Building subsurface on Ubuntu

[Jan Schubert]

On 19.03.2013 15:49, Robert C. Helling wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Mar 2013, Dirk Hohndel wrote:
>
>
>> So let's add that to the website.
>
> I would support that. Just copy&paste from Jan's mail.

Yes, this was my original intention and I remember to have mentioned
this in my original mail

>
>> I'll be more than happy to rewrite that page so it is easier to
>> understand.
>
> I think the 1. 2. 3. approach giving explicit commands to copy&paste
> to the command line is the way to go. It is relatively newbee save and
> people who know more can read and abstract for themselves.

Indeed. If Ubuntu is unable to provide recent software for their users
we should make it possible. Lets add an separate sub section for Ubuntu
on the Linux build part on the website. Given that not all people from
the Ubuntu user group are familiar with something like a shell we may
also contain a short section how to open a shell/terminal (CTRL-ALT-T)
and creating a subdirectory (mkdir src) for checking the sources out and
building.

An even better option would be to add own maintained .deb files to the
subsurface website and ideally providing a own repository like Google is
doing for Google Chrome. Then users would be able to just klick and
install subsurface on the go.

>> The question that SHOULD be shown is "would you like to upgrade to a
>> real Linux distribution?" and then links to openSUSE, Fedora or
>> Archlinux :-)
>
> YMMV. All I see is that more and more people in my bubble have moved
> to Ubuntu in recent years, I see this as the distribution of choice
> for many physics/maths university departements (often having used
> Debian before) but for other people as well. For my wife for example
> (coming from a non-tech background) Ubuntu was the first distribution
> she could accept having a MS background. My own trajectory was:
> Starting with some SUSE 4.x CDs in 1994 transitioning to Debian around
> '99 and now choosing Ubuntu more and more often (in particular if I
> want to quickly install on a box without being asked too many
> questions or if I want people like my dad being able to install
> upgrades themselves). And no, I don't like unity (and usually turn it
> off).

Yes, at least in Europe Ubuntu (incl. derivates like Mint) seems to be
the way to go for (former) Windows users. If I remember correctly
Ubuntu, is also responsible for a good number of accesses in the website
statistics reportet by Dirk lately. This is an even stronger indicator
that we should do something to serve the Ubuntu community.


//Jan