Re: Default Browser Follow-up
On 06/12/2013 12:16 AM, Jason Warner wrote: What is important, and ultimately should be the deciding factor, is the common end user experience. Which browser, in the common case, will be the best for the general end user? Things I consider relevant to this discussion are quality/stability/robustness, familiarity, ease of use, and overall user experience. I use both browsers. Chrome/Chromium and Firefox. There is probably no answer to this question. Ease of use, robustness and familiarity are more or less the same for both browsers. Saying that one is better than the other is silly. Best bet? Ask user at the installation time and give option to install any of the major browsers. And keep one default. The secondary case to consider is web developers. I firmly believe that web developers would use both browsers on a regular basis, though do they generally prefer one browser to another? I don't consider this case to be a deciding factor, but rather could push one over the top if there isn't a clear front runner. Web developers will have both installed. To them it _really_ shouldn't matter which one is the default. It is mostly a personal preference which one is used for primary development and which ones are used for testing only. I'd like to reiterate one point: Neither browser is going away. If Chromium is the default, Firefox will continue to be available to those choosing Firefox. Vise versa for Chromium. No matter how hard you try and whatever happens, there will be people who won't be happy with the choice. Even if installing another is only three mouse clicks away. :) I really don't care about the default and most tech savvy shouldn't. In this discussion we need only information that is relevant for 'regular user'. So, why would my aunt be happier with Chromium/Firefox? In the end we come to integration. Which one is better integrated with Ubuntu? Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: New Additional Drivers location not discoverable
On 11/21/2012 05:13 PM, Jeremy Bicha wrote: On 21 November 2012 10:39, Brandon Watkins bwa...@gmail.com wrote: I've seen quite a few new ubuntu users having a lot of trouble finding the correct place to install proprietary drivers in ubuntu 12.10, since it was moved into software sources. I am not a new user and I had to ask on IRC where did the drivers go. :) There's still the bigger question of whether configuring drivers should be in Software Sources. For me it was mindbogglingly how it got there. :) Rgrds, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: [Unity-design] Fwd: What do we do with the file manager?
On 08/09/2012 06:15 PM, Sebastien Bacher wrote: I see 2 ways for this cycle: - spend the time to fix those 3 items at minima and figure what to do next at UDS - upload nautilus 3.4 to the archive, have both for one cycle (they will conflict but that's fine), default to 3.4, discuss what to do next at UDS The second one is a safer option imho, especially if nobody has time to work on fixing the issues listed previously. Going from 'a half decently working' file manager to 'a less than half decently working' one wouldn't be a step forward. Even if the latter has the version number 3.6. I'd go with the second option. This deep into the release there is probably no way to make 3.6 an option for 12.10. For the future, if there are people to spare, then it would probably be the best to stick with Nautilus that is patched so it fits in with Unity for at least a couple of cycles. Then some other solution will be needed. It appears that Gnome will be going in a completely different direction than Unity and maintaining things just to keep it integrated will become more and more of a pain. Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Keybinder in Quantal / Global shortcut keys
Greetings, Current version of Keybinder included in Precise is 0.2.2. Packages: libkeybinder0 libkeybinder0-dev python-keybinder This version was compiled against Gtk 2.x and with static binding for python is not usable with Gtk3. I exchanged a few emails with the author and version 3 has been ready for a while now, but never officially released. New version can be found here: https://github.com/engla/keybinder/tree/keybinder-3.0 Version 3 is backwards compatible and will work with Gtk2. It also includes Gobject Introspection bindings. I've been using this version of keybinder in unstable build of Kazam Screencaster and I can confirm that GIR bindings work in Python. This very same git branch is also used for over a year in Arch: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=48856 I suggest that keyinder 0.2.2 is replaced with keybinder 3, this way we keep old functionality and get GIR support. This should really be considered because right now there is no way to implement global shortcuts in python if using Gtk3. Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: [Desktop 12.10 Topic] Quality, testability for the desktop components
On 04/18/2012 10:39 AM, Sebastien Bacher wrote: It would be also nice to see regular run and report of the testsuits for other components which already have one (i.e glib, gtk) and some testing of their rdepends before upload. Almost a year ago, I wrote a short summary on current situation with Ubuntu and about a few ideas on how to make things better [1]. Some of that stuff is already obsolete, but some is still valid. My point was, if Ubuntu is a community project, then QA should also be a part of community. The problem with testing is that it is annoying, something that you have to do and a lot of times it is quickly dismissed by people that don't belong to the ugly corporate world. Which is sad. I was thinking about a certification system for programs and this system would also require some testing and QA for the programs. I believe that people need to be motivated for writing all those tests. And before they start, they need some guidelines on how this is done, what is required and so on. Something similar to what Jono is now doing with Achievements, but for applications, programs, components, not for people. [1] http://www.twm-kd.com/linux/made-for-ubuntu-certificate-proposal/ Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Closing lid on a laptop with nvidia proprietary drivers
Greetings, I am having problems with this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-desktop3/+bug/951479 Not sure why there aren't more people who noticed it, but this is a rather serious issue. Closing the lid of my laptop is supposed to put my laptop to sleep. Now, a bug will prevent this and this in some cases could be harmful for the computer. I know that this is a problem with nvidia proprietary drivers and that nvidia should fix this, but this is a rather serious issue and if someone provides a patch, is there a hope to get it in 12.04? Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: Fwd:Ubuntu, please don't waste time on upgrading your flashy silly themes, desktop-effects!
