Why not go for Mephis, or any other of a number of distros that dont require you to manualy install proprietary software if you want it?

As for Automatix (as with any other broken software) the solution if for people who know about the problems to advise against it, and to inform the (rediculously high) number of people recommending it to stop doing so - at least untill the problems have been fixed.

I dont think Ubuntu developers should invest time in debugging a nonincluded third party software, when that time could be spent fixing actual problems with Ubuntu itself.
Anyone who wants to help fix Automatix should join the team; not ask another - nonrelated - team to do it for you.

Even better would be for everyone who is troubled by following wiki guides to get DVD decryption, to surf to lauchpad and help draft and design a tool for educating users about free- vs nonfree software, and help them install the nonfree content after making an imformed descicion.

Making them available within the framework of Ubuntu proper is therefore more complicated than just including them on the CD.

Use launchpad.

F’in COOPERATE.

For everytime someone within ubuntu’s “purity section” screams “oh no those automatix SCUM making us look bad!!”, come upgrade time, there are a ton of users who would make Arnie and company saints for making a tedious process…simple.

Automatix 2 is one of the SLICKEST installation programs I’ve ever had the pleasure to use, and has saved me time and effort in getting multiple machines running “Properly”. Off the disc, ubuntu is a curiosity to anyone other than perhaps Richard “screw-em-all” Stallman. It works, but does it do what most folks want it to do? (mp3/video/dvd/etc?)

Most of us are practical. We want/need/will GET the stuff that allows us to function properly in today’s current media climate.

Shut that off, and we go somewhere else, and I don’t think Canonical would like that very much…do you????

Even if “this” or “that” were included in Ubuntu there is always going to be “something else” that some people are going to want and install separately so some sort of approach to handling the situation is still needed.

It is an interesting problem. I think the solution involves informing the user and being careful not to be unnecessarily perjorative towards third party providers. A similar attitude is needed from third party providers too.

Some of the discussion around this has been unnerving in a similar way to the Mozilla/Debian issue over FireFox. Not in terms of the subject matter but in terms of a lack of civility, respect and an attempt to understand people with different views on the issue.

I applaud Ubuntu for the priclipled apprach to FOSS. But I am not alone in wanting a GNU/linux system on which I can play a DVD or experience the full potential of my PC hardware.

I give credit to the Ubuntu development community for the Add/Remove Applications tool and the enhancements over command line apt-get found in Synaptic Package Manager. But even these tools are still overwhelming to new users who want thing to “just work”. It seems to me that meta-packages are part of the answer — the officially supported install tool should be the only thing making these changes to the system. We just need to make it easier to add third party repositories and select appropriate software for our individual needs.

Matt Zimmerman’s spec for Feisty about the codecs would be a good way (at least) to limit the use of apps a la Automatix.

Another thing which Ubuntu should be concerned about is the fact that many people install (up-to-date releases of) the ATI and the Nvidia proprietary drivers by using the installers on ATI or Nvidia’s websites. Every time the kernel is upgraded the xserver will crash unless the kernel module is recompiled.

I have made my own repositories in order to provide those drivers:
http://albertomilone.com/driver.html

However I doubt that my repositories (which contain up-to-date ATI and Nvidia drivers) can cause any trouble since they would be updated in the dist-upgrade (since Feisty should have a different kernel from Edgy i.e. 2.6.18 or higher).

I’m convinced that my spec for Feisty could solve the problem:
https://features.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/uptodate-ati-nvidia-driver