[ale] AARG! Manual software updates, Sun Java, LibreOffice, help

[Ron Frazier]

Followup. Warning ... ranting follows.

<rant on>

<jumping up and down on the table>
<screaming things that cannot be printed or said in mixed company>
<throwing any non essential breakable objects against the wall>

These are things I'm seriously tempted to be doing. But, in reality, I 
may just go get some unhealthy food that involves lots of sugar or lots 
of carbohydrates.

It seems that there are no longer any Sun Java packages in any PPA's 
that are current or will be updated. Apparently due to some licensing 
garbage or something.

I just finished spending an hour reading through a 14 PAGE printed howto 
document telling me how to uninstall old Sun Java from Ubuntu and 
reinstall the new version and how to do the same thing EVERY time there 
is an update. ( If you're interested, here's the procedure: 
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/java ) While I 
appreciate the publisher of the web page making this available, my 
general response is YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING! Now I get to spend HALF an 
HOUR on EVERY COMPUTER updating Java EVERY TIME there is an UPDATE!!! 
Oh, and there are 3 other commands I have to repeat for each user login 
on the machine. There's NO STINKING WAY an AVERAGE user can do this 
without throwing in the towel, even if they were willing to. I'm not 
average, so I can certainly do it, ASSUMING I'm willing to, which is 
highly questionable. This is totally insane. This particular procedure 
is MUCH MUCH harder than Windows. To update Java in Windows, I go to 
Java page, click a link to check my version, click a link to download 
the new one, save it, execute it, and answer a question or two. DONE, 5 
MINUTES FLAT, for ALL USERS on the machine. If that fails, I MAY have to 
spend another 10 minutes finding the stand alone installer and executing 
that.

I'm not blaming anyone necessarily reading this, unless you work for the 
Java team at Oracle. However, since I didn't necessarily want to break 
all the nearby dishes I can get my hands on, I decided to blow off steam 
on the message board. I recently had a similar unhappy experience with 
an ATI video card. What I will say, to anyone with any influence who's 
listening, is that every time an experience like this happens to a 
person who's not a super duper geek, it drives them away from the Linux 
platform, not toward it.

yada yada so on and so forth

Time for a DQ Blizzard with Reece Cups and supper. Then, I'll see if I 
can successfully implement this insane procedure. There goes a good part 
of my evening.

<rant off>

Sincerely,

Ron


On 11/05/2011 09:02 AM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been going through my routine pc maintenance procedures, updating
> everything which connects to the internet for every login on every
> computer, checking security settings, doing backups and such.  One of
> the things I'm trying to get away from by using Linux is the Windows
> pattern of having to update everything in the system manually, which is
> very time consuming.  I'm running Ubuntu 10.04, and, for the most part,
> the Apt / Synaptic package manager system handles the updates.  I have
> two anomalies that are really bugging me.
>
> First is LibreOffice.  I have the following PPA installed:
>
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa/ubuntu
>
> I check on the http://www.libreoffice.org/ website and the latest
> version is 3.4.3.  However, the latest version in my package manager is
> 3.3.2.
>
> Second is the Sun / Oracle JRE.  I have the following PPA installed:
>
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/sun-java-community-team/sun-java6/ubuntu
>
> At the moment, I don't really want to debate the merits of the Sun /
> Oracle JRE versus OpenJDK.  I need the Sun / Oracle version so it will
> be fully compatible with a Java programming book I'm going to be going
> through.  The latest recommended version of the Sun / Oracle JRE is
> 6-29.  The latest version in my package manager is 6-26.  A little
> Googling around seems to indicate that they've completely removed the
> Sun / Oracle product from the repositories and PPA's.
>
> This is very frustrating.  The accepted procedure seems to be a VERY
> long and tedious manual uninstall and reinstall process, much longer
> than in Windows.  And, I still wouldn't get auto updates.  So, the next
> time things are updated again, I'll have to do all of this again.
>
> Does anyone know how I can install LibreOffice 3.4.3 and the Sun /
> Oracle JRE 6-29 and possibly the JDK, through the package manager, and
> get full auto updates?  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>    

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com