Ubuntu, Gnome lietojamības problēmas

Izrāvumi:

In the “Time and Date Settings” control panel, I have checked the checkbox “Periodically synchronize clock with Internet servers“. If my Ethernet cable isn’t plugged in during startup, Ubuntu spends 63 seconds “configuring network interfaces”, in which I assume it learns that I’m not connected to the Internet. (If it doesn’t learn this, what is it doing all that time?) It then takes another 37 seconds trying to synchronize the clock with a time server, which can’t work because (surprise!) I’m not connected to the Internet. I don’t mind the clock synchronizing “periodically” — but please, not when I’m waiting for Ubuntu to start up.

When the camera is plugged in, an alert appears asking if I want to import photos from the device. This alert has the title “Warning” and features an exclamation mark icon that looks like it is about to explode. This is not reassuring.

The login screen uses the term “reboot”. (My shoes are fine as they are, thanks.)

Double-clicking on a track in a CD window produces an alert of mammoth proportions and comical contents. It begins: “The filename ‘Untitled 1′ indicates that this file is of type ‘WAV Audio’. The contents of this file indicates that it is of type ‘unknown’. If you open this file, the file might present a security risk to your system.” A security risk to the system? Ah, of course — that must be because it’s a CD of songs by Cat Stevens.

We’re already well past the two-short-sentences limit for an alert people might possibly bother reading, but there’s more. “Do not open the file unless you created it yourself, or received the file from a trusted source.” (I guess that rules out CDs from all major record companies, dangit.) “To open the file, rename the file” (I can’t, it’s on a CD!) “to the correct extension” (rename it to an extension?) “for ‘unknown’” (and the correct extension for “unknown” would be what?), “then open the file normally.” (As opposed to what?) “Alternatively, use the Open With menu to choose a specific application for the file.” The coup de grâce: by default, for CD tracks, there is no such menu.

(...) And radio buttons look like they were drawn in the dark by a drunk with a broken pencil.

Part of the problem is that the Guide is greatly caught up in its own minutiae. For example, it contains this morsel: “Also in this release is the FAQ Guide which was ported from the Ubuntu Wiki to Docbook and is now a permanent feature of the Ubuntu documentation project.”

If you know too much to understand the problem with that sentence, here it is again, translated into a simulation of how a regular person would understand it: “Also in this spurt is the Worple Guide which was worpled from the Ubuntu Worple to Worple and is now a permanent feature of the Ubuntu worple worple.”