install it.
The user confirms and the package is installed. The user now has the
software that they needed, has been educated about unsupported
packages, and didn't even have to resort to google.


-- 
JDay



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