Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog review part II

So, back in Ubuntu, I've found a link to Synaptic in the System menu, so nevermind there not being a link.

I noticed the update manager was blinking, so I clicked on it, entered the root pbuttword, and two clicks later all my updates are being applied. This is way, way easier than Fedora's mechanism; I can't stress that enough. When it finished, though, I got a nasty-looking dialog box telling me: "Failed to runusr-bin-update-manager: Child terminated with 212 status". Whatever.

Now, camera time. I have a Canon PowerShot A40 that takes Compact Flash memory and connects by USB. I plugged it in, and a dialog box instantly popped up asking if I wanted to import the images. I saw thumbnails of the images, making my choice simple: Yes, I do. It started to download the images into a named folder in my home directory.

This worked very well, and I liked the default image viewer when I went to that folder in my home directory. I soon found out, however, that there's apparently no mechanism for putting images *back* onto the card, for when I want to take it into the shop to get prints made. Maybe someone knows how this is done, but it's not apparent.

Also, the camera takes AVI videos (~30 seconds). Those showed up (even a preview thumbnail!) but when I double-click them, they open in Totem. The sounds works fine but I only get 3 or 4 frames the *entire* video and the player hangs while it's playing. These videos work fine in Windows, BTW; I wonder if it's a codec issue.

Now for the printer. I have a Canon iP 1500 (PIXMA). I clicked Canon iP1500. Sweet. I hit Forward, and now it wants to know the Model. But I thought it did know? Anyway, the iP1500 isn't in the list. It suggests the imageRunner 330s. I say okay, since none of the other selections are any closer to the truth, and then go to the printer properties and try a Test Page. The printer light blinks for a few minutes but nothing comes out. I'll research that in a later review.

Now for the scanner: I have a Primax Colorado 2400u, which hasn't been supported the last time I checked. Sure enough, sane won't it and confirms my suspicions -- still no dice. I know it's a cheap scanner, but it works very well under Windows. Come on, Primax, get with the program.

Anyhow, not a very successful day with Ubuntu but then again, these issues aren't distro-related. I'll continue to work on the printer and camera issues (uploading to card, videos in Totem) but I doubt I'll get anywhere with the scanner.

As I work with Ubuntu, I realize that it's everything I could possibly want in a Linux distribution. I can't fault it for my hardware troubles. It's like Debian, but not so... sucky. It's got the best of Fedora, but not so slow. It's got the best of FreeBSD w.r.t. its package Debt Management (I don't care for compiling from source) and it's got a very nice look to it. It's also fast and boots almost as quickly as XP does. I never thought I'd say this, but Ubuntu is making me reconsider my (previously hateful) stance on GNOME.

Way to go, Ubuntu!

-- Linux 2.4.22-1.2199.4.legacy.nptl athlon GNU-Linux 23:05:01 up 21 days, 2:42, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.06, 0.07