Re: [PLUG] Linux distributions without version upgrades

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

On 12/20/2011 04:18 AM, JP Vossen wrote:
> > Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:47:56 -0500
> > From: Scott Budihas<budihas@gmail.com>
>
> > Have you tried the PPAs for some of those packages?
>
> No. I was aware that some existed, though I never got around to coming
> up with a list. Thanks! I also would have sworn I looked for Liferea and
> didn't find it...
>
>
> > https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/firefox-stable
> >
> > https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/thunderbird-stable
> >
> > https://launchpad.net/~libreoffice/+archive/ppa
> > for LibreOffice on Lucid you have to remove OpenOffice packages
> >
> > https://launchpad.net/~liferea/+archive/ppa
> >
> >
> > I have been using these (except liferea) with no issues. You get
> > security updates too. There are many other PPAs out there but these are
> > by the same packaging teams that handle the newer releases so I am
> > assuming these are safe.
>
> That's a great list, I'll try them when I have a few moments...

I finally tried these.

1) The Firefox one was gone, because FF 10 is now merged into 10.04 LTS, 
so that isn't needed.  (I dunno who thought tabs on top was a good idea, 
but I really hate it.  First thing I do is View > Toolbars and uncheck 
that.)


2) Thunderbird installed, but had no dictionaries.  At first I thought 
that was due to the OpenOffice --> LibreOffice screwiness, but I found a 
bunch of stuff in Google that says otherwise.  Loosely following steps 
in http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2417105 finally 
fixed it for me.  I did:

1) In FF: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/language-tools/
2) Download "English (US)" to Desktop
3) In TB: "Tools, > Add-ons > Extensions > {HIDDEN inside the really 
stupid and obscure wrench&screwdriver icon} > Install add-on from file..."
4) Pick the XPI file on the Desktop & install
5) Restart TB

"United States English Spellchecker 5.0.1" is now installed in 
"Extensions" (not in Languages, which has "English (GB) Language Pack 
10.0.2" which does not work.  Also, 'sudo aptitude install 
thunderbird-locale-en-us' and TB restart failed to do anything at all.

OTOH, the "Lightning" Calendar looked like it might finally be ready for 
prime-time, so I tried that again.  It looks great, too bad it doesn't 
actually work with my Google Calendars.  I have a different failure on 
each of several different calendars, though I admit that a) some may be 
Google's fault and b) I haven't spent any time t-shooing.

Bottom line, neither of those things are a really good first impression 
of TB 10, though granted this is from a PPA, not the main repos.


3) You do have to remove OO.o first, or you get all kinda of complaints. 
 But uninstalling OO.o also took a bunch of the spell checkers.  Huh? 
 When I did the install LibreOffice looked really, REALLY bad.  It 
turns out you need "libreoffice-gtk-gnome" or "libreoffice-kde" to make 
it look right.  I also installed some other stuff:

a) sudo apt-get purge 'openoffice*'
b) sudo aptitude install aspell aspell-en dictionaries-common iamerican 
ispell language-support-en wamerican wamerican-large
c) sudo aptitude install libreoffice libreoffice-pdfimport 
libreoffice-presenter-console libreoffice-wiki-publisher 
libreoffice-presentation-minimizer libreoffice-gtk-gnome

The "libreoffice-gtk-gnome" thing was mildly annoying, but again, for a 
non-main PPA, bolt-on to a couple-years-old-release (10.04 LTS), 
understandable.  I really don't get removing the other spelling stuff 
though...that's just a bad deps list.  And it's a good thing I actually 
read what it was removing, and understood that it was a Bad Thing...


4) Liferea Just Worked, so far at least, but the PPA is circa 2010 and 
only a few minor point releases newer than the LTS version, and no where 
near the current release version.


There's a reason I mostly only use Ubuntu LTS releases, and this just 
re-affirmed that.  I want this stuff to Just Work and not change too 
much.  And before anyone tells me to get a Mac, I also want to work the 
way *I* want to work, I don't want vendor-lock-in-from-hell, *when* it 
breaks I want at least a chance to be able to fix it or work around it, 
and I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for "pretty" hardware.


<rant>I thought one of the benefits to F/OSS software was that it 
shipped when it was ready, not because Marketing said so.  Well, you 
sure as hell can't tell that from Mozilla or Ubuntu lately... :-(  Too 
many changes, too fast and way too buggy.  (Yeah, yeah, and get off my 
grass too!)</rant>

Later,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
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