EasyUbuntu vs Automatix

My recent expirement with XGL and Compiz were unsuccessful and resulted in me totally screwing up X.

Oh well, I had always wanted to try out Automatix anyway.

I had heard good things about Automatix from people on Digg.com. I had never tried it before, but I had used EasyUbuntu in the past. Now after using both of them I felt that it might be nice to write a little review comparing the two of them.

Installation
Since both EasyUbuntu and Automatix are installed with Ubuntu or included in the repos there is a little work invovled in getting them installed and running, but it is in no way difficult.

EasyUbuntu requires that you download, extract and run python script as super user. Easy enough, however if you wanted to use it again in the future you have to use the terminal. If you don't like using your terminal or you're setting up a machine for Grandma, this might not be the best option ( however with a little extra work you could probably set up a launcher for her ).

Automatix requires that edit your /etc/apt/sources.list, authenticate your machine with Automatix servers followed by an apt-get install. This little bit of work is totally worth as it will make updating automatix really easy. You also get a launcher to Automatix in Applications/Systems Tools. Grandma likes this.

Interface
While EasyUbuntu may be more awkward to get into then Automatix, EasyUbuntu has the better interface. First off it looks much nicer using some very sexy GTK UI which makes EasyUbuntu look and feel like it is an offical Ubuntu app. Password prompts are obvious and the installation process looks like Synaptic.

While Grandma might have liked the default launcher that Automatix has, she'll be phoning you up for free tech support trying to figure out how to use it. The UI isn't nearly as hot as EasyUbuntu. Most of the installation process and password prompts are hidden in terminals.

Applications
The main reason we would be installing either Automatix or EasyUbuntu is to make installing things like audio and video codecs easier ( god bless Canada for keeping it legal to install these codecs ) however there are also many other applications that can be installed.

If there is something you want to install right after a fresh install, Automatix will have it. There are more applications on there then I would want to use, and infact, that becomes somewhat of a drawback. While Automatix has the core things you want and the kitchen sink EasyUbuntu just has the core things you want. The need for the latest build of Rythmbox or Thunderbird 1.5 isn't that required or special. Synaptic works well for getting the things you don't get out of EasyUbuntu.

Where both EasyUbuntu and Automatix fail at doing is allowing for the easy install of g++. You still have to do the apt-get install your self, which is really confusing for a first time user.

And the winner is...
Like many things it comes down to preference. EasyUbuntu looks nicer, has a better interface and includes the basic things you need on a fresh install. Automatix has better update support and everything you would dream of installing right off the hop.

In my opinion, I would probably just stick with EasyUbuntu as it does everything I need it to and the installation process goes by a little quicker.

Cobert Proves Wikipedia's Correctness

I was debating putting in 'Thruthiness' instead of 'Correctness' but since I've never watched the Cobert Report I don't think I'm allowed to say that...

In case you haven't seen or heard, Stephen Corbert analyzed Wikipedia and pointed out that 'anyone and everyone and edit any article you want' YouTube link. He then started going on about some Ninteen-Eighty Fourish idea of changing articles on Wikipedia so that it will be seen as fact.

I've written too many essays, posted on too many forums and discussed the quality of Wikipedia too many times to require me to do it all over again.

The neat thing though, is that while Stevie made an interesting point it was proven to be faulty.

Shortly after The Cobert Report mass vandalism hit Wikipedia hard but the Wikipedia staff quickly preveted any attempt at 're-writing the past' that Stevie playfully intended. As a result of these shenanigans, Steve got hit with Wikipedia's ban hammer. link

What really burns me about this is the fact that people actually went off and started vandalizing articles. Wikipeida is like an online library and ( hopefully ) you don't go into your local library and start ripping out and doddling on the pages.

The site is free for anyone to use in collecting and contributing information. Don't be a jack ass and ruin it for others.

Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

People can find a reason to complain about anything, even if it's free and especially if it's software and especially if it's me trying to show off Ubuntu to a friend.

People always like Ubuntu at first, the install is fast, all this software comes right with it, no need to make that stupid floppy boot disk to get your SATA hard drive working with Windows and there is no need to worry about installing extra drivers. Things look pretty good until they try and check out a video or play some music.

"Why can't Linux play my video?" or "Why can't Linux let me listen to a Friggin' MP3?" are always common complaints usually followed by a "Linux sucks!" or some other remark.

