Comments on: Your Meerkat Needs You! Help Hunt down geeky app descriptions in the software centre

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:46:00 +0000

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By: Cord Brandes

Cord Brandes — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:37:00 +0000

Hi there, I would be very pleased to help you all with that topic. I am from Germany so I will try to help you with the German descriptions in translating and generating descriptions

cya
record81

By: ubuntubuzz

ubuntubuzz — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:55:00 +0000

can’t wait to see next episode of ubuntu

By: Naeddyr

Naeddyr — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:03:00 +0000

Obviously it seems that Ubuntu needs a competent English translation, then!

By: you find me

you find me — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Decepticons Attack !! Realy !!

By: Christiaan Druif

Christiaan Druif — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:52:00 +0000

I don’t wanna bitch here, but I think you are not choosing the right words. Instead of “open source” I think you mean “free” as in “don’t need to pay to download it”.
Because open source stands for publicly available code. This code can then be changed and what-not by “programmers”. The average Joe doesn’t give a damn darn thing if he can see/use the code. He want’s good software and FREE. He might even expact the same behaviour he was used to in Windows.

That being said; I too think the desciptions should change, not just because of the average Joe, but for all. I’m a student to become a bachelor of ICT here in Holland and even I don’t always know what all the programs do (before I read a review or something on OMG! for example).

By: Nothing

Nothing — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:25:00 +0000

I don’t believe that anyone thinks that this kind of wording is better. It just kinda crept in.

By: osteenbergen

osteenbergen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:17:00 +0000

Just checked programs in the “Provided by Ubuntu” section. I did until Anjuta IDE and I got bored, but at least I did 50 and 17 bug reports :D Definitely needed. So if anyone would like to continue over there, please do.

It took me 1 hour to do 50 items and with 2323 items available it would take roughly 47 hour to check everything that is listed (excluding the 32057 other techical items).

Some nerd examples:
“This package contains akonadi agents written using kdelibs. Any package that uses akonadi should probably pull this in as a dependency. The kres-bridges is also parts of this package.
This package is part of the kdepim-runtime module”

And one from Abe’s Amazing Adventure:
“This package contains the architecture dependent file of the game”

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:30:00 +0000

The description for Pidgin is “graphical multi-protocol instant messaging client for X” rather than “Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once.” because it’s taken from the debian package, which is correctly following packaging policy guidelines.
They state (IIRC) that the short description should be less than 60 characters, but as informative as possible, not include the package name, nor begin with “a” or “the” or end in a full stop. It should complete the sentence:
provides/is a .
Following these guidelines results in:
pidgin is a graphical multi-protocol instant messaging client for X.

I agree that it’s still geeky, but it does what was asked of it. Descriptions appearing in the Ubuntu Software Centre seem to require their own guidelines. The bigger problem is that these aren’t easily foundâ€”I’m assuming that they actually exist, somewhereâ€”and should be linked from the packaging guide (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide/Complete), which currently makes no mention of the Software Centre, and cites a broken link for “[m]ore information on how to make a good description”.

By: daniel

daniel — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:31:00 +0000

“These may sound like minor….plays can not be understated.” is the largest run-on sentence i have read this month! Nonetheless it is a great idea. I will do everything I can to help as it is an exemplary reason for new users to leave Ubuntu after tying it because, after all, if you can’t understand what you are about to install than it is an annoyance, one which I would like to help avoid for others, who are new to Ubuntu and would like an open source alternative to a traditional “for sale” operating system. I just beat you!!!!!!!!!JK love this site and all your posts/news. Keep up the good work!

By: V for Vincent

V for Vincent — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:09:00 +0000

Great idea. Everyone needs to get off their high horse and accept that this type of wording is better. Yes, most of the current descriptions are fine for the current audience, but we’re looking to grow, not stagnate.

By: Joern Konopka

Joern Konopka — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:34:00 +0000

Ask your Momma what a Client is…nuff said..

By: d0od

d0od — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:23:00 +0000

I think the difference is that whilst the current definition may literally correct it blinds non-geeks (i.e. people who don’t know what Ubuntu is it just came pre-installed on their netbook etc) with words that mean nothing to them. Put simply: it isn’t as helpful a description it could be.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:18:00 +0000

i don’t consider myself a “geek” (like 50% newcomer even though i’m an 99% ubuntu user for some years) but i can’t see why the “graphical multi-protocol instant messaging client for X” is that bad. ok, ignore the “for x” part if you don’t know what x is. the rest is quite ok, isn’t it?. it could include what protocols are supported , i know, but that’s just something they ignored, not “geek stuff”.

By: Peterson EspaÃ§oporto

Peterson EspaÃ§oporto — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:11:00 +0000

LOL I love those linux ‘cookies’ =D

By: Ryan1

Ryan1 — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:08:00 +0000

same for the german description:
Something like “Chat with instant messengers. Supporting AIM, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN, Yahoo and more…”

The elaborations are even much better.

By: rAX

rAX — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:20:00 +0000

That’s really a good step :)

I found funny description two days ago of the package “blackbox”, the post reminded me of it, this is the last part of it:

“… If none of this sounds familiar to you, or you want your computer to
look like Microsoft Windows or Apple’s OS X, you probably don’t want
this package.”

By: dbrenha

dbrenha — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:04:00 +0000

sometimes on translations jargon gets to be not so geeky, in portuguese the pidgin translation goes for something in the lines of “internet messenger for aim, google talk, jabber”… and so on.

By: XFACT

XFACT — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:01:00 +0000

Well, great point, you know how horrible I feel about geek words, (obviously I am a forever newcomer) and some of the description was like Japanese to me, joy those are finally being interpreted to human comprehending language :P