Vortragsdetails

Genie in the Bottle: K/Ubuntu's Laptop Magic!

von Paul Sladen (Nineteen Inch)

Samstag, 02.06.2007, Saal 5: Wiesbaden, 16:00-17:00 Uhr

Each computer has to be better than the rest: more blue LEDs, bigger specifications and lots "extra special features". We expect wireless and video to work out of the box now, but there is much more. In the K/Ubuntu, when something doesn't work "automagically", then it a bug---pure and simple. Everything that came with the hardware is included, from brightness controls to one-off DVD hotkeys...

In 2005, the Ubuntu laptop team got a jump-start with the purchase of 50 different models of the latest notebooks. Each computer was sent to a different developer in the Ubuntu community, across several continents. In a distributed effort, the laptop team attempt to test, record and [eventually] fix everything that worked in the original purchase.

The best in life is what people shouldn't notice. Power-saving and bluetooth should work aswell as they do on other operating systems, K/Ubuntu is not there yet but it's the goal. Making things work often means automating what a user could do manually: plugging parts together like auto-detected Lego!

Some OEM manufactuers actively approach Ubuntu with pre-release hardware samples and technical documentation, all the rest require slow reverse-engineering and individual testing.

There are hundreds of models of Laptop, each with quirks and workarounds. We explore the magic and effort that underneath Kubuntu and Ubuntu's "It Just Works(tm)" idealogy. ...One day Ubuntu even plans to support the [¤] and [$] keys on Acer laptaps, in the mean time we enjoy seeing pictures of even more crazy hardware!

Über den Autor Paul Sladen:

In 2004, Paul Sladen noticed several Debian developers disappearing off to Oxford, UK and followed them. There, he discovered what would be soon become 'Ubuntu' and has been distracted ever since.

Working with userspace magic, he loves making crack work. If a laptop comes with a fancy gadget, LED, hotkey or jet-thrusters that don't work "out-of-the-box" under K/Ubuntu, then that is a bug liable to cause distraction until fixed.

Paul Sladen is a Freelance *nix/ISP/core-networking Consultant specialising in providing high-quality on-demand clue(tm) for anything that doesn't involve MS Windows. Based between London and Nottingham, Great Britain, he is generally seen travelling with a ThinkPad laptop, Brompton folding bicycle ...and hopeful in future, an English liveaboard narrowboat.