/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/05/13/#ubuntu-ie.txt

airurandoevening20:58
moylanhi21:00
airurandohow is moylan?21:02
moylanhaving fun.  after a few weeks of effort i nearly have a netbook running narwhal.  all hardware problems.  dead disk, iffy touchpad.21:03
airurandosound like fun........ NOT21:03
* airurando has not taken the plunge yet21:04
moylanthe dying disk was the worst.  i can usually feel the problem from the noise it makes or some other behaviour.  this one just erased the ubuntu partition after 3-4 reboots.  drove me bonkers.21:04
airurandoglad you got it sorted21:05
airurandomoylan has unity grown on you?21:05
airurandoor are you a Xubuntu man now?21:05
moylannot 100%.  still have an iffy touchpad.  the hp minibook touchpad has no buttons.  a section of the touchpad is devoted to buttons.  however this prevents drag and drop.  at the moment.  there is a work around that i have yet to try.21:06
airurandohope it works out for you.21:07
airurandoactually you might know this21:07
moylanhate.  hate unity.  xubuntu fixes 90% of the silliness that is unity.  the snap to full screen and the silly left dock.  still have to fix the scroll bars.21:07
airurandoaye but unity wasn't built for you21:08
airurandoIt was built for the masses21:08
moylanup till narwhal i would recommend ubuntu on a computer to anybody if they could get it preinstalled.  since narwhal, i couldn't make that recommendation.21:08
moylanit's behaviour is too different to what people expect from a computer interface.  the choices made are wrong.21:09
airurandoI still feel that it can be recommended to people who are not geeks21:09
airurandomoylan, is there any simple way to disable the touchpad while typing other that preferences, mouse, touchpad21:10
moylani only recommend what i will use.  i hate unity so much that i could never recommend it as i would go crazy trying to use it for more than a few minutes.21:10
airurandohave you tried gnome 3?21:11
moylanthe problem i'm having is a combination of what's been discussed here.  http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1388164.html21:12
moylani hate the trend for the elimination of buttons!21:12
moylanhaven't tried gnome 3 yet.  you?21:12
airurandono but I saw it on Julies machine.21:14
airurandomy god she could fly around it.21:15
airurandoI'm wondering if your touchpad problem might be fixed in the coming iterations?21:16
airurandohas it been logged as a bug yet?21:16
moylanit is and it isn't.  only affects touchpads with no buttons.  different touchpads have different hardware so there are a number of fixes.  which changes per version of ubuntu.  so it keeps having to be redocumented.21:17
moylanthe other problem with touchpads is the tap to click option.  as you type into an editor your hand resting on the touchpad clicks were the mouse pointer is so that you typing becomes gobbledygook.  a fix here worked in xubuntu.  http://www.rhyshale.com/blog/archives/4721:19
moylani always turn of tap to click in windows as well.  it's a sillly feature.  at least in my opinion.21:19
moylansorry for the rant.  2 weeks of solid hardware hell.  nearly over fingers crossed.21:20
moylanthe biggest problem which i now realise with the touchpad with no buttons is that when you move your hand from the moving the cursor part to the button part your hand touching the button part often moves the pointer away from the button that you wished to click.21:22
airurandoIn the broader sense I reckon Ubuntu is gearing itself towards normal folk ie. those that don't live and breath computers21:22
airurandosorry on the phone at the mo21:22
moylanthen the scroll bars are a disaster.  they require more hand to eye co-ordination than a traditional scroll bar.  more troublesome to use.21:23
airurandosorry about that moylan.... twas the mother outlaw21:27
moylanno worries.21:28
airurandojust read back, you are in a pickle.21:29
airurandounfortunately I've no words of wisdom for you.21:30
moylanthe netbooks main use will be my main system.  it will have a mouse attached so that is not a problem.  however if the problem can not be eliminated then the device is condemned to a location were i can use a mouse.  i often use my netbook on my lap.  so it's not mobile.  grrrrrrrr!21:30
airurandoaye21:31
moylanand it has allegedly a 10hr battery life.  so mobile and yet not...21:31
airurandoin my experience the theoretical battery life is never ever reached.21:31
moylanjust another piece of information i need to remember before i buy/recommend a new system.  'avoid touchpads with no buttons!!'21:32
airurandogood point.21:32
moylantrue!  but even half that at 5 hours is pretty neat!21:32
airurandostill it should fixed21:32
airurandoyou should promote it as a bug.21:33
moylanthey have been selling these for 2 years.  they aren't in a hurry.  hate hp with a passion.21:33
airurandowhat percentage of netbooks have the no button touchpad?21:33
moylanquite low.  but it will increase i suspect.  apple leads the way... again...21:34
airurandois it just HP?21:34
moylanprobably cheaper as fewer parts.21:34
