Monday, July 26, 2010

Re: [LINUX_Newbies] Re: Casual usability test

 

On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 07:17:05PM +0200, J wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 12:54, Scott <scottro@nyc.rr.com> wrote:
>
> > Good points Jeff--in the early morning, I accidently deleted your email,
>
> > It isn't the lack of codecs begin available out of the box that I
> > consider a really weak point. Ubuntu's manner of handling it is
> > excellent, saying you need these, they're not free, do you want to do
> > it. If it actually worked after doing it, it would, of course, be
> > better, but as you mention, the whole pesky legal thing probably makes
> > it necessary to use totem instead of mplayer or vlc.
>
> Not sure what you mean by "if it actually worked after doing it".

As I think I mentioned, I got no sound with a Quicktime file until after
I removed totem and installed gecko-mediaplugin.

>
> > I actually consider the printer issue to be more serious. The
> > theoretical LCD user sees that their printer is installed with a driver.
>
> Printer drivers != Scanner drivers. In Linux, these multi-function
> devices are not treated as a single device. Your Printer/Scanner is
> actually considered a Printer and a Scanner, and require two different
> drivers. I do agree with you though, that scanner drivers are
> seriously lacking. Scanner support has come a long way, but still has
> far to go, whereas printers do generally work at least as basic
> ghostscript/postscript devices.

Well, all of the scanners I have had--all 2 of them, work well enough
for me. The issue here, more important for Ubuntu, which wants to be a
reasonable substitute for Windows, is that this LCD user WILL consider
them the same thing. It's not even ignorance, per se, it's the fact
that in proprietary O/S's it's a single device that does two things, and
instaling a driver for it enables both of these things to work.
Especially as hplip, (although presently apparently broken in Fedora,
but in Ubuntu at least), does a perfectly good job of installing the
entire device--that is, use it instead of the printer dialog, and you
can both print and scan.

>
> My advice to you is buy hardware that works ;-P

Hrrm, I must not have been clear here. My point isn't that the scanner
won't work--it works without issue. My point is that said LCD user
installs their printer which happens easily. They think great, this
Linux stuff works. Then they try to scan. It doesn't work. Fixed with
a quick google, but it's the sort of thing they might not realize, and
then judge Ubuntu, and of course, it's redneck QA people, to be of poor
quality.

Whereas, if they use the tools in PCLinuxOS, they get a message--if you
have an HP printer, don't use this, use this other tool called whatever
they call it. (Different GUI menu, IIRC). Then their device--the
entire device works, and they think, ah that is a good thing.

Hopefully this is clear now, sorry for the misunderstanding.

>
>
> Now to print out my transit vouchers so I can get back to the airport
> Wed Morning...

Getting to the airport on time is overrated.

--
Scott Robbins
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Willow: Well, in a way he sort of is...in the way of that he's right
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