[Ubuntu-US-CA] Tablets!

[Grant Bowman]

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 9:45 AM, Ronald McCollam
<ronald.mccollam at canonical.com> wrote:
> Hello, Grant!
>
> On Fri, 2011-03-25 at 13:13 -0700, Grant Bowman wrote:
>
>> >> Wiki pages or some similar system that accepts submitted contributions
>> >> might be a great way to harness the efforts people are making on their
>> >> own as they start to use some of the new tablets coming to market now.
>> >> I also find key compatibility information tied to specific hardware
>> >> models invaluable when trying to make purchase recommendations or
>> >> decisions. With an organized effort I bet our community could be seen
>> >> to significantly contribute to the quickly expanding tablet community.
>> >> As hardware changes so quickly one of the only reasonable way to
>> >> provide this is with some kind of crowd sourced system. One hurdle
>> >> will be to verify submitted information but if there is a critical
>> >> mass of contributors and some kind of rating system this shouldn't be
>> >> too difficult in theory.
>
>> I don't think that system has the capabilities or value to end users
>> that I tried to describe. What I am hoping is that end users would be
>> enabled to help each other, providing validation of what works and
>> what doesn't for their particular combination of hardware, kernel
>> modules and software. Reporting bugs or harnessing testing was not my
>> intended user base. In thinking about this a bit more it might make
>> more sense to work with the launchpad team to see if features could be
>> added, extending their work to provide a delightful result for less
>> experienced end users.
>
> It sounds a lot like a page in the Ubuntu wiki might be the right place
> for what you're thinking of.  Why don't you create one and add what you
> can and advertise it here?  That way people can start collaborating! :)
>
> An example that might be a good thing to copy as a start might be this:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Laptop
>
> What do you think?
>
>  - rm

Hi Ronald,

Greetings from one of the Global Jams in California!

Purchase recommendations are a key goal unlike the
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Laptop which has a mission of "We're
on a mission to get Ubuntu to work great on as many different makes
and models of laptops as possible." I think this is targeting the
collective wisdom captured in user reports and bugs of actual results
and satisfaction of the combined solutions.

I will update https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Tablet to outline this
idea as it evolves. The devil will be in the details of implementing
the UI and database storage.

For the front end a suggestion from Jono is to create a Unity Lens.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses  This would be a fantastic
addition for people already running Ubuntu. An additional website
front end to the database will be required for those not running
Ubuntu yet, one of the key use cases for this to be useful to end
users. For older systems a link from the
System...Administration...System Monitor of the gnome-control-panel
might be useful.

A good example lens is the packaged askubuntu lens [1] though I think
it is an insufficient data source for implementing all that I have in
mind. Extending launchpad would allow relevant bug reports with
valuable fixes and work arounds to be easily found and implemented by
those most in need of them.

For the database back end something with structured submissions like
those coming from checkbox going into http://hwdb.ubuntu.com/ each day
but with a better UI might be a good data set for technical details.
For any community member trying to do an install or considering
whether to buy a piece of hardware the matrix of several factors are
required to pinpoint successes or failures that are repeatable:

a) hardware - hopefully data pulled directly from the hardware
b) kernel & drivers loaded
c) software used, sometimes with configuration data

If all the ways that someone can run Ubuntu and Unity could be kept
updated from various sources, perhaps initially captured in manual
wiki pages, I think that users and developers would be well served and
can easily find hardware to run this fantastic new touch software.

Grant Bowman
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grantbow


[1] http://askubuntu.com/questions/31712/how-do-i-install-the-ask-ubuntu-unity-lens-and-how-do-i-use-it