moylanonly hp that i have noticed.21:34
airurandoif it becomes more widespread then your problem becomes a bigger problem and bigger problems get solved.21:35
moylanthat's certainly a theory.  :-)21:35
moylan20 years in support.  i suspect otherwise.21:36
* airurando lives in a buttoned touchpad world.21:36
moylanused to have a person call once a year with the exact same bug for a decade.  could never get it fixed.  had to live with the calls.21:36
moylanwish i could get a netbook with a trackpoint.21:36
airurandomaybe a small notebook?21:37
moylannotebooks are too large.  netbooks are fine.  i suspect in a few years there will (fingers crossed) be a standard size tablet that will run ubuntu.  then you can choose from any addon keyboard with the exact features you want.21:38
airurandoyou would know better than me.21:39
airurandosounds good though21:39
airurandomoylan, have you tried mint?21:40
airurandoonly on the problem netbook of course.....21:41
airurando:)21:41
moylani tried it once about 1-2 versions ago.  if xubuntu hadn't been ok i would have tried it next.21:41
airurandoit is great having the different options.21:42
airurandoI'm glad Xubuntu fits the bill for you currently.21:45
moylanit reminds me of win2000.  one my favourite incarnations of windows.21:45
airurandoold school!!!!!21:47
moylanwhenever i hear people describing unity i hear how they did not like it but have gotten used to it.  you should not get used to a computer.  it should get used to you.21:47
airurandoI have to disagree somewhat with that.21:48
airurandowhen something changes the natural instinct is to resist.21:49
airurandothat does not mean the change is bad.21:49
moylansome change is good.  not all change is good.  i would lump unity into the second.21:49
airurandoUnitys value is yet to be determined IMO21:49
moylanlike firmware updates that remove features.  how did that work out for sony? :-D21:49
airurandolets see it in 11.10 and particularly 12.0421:50
airurandolets see if it gets into the hands of 200 million users21:50
airurandoand lets see how they rate it.21:50
moylanpehaps it will be better.  i will judge it again then.  but for the moment i will not recommend ubuntu to replace windows/mac.21:51
airurandoagain I stress I don't believe Unity was made for you21:51
airurandoyou have buckets of alternative options.21:51
moylani'm the one who will have to support it in my family and friends.21:51
airurandoUnity is for folks like me.21:51
moylani think unity is so that ubuntu stands out in the distro herd.  my paranoia/scepticism at work.21:52
airurandotake your point about support21:53
airurandocan't argue there21:53
airurandobut on the other suggestion I must disagree21:53
moylannow support calls will require reexplaining scrollbars.21:53
airurandoUnity is attempting to provide a simple intuitive interface for jane  and joe soap users.21:54
airurandoI may be wrong but thats what I think.21:55
moylanthat is a good aim.  it really is.  but it breaks so many existing conventions that i have to wonder if this effort will succeed.21:55
moylanand you may well be right!21:56
airurandobut those conventions have gotten linux nowhere in terms of mass market21:56
ShaneMWhat's this non-sense about Unity wasn't made for you. I thought it was made for everyone :)21:56
ShaneMIf you don't like it then chances are you just don't like that type of interface. Not that you're too much of an advanced user.21:57
moylanit owns the server market.  it is beginning to own the mobile market.  it owns the embedded market.  the user space will happen when it happens.21:57
airurandoShaneM: I still reckon Unitys primary focus is on getting new users comfortable with linus21:58
airurando*linux21:58
moylanit's funnier when you meant linus!  :-)21:59
airurandoyeah I laughed a bit when i read back.21:59
ShaneMI think Unity is a reaction to the direction of gnome-shell. While Unity might also mean trying making it easier for new users, I don't think the "It's not made for you" it's an excuse to why someone don't like it.21:59
airurandoperhaps I shouldn't have said that22:00
airurandolet me try a different way22:00
airurandoAdvanced users have already developed their own ideal interface and way of interacting with linux.22:01
ShaneMI sort of get what you mean. Just saying that way is kind of dangerous IMO, it's can be seen as kind of a simple way to invalidate their comments22:01
ShaneMairurando: Yeah I understand :)22:01
airurandoyeah I was wrong with that statement and I apologise22:02
moylani didn't take it that way.22:02
airurandobut i didn't mean it to come across negatively22:02
airurandothanks moylan22:02
ShaneMairurando: I didn't mean to make you say sorry or anything. Just pointing out some people might take it up that way :)22:02
airurandoShaneM you are absolutely right22:03
airurandoyou pointed something out to me and I agreed.  I felt apology was right.22:03
ShaneMI've been using Unity with about a month and a half now.... only thing I don't like is the indicators in the bar aren't noticeable enough.22:04

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