[ubuntu-uk] What do non-techies like the most about Ubuntu?

[Matthew Macdonald-Wallace]

Quoting Alan Pope <alan at popey.com>:

> Hi Matthew,
>
> On Wed, May 16, 2007 at 07:26:14AM +0100, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace wrote:
>> I realise that this isn't personal, so I'll jump in with my thoughts
>> again... ;)
>>
>
> Phew. I realised that someone could take my last mail badly if they read it
> before having their first food/coffee/cigarette/brandy of the day. :)

LOL, Unfortunately the canteen doesn't open for a grease-fest until  
9:30 here - and I've been on shift since 6!

>
>> produce a fix, I'm told that I'm not allowed to deploy it because it
>> hasn't been tested.
>>
>
> Good point. I wonder if those in power would have the same attitude if it
> were *their* PC that was exhibiting the problem ;)

Obviously, No. :o)  I was told the other day "If any computer comes in  
with non company-standard software, especially iTunes or any other  
'file sharing and downloading' software, it is to be removed.  No  
exceptions." I asked if this applied to the I.T Director and the head  
of Finance and was effectively (but politely) told that if I removed  
any "non-standard" software from either of those machines I would  
probably collect my P45 the next day.

>> 4) Clear your temporary internet files
>>
>
> Oooh, good one, I'd forgotten that chestnut!
>
>> Google simply do not work.  An example of this is the current issue I
>> and about 20,000 other across the globe have encountered with SVCHost
>> causing the CPU to run at 100%.
>
> o/ Me included. One of my customers provides me with a Windows laptop to
> remotely administer their system. I booted up on Monday after a week away
> from work and did exactly what you said. I walked away and it was fine a
> couple of hours later after the updates had applied and it had rebooted
> itself.

Where did you find that patch? I need it!!! :)

>
>> By contrast, in Edgy I was frequently receiving an error with
>> Gnome-Settings-Demon failing to start and hogging my CPU on startup.
>> I found on the Ubuntu forums the fix: apt-get update/upgrade and it
>> started working immediately.
>>
>
> Of course Linux isn't perfect, there are times Linux and Ubuntu apps break
> and there may be some difficulty getting them fixed. One big difference (to
> get back on topic ;) ) between Linux and Windows I find is accessibility of
> the developers.
>
> I can go online and via irc can contact one of a number of developers
> personally (if they don't mind), if I report bugs or contact a mailing list
> often the developers themselves respond. I contrast this with the Windows
> world where I find many armchair experts voicing their opinion of problems,
> but I rarely stumble upon a developer.

Agreed - and how frustrating is that?!

> Last week I attended UDS which was (as the name suggests - Ubuntu Developer
> Summit) a developer overload. Over a hundred Ubuntu (and upstream)
> developers in one place! There were a few occasions where I asked someone
> "who'd be the best person to help me with XYZ?". I got passed to a couple of
> people and very quickly (like within a minute or two) I was sat down talking
> to someone who could really help me. Does that exist in the Windows world?

Not that I know of, and I think that the time it takes to fix  
something is often another issues that a lot of Users have with  
Windows - why release all your fixes once a month, why not when  
they're ready?

Anyway, enough ranting from me, I'd better do some work... :(

Cheers,

Matt (desperately trying to persuade his boss to let him install  
Ubuntu at work...)
-- 
Matthew Macdonald-Wallace
Group Co-Ordinator
Thanet Linux User Group
http://www.thanet.lug.org.uk/
matthew at truthisfreedom.org.uk
GPG KEY: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xFEA1BC16