Ubuntu and Automatix... woah!

Hades · 22 Feb 2006 at 22:45

I've been a fan of Ununtu for some time now. One of its strengths is APT and another is the great community support. Generally if you have a problem then someone has already fixed it and written about it. I just installed Ubuntu again on my desktop and noticed the forums talking about a utility called Automatix.

Wow it's useful. It gives you a list of things you can do. Just tick it and away you go. The list includes such gems as installing the nVidia drivers, installing multimedia and all the codecs, upgrading Firefox, etc, etc, etc. Basically someone has gone to all the trouble of working out how to install many of these standard items and wrapped them up in a nice utility.

toy_soldier · 23 Feb 2006 at 11:24

Not sure about Automatix but I agree with you about Ubuntu having great support, the best thing about it has to be APT though!

I will check it out anyway, need to get an old machine first though as i dont want linux taking over my MBR!

janesssssy · 23 Feb 2006 at 12:08

yeah ive tried this, great script.

zetec452 · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:06

Just downloaded the latest ubuntu and will have a go with this later.

Amleto · 27 Feb 2006 at 12:16

I'm definitely regretting trying the 64bit version though, and no automatix for x86_64. I'm not even sure if i386/x86 would work on amd64?

Clark Nova · 27 Feb 2006 at 16:02

I think I have read on ubuntuforums.org that Automatix doesn't work correctly with Dapper Drake (Ubuntu version 6.4) just yet so be careful with it.

I tried it on 5.4 (Breezy) and it worked like a charm for the most part. The only problem was if I wanted to uninstall something it wasn't as easy as it could have been but still a very good script.

Dunky · 27 Feb 2006 at 17:12

Automatix is a good idea, however it does have it's opponents and rightly so. Some people feel that having codecs and 'non-free' (or to be more precise, software which is patented or falls under a license not compatible with GPL / Open Source) items only a click away defeats the whole point of Ubuntu strongly supporting Free Software. I'm also aware that there are a few security concerns with it in places but I don't the ins/outs of it since I haven't tried it. I personally dislike it but that's because I'm so used to using apt and console. As long as it's an optional feature, then it's a good idea for those who are either new to Linux and/or people who want a machine to have all their software installed ASAP.