gnomefreak - New York Times Article

Advertisement

Advertisement




			gnomefreak - New York Times Article

Customize

gnomefreak


	New York Times Article
	I was givent he link to this article this morning and i had an ill feeling after reading part of it, the article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04basics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin The part about suggesting Automatix is the part that bothered me most, so after some more reading and thinking i decided to email the author Larry Magid. I will paste the email i sent to this blog since i havent figured out how to use drivel all that well yet. Ijust though the Ubuntu community should be aware of things that impact them for support reasons or just knowledge well here is what i wrote to him, when i get a responce i will let everyone know thank you/. Hello Mr. Magid, This is concerning the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/circuits/04basics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin I am a Ubuntu Member and been around for years supporting, packaging, ect... and the article is great. 1 thing that i must comment on (the only thing not 100% on track is the part saying: > > One way to do that is to first download a program called Automatix from www.getautomatix.com In the community we have seen on IRC and forums that using automatix can have very ill effects i have seen 80% of users that use automatix need to reinstall their system. Ubuntu has always been able to install most things that were needed for dvds videos or what not from the universe/multiverse repositories. We also have other repositories that are safe to grab the non-free packages from like the medibuntu repositories and the Canonical supported repository for Ubuntu 7.04 and prior was named http://archive.canonical.com/ feisty commercial- Now as of Ubuntu7.10 is named http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu gutsy partner. Thank you for letting me take up some of your time. -- Sincerely Yours, John Vivirito https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito Linux User# 414246

3 comments or Leave a comment


	Comments

From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 4th, 2007 04:10 pm (UTC)		(Link)
80%

I have my doubts that "80%" of Automatix users have to reinstall their system.

Even if that were the case, you'd have no way to know what percentage of Automatix users actually do have to reinstall, as you have no hard numbers on the amount of Automatix users, nor those that have to reinstall after using Automatix.

At best, perhaps you could say 80% of people who have huge problems after using Automatix have to reinstall. That might be accurate.

We could also say that 80% of users who have huge problems after using Ubuntu reinstall Windows. And, like you, we can therefore conclude no one should use Ubuntu or reccommend Ubuntu.

Thanks for the FUD.

(Reply) (Thread)

From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 4th, 2007 07:49 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Re: 80%

Ok sorry let me rephrase this, around 80% of users that i have dealt with have reinstalled. After they came to the conclustion its easier to reinstall than try to figure out what automatix installed and remove it due to either a dist-upgrade failure or a distro upgrade failure.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

	From: angrykeyboarder	Date: October 5th, 2007 07:34 am (UTC)		(Link)
	I'm glad you responded to that article but...

...Personally, I'd been under the impression that "Automatix" had progressed beyond the point of usually hosing one's system. I guess I'm wrong.

I think Ubuntu needs to take a stronger stance with regard to this product especially since it's so popular amongst those in the Ubuntu Forums. I believe the author of the package is either a moderator (or has close ties to one). I could be wrong on all of this, but that was my recollection from a year or so ago.

But my main reasons for writing are trivial.

1) "Et. Cetera" is abbreviated "etc." and not "ect". ECT is something very very different.....

2). Every article on The New York Times website has a "share" link which gives you options for sharing the article. One of those is a permalink. You need to use the permalink instead of the regular link for a couple of reasons.

The permalink will work 6 weeks (or months or years) from now. The "regular" link will not.
The permalink doesn't require registration (which is particuarly important on articles that span more than one page).

So.. this is the link you want to use instead of the above.

I just thought I'd share. :)

(Reply) (Thread)


	3 comments or Leave a comment

profile


User: gnomefreak Name: gnomefreak Website: My Website

calendar

page summary

Anonymous 80% [+1]

angrykeyboarder I'm glad you responded to that article but...

10:47 am October 4th, 2007