Project Ubuntu: Report #2 - Bumps in the Road

So it seems our intrepid explorer, who I'll start calling "Max," spent the first full week of Project Ubuntu hobbled by software glitches.

In last week's episode, we learned that the system upgrades Max undertook to be able to listen to his music collection killed off his sound playback entirely.

The root of the issue turns out to be that because of legal restrictions, Ubuntu can't play common media formats out of the box. Max and I didn't know this starting out; if we had, we could have avoided the situation entirely by installing a third-party freeware player like VLC media player.

As it was, it seems like there was a conflict between the Ubuntu installation that came with the laptop, courtesy of Dell, and the device drivers Max downloaded in the course of trying to solve his music playback issue.

I asked Max to leave the laptop with me, and I resolved the issue, but I'm not sure how. I found some reports of Max's issue and attempted a fix other people had tried. The fix was only partially successful, but when, in a semi-desperate moment, I had the system perform another upgrade, the sound suddently started working again. Maybe the partial fix was enough, maybe today's kernel fixed the bug at the root of the problem. I just don't know.

In the end, it seems, all is well, but Max lost a lot of time to the issue, which was not one of the goals of this enterprise. And it took about an hour away from a technology support specialist and his knowledge of Linux, such as it is, to resolve.

I had known that for all its virtues, Ubuntu lacks the seamlessness of, say, Mac OSX, and I suppose that'll be out of reach for a while in the jumble of hardware and software from so many different sources.

Project Ubuntu: Report #1 - 48 hours

Here's the first field report from our intrepid Ubuntu explorer:

I immediately tried to import all of my files from my zip drive onto the computer, as soon as o put the zip drive in the computer recognized the extra drive and I moved my documents to the desktop. My music mp3 files however did not work on the new ubuntu system. I connected the wireless network at the loop lofts and played music on youtube to ensure that media played, which it did. So the volume was audible, however the new computer was unable to play my music files.

I decided to update the computer and ubuntu recommended over 800 updates most of which were language translation tools I did not need. The interface did not have a fast way to only install the tools I wanted, so I had to unclick all of the tools I did not need and then press install list, in the end I installed 225 items, and it took about an hour.

After the new updates however, the volume stopped working and when I tried to open up the volume control, a pop up appeared notifying me that the gstreamer volume device and or plugin was missing. I looked for the plugin online and on the ubuntu website, but I couldn't find a credible enough location to download from. So I called the 1800 number and the associate directed me to the terminal where we searched for the missing gstreamer volume plugin, the terminal could not find it, which was weird because the volume was definitely working earlier when I was listening to youtube. The associate then advised me to re install ubuntu using the cd package, I am currently in the process of completing that task.

The organization of the ubuntu is actually much more succinct than both Macintosh and windows. The security options are more extending as well. I also like the fact that ubuntu brings a lot of the best savvy addons and plugins right to the desktop right with the add/erase applications bar.

Ubuntu has a lot more applications for database storage and web development which especially excites me, and specifically the control the user has is either greater tan the control on a pc or much more transparent. For example I changed the size of the cursor from average size to biggest in a matter of seconds, I have never experienced that degree of control on other computers. The computer is really nice, just seems as if this particular one did not have ubuntu installed on it properly at buildup, but I'll reprogram it afresh and give it another try.

The run option that is available on windows the start menu is not available on ubuntu.
Nothing I have used this far works less efficiently than it would on windows but as I begin to work more with open office and programming capabilities of the computer through jedit and gedit I am sure I will see more discrepancies.

Project Ubuntu is Afoot!

An enterprising young TRiO student has agreed to undertake a run of using a laptop running Ubuntu to meet all his computing needs for the next six months.

I'll be getting regular reports on the qustionnaire below, weekly at first and then monthly, and will post them here:

1. What new tasks did you try to perform with the Ubuntu laptop this week/month, and what was the outcome? Please give as much in the way of detail as possible along the following lines

a) Description of Task
b) Comments on the experience, outcome, issues that arose

2a. What, if anything, has worked better than on a Windows PC?

2b. Have you discovered any capabilities you never experienced on a Windows PC?

3a. What, if anything, works less well than on a Windows PC?

3b. Have you discovered any capabilities you are used to on a Windows PC that are unavailable on Ubuntu?