The reason that Ubuntu cannot play MP3s and most videos 'out of the box' is because Ubuntu was designed to be Free ( as beer and as in freedom ). The developers wanted to make sure that anyone would be allowed to start developing software without having to worry about legal obligations or proprietary software. As a result some audio and video codecs are required to be downloaded separately ( and every time I try and figure out the legality behind why we need to download them separately I always get confused ).

When you get anything for free you can expect a few catches, and these problems with the audio and video codecs are one of them. And really, you are going to spend more time installing Windows, getting your sound drivers installed then you are to download, extract, install and run something like EasyUbuntu ( and you're going to save yourself a few hundred dollars while you are at it).

Justice Minister and DRM Recap

If I hadn't been so distracted I would have gotten back to commenting about how my meeting with Vic Towes went sooner.

It wasn't what I expected but then again Vic isn't your regular politician, he was very easy to talk to and was aware of the concerns I was addressing. We only talked for about 20 minutes and while he didn't promise that things would change he did sympathise.

He mentioned that radio stations were asking the government for change. Apparently if you use a computer to play a song (that you legitametly own) on the radio you get charged an extra fee and there isn't any rationel as to why. Vic said that he believes that media you should have full use of media that you purchase, which is good news for us in the anti-DRM camp.

I gave him all the research I prinited out before meeting with him and he said he would look it over (he was very interested in the statement the Canadian Music Creators Coalition sent to the government). One thing Vic said though, was that this issue with DRM and the like is up to Bev Oda to decide how Canada will respond to the question of DRM.

Captain Copyright

Those of you who have been paying attention to BoingBoing will know that Captain Copyright is a propagandous cartoon hero who gives children a distored view of copyright law link.

A continuing article on BoingBoing pointed out that Captain Copyright was not correctly citing Wikipedia. The horror and irony of it all! link

It was at that point that I decided to put in my two cents. I e-mailed Access Copyright ( the organization behind Captain Copyright ) and informed them that their citations were not to Wikipedia standards and that because of the policy of their site restricts the use of the GFDL they should remove their Wikipedia Citations.

After a week of not getting back from them I figured my complaint fell on deaf ears, that is until I noticed that all the citations on the Captain Copyright site had been removed.

I have no recieved a reply from Access Canada:
Thank you for taking the time to email us with your concerns.

I can assure you that Access Copyright has nothing but the utmost
respect for Wikipedia and the Wikimedia foundation. In fact, earlier
this year we announced that we were working with Creative Commons
Canada, Creative Commons Corporation in the US, and the Wikimedia
Foundation on a public domain registry that will create an online,
globally searchable catalogue of published works that are in the
Canadian public domain. As soon as we found out that the credits on the
Captain Copyright site for the information from Wikipedia did not follow
their guidelines, we took action. The material was removed so that it
would not remain online while we corrected the credits according to
Wikipedia's GNU license.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to email us. We appreciate
the constructive feedback we have received.

Sincerely,
Maureen Cavan
Executive Director
Access Copyright

Part of me thinks that these guys spent the two weeks it took to get back to me researching to figure out what the hell I was talking about.

Minister of Justice and DRM

During the last federal election there was an interesting post on Boing-Boing regarding a site called Digital Copyright Canada. Digital Copyright Canada created a service to send an already-written letter to all the candidates running in your riding informing them of your concerns regarding DRM and copyright law. In April after the federal election, Digital Copyright Canada asked it's members to show their support against DRM by sending another letter to their member of Parliament. I showed my support and sent letters to Vic Towes ( my member of Parliament in Provencher and the federal justice minister ) both times.

I got feedback last Tuesday.

Mr. Towes said that he would like to meet with me and talk about the issue this Saturday. I am on my way back home to Manitoba for the weekend for the meeting. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Ubuntu Townhall Meeting - Euro Chat Logs - Ubuntu Forums

If you are like me you wanted to check out what got said in the meeting with Shuttleworth but couldn't afford to stay up late. I sat in on the meeting and recorded the logs so that I could read them, I figured that there might be some of you people out there that would want to check them out too so here they are!
Euro Chat Logs

Suckling The Corporate Teat

Your IT Company's Biggest Enemy

This was an interesting post that I found. It deals with whether or not a degree is important when it comes to the computer industry.

Christopher Diggins talks about how he found trouble getting a job as a programmer because of his lack of formal schooling, regardless of his numerous achievements and freelance work. The man was quiet skilled however the human resource personel dismissed him.

There definately is a force in this universe that says that you must have the nice peice of paper to succeed, but is it really worth the hype when all we consider it as is just a piece of paper?

How does expirence compare to the pretty piece of paper?