[ubuntu-uk] FWD: [[Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine]

[Tony Arnold]

Alan,

Alan Pope wrote:
> This mail popped up on the Hampshire LUG mailing list, and I thought other 
> Ubuntu people might be interested in the comments. 
> 
> I have already pointed out to Peter that his upgrade method (dapper -> 
> gutsy) was probably not optimal. I'm also concerned that the vendor is 
> talking about Windows in this way when selling Ubuntu kit.

Not to mention selling a machine with a default user name and password
already set up. That blows any idea that Ubuntu is secure right out of
the water!

Regards,
Tony.

> ----- Forwarded message from Peter Salisbury <peterthevicar at users.sourceforge.net> -----
> 
> From: Peter Salisbury <peterthevicar at users.sourceforge.net>
> To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List <hampshire at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:28:37 +0000
> Subject: [Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> After three weeks waiting for stock to come in, I finally took 
> delivery of a £139 Tesco machine with built in Ubuntu (actually they 
> gave me 10% off because the case was a bit dented so it ended up 
> costing just £126). Probably worth the money for the moment when they 
> said, "You do realise it doesn't have Windows?" so we could 
> reply, "That's exactly why we want it".
> 
> However...
> 
> I'm afraid it would probably not be a good first introduction to Linux 
> for its target audience. As it's the first PC I've bought as a 
> complete machine I was expecting a 'turn on and go' experience. 
> Trouble is that it comes without a monitor and it boots up with the 
> screen resolution set to 1600x1200, so both my (fairly new, fairly 
> good) LCD monitors complained 'Signal out of range' and gave a blank 
> screen. Of course I simply Ctrl-Alt-F1 and nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf 
> and took out the higher resolutions. Can't see a novice managing 
> that. Also can't see many people who are buying a £139 PC having a 
> 1600x1200 monitor lying around at home!
> 
> Once that was done it was straight to a login screen asking for a 
> username and password. Neither was in evidence in any of 
> the 'documentation' (one sheet offering support for £99 a year and 
> the motherboard booklet). Luckily we guessed it was esys/esys or it 
> would have been Ctrl-Alt-F1 time again! 
> 
> Another source of fun for the unwary would be the pretty-looking CD 
> with some DVD application software ..... for Windows!
> 
> That got us into Ubuntu Dapper, default mud brown with its rather 
> childish theme. OpenOffice was at 2.0, Firefox at 1.5 so I went for 
> an upgrade. NOT an easy process; I think it would have been quicker 
> just to download the install CD and start from scratch but I was 
> nervous about losing what I had working. I ended up using aptitude as 
> I found both the package managers (Adept and Synaptic) very 
> cumbersome in comparison. It took a lot of goes round the block and a 
> few dpkg -i of individually downloaded packages to upgrade to Gutsy. 
> There were two or three times where files had moved between packages 
> which often gets apt in a circular frenzy. I only had to reboot once 
> though!
> 
> Through all this I stuck with Gnome, thinking I'd eventually see the 
> point, but in the end I cracked and installed kubuntu-desktop. It 
> took four minutes over a wireless connection to download and 
> transformed Ubuntu into Kubuntu. Much more to my liking. I can't say 
> I think much of the Kubuntu replacement for kcontrol though - it 
> seems to be missing lots of the controls and doesn't seem to have 
> gained anything in the process.
> 
> Several things really impressed me:
> 
> 1) The PC is virtually silent - FAR quieter than the laser printer 
> next to it. It's got a huge circular Intel cooler on the CPU, the fan 
> hardly has to move.
> 2) The inside is well laid out with the cables attached to the case 
> with cable ties
> 3) It's really easy to get into the case (once you're removed the 
> annoying 'warranty void if...' sticker) and there's plenty of room 
> for expansion: 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 spare DDR 2 slot, one spare drive bay, 
> one spare CDROM bay, one empty FDD bay. There's SATA on the m/b but 
> no SATA power connector so you'd need an adapter. The on-board 
> graphics and sound are fine for office use.
> 4) The keyboard is very nice and has a bank of special keys for 
> volume, play/pause, start browser etc WHICH ALL WORKED! The mouse is 
> a nice enough optical job.
> 5) The wireless card worked immediately with a reasonably obvious GUI 
> to set the IP etc.
> 6) I was amazed when I plugged in our two USB printers and up popped a 
> message saying they'd been configured and installed. Things have 
> certainly moved on since I last started from scratch! Similarly our 
> Logitech Skype headset plugged in and worked; and two essential 
> Windows apps worked under wine so there was no need to arrange a dual 
> boot.
> 7) The Kubuntu theming and general look and feel are very well done, 
> with gtk apps like jpilot blending in much better than I've managed 
> on my Debian system.
> 9) But best of all of course, I bought a PC with Linux installed on 
> it. Still seems cool to me!
> 
> ATB, Peter
> 
> --
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> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
> 

-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold