[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 01/09/11 14:39, Gordon Henderson wrote: > > So after running a dual-boot PC with XP and Debian 6 for a few months, > my wife splashed out on some new hardware and it's Linux only... > > And one week into my wife having a 100% Linux desktop and it's rapidly > becoming apparent that it's just not working for her )-: > > It's bog-standard Ddebian out of the box - none of my "usual" tweaks, > etc. it's as it is. > > On the whole, it does work - it's a nice setup, 22" widescreen HD > monitor, the on-board graphics seem fine - it's all Intel N10/i915 and > more or less does OK. > > Sound works, but no volume control... At least there is no GUI based > volume control - volume in applications (e.g. bbc iPlayer does work > OK) Launchin the gnome one whinges that it has no hardware to work with! > > Printing - this is a major frustration. > > She has an HP PhotoSmart 2575 USB - I was plesantly surprised (the > first time round) that it was detected and setup to work, but after > printing a couple of pages it "breaks". There an obscure error message > about it being disabled, and in it's properties it's then flagged as > "disabled". > > Same for the other printer we have - HP Colour Laser 4600N - Ethernet. > It works - for a while, then finds some error and it's disabled. > Re-enabling it makes it work again. > > Printing used to be easy - see my previous whinges about it )-: Now > with all this CUPS stuff, it's bloated and hard. > > What I can't find out either is why it's breaking. No sensible error > messages. Very frustrating. > > The trouble is, being from a MS background, she's too used to turning > it off and on again - she power cycled the laserprinter too, trying to > work out why it wasn't printing - when I enabled printing in the > properties it printer her document, by why had it disabled in the > first place? There is nothing at all in the syslogs to indicate it had > disabled the printer. This frustrating thing is that we went through > this 2 days ago too and we did print something on both printers, so > what's broken now? > > (Incidentally both printers worked 100% of the time under Windows XP, > and it turns out that she was having the same issues under Linux > before, but she'd simply reboot into XP and print from there - now > she's not got that option) > > The other issue is of-course documents - in particular she's been sent > some .docx documents that crashes openoffice. > > "Due to an unnexpected error, Openoffice.org has crashed..." > > Asking the producer of those documents to change them produces the > reply "well they work for everynoe else - it must be your PC". And in > a way they're right, even if they're wrong. > > How in this day and age, can opening as document cause an application > to crash? Bonkers. > > She has to read that document if she's to tender for the work it's > specifying. That in itself is enough to make her think seriously about > spending the extra on Win7 and MS Office )-: > > And even if we get a fix for this, what's to say it's not going to > happen again and again... It's OK for me, as I'm in a position to tell > people who send me such incompatable documents where to go, (or spend > the time finding the tools to fix it), but my wife isn't... > > (Oh and don't get me started on Skype - which she needs to use to > speak to her family - SIP based videophones don't work well enough for > mere mortals - I've tried, spent a grand of my own money on them and > failed there too )-: > > Linux on the desktop for ordinary people? Sadly not yet )-: > > Gordon > I agree we seem to have a long long way to go. I am aware people are not all in support of Ubuntu but at least as a community we can try and fix issues, I am using 11.04 with the classic interface, I am more used to that, it works how I expect, when I have time I can have a play with unity. I think the biggest issue is WHO is one meant to contact for support, if I have an idea for cups under ubuntu do I contact the cups development team or a ubuntu development team? ideas. Paul -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq