Re: [rox-users] Praise, thanks and a few suggestions

[Thomas L. <ta...@ec...>]

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:37:08 +0000, Liam Proven wrote:

[...]
> Then I tried adding the ROX-Debian repository to my sources.list file and
> installing rox-desktop. No joy. The recommended line is not in the
> standard format and when I do an apt-get update it says it's ignoring that
> repo.

Seems to work here using an Ubuntu (breezy) chroot. However, installing
doesn't work, because the 'menu' package isn't available. What line did
you add that didn't work? I used the one here:

  http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/Debian

[...]
> Secondly, quite a number of the programs don't work. Some require Debian
> packages to be installed, like xplanet for the Planet applet, gtop for
> the memory monitor and so on. Many things required libglitz.

XPlanet seems to be in Ubuntu, according to Google. Maybe you need to add
the 'universe' repository?

http://packages.ubuntu.com/breezy/graphics/xplanet

None of my programs require libglitz, but obviously it's up to the
maintainers of individual programs what they depend on.

> But once I had downloaded and installed ROX-all I found that most of the
> apps were still coming in by Zeroinstall.

All programs from ROX-All use Zero Install. Otherwise, the download would
be much bigger than 600K - ROX-Filer alone is over 1 Mb!

> A couple of ideas.
> 
> [1] A complete package which actually /installs/ the /whole/ base
> desktop. It's small and storage is cheap. I don't want to 0install
> things, I just want to click and go.

I think you'll find that download+click will be no faster than
click+download... and quite a lot slower if you don't use every single
program available in the all-in-one download (and you won't, because many
of them will be out-of-date, unless you're volunteering to make a new
multi-megabyte all-in-one bundle every week or so).

> This also would facilitate preloading required dependencies such as
> gtop, xplanet or whatever.

But many people won't want xplanet (or possibly gtop). It would be better
to install them only if the user tries to run the corresponding program
(better integration with APT would be useful here).

> [2] I can't see any obvious way to access the WM menu, if indeed there
> is one. It took me an hour of fiddling to find how to launch a shell!

Like RISC OS's window manager, OroboROX doesn't have a popup menu.

> [3] I can't see any way of launching exiting apps.

/usr/share/applications is the normal place on Debian-type systems. Might
need to advertise this more.

> [4] I was amazed to have OroboROX installed for me. I did already have a
> window manager, thanks! 

It should ask you if you want it (the dialog that tells you how much it's
about to download).

> Is this is good idea? Wouldn't just a list of suggested simple supported
> WMs be easier?

It does give you a list (or at least a command box) if you click Cancel
when it suggests running OroboROX.

> As for overall installation:
> 
> Might I respectfully suggest that Ubuntu is a bit of a priority?

[ snip good business reasons to support Ubuntu ]

Priorities don't really work like that in volunteer projects ;-) Patches
for Ubuntu get added when Ubuntu users submit them (including feedback
like you are providing).

> I'd really like to create an Ubuntu Rox, a lightweight version based
> around ROX and a selection of all the ROX-compatible software out there,
> plus either popular or lightweight Linux programs such as
> Firefox/Thunderbird/OpenOffice or Opera/Sylpheed/GNOME Office.
> 
> Would anyone be interested in assisting in this? It's high time that
> there was a distro based around ROX - it's *the* best way to promote
> interest in the desktop. And secondarily to that, a metapackage that can
> be installed in a single operation on Ubuntu, giving users of the most
> popular desktop around an easy way to play with ROX, would be of
> interest to a great many people, I think.

It should be easy enough to make one based on the existing Debian
meta-package, if you're interested.

> Comments welcome!
> 
> However, all these criticisms notwithstanding, it's a very impressive
> piece of work and so far I really like it, even though it's taking me a
> lot of getting to grips with. My thanks to all involved, especially Dr
> Leonard and Dennis Tomas for his efforts on Debian. Great work!


-- 
Dr Thomas Leonard		http://rox.sourceforge.net
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