_Ubuntu,Please listen to us. The voice from users! _ Dear The Voice [1], I've read your posts and I tried really hard to make out what are you trying to tell us. I really did. It seems to me that you are generally displeased with Ubuntu. Other than that, you generated a lot of noise and made much ado about nothing. I don't like peanut butter and you don't see me writing emails to peanut butter companies telling them that their products taste awful and that they should really make something like Nutella. If you have something meaningful to add, to criticize or to tell Ubuntu developers, please do, by all means. Make a list of specific things that are bothering you and present them in a civilized way to the relevant people. You indeed have this option and there are numerous ways on how you can do this, but please, be brief and be specific. When you say: I don't like Ubuntu. Nobody, without a crystal ball or a pack of fortune tellers cards, can't really tell what is bothering you. I do apologize for the rant, but this thread isn't upsetting just my mailbox, it reached my bowels. :/ Regards, David [1] - addressed to the original poster, but for everyone who _knows_ that Unity sucks and they _know_ everybody is running away from Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Scope of Kazam Screencaster (and screen recorders in general)
Greetings, Again, I am turning to all the wise members of the list. :) Lots of things happened with Kazam and a couple of days ago I released version 0.90 which is completely ported to Gtk3 with Gnome Introspection and Python (I really considered Vala, but decided against, so that I can catch Precise feature freeze date). Beside that, I added PulseAudio support for selecting sound source and mixing of two different audio channels. Right now I am at the point where I have to decide if I should port the editing part of Kazam. Kazam previously offered really minor edition functions (cropping, trimming, recoding) and publishing videos to YouTube and VideoBin. I feel that editing is beyond the scope of the program and the ability to open an external video editing tool should be enough. For publishing videos I have mixed feelings. Users accidentally published videos on VideoBin and they were not too happy about it. I'd like to hear some opinions about this so I can decided on it. :) Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: Screen recorder - Kazam
On 01/01/2012 07:47 PM, Sean McNamara wrote: IMHO you shouldn't directly use ffmpeg, libx264, or any other library. For all of your media needs, just use GStreamer. GStreamer has gst plugin wrappers for all of the useful ffmpeg codecs (gst-ffmpeg), and it has plugin wrappers for all of the important standalone codec libraries (including x264). The challenge is getting the user to install them. ;) gst-ffmpeg is terribly undocumented and I think there is no real need for me to use it. I need to support a handful of codecs, not every single one there is. x264enc didn't work because of unknown reasons at the time being and it really pissed me off because I know it used to work. Five minutes ago I realized why it didn't work and I got it working now. It was a serious case of PEBKAC ... To make it short, I was testing with a smaller window 800x800, H264 video size must be divisible by 2 and x264 starts counting with 0. : I'll hack x264 as an option. For starters, you could add most of the gstreamer plugins packages as either suggested or recommended in the Debian source package. If the packages somehow don't get installed automatically (they would get Right now I have base and bad plugins as a requirement and this covers everything I need. For x264 I'll also need ugly plugins package. If that is installed everything should work. you can proceed to allow the user to use the app, but you would want to make them aware that some of the supported codecs aren't available due to missing packages. This is a really neat idea. I'll probably make webm default and a requirement and x264 will be an optional feature. but on Ubuntu, I think it's there in gst-plugins-ugly in multiverse or restricted (correct me if I'm wrong). If I can read this page correctly and the information is valid, it seems that uglies are in the universe. http://packages.ubuntu.com/oneiric/libs/gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly If you want to go with Python, I can't really help you with the implementation details, since I am only a novice at Python programming. But I can wish you lots of luck, and still help out with things like the overall codec approach. I'm still contemplating Python and Vala. I'll see what time will bring. :) I'm quite fluent in python so it would be my first choice. Vala, however, is becoming a defacto standard for Gnome development and that's why I am considering it. I'm allquixotic on freenode, so feel free to ping me. We can even create a new channel for Kazam! Not all that bad idea. I registered a channel, BigWhale will be idling there mostly. :) Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Re: Screen recorder - Kazam
