[ubuntu-za] USB devices (camera) in Edgy

[Morgan Collett]

> Phillip Pare wrote:
>> At least with MS windows one does not have to endure such pain to merely 
>> look at the pictures on your camera. If you are an ordinary non 
>> technical computer user, it is very unlikely that you would have 
>> discovered this solution. It is for this kind of reason that Windows is 
>> so powerful despite its insecurity and Microsoft's dubious marketing 
>> approaches.

In my experience, with Windows either things work or they have no hope
of working. I had to throw away a perfectly good USB memory card reader
recently on upgrading my wife's computer from Windows 2000 to Windows
XP. This device had no XP driver and was clearly considered obsolete on
the vendor's website, but worked like a dream in Windows 2000.

My father also got an upgrade to XP a while back, and could no longer
connect his camera to Windows, and again, there is no XP driver as it is
an old camera. It did work fine with Ubuntu, but because he chooses to
mainly use Windows, we had to use the workaround of buying a memory card
reader and reading the memory card instead of connecting the camera via
its cable.

I'm quite sure that Windows Vista will introduce a similar crop of
regressions - people will have to buy new PCs, new peripherals and new
software to handle Vista. (e.g.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2007/03/dear_bill_gates_again.html)

Because Windows is the dominant platform, vendors generally (but not
always) make sure their devices work in Windows. This is also due to
Microsoft's decades of "owning" the PC desktop.

Yes, it is very unlikely that a non technical computer user could
discover the solution to a problem like this, on either Windows or
Linux. However on Linux at least we have open source, open standards,
open file formats etc so *somebody* can delve deeper and figure it out.
And each user has the opportunity, though being exposed to (or having
access to) knowledge like this, to become more technically knowledgeable
and able to help others in turn.

Jonathan Hitchcock wrote:
> Thank you, Mr Troll.  Why are you subscribed to this list?

Jonathan, I can think of plenty of reasons why a person might subscribe
to this list - and it is not necessarily made clear anywhere what the
reasons are why a person should or should not subscribe to it.

I'm sure plenty of people are curious about Ubuntu but do not have the
experience yet to agree with the position we hold about Ubuntu's
superiority...

This would be a good opportunity to remind everyone on this list that
Ubuntu-ZA communications are governed by the Ubuntu Code of Conduct.
Everybody, please read http://www.ubuntu-za.org/Wiki/CodeOfConduct for a
reminder.

In particular, be respectful.

> Windows has its own problems, at least as serious as this one.  At least
> with Linux, there are resources such as this list that help you to solve
> the problems easily.  Next thing you know, a bug has been filed, the
> software has been patched, and nobody ever has this problem again.

Absolutely.

In fact, I'd like to encourage someone who has participated in solving
this problem to (a) log a bug in Launchpad, and (b) mention this
variation of the problem in the Ubuntuforums thread.

Regards,
Morgan