Wait a sec...what about derivative users?

[Jono Bacon]

On Fri, 2011-05-20 at 22:22 -0600, Jordan Mantha wrote:
> On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 9:16 PM, Cory Sadowski <csadowski08 at gmail.com> wrote:
> <snip of good stuff about other DEs>
> 
> On one hand I think it is important to keep the other *buntus in mind,
> there isn't anything that has to be very GNOME specific about being an
> Ubuntu power user. On the other hand though is the practical
> challenges of trying to be all things to all users. In the short term
> I think it would be beneficial to have a smallish sized target for an
> initial goal and then branch out from there.
> 
> Something I was considering today along the lines you were talking
> about was the idea of having a tool to create custom *-desktop
> metapackages. I think many power users would want to tweak the default
> app selection (thunderbird instead of evolution, etc.). I think a tool
> that let's them base off an existing *-desktop package and
> add/subtract and then spits out a new -desktop .deb that the user can
> use on fresh installs. It would be nice for such a tool to be able to
> have ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop, and
> lubuntu-desktop for instance as points to base off of.

Totally - I see one of the great areas of potential for this group is in
helping to recommend and advise which of the thousands of apps in the
Ubuntu Software Center users should try, particularly for power users.
This could provide guidance on desktop environments and more.

> > Most of all though, personally, I would absolutely love to see
> > sections dealing with the CLI and classic programs like irssi, mutt,
> > screen, mplayer, the framebuffer, SDL, things like that. How does one
> > configure the TTY? Vcstime doesn't work anymore as-is, so how can one make a
> > stop-gap or fix it permanently? How can we make SDL programs work that
> > require or can utilize mouse access? These are just a few of the
> > questions I've had, and even I still don't have answers for all of it.
> > I think a lack of documentation and acknowledgment of CLI stuff is
> > detrimental to a lot of enthusiasts and power users in general.
> 
> Documentation does a lot of good here. I can imagine easily getting
> into a quagmire of options when it comes to CLI  programs though. Just
> imagine all the possibilities in mutt alone :-) What would be cool
> though, IMO, would be to have some sort of "Featured CLI" apps
> selection like the featured app section of Software Center. Perhaps
> the Ubuntu Power Users community could vote on the coolest/most useful
> CLI apps to recommend.

Agreed: I think that it could be awesome to encourage as a common
contribution in this group the documentation of different needs of power
users.

	Jono

-- 
Jono Bacon
Ubuntu Community Manager
jono(at)ubuntu(dot)com
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