Greetings. The first thing I want to say is that I really appreciate all the
work that goes into Trisquel. I value being able to download and use a fully
free code OS, which is user-friendly enough to be installed for GNUbies (GNU
newbies ;), to replace Windows versions as old as XP (or maybe even older). I
appreciate that the applications software that comes bundled with a default
Trisquel install is generally stable, user-friendly, and covers most users'
everyday needs.
Since I can't contribute to free code software by programming it (at least
not yet), I try to contribute by giving thoughtful feedback from a user
perspective, in the hopes that this will help developers and maintainers
improve it. The issue I want to address today is the methods available for
installing new software from the Trisquel repositories. I'm going to start by
describing my suggested solution, then explain the problem I believe my
solution will solve.
In short, I propose that the difficulty level involved in installing an
application should give some clue as to how user-friendly the application is.
AFAIK there are only three ways to install applications from the Trisquel
repos:
* Add/Remove Programs: Any new GNU/Linux user who installs Trisquel will use
AR/P a lot, at least at first, because A/RP is prominent in the start menu,
and will be one of the first things new users see when they click the
Trisquel icon on the start bar. Any applications offered here should be
graphical, stable, and GNUbie-friendly.
* Synaptic Package Manager: Synaptic is a little more confusing, as it
doesn't distinguish between user applications and other kinds of software, or
between user-facing applications, and the various back-end packages they are
made up of. However, it does have a GUI interface, so slightly more
experienced users might venture into using Synaptic if they can't find what
they're looking for in A/RP. Any applications offered here should be
graphical and stable.
* Apt-get install: this requires a user to be comfortable opening a terminal
and using the command line, remembering to use 'sudo', and knowing the exact
package name of the application they want to install. I've been using
GNU/Linux as a desktop OS for over a decade, and I still sometimes struggle
with this. Any application in the repo can be installed this way, including
command-line only apps, and experimental alpha and beta software, which is
fine. Anyone who installs software this way is most likely prepared to cope
with any problems that may come up.
I know I'm proposing a major change from the way package installation is
currently done, which might require major changes to somehow mark available
applications according to three classifications (suitable for GNUbies,
suitable for intermediate users, suitable for experts). Why do this?
To illustrate what I'm proposing, I recently installed these four
applications using A/RP: Hydrogen, Transcriber, FreeBirth, and FreeWheeler.
* Hydrogen: the version in the repos is beta software (0.9.6beta3), 9.6 was
released over a year ago. The graphical UI (user interface) is mature, and
intuitive enough that I could figure out how to start using it just by
playing around. Even running the beta seems pretty stable, and from a look at
the project homepage, the development community appears to be active. This is
an example of a good application to make available in A/RP.
* Transcriber: the version in the repos (1.5.1) was released more than two
years ago, and the package has been obseleted by TranscriberAG. The UI is
graphical, but not optimized for GNUbies, for example, testing the stability
was hard because I couldn't find my file partition using the open file
dialogue (not even under /media or /mnt), and had to copy a speech file to
the desktop because I could test with it. When I did manage to load the
speech file, it loaded and played fine, so stability seems to be fine. This
is an example of a good application to make available in Synaptic, but too
rough-around-the-edges to be in AR/P.
* FreeWheeling is also experimental software (0.6-2) and the UI barely
qualifies as graphical. No instructions are available, and the program won't
even load the UI if JACK hasn't been started first. Another look at
SourceForge suggests this may be a dead project too. This is an example of an
application to make available only by apt-get install, or *maybe* Synaptic,
but it certainly should *not* be available from AR/P.
* FreeBirth: the version in the repos, 0.3.2, was released in 2008. There are
no bundled instructions, and no link to any. The UI is so bad I can't even
figure out how to make it start. If it's the green button above the yellow
button with the pause icon on it, that one just makes the app crash. A web
search for "FreeBirth" brings up a SourceForge project, which says its alpha
software, and appears to have been abandoned for years. This is an example of
an application to make available only by apt-get install (to be honest, I'm
not sure why it's in the repos at all).
New users will tend to assume, because A/RP is so prominently displayed, and
so user-friendly itself, that it will only offer applications that a) are
stable releases, b) work without lots of tinkering, and c) have enough
instructions bundled with them to at least start using them. Also, new users
installing packages using a graphical interface, even a slightly geeky one
like Synaptic, will tend to assume that any application they install is going
to have some kind of GUI, and that command-line only application would be
installed using... the command line. An experienced GNU/Linux user will of
course know that things are often a bit more complicated than that, but a
GNUbie may not. Besides, when you stop and think about it, these are actually
fairly reasonable assumptions. Can we make them true?
BTW I understand that not everyone reading this forum has English as their
first language, so if anything I say is confusing, please feel free to ask
for clarification.
- [Trisquel-users] Helping new users choose application softwar... strypey
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