Removed Feature Impact Quality of Ubuntu

[Michael Haney]

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Mackenzie Morgan <macoafi at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 9:59 PM, Michael Haney <thezorch at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It was decided to let X.org auto-detect video hardware starting with
>> Ubuntu 7.10.  Unfortunately, the auto-detection procedure does not
>> always work correctly.  Some monitors are not Plug & Play, which is
>> needed for this to work properly.  The resulting problem that occurs
>> is one which I have had and struggled with for some time, which
>> eventually forced me to make a switch to different Linux distribution
>> just to correct the issue.  Getting Ubuntu to detect the correct video
>> card and getting the video card to work is not the problem.  Detection
>> of the monitor hardware and no longer being able to manually change
>> those settings is what is the problem.
>
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution -- in particular, see 4.2
>

This is not a Quality Assured solution but a temporary workaround.

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution directly targeting "newcomers to Linux"
and thus a solution that involves the Command Prompt isn't acceptable.
 The Command Prompt frightens "newcomers to Linux" because of all of
the anti-Linux propaganda that is out there about the myth of always
having to use the Command Prompt and dealing with its immense
complexities.

A GUI based solution to the monitor issue like what Ubuntu 7.04 had in
the Screen Resolution window's Hardware tab is what is required.  The
point is the Hardware tab should not have been removed and needs to be
restored.  That is my argument.  Its removal resulted in consequences
which were not properly explored.  Had a thorough study been done the
development community would not have removed it due to the chaos for
many users it would cause.

This seemingly insurmountable problem has resulted in these
"newcomers" to either abandon Ubuntu for another distribution that
does offer this feature, or God forbid, return to Windows.  Given
these facts the restoration of this feature should be made a high
priority as it is a clear Quality Assurance issue.  Failure to act on
this issue raises serious doubts about the effectiveness of the
Quality Assurance Team to ensure that Ubuntu is free of such problems.
 Prove that statement wrong and ensure that this problem gets
addressed.

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch at gmail.com