This is for recording my comments on Ubuntu. This page got a bit big so I have more gripes over at NormansGripesV2

Having now played with Ubuntu for a couple of days I am becoming more familiar with the layout of the various facilities and what they do. I am very satisfied with Evolution-Mail, Pam Newsreader and Mozilla Firefox. Mostly it is little things that irritate for example the title 'Discs' under 'Computers' needs to be something more exact such as 'Drives' (although this does not cover all that appears here). Windows does it nicer with 'My Computer'. Also there are many examples where the fonts used could be plainer. I suppose I have been spoiled by the large variety of fonts available in Windows.

If the objective is to spread the use of Ubuntu to users like me then provided that a vastly improved help file was available then I would be very satisfied. No worry about viruses etc therefore no extra expence on virus catchers firewalls and so on. However, if the intention is to provide a system for first time users then it is vital that a set of introductary explanations and an easy to use help file is readily available.

I noticed in Open Office that the date attached to files saved is in US format. Is there any way of changing this to UK format? Your mother had a go at saving an attachment from an email and got in a bit of a tizzy. I had a look, used the help file and I think I have sorted it out. It's just that the form in which existing files appears in is different to that which we are used to in Word.

'Tis 11.00 pm and your mother has just complained that she cannot get her mail to go. I checked on the set up and found that you had entered wrong instructions. I ammended the instructions to the same as mine and all was well. Chalk another one up for the old man.

When using Outlook Express, replying to a message automatically put the details of the person to whom one is replying in the address book. As far as I can see, this does not happen with Evolution or am I missing something? Comments would be welcome.

I have been using OpenOffice? saving attachments from Evolution, opening and saving various pieces of work and so on and I think that the method of choosing folders to save to or to open from is somewhat difficult to handle compared with Microsoft Word. To top it all I needed to save some files to a floppy and found this to be quite involved. I hope that, if Ubuntu is meant for the masses, something will be done to simplify things.

The more I use Evolution Mail and Pan Newsreader the more I like them. They are both comprehensive, easy to use and certainly do all I want them to do. There is one improvement I would like to Evolution Mail. I tend to leave this software, minimised and running all day. What would help is some indication when mail has been collected and is waiting to be read. Perhaps the little envelope to the left of the name (bottom left) could light up.

Is the place where discarded files go a wastebasket or a trash can? I think that it is important to be consistent and I sugest that wastebasket be used throughout rather than trash.

Just in case you are interested not everything I write here will necessary be a gripe. For instance, the scanner I had would not work with Ubuntu and was not supported by Linux. So, I bought a new, fairly cheap one which was said to be supported, unpacked it, plugged it in,and it worked. No switching on, no loading of software or setting up, it worked and the software with Ubuntu is very adequate to do all I want and lots more.

I was pottering about looking at Open Office and looking to see how, at a simple level, it compared with Microsoft Office. All looked very good until I came to look at dataprocessing and could not find a module. I know, from the Open Office help file, there should be a dataprocessing module. So, where is it? Looking in Templates, I clicked on Samples and got the following message:- Error creating a new document. /usr/lib/openoffice/share/samples/emglish-uk does not exist. What next?

Serious gripe. I am begining to loose patience with handling files to and from floppies. Having to go through mounting and dismounting, saving files to the desktop before being able to either work with them or save them to a floppy. It is essential that some way be found to simplify the process. Now, to crown it all, I need to process a file on a floppy urgently and cannot even mount the blasted floppy. Bugger!!!

In Open Office when wordprocessing, selecting the button to make the selected text bold does not work, yet it does in Spreadsheet. Underline and italic work OK.

I am having considerable difficulty in consistently transfering photos from camera to the computer. Sometimes the software works and sometimes it does not. When it does not work I am left with an unrecognised icon on the desktop which I cannot remove. HELP!!

Following on from lots of help from Daniel I settled down to transfer some photos from my camera to the computer. Plugged in the usb connection and went to disks. The camera was indicated and already mounted. The folder labled dcim opened without being asked and the photos appeared in that window. Unmounted the camera, disconnected and closed dcim. Reopened dcim but, in fact, photos were not there. So, I thought there must be something else to do, I will try again. Plugged in camera - nothing! Opened gThumb and tried to import photos. No camera was detected and there was an attempt, by the computer, to load camera drivers from /usr/lib/gphoto2/2.1.4... All action froze and I had to get back control by clicking Force Quit. Most odd, works once and then no more.

Just noticed. Synaptic Package Manager, Mark All Ugrades, 2nd para, 1st line, attempts spelt wrongly.

Decided to use scanner to copy some documents. Xsane could not find the scanner yet earlier today it did. So, unplugged scanner, plugged it in again no change, Xsane could not find scanner. Are we having problems with usb? Camera connection and scanner are both usb. After rebooting Xsane said no scanner there. I disconnected scanner, reconnected it and Xsane found the scanner. Camera connection also worked.

I forgot to tell you, clicking on Computer, Log Out, Restart the computer, does not work; computer freezes. The only way to warm boot is to use the reset button on the machine.

