Newbie and using Ubuntu

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sat, Oct 02, 2004 at 07:39:15PM -0400, Richard Schinnell wrote:

> There has to be a better way to figure out and recommend solutions to new 
> Linux (Ubuntu) users problems.

In an ideal world, you would be able to solve all of your problems through
the GUI.  New tools are being written and enhanced all the time to move
toward this goal, but there is still a Linux system underneath it all, and
when the time comes to debug a problem, it's very useful to be able to peek
under the hood.

Ubuntu is in what is essentially a public beta period right now, and there
are still some significant bugs being worked out.  Debugging things with
users who are familiar with the command line accelerates this process, and
gets us more quickly to the point where everything Just Works for all users.
That accounts for a lot of the command-line traffic you see here.

Yet another segment of it is just Linux users helping one another.  If a
user has past experience with Linux, they likely already have command-line
skills, and welcome answers in that form.

This doesn't mean that if you are a stranger to the command line, then
Ubuntu is not for you.  Quite the contrary, we are working hard to bring
Ubuntu to a broad audience of computer users, including those without Linux
experience.  But if you have Linux experience, that's a useful language in
which to converse about Ubuntu.

> I have problems getting a printer installed on my stand alone Ubuntu 
> machine.
> I have a windows 2003 network with a few XP workstations and a couple of 
> Linksys print servers for a HP LJ 4000 and a HPLJ 3330.
> I have shared the printers on a couple of workstations and even did it on 
> the server.  I know the ip of the print servers but can not get either to 
> print a test page.

What happens when you try?

> Maybe Linux and the graphics interface still has a way to go to be able to 
> bring  the unwashed and unworthy into the Linux fold.

We've only just begun. :-)

-- 
 - mdz