Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Conversion to Linux Test Case.

Part 0 -- Intro

So, a friend of mine inquired about the joys of Linux, and had a genuine curiosity about the operating system.  I gave up trying to push Linux on people in general.  I find it cause me more headaches then its worth, and if people don't want to learn, no matter how amazing and awesome I think Linux and penguins are it still involves people using something different.  I tend to find that the general population, no matter their intellect and abilities are petrified of change.

Part 1 -- Poor Guinea Pig.

My friend is an art student, with an aptitude for computers and technology.  She won't be pulling up the terminal and starting some gcc, and patching the kernel, but she's capable of basic common sense and critical thinking.  She's worked in a computer lab before.... so I'd call her a power win user? somewhere along those lines.

She loves her shiny android, and nook, and just recently discovered that they're Linux based and still marvels at all the tidbits of Linux hidden away in various technologies.

I personally have been using Linux for so long, that I've lost touch with what's easy and isn't, so I thought she'd be a good use case.

Part 2 -- Target machine 

She just recently purchase a Netbook from verizon, with Windows 7 start edition.

Windows 7 Starter issues:
1.  limited to 3 concurrent process at a time.
2. Can't change the wallpaper.

Requirements:
Office of some form.  (OpenOffice/google docs worked)
IPod (Banshee /Rhythmbox seemed to work )

I had her look at Linux Mint, Ubuntu Netbook edition, and Fedora...and she liked the Unitiy look.

I tried walking her through an install, and that failed miserably once the idea of partitioning, mount points and all that came up, so instead decided to do it in person.

Netbook:  HP Mini 210–1076NR

Live CD issues.  Wireless didn't work.   Possible mouse issues.

I partitioned the machine proper using gparted and set it up to dual boot windows 7 and Ubuntu.  I went through the install process, everything seemed to work fine once it was done with a few exceptions.

Wireless was still broken, but that's okay.  We had the Verizon broadband, went online.. had to do some manual tasks to get the firmware download and get the silly wifi working.  First time using unity, so it didn't click right away, but the mouse won't right click.  (xorg/touchpad config probably).

I got her wifi updated, then had her do the updates she was prompted for.  The updates broke her Verizon broadband.and I tracked it down to a bug:

** That's a big no-no.  Ubuntu is supposed to be super user friendly... once you make a release, you can't break drivers by doing an update.  Especially when the fix is patch the kernel and recompile... or go manually find the firmware for your card.

This worked out of the box... it should not be this difficult for an end user to get things fixed.  If the target audience is ease of use, intricate command line tools, patching code, reloading kernel module.. is not a proper way of handling things.

3.  Final thoughts.. so far.

So, I seemed more annoyed with Ubuntu behavior then she was.  She seems very happy with speed/performance over windows 7.

Enjoys all the random apps that free and available to use.  I have to fix her mouse still, but aside from Verizon and a bit of rocky start everything else works, but it involved more techie experience then it should have.

Many of these things should just work out of the box.


PS.  I need to track down the exact bug number, I'll link it in an update.