From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:58:42 +0000 (+0000) Subject: New post. X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/commitdiff_plain/24f97d88289178dc3255b5669a466fb9f4a89f76?ds=sidebyside New post. --- diff --git a/blog/data/2011-07-29-debian-desktop.txt b/blog/data/2011-07-29-debian-desktop.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..f94230b145 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/data/2011-07-29-debian-desktop.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +Title: What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu +Tags: english, debian, multimedia, web +Date: 2011-07-29 00:10 + +

While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions +mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its +desktop to be useful for more people. The use case for this is my +parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the +issues.

+ +

I suspect the four missing features are not very hard to implement. +After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to do this in +Debian we would have a source.

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    + +
  1. Simple GUI based upgrade of packages. When there +are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar +indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade +tool to handle it. I have no problem guiding both of my parents +through the process over the phone. If a kernel reboot is required, +this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool. Last +time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in +Debian.
    2. + +
  2. Simple handling of missing Firefox browser +plugins. When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not +currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system +should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type, +and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages +adverticing the MIME type in their control file (visible in the +Packages file in the APT archive). If one or more packages are found, +it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime +type. If the package require the user to accept some non-free +license, this is explained to the user. The entire process make it +more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and +make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and +not the browser for any missing features.
    3. + +
  3. Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format +handlers. When the media players encounter a format or codec +it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system +should search for a package that would add support for it. This +happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264. The selection +and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser +plugin handling. This is as far as I know implemented using a +gstreamer hook. The end result is that the user easily get access to +the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while +explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.
    4. + +
  4. Better browser handling of some MIME types. When +displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to +start emacs to show it. If I remember correctly, when doing the same +in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser. I much +prefer the latter behavour.
    5. + +
+ +

There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite +upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade, +it do not matter much.

+ +

I really hope we could get these features in place for the next +Debian release. It would require the coordinated effort of several +maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.