USB Thumb Drive and SD Card mounting problems

[Fred Ringwald]

Happy New Year,

I recently abandoned Debian after supporting it for > 10 years because 
of multiple challenges.  I chose Ubuntu Studio based on several 
encouraging factors.  I installed using the following image:

ubuntustudio-10.10-alternate-amd64.iso

Everything has been positive since the install about six weeks ago, 
except that the installation default didn't enable usb-storage, and I 
can't seem to make this install recognize and mount a thumb drive.

So, after exhausting all the options that worked and sometimes "just 
worked" in debian, I am now groveling and asking for help.

First, what is different, and what do I need to do to get thumb drives, 
SD cards, etc, to automount using ubuntu studio, and,

Second, why is the default installation to not enable this feature?

Please respond to me at:  fred at ringwald.org rather than on the list.

Thank you,

Fred Ringwald
fred at ringwald.org