Better Ubuntu

jorge's stompbox: Cutting through the noise about Unity

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:21:13 -0700

jorge's stompbox: Cutting through the noise about Unity:

Tonight I will concentrate on answering your questions about Unity on Ask Ubuntu. Questions will be answered based on the number of votes they receive and ones that I can answer.

Unity developers will be advising me best on how to answer your questions and we can continue to develop the answers…

Matrix Runs on Windows XP (via collegehumor)

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:58:42 -0700

Matrix Runs on Windows XP (via collegehumor)

... and we're live

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 10:10:01 -0700

The new UbuntuAsk looks awesome, and I can’t wait to install Maverick! I often go through the UbuntuAsk site looking for unanswered questions like I do on stack exchange, but the questions almost all have answers unless they are extremely complex or vague.

moreamysramblings:

castrojo:

Along with 10.10 here comes askubuntu.com. We’ve had a great beta where many experienced people participated and we had a nice standard of high quality answers and low noise. We’re experiencing a flood of new users and questions, so feel free to help out.

Remember people love to vote on answers with screenshots and easy to use instructions. Go get em!

Yay! I’m looking forward to answering more questions.

My new proposal for improving governance.

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:06:25 -0700

If this were the requirement for open source software. The only people who would use open source software would be rich, old, white, programmers. Ideas are not judged in a vacuum. The person giving the idea is judged long before the details of an idea can be considered.

The comments to Castrojo’s post have some great dialog on othering in the Ubuntu community.

castrojo:

I get a bunch of questions and mails from people who want to do great things. This is what I am recommending from now on:

Test your might!

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:22:08 -0700

castrojo:

Think you’re an Ubuntu pro? Here’s are some unanswered questions sorted by vote.

How do we get more developers?

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:11:49 -0700

castrojo:

Did you know that stackoverflow.com offers free advertising to open source projects?

Every project can always use some more new blood. And if you don’t think that’s a good enough reason, as of this writing here is a list of 344,881 other reasons.

Ok I promise not to blog about StackExchange anymore, until tomorrow anyway.

(More) Amy's Ramblings: Frustration...

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:10:48 -0700

(More) Amy's Ramblings: Frustration...:

moreamysramblings:

… about the fact that I have so many sources of information.

All these inboxes are getting crazy.

I’m trying to clean things up on Tumblr (never fear; if I’ve deleted you from my follows it’s because I’m pulling an RSS from your blog!!) and Google Reader (getting rid of things I don’t read,…

the2dblog: “The only Linux distribution that even imagine of coming close to windows is Ubuntu....

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 18:06:58 -0700

the2dblog:

“The only Linux distribution that even imagine of coming close to windows is Ubuntu. Shouldn’t all the other Linux distributions start supporting Ubuntu rather than competing with it?”

This is a common misconception about Free software. Just because two projects offer similar functions, does not mean they compete with each other. Ubuntu focuses on the Desktop. CentOS focuses on the server.

Both distros grow by the work of the other.

Banshee 1.7.5 Review in Ubuntu Maverick Beta | TuxArena

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 18:01:36 -0700

Banshee 1.7.5 Review in Ubuntu Maverick Beta | TuxArena:

Being actively developed, feature-rich, providing access to several useful Internet service and a pretty decent media library, Banshee has a pretty fair share of users, and it is definitely a powerful music player not be ignored.

jorge's stompbox: No need to complicate your life...

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:21:07 -0700

jorge's stompbox: No need to complicate your life...:

castrojo:

For some reason people always think that having seperate / and /home partitions is necessary to having a healthy Ubuntu system.

I don’t know why people keep recommending this but I am doing my best to spread the word that you don’t need to go through all that noise. If you don’t believe me you…

I have to disagree with Castrojo. I separate my home from root, and the benefits are awesome. I’ve had the same /home partition since I first installed Debian before Ubuntu existed. It’s been such a marvelous boon for my data integrity that I wish Ubuntu would do this by default for new users without even telling them about it. New users would do a reinstall of the latest Ubuntu and find all their files still there. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times I’ve formatted a Windows computer to have a customer ask, “So where are my files?” Even when I explain over and over that we are deleting everything and starting over. People don’t really grasp what that means until they sit down at their computer and realize what’s missing. Over time users forget what wasn’t installed by default.

Above the Law - Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent - NYTimes.com

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:17:44 -0700

Above the Law - Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent - NYTimes.com:

Microsoft is helping the Russian government suppress descent. Free software anyone?

Whither with Ubuntu?

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:06:01 -0700

Canonical Ltd. (Ubuntu’s company of origin) has yet to turn a single dollar in profit. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and main funder of Canonical and Ubuntu, stated in 2008 that the company would wait for the business to become profitable for another 3 to 5 years. We are currently approaching 2 years. If funding for Ubuntu is pulled would Ubuntu continue? Most likely. The biggest changes would be in the way it is developed and maintained. The development of Ubuntu would become far more a collaborative community effort, and the kinds of outrage we saw over the movement of window buttons would likely all but disappear. Another possible downfall would be the return of Linux to obscurity in the mindshare of the world’s populace. Before Ubuntu, most people had never even heard of Linux. Those who had heard something about Linux considered it incredibly nerdy, difficult to use, and something more for programmers and tinkerers than anyone else. Ubuntu has changed all of that.

Where is Ubuntu headed in the next 3 years? Will there still be a Canonical? Will all those wonderful Ubuntu designers be out of work? It’s been years since I considered the fate of Ubuntu. Unlike Debian foundation, at some point in the very near future Canonical is dependent on profit to continue.

Why Better Ubuntu?

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:00:00 -0700

Ubuntu is the world’s third most popular operating system. Thanks to Canonical and Mark Shuttleworth, user interface designers are finally having a major impact on the way GNU/Linux based computers interact with the user.

However, the open source community still hasn’t gotten behind end user testing with new users. Usability testing is the key to making a great interface better. While user testing has started to happen inside Canonical, we’ve yet to step forward in large numbers and participate.

Many bloggers have had their say about Ubuntu design decisions, but so far, very little hard data has been collected. Better Ubuntu was inspired by Better Desktop because it’s been defunct for nearly 4 years.

It’s amazing what can be learned from 3 or 4 novice users. I can’t wait to see what we can discover. If you have an interest in Ubuntu design and user testing, then you should follow me on Twitter.