Alan, Alan Pope wrote: > This mail popped up on the Hampshire LUG mailing list, and I thought other > Ubuntu people might be interested in the comments. > > I have already pointed out to Peter that his upgrade method (dapper -> > gutsy) was probably not optimal. I'm also concerned that the vendor is > talking about Windows in this way when selling Ubuntu kit.
Not to mention selling a machine with a default user name and password already set up. That blows any idea that Ubuntu is secure right out of the water! Regards, Tony. > ----- Forwarded message from Peter Salisbury <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- > > From: Peter Salisbury <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:28:37 +0000 > Subject: [Hampshire] Report on Tesco Ubuntu machine > > Hi folks, > > After three weeks waiting for stock to come in, I finally took > delivery of a £139 Tesco machine with built in Ubuntu (actually they > gave me 10% off because the case was a bit dented so it ended up > costing just £126). Probably worth the money for the moment when they > said, "You do realise it doesn't have Windows?" so we could > reply, "That's exactly why we want it". > > However... > > I'm afraid it would probably not be a good first introduction to Linux > for its target audience. As it's the first PC I've bought as a > complete machine I was expecting a 'turn on and go' experience. > Trouble is that it comes without a monitor and it boots up with the > screen resolution set to 1600x1200, so both my (fairly new, fairly > good) LCD monitors complained 'Signal out of range' and gave a blank > screen. Of course I simply Ctrl-Alt-F1 and nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf > and took out the higher resolutions. Can't see a novice managing > that. Also can't see many people who are buying a £139 PC having a > 1600x1200 monitor lying around at home! > > Once that was done it was straight to a login screen asking for a > username and password. Neither was in evidence in any of > the 'documentation' (one sheet offering support for £99 a year and > the motherboard booklet). Luckily we guessed it was esys/esys or it > would have been Ctrl-Alt-F1 time again! > > Another source of fun for the unwary would be the pretty-looking CD > with some DVD application software ..... for Windows! > > That got us into Ubuntu Dapper, default mud brown with its rather > childish theme. OpenOffice was at 2.0, Firefox at 1.5 so I went for > an upgrade. NOT an easy process; I think it would have been quicker > just to download the install CD and start from scratch but I was > nervous about losing what I had working. I ended up using aptitude as > I found both the package managers (Adept and Synaptic) very > cumbersome in comparison. It took a lot of goes round the block and a > few dpkg -i of individually downloaded packages to upgrade to Gutsy. > There were two or three times where files had moved between packages > which often gets apt in a circular frenzy. I only had to reboot once > though! > > Through all this I stuck with Gnome, thinking I'd eventually see the > point, but in the end I cracked and installed kubuntu-desktop. It > took four minutes over a wireless connection to download and > transformed Ubuntu into Kubuntu. Much more to my liking. I can't say > I think much of the Kubuntu replacement for kcontrol though - it > seems to be missing lots of the controls and doesn't seem to have > gained anything in the process. > > Several things really impressed me: > > 1) The PC is virtually silent - FAR quieter than the laser printer > next to it. It's got a huge circular Intel cooler on the CPU, the fan > hardly has to move. > 2) The inside is well laid out with the cables attached to the case > with cable ties > 3) It's really easy to get into the case (once you're removed the > annoying 'warranty void if...' sticker) and there's plenty of room > for expansion: 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 spare DDR 2 slot, one spare drive bay, > one spare CDROM bay, one empty FDD bay. There's SATA on the m/b but > no SATA power connector so you'd need an adapter. The on-board > graphics and sound are fine for office use. > 4) The keyboard is very nice and has a bank of special keys for > volume, play/pause, start browser etc WHICH ALL WORKED! The mouse is > a nice enough optical job. > 5) The wireless card worked immediately with a reasonably obvious GUI > to set the IP etc. > 6) I was amazed when I plugged in our two USB printers and up popped a > message saying they'd been configured and installed. Things have > certainly moved on since I last started from scratch! Similarly our > Logitech Skype headset plugged in and worked; and two essential > Windows apps worked under wine so there was no need to arrange a dual > boot. > 7) The Kubuntu theming and general look and feel are very well done, > with gtk apps like jpilot blending in much better than I've managed > on my Debian system. > 9) But best of all of course, I bought a PC with Linux installed on > it. Still seems cool to me! > > ATB, Peter > > -- > Please post to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire > LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > ----- End forwarded message ----- > -- Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester, IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED], H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