Thanks for the response Sean, On 12/31/2011 09:03 PM, Sean McNamara wrote: Very cool! While I completely agree that these codec choices should be the default, is it easy for the user to configure Kazam to use some other codec? I'm not saying VP8/WebM is bad; rather, I'm saying some other codecs may have their uses (e.g. if you intend to distribute it as a raw video and you want the highest platform compatibility, VP8 is still not that heavily adopted on older Windows systems, or even older Linux distros). And the quality will be much higher if it is encoded directly to the format that you intend to distribute it in, rather than performing lossy transcoding. VP8 is a trade-off between quality and availability. Codecs and their support in most modern Linux distribution is still a nightmare. There are different versions of libraries that support different sets of parameters and options. VP8 is something that is available everywhere and has a decent support in GStreamer. Kazam initially encoded videos with ffmpeg and used libx264 (getting this to work on Linux is not an easy task even now. You have to build ffmpeg from source because of all the licensing and patent issues. Personally I would prefer H264 over VP8. H264 is better, performance wise and quality wise. VP8 is still a resource hog and encoding full screen video with more than 15 fps in realtime can be challenging. In the long run I want to support different codecs with some kind of auto detection what is available and what not. The best place to get started is to read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ContributeToUbuntu -- and follow the links from there. I'll take a look there. Hopefully I can find a checklist document about inclusion in the distro. :) Although if you are able, and there are no really challenging roadblocks, you should go ahead and try with GTK3. I'd like to get rid of GTK2 as soon as possible. :) This is the very first thing on my agenda after I deal with the codec issues and ffmpeg. Are there any really low-level GTK2 APIs that Kazam uses that might've been removed or significantly changed in GTK3? I guess I could read the source, but I'm getting ready to head out the door right now, so... Kazam is written in python and uses pygtk. As far as I know pygtk is becoming obsolete fast and I'll have to do a rewrite sooner or later. I am still deciding if I should do a rewrite in Vala or keep python and use PyGobject. I am equally unfamiliar with PyGObject and Vala. :) Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
Screen recorder - Kazam
Greetings, Recently I picked up Kazam Screencaster. I needed to record something and noticed that Kazam is not working and has some dependency issues in Oneiric. After trying out few other solutions none of them really suited me. Around Christmas I started working on Kazam and made some improvements while solving those dependency problems. Andrew Higginson stopped working on the project and made me a member of Kazam team on Launchpad so I can take over from here. https://launchpad.net/kazam Right now most of the development is done in my PPA until I get things stable enough and merge them in the stable branch of the project. https://launchpad.net/~bigwhale/+archive/kazam-oneric (yes, the typo should be there :/) Quick rundown of changes that I made: - Default backend is now gstreamer. - Video is encoded with vp8 instead of x264. - Audio is encoded with Ogg Vorbis. - Audio/Video container is now WebM. - Package dependencies revised to include only essential packages. - Basic Pulseaudio support. - Independent audio input device selection - Volume setting slider in the works - The path to multiple source recording is now open. Next release should support recoding audio on two channels (application sounds and voice-over commentary, for example). Currently Kazam is still GTK2 and I'd like few pointers on what needs to be done if I want Kazam to be included in the Ubuntu repositories for Precise Pangolin. And if I missed the mailing list, someone please kick me in the right direction. :) (more detailed explanation on my changes and future plans are posted on my blog: http://www.twm-kd.com/linux/kazam-screencaster-0-12/ ) So much for now and a Happy 2021 to everyone! Regards, David -- ubuntu-desktop mailing list ubuntu-desktop@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-desktop
