PDF Editor in Ubuntu

[marc]

Dotan Cohen said:

>> Well, I've been around this route before and the regressions this time
>> are huge. I don't mind clearing up a mess once, but I'm not as
>> motivated to clear up the same mess a second time.
>>
>>
> I understand. In the future, when you come across another annoyance,
> bug, or missing feature, shoot me off a quick email so that I could
> reproduce it and I'll take it from there.

I appreciate the offer; I might take you up on it.

>> I'm not editing PDFs. I'm generating them.
>>
> Then use Open Office!

You'll just have to take my word for it that it's not up to the job for 
publishing. For writing, I can't think of a worse environment than a 
"word processor".

But your advice is interesting for other things.

>> I really can't believe what they've done to kde. It's criminal.
>>
> It's progress.

I'm getting boring on this, but I simply don't agree. Sure kde4 is 
improving within itself, but kde4 is such a huge, huge regression from 
kde3 that we'll have caught up, perhaps, in another two years. All that 
time wasted.

But the kde folk are not accepting criticism - all I hear is excuses - so 
there is every likelihood that they will do the same thing again.

> KDE 4.x has a lot of growing pains, but KDE 3.5.10 is
> still available. In fact, the KDE download page calls it the "more
> mature version":
> http://kde.org/download/

I have to work for a living. I can't spend week after week reloading my 
OS. I don't just email - hard at the best of times given the state of 
kmail - and browse; it takes a lot of time to configure a new machine.

I accept kde4 is "the future", but I'm going to hate myself if I spend 
time on it only for the kde folk to do this again. I guess that's my 
dilemma.

It's not what they've done or produced - although I remain very 
unimpressed with the changes - it's the clueless way in which they've 
done it.

>>> Things that you can do to help: * File bugs on existing Linux
>>> applications
>>
>> I do this very selectively now, since feedback has become very poor. It
>> takes time filing bugs, and gathering and collating the information.
>> Again, there is little motivation to do this if there is no feedback.
>>
>>
> While I agree about this for some projects, *buntu and Mozilla in
> particular, there are other projects that move bugs quickly, such as KDE
> and Zim. That's why I file KDE bugs!

I develop, I'm involved in some bleeding edge stuff, I know what a bug is 
and I know how to report one and work with devs to diagnose, but if 
there's no response, if things aren't being done, then there's no point. 
It's a waste of my time and, of course, I resent it.

>> Here's an example:
>>
>>  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-180/
>> +bug/313306
>>
>>
> Actually, for that bug it looks like they are doing what they can. I
> hate the "upstream" passing of responsibility, however, in the case we
> are talking about non-FOSS software.

Bah! It's marked incomplete, I've provided a stack of new, up to date 
info, and no-one has responded. This is something that has worked since 
badger and no longer works. 

I have another bug (marked incomplete) where I plead them to tell me what 
else they require, what I can run - I'll even write the tests - to 
progress the problem. Silence.

I'm not cynical, simply reacting to my experiences. This is a wholesale 
change in attitude and modus operandi from earlier versions of kde and it 
sucks.

-- 
Best,
Marc

"Change requires small steps."