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5 Annoying “Papercuts” to be Fixed in Ubuntu 9.10
Ubuntu 9.10 is coming in October, and, in addition to some new features, it will also feature 100 fewer “papercuts”. Papercuts are minor bugs that cause a usability issue. For example, a confusing icon or a badly positioned text box might be considered a papercut. To give you a better idea of what to expect, here are five common and annoying papercuts that should be fixed by 9.10.
5 – What the heck is “Auto eth0″?
Auto eth0
When you plug your computer into a wired network, you get the notification shown on the left, saying “Auto eth0 – Connection Established”. What on earth does that mean, though?
Many of you will know that eth0 is nothing more than a technical term for the default wired connection, but how should a new user know that?
Although the exact text has not yet been decided, the wording used in 9.10 will aim to be far more user friendly than “auto eth0″ is.
4 – Workspaces flying by
Desktop Wall plugin
Anyone with a trackpad can, I would guess, relate to this issue. Placing the mouse over the desktop and touching the scroll bar placed on the right side of so many trackpads causes your computer to shuffle through your workspaces like a magician going through a deck of cards — faster than you can see them.
The effect is actually quite like a magician’s trick in that it leaves you completely confused as to where your work just went, what workspace you were on, and what you were doing.
3 – Adding an icon to Ubuntu’s file system and to other OS partitions
BSOD Drive
Ubuntu provides no easy way for a new user to tell which drive holds Ubuntu and (if applicable) which holds OS X, Windows, BSD, etc. Most people don’t have to worry about which drive holds what OS, but someone who dual boots between Ubuntu and Windows might want to copy files between the two operating systems. Labeling them with an icon would make it easy to tell which is which.
2 – Clear icons for “wait to remove” and “OK to remove”
Removable Media
After clicking the eject button next to a mounted removable drive, you may be told that you need to wait before you can remove the drive. During this time, write operations to the drive are finished, then you get another message saying you can remove the drive. In order to prevent confusion, the icons for these notifications should be both clear and different. Hopefully, by 9.10, they will be.
1 – Document title instead of job number in print notifications
Which job?
Unless you keep track of everything you print by its job number, knowing that job 179 just finished is not very helpful. A more helpful notification would be that paper.odt just finished printing.
In Ubuntu 9.10, the document name will be in the header of the notification. In case you do manage your printing by jobs, the job number will probably remain in the body of the notification.
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Getting proper titles for the print queue will be a huge step up, it’s one of the most annoying things I have to deal with!
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[...] 5 fastidiosos "Papercuts" para tener en cuenta en Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koalawww.linuxloop.com/2009/08/26/5-annoying-papercuts-to-be-fixe… por hugoluis hace pocos segundos [...]
[...] http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/08/26/5-annoying-papercuts-to-be-fixed-in-ubuntu-9-10/ a few seconds ago from api [...]
[...] of what to expect, here are five common and annoying papercuts that should be fixed by 9.10.Source:http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/08/26/5-annoying-papercuts-to-be-fixed-in-ubuntu-9-10/ Aug [...]
[...] of what to expect, here are five common and annoying papercuts that should be fixed by 9.10.Source:http://www.linuxloop.com/2009/08/26/5-annoying-papercuts-to-be-fixed-in-ubuntu-9-10/ Posted by Makin at [...]
the last two are minor useful, but come on – what’s with the first three?
Who ever is listening, please resolve the stability and graphic issues first.
There are bigger fish to fry!
The whole point of papercuts is that they aren’t big issues. This project isn’t being done instead of work on graphics and other issues, but alongside it. Fixing small things like this is what separates professional operating systems from non-professional ones.
Fullscreen Wine apps making Nautilus losing most open windows is a real pain, and happens consistently!
[...] Read more at LinuxLoop August 28th, 2009 | Category: Ubuntu [...]
I’m new too Ubuntu and I can not understand why nvidia cant have a proper save setting button and run on startup for their drivers, I did search for a solution and was told to edit a file but got totally confused when Ubuntu said I needed something like vigedit when I was trying to go by the instructions editing a file with gedit.
I was afraid I would break something so now I have to set the display res every time I log in
@chris “i would say if someone uses dual system os he can differ between his partitions.”
I would disagree with this. 99% of Ubuntu newbies have previously been using Windows, and with things like Wubi it is quite easy to dual boot, so the probablity that a slightly-clueless newbie is dual-booting is quite high.
this is totally lame. I mean, what is the point of making ubuntu so much NOT linux. Auto eth0 means, to a linux user, that the automatic DHCP of their ethernet port has been activated. If ubuntu wants to appeal to people who don’t know what they are doing, they should just change the name to n00buntu. Then, people will smart and empowered for using a linux distro which gives them about as much control as XP. This distro is watering down the linux support community, because everyone feels like they should publish a blog about “How to pimp (change your theme and wallpaper) desktop in Jaunty”…..sigh….
