This is one step FROM newbies, not to.

But apart from this Lucid is pretty OK

If it becomes the standard, then I too would like to see two of the problems mentioned above solved:

1. Batch operation. “User story: Radu wants to uninstall all games on his computer. He types ‘game’ in the search box, clicks ‘select all’, and then clicks ‘uninstall’. An annoying dialog box asks if he’s sure. But he can live with it.”

2. Easier way to see descriptions. “User story: Claudia wants to install a program for plotting math functions that she can embed in a webpage. She’s not sure if such a tool exists. She types ‘math plot’ in the search box and then reads the descriptions of the matching applications to see if any satisfies her needs.” What about sliding the description under an application when that application is selected (instead of going to a different pane)?

i am using ubuntu netbookremix 9.10

advance thanks

I was so happy with the previous method, you just scrolled down, reading the descriptions and with the help of the stars which gave you a clue about which one was better (if you’re new, it really helps). Then you clicked the 10 or 100 programs you liked, install, and voila! All ready to go. If after that the computer spent, say, 10 minutes to install them, you just leave it and come back later. But now you have to wait for each and every program to install to go and install the next one. And don’t try to install more than one at the same time because you only get error messages. It really drives me nuts.

I have no idea if there’s any forum to ask for this change to be done, but if any of you know it, please do it for me.

How do you install more than 1 program at a time???

I did a clean install and now have to install about 125 programs which may take a few days instead of just 125 clicks to select and then a click for install! Before I’d go have lunch and comeback and all was ready… Not a good idea to require so many clicks and so much time. They should have been able to keep add/remove and just add more functions to it!!!

Holy cow! In add/remove one has at once glance access to (1) which category one is looking at, (2) Description of the program currently selected, (3) community rating of the usefulness/quality of the program, (4) list of other programs in the same category, (5) list of all categories and (6)Big icons.

All in all, add/remove has always manage to encourage me to try out other software. It was appealing going there, quickly accessing all that information and wondering whether this or that could provide one a boost on productivity, or simply on fun. Only for very technical stuff was I using Synaptic, as there wasn’t other way. All real-state of the window was smartly used to provide as much information to the user as possible. Now, this USC (Unbelievable Software Crap)
has half of the window area displaying an annoying white background, i.e., nothing,nada, pure real-state waste; now, I simply feel repelled by that crap UI, horrified, traumatized.

Seriously, anybody who claims this USC is “clearer” or “easier” or “simpler”, either does not have any clue of what simple means, or is a blatant dishonest lier trying to “sell” us something. If I normally hate the latter, even much more if this happens within the Open Software community.

I do not doubt that the underlying code of this USC might be more powerful, cleaner, faster (add whatever you want) than add/remove. The point here is in the UI. It ignores the most basic rule of UI design: design it in such a way that the user requires the least number of mouse clicks as possible to access any desired information. I repeat here, “the least” number of clicks. Those teenager brains that went on designing this USCrap must have mistaken the “smaller than” sign by the “greater than”. That the best I can say about them. And then they go and have the happy idea of forcing the user to adopt this USC by default!

Thanks to your article, and to MIke’s comment on October 31, I found what the name of the previous software was, and as Mike, I rushed to install add/remove. I can’t see it yet anywhere (what the hell has this USCrap done!?) but I hope maybe a reboot will bring me back one of the simplest and most efficient software manager around: add/remove.

1. Comodo flagged Wubi as a virus!
2. Trying to install MythTV failed several times.
3. Ubuntu offered to supply a “firmware” update to my TV card to enable it to be used… no thanks!!
4. I could find no easy way to configure Compiz. Trying to do so froze my system.
5. The desktop is ugly (only my opinion).
6. Everytime you try to do something, you are prompted for a user password.
7. There’s no real indication as to which application is regarded as the most complete for a given task, when searching for things to install.

Besides all that, it boots fairly quickly and all other hardware worked fine.

I wanted desperately for Ubuntu to impress me and stall me from purchasing Windows7, but I’m afraid the issue has now been settled and Bill will become just a little bit richer fairly soon.