[NTLUG:Discuss] Ubuntu Developer Summit for version 10.04

[Ralph Green]

Howdy,
 
On Wed, 2009-10-28 at 01:24 -0500, Hank Ivy wrote:
> Mandriva runs its update notification as a small icon on the task bar.  The 
> icon changes when there are updates available.  I find it to be informative 
> without being intrusive.  Perhaps the Ubuntu update manager can be configured 
> in a similar manner.
> 
  That is the way it used to work in Ubuntu.  You can't quite change it
back to the old behavior.  In some ways I understand, because they are
trying to make it cleaner and more acceptable to a broad range of
computer users.  But, the current solution is bad enough that I don't
feel good about deploying it.  I use it myself and gripe about it
several times a day when it intrudes upon work I am trying to do.  Yes,
it interrupts me several times most days because I work with a number of
machines.

 If you are a Mandriva user, I have got a question for you.  I used to
run Mandrake(and later Mandriva) on some machines all the time.  I
thought their graphics were about the best of any distro and the systems
worked nicely.  The biggest limitation was that I frequently found
programs I could not find packaged for installation on Mandriva.  I
would install from source for me.  But, I really test distros to see
what to recommend and I don't recommend users install from source,
unless they are somewhat experienced.  Anyway, the real question is
about Mandriva Powerpack.  I installed it and the licensed DVD player it
came with.  Or rather, I started to install the DVD player and found the
license unacceptable.  It said something like "in return for the
privilege of having a licensed DVD player, you hereby consent to having
all your web browsing monitored."  No reasonable person would accept
that, and I wiped Mandriva off the system.  I know some people will say
I could run Mandriva without the DVD player.  That is true, but I don't
trust a company that would put such terms into a license.  This happened
a little before NTLUG left Nokia.  Does Mandriva still have such
unreasonable terms?
Have a good day,
Ralph