AboutThisComputer
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Size: 4545
Comment: feature creep?
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Size: 3870
Comment: "About This Computer" (it's not necessarily yours)
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| This section should include a paragraph describing the end-user impact of this change. It is meant to be included in the release notes of the first release in which it is implemented. (Not all of these will actually be included in the release notes, at the release manager's discretion; but writing them is a useful exercise.) It is mandatory. |
New with this version of Ubuntu, the "About Ubuntu" and "About Gnome" dialogs have been replaced with a more generic "About This Computer" dialog that shows basic information about your machine along with software versions for Gnome or KDE. |
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| An about dialog is needed to describe the version of Ubuntu being used or derivatives. It should also contain basic information on the user's machine | A dialog that shows basic information for a user's computer, along with the important software the computer is running, such as Gnome or KDE. |
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| * Hard drive size (where '/' is) * Graphics card * Network card |
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Want to get more information about Ubuntu == Assumptions == |
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| * Hard disk size (use the disk / hangs off), using HAL via DBUS * Graphics card, also using HAL via DBUS * Network card, also using HAL via DBUS |
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| Once we have all of this information, we use Glade or whatever it is PyQT uses to layout a dialog box. A title bar of About Your Computer, a large SVG of a computer on the left hand size, and the information laid out in two sections, the first being: | Once we have all of this information, we use Glade and whatever it is PyQT uses to layout a dialog box. A title bar of About Your Computer, a large SVG of a computer on the left hand size, and the information laid out in two sections, the first being: |
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| Hard disk size: <Hard disk information> Graphics card: <Graphics card information> Network card: <Network card information> |
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| === Code Changes === Code changes should include an overview of what needs to change, and in some cases even the specific details. |
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| An "About Your Computer" item on the System menu will replace About Ubuntu, and About Gnome. | An "About This Computer" item on the System menu will replace the "About Ubuntu", and "About Gnome" menu items. |
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| An "About Your Computer" item will be added to the standard KDE application Help menu which will launch the qt version of the app. | An "About This Computer" item will be added to the standard KDE application Help menu which will launch the QT version of the app. === XFCE === An "About This Computer" item will be added to the System menu. |
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| == Outstanding Issues == | Check that for common hardware (everything testers can get their hands on and more), that About Your Computer correctly detects the Ubuntu version, the processