[ale] weird mouse problem

[Jim Lynch]

On 09/09/2010 01:51 PM, Brian Pitts wrote:
> On 09/09/2010 01:11 PM, Jim Lynch wrote:
>    
>> Not even that.  Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't display video out of the box
>> without installing codecs that a novice user would have no idea about.
>> No reasonable documentation either.
>>      
> If you tried to play a video that there are codecs packaged for in
> Ubuntu, and you weren't automatically prompted to install the codes when
> you opened the video in Totem (GNOME's movie player), please file a bug. [0]
>    
In one case, it did prompt me to install the codec but it didn't work, 
it's been too long since so I can't recall the details.  It either 
couldn't find the codec, failed to install for some reason or even after 
the codec was installed, it still didn't work.  I
> If you don't think the documentation available through the Help entry
> under the System menu (or online [1]) isn't good enough, you can file a
> bug about that too [2] (or even join the documentation team [3] if
> you're ambitious).
>    
A novice user can't even define codec,  much less know to look in the 
docs for the answers, especially when his experience with the "other" 
system didn't require anything special, it just worked.

Don't get me wrong, I've been running Linux since 0.12 kernel in '91 and 
am 100% behind it.  I've been working on computers since the mid '60s 
and if I get frustrated sometimes, think what a first time user of Linux 
might think.  A year ago I thought Linux was ready for the desktop, but 
since then I've attempted Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Centos desktop installs 
where things just didn't work well.  In some cases I was able to work 
around or fix the problem, in the case of Kubuntu, I filed a bug which 
is still being looked at an prevents me from logging in with no workaround.

> I know it can be annoying to hear someone say "it should work, file a
> bug", but if the technical users take a few minutes to do this then the
> experience should get better for the novice users.
>    
I'm somewhat guilty of that, it's true.
> [0] https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-codec-install
> [1] https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/musicvideophotos/C/video-playback.html
> [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-docs/
> [3] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam
>
>