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Canuckshutterbug avatar Ubuntu

How to help newbies... wizards and executables

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Canuckshutterbug

As I'm a newbie with Ubuntu, I don't have a lot of command prompt skills. I realize this will take time.

In the meantime, I have seen so many fixes that say, 'type this', then.... ...or alternately, follow these steps: 1, 2, 3.

Isn't there a way of making solutions to known problems available as a patch/macro/executable, which simply takes care of the problem?

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Jacob Vlijm avatar
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Jacob Vlijm
We have to distinguish two things: tweaking/hacking the desktop to specific desires or needs, and issues/bugs on the other hand. For the first category, a question on Ask Ubuntu will often offer a solution, which is often applied with a command or two, for the latter we have temporary bandages, but should be filed as a bug so it can be fixed.
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Artur Meinild avatar
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Artur Meinild
In some cases yes, you'll find plenty of scripts that does different things. But in other cases no, because the amount of variable factors might be too great. Also, making a script for every known problem isn't feasible, nor possible. A big part of troubleshooting is researching and understanding what's going on.
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user535733 avatar
cn flag
user535733
"*so many fixes*" suggests that you might be trying to do too much at once for a new user. You be less frustrated if you try to address a single "problem" at a time. Ubuntu carefully chooses safe, sensible, tested default settings so most users don't need to make lots of changes.
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user535733 avatar Ubuntu
cn flag
user535733

I recall this exact idea being proposed in 2008 on Ubuntu Brainstorm.

  1. We lack the huge number of volunteers required to do such coding.

  2. One symptom may have one cause (easy). Or one symptom may have many possible causes, requiring troubleshooting. We try to identify and treat the cause, not the symptom.

  3. Common problems change enormously over time because problems get fixed. A decade ago, AskUbuntu was full of Printing and Audio problems. But then the printing stack and audio stacks changed to eliminate whole classes of problems and bugs. Applications to fix problems from a decade ago wouldn't work at all, or would be counterproductive.

  4. That's not how you properly fix bugs. Bugs get their code fixed at the source before compiling/building, not worked around after install.

We completely understand how hard it is for a new user to adapt. We were all new users once, too. Shell skills come with time; be patient, and be willing to learn.

There is great value in being able to take the cover off the OS, and see all the spinning gears, and to be able to adjust them as you wish. But there is also risk that, without the cover on, you might get smacked by a cog.

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