Having got some photos saved in a file I decided to have a look at using GIMP. I was going through the help file when a window appeared called "GIMP Message". It said Plug-in crashed: helpbrowser. It further read:- The dying Plug-in may have messed up GIMP's internal state. You may want to save your images and restart GIMP to be on the safe side. Here we go again shades of Windows.

Daniel installed gFTP on to my machine and it appears to be ideal for uploading photos to my website. I wonder if there is a help file somewhere out there. Perhaps it would be worth having a look. Norm is feeling much happier now that good things are starting to happen.

Pottering about this evening when, for some unknown reaon, I was unable to log off or load evolution mail. Had to reboot using the reset button on the computer. Watching the various actions flashing in front of my eyes I noticed the following:- modprobe : FATAL error inserting shpchp. I missed the rest while I was making a note. Is this significant?

Next time your machine locks up; before hitting the reset switch; call me so I can see if I can work it out. And no; the shpchp things are to do with hardware you don't have. I can hide the warnings if you want.

Thanks, I will let you know and no, there is no need to hide the warnings.

This is not really a gripe. Do you know of any software which will enable me to save jpeg images and at the same time reduce the actual size of the file? I know that this will reduce the quality to some extent but, from time to time, I send photos by email and we do not all have broadband. I was able to do this with some software I used in the past but that was for windows.

When you do 'save-as' from gimp; you will get a quality slider which will let you control the output file size at the expense of image quality. Also you can just reduce the size of the image using the image / scale-image menu off the right-mouse-button menu.

Thank you very much

Continuing with my experiments in transfering photos from my camera to the computer. When the camera is plugged in to the usb it automatically mounts and, in addition to the new icon on the desktop a window opens. I closed this window, loaded gThumb and clicked on file, Import photos. In the window which appeared there is an icon, top left, of a camera with a red diagonal line through it and the words No camera detected. I know the camera is there so there must be some reason why gThumb cannot detect it. I can transfer photos by dragging from the window associated with the camera, the one which I had closed, to the folder where I want to store my photos but, while I am prepared to put up with this for the time being, I really want gThumb to work.

1. was trying something with our digital camera yesterday and gthumb seemed to do the right thing. I'm not sure what to suggest per-se; although I'd recommend against using gthumb for now since it clearly doesn't understand your camera properly yet.

1. understand and I will use the long way round for the time being.

I commented the other day about 'bold' not working in OpenOffice?. I have now had a closer look and find that, in fact 'bold' does work with some fonts and not others. Would you expect this? If so how would one readily identify which fonts it works with and which ones it does not without going through the tedious process of trial and error? The same applies to the Spreadsheet with the same fonts.

1. imagine some fonts lack an on-screen weight asssociated with boldness. Although I don't experience this on my OpenOffice?. Could you tell me the names of some of the fonts which don't work?

Here are 3 fonts which do not work:- Nimbus Roman No 9l ARPL KaitiM? GB Times

On a positive note I do like to look at the little rotating wheel while waiting for an application to load or whatever. It would be really good if it happened in all cases.

The rotating wheel is part of what is called "startup notification" and it requires the application to tell the desktop when it has loaded so that the wheel can be turned off again. Apps which don't support it are very common because this is a new concept for the desktop on linux. This will improve over time.

Are there others who, like me, enjoy messing around on computers in order to see what happens? And, if there are, do things usually go wrong or things get messed up when they do? I don't mind things going wrong or getting messed up as long as I can put things right and, what is bugging me about Ubuntu, is that I often cannot put things right because I don't really know what is going on. I hope, when the next version of Ububtu comes out, it will go a long way to rectify this situation so that those, who like me, learn by trying this and that, can do so without causing more problems than they solve.

For the most part; I can't see how you can cause too much damage. Mostly I imagine it's applications whose settings you manage to tweak in confusing ways. I also hope that hoary is slightly more discoverable.

So that I can try some kids stuff on the internet I need Flash Player. Is it in order for me to find a Linux version and download it?

Flashplayer can be installed by installing the package {flashplugin-nonfree}

Thank you

Pottering arround on Google looking at downloading from a digital camera to a Linux machine I came across a reference to a person who was unable to use gThumb with his Olympus camera. He overcame the problem by using something called USB Mass Storage device. My camera is an Olympus C 50 Zoom. Does Ubuntu use this device? If not it might be worth trying.

You are using usb-mass-storage anyway. that's what lets nautilus browse it like a disc drive.

Sometimes the choice available is confusing and/or misleading. For example, when attaching a file to an email, having selected the folder and file, the choice is cancel or open. It would be much better if it said attach rather than open.

HELP I use Pan newsreader and there is a marked lack of help information available for this piece of software. I would like to know if it is possible to bar messages from certain senders and, if it is, how to do it. Thanks.

What I think I would find interesting would be to know what the packages downloaded under synaptic manager are supposed to do. I could then see the effects of these changes. For instance I have just downloaded 35 files which took about 12 minutes (lots of Mbs) why??