“…people will *FEEL* smart and empowered…” sorry, i was busy thinking about how much this sucks
antonius says:
August 27, 2009 at 7:41 pm:
“what is the point of making ubuntu so much “NOT linux” (I.E. “so much USER FRIENDLY”) If ubuntu wants to appeal to people … they should just change the name to n00buntu. .. people..FEEL smart and empowered for using a linux distro.
Ubuntu could consider providing a seperate plugin which degrades the user-friendliness of Ubuntu for people who have no life. These people could then FEEL smart and empowered (but only TO THEMSELVES).
Others have more important things to do with their life.
I love the changes.
Thank you Ubuntu
Linux Expert, I think the idea behind the paper-cuts was to address usability issues in addition to fixing other major bugs. It’s a delicate balancing act … you want to fix critical errors to “add horsepower”, but you also want to polish the paint to entice folks who are new and attracted to a car with a nice paint-job, regardless of what kind of mileage it can get. Ubuntu has always been a more user-centric distro, so the paper-cuts was a way to show the end-users they mean it (and to also increase end-user participation). While I agree critical bugs need to be addressed, I think addressing minor things like these can be just as important. Could they have waited a couple of releases from now to do them? Sure, but by starting on them now, they re-affirm folks that Ubuntu is all about the user, of any technical ability, and not just “we’re all talk about making it friendly, but really we’re going to keep it techy and just fix bugs.”
Thanks for posting this. These are definitely some good papercuts to take care of. I weighed in on the Auto eth0 issue.
fixing the flashing caps lock kernel panic that might or might not have something to do with the wifi driver and graphics driver would be nice. too many people are dealing that doozy.
‘Papercuts’ is a marketing term, not one used by the testing industry. Get the facts right and stop accepting what people tell you for face value.
You are correct. And article’s like this that raise awareness about Ubuntu and Conical efforts to improve the OS are fantastic.
what about all the wireless compatibility issues? thats way more devastating then having to view your printed item by job #.
anonymous – Papercuts are focused on very minor bugs that can be fixed easily, so wireless issues would not count. That said, it’s likely some of those issues have been addressed separately.
“it will also feature 100 less ‘papercuts’ ”
It will also feature 100 *fewer* papercuts. Fewer is a measure of things one can count, whereas less is reserved for measures of degree. You will find the system LESS annoying because it has FEWER papercuts.
Steve – Oops. Sorry.
I hate to say it, but I’m going to expect at least 3 of these to be pushed to Ubuntu+1. I’m going to go with #1 and #5 actually being finished on time. How many times have we heard that the next release will have a new theme? There are also countless old bugs that rarely get looked at. The Ubuntu team is notorious for failing to meet deadlines and that’s real unfortunate.
Being a linux geek, it’s often hard for me to relate to the less technical user.
For example, I would think that after the first time or two of seeing “auto eth0 connected” the user would undeniably know that their ethernet connection has bee made. Afterall, they did just plug it into the wall/computer. Plus this is helpful, because it lets the user know which interface is connected.
The one regarding print job titles seems very useful, on the other hand.
totally agree. Never thought of eth0 as an issue for a new user until this article pointed it out. But it does seem kind of obvious since they would just plug an ethernet cable in and that it shows a picture of an ethernet port.
But it makes sense to fix it too.
I have got used to and understand eth0,
but I now also have pan0.
What is that pan0 ?
My only real problem with Ubuntu is that there’s not an easy way to see the properties of a menu item or desktop icon. There are times it would be really handy to know what the commandline being used for these is, such as when trying to create a start-up item.
They are wasting time fixing things that dont effect anything and forgetting about the glitches that actually matter. The ones that actually cause the system to STOP working.
Forget the damn papercuts already and fix the delete file freeze bug!
i would say if someone uses dual system os he can differ between his partitions.
Nice post. Thank you for the article. I knew about the paper cuts project but I didn’t know what exactly they were fixing. Thanks for the info.
These are good “papercuts” that I had not thought of but are things that have(are) affected me.
loads of papercuts being fixed, but some need an adopter since they’re behind schedule
you can view all rounds
http://davidsiegel.org/100papercuts-round7/
Bruce – pan0 is basically the bluetooth equivalent of eth0.