For the website team - improvement to webpage

[fmandnu]

Hello,

On your documentation page at:

https://xubutu.org/getxubuntu/requirements/ you have the statement: "Your
processor needs to support PAE in order to run Xubuntu." This is correct but
I think that you should also mention that some processors support PAE but
still will not run because the flag does not show in the kernel. I think
that this sentence on your web page should include a mention of "forcepae".
There should also be a link to the Ubuntu PAE Community Help Wiki that
explains "forcepae" and that it can be used with the Xubuntu install. Other
distros have this link and at first I did not think that Xubuntu also
allowed "forcepae" until I tried it.



By the way, I'm very happy with Xubuntu on my old Pentium M+ computer. I
finally got rid of Microsoft XP! Hahaha. Xubuntu is a major improvement to
the point where my old notebook is now (almost) running like a modern
computer. Thanks for all your work on Xubuntu. I'm happy to be running the
XFCE desktop.



Best Regards,

Gary M.

[Pasi Lallinaho]

Hello Gary,

while I see where you're coming from, I think there are a few good
reasons not to mention the forcepae option.

First, I believe the group of potential users with processors that can
support PAE with the forcepae is relatively small (note: we do not have
any exact numbers on this, it's just an educated guess). In any case,
even if the group was larger than we expected, it would still be a minority.

That said, any extra mention we make about PAE or any other thing that
doesn't affect the majority of users will make the threshold to try
Xubuntu for some people bigger.

We already hear from people who have problems figuring out which ISO
they need to download (32- or 64-bit), how they can do it (should they
use Torrents or direct downloads), how they can get it on a USB stick
correctly... I understand these aren't necessarily related, but they all
add to the same process a new user has to go through. This is the reason
why we very recently edited this page to be more concise and clear –
there are no longer different system requirements for trying/installing
and running.

Last, if we were to include a mention about forcepae, we would very
likely want to write our own compact guide (probably in a blog article
format) about it rather than link to the community-editable wiki; while
that is a good resource for many things (and I say this as an
administrator of that wiki), it has its shortcomings and thus I don't
consider it a sensible outlet to refer to in a spot that so important
for us – again: where people either decide to install or not.

I would happily hear from other team members on this though; do we think
a mention about forcepae is necessary?

Thanks for the attention to detail and positive feedback on Xubuntu –
I'm happy to hear you are enjoying Xubuntu!

Cheers,
Pasi

Post by fmandnu
Hello,
“Your processor needs to support PAE in order to run Xubuntu.” This is
correct but I think that you should also mention that some processors
support PAE but still will not run because the flag does not show in
the kernel. I think that this sentence on your web page should include
a mention of “forcepae”. There should also be a link to the Ubuntu PAE
Community Help Wiki that explains “forcepae” and that it can be used
with the Xubuntu install. Other distros have this link and at first I
did not think that Xubuntu also allowed “forcepae” until I tried it.
By the way, I’m very happy with Xubuntu on my old Pentium M+ computer.
I finally got rid of Microsoft XP! Hahaha… Xubuntu is a major
improvement to the point where my old notebook is now (almost) running
like a modern computer. Thanks for all your work on Xubuntu. I’m happy
to be running the XFCE desktop.
Best Regards,
Gary M.

[George DiceGeorge]

http://torios.top/ are working on a PAE linux.

I believe that when we boot from a USB stick etc it should analyse our system and report whether we would be better off with a 64bit or 32 bit system, whether xubuntu will work ok on it, and if not advise on what other linux distro might work, and advise on partitions, free space etc

[george]

On 22/03/2017 11:41, Pasi Lallinaho wrote:
Hello Gary,

while I see where you're coming from, I think there are a few good reasons not to mention the forcepae option.

First, I believe the group of potential users with processors that can support PAE with the forcepae is relatively small (note: we do not have any exact numbers on this, it's just an educated guess). In any case, even if the group was larger than we expected, it would still be a minority.

That said, any extra mention we make about PAE or any other thing that doesn't affect the majority of users will make the threshold to try Xubuntu for some people bigger.

We already hear from people who have problems figuring out which ISO they need to download (32- or 64-bit), how they can do it (should they use Torrents or direct downloads), how they can get it on a USB stick correctly... I understand these aren't necessarily related, but they all add to the same process a new user has to go through. This is the reason why we very recently edited this page to be more concise and clear – there are no longer different system requirements for trying/installing and running.

Last, if we were to include a mention about forcepae, we would very likely want to write our own compact guide (probably in a blog article format) about it rather than link to the community-editable wiki; while that is a good resource for many things (and I say this as an administrator of that wiki), it has its shortcomings and thus I don't consider it a sensible outlet to refer to in a spot that so important for us – again: where people either decide to install or not.

I would happily hear from other team members on this though; do we think a mention about forcepae is necessary?

Thanks for the attention to detail and positive feedback on Xubuntu – I'm happy to hear you are enjoying Xubuntu!

Cheers,
Pasi

On 2017-03-11 21:20, fmandnu wrote:
Hello,
On your documentation page at:
https://xubutu.org/getxubuntu/requirements/ you have the statement: “Your processor needs to support PAE in order to run Xubuntu.” This is correct but I think that you should also mention that some processors support PAE but still will not run because the flag does not show in the kernel. I think that this sentence on your web page should include a mention of “forcepae”. There should also be a link to the Ubuntu PAE Community Help Wiki that explains “forcepae” and that it can be used with the Xubuntu install. Other distros have this link and at first I did not think that Xubuntu also allowed “forcepae” until I tried it.

By the way, I’m very happy with Xubuntu on my old Pentium M+ computer. I finally got rid of Microsoft XP! Hahaha
 Xubuntu is a major improvement to the point where my old notebook is now (almost) running like a modern computer. Thanks for all your work on Xubuntu. I’m happy to be running the XFCE desktop.

Best Regards,
Gary M.
--
Pasi Lallinaho (knome) › http://open.knome.fi/
Xubuntu Website Lead & Council Member › http://xubuntu.org/
Shimmer Project co-founder › http://shimmerproject.org/
Ubuntu member




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[flocculant]

Post by George DiceGeorge
I believe that when we boot from a USB stick etc it should analyse our
system and report whether we would be better off with a 64bit or 32
bit system, whether xubuntu will work ok on it, and if not advise on
what other linux distro might work, and advise on partitions, free
space etc
[george]
...

--

I look forward to seeing your code to do that ;)

[George DiceGeorge]

On 22/03/2017 12:40, flocculant wrote:


On 22/03/17 12:14, George DiceGeorge wrote:


I believe that when we boot from a USB stick etc it should analyse our system and report whether we would be better off with a 64bit or 32 bit system, whether xubuntu will work ok on it, and if not advise on what other linux distro might work, and advise on partitions, free space etc

[george]

...

[flocculant]

Post by George DiceGeorge

Post by flocculant

Post by George DiceGeorge
I believe that when we boot from a USB stick etc it should analyse
our system and report whether we would be better off with a 64bit or
32 bit system, whether xubuntu will work ok on it, and if not advise
on what other linux distro might work, and advise on partitions,
free space etc
[george]
...

--

I look forward to seeing your code to do that ;)

i have programmed in Fortran, PL/M, Coral, Basic and Javascript...
was thinking of helping with the user manual for torios...
[george]
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Virus-free. www.avast.com
<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>

Maybe talk to people on their mailing list?

Torios is nothing to do with us

regards

[flocculant]

Post by Pasi Lallinaho
Hello Gary,
while I see where you're coming from, I think there are a few good
reasons not to mention the forcepae option.
...
Cheers,
Pasi

Post by fmandnu
Hello,
“Your processor needs to support PAE in order to run Xubuntu.” This
is correct but I think that you should also mention that some
processors support PAE but still will not run because the flag does
not show in the kernel....
Best Regards,
Gary M.

--
Pasi Lallinaho (knome) ›http://open.knome.fi/
Xubuntu Website Lead & Council Member ›http://xubuntu.org/
Shimmer Project co-founder ›http://shimmerproject.org/
Ubuntu member

If someone comes up with suitable wording for using forcepae - which
would sit on wiki.x.o NOT the Ubuntu page - then I see no reason why not
have a short statement on Sys Requirements. If.

Mostly I agree with the reasons why we don't mention atm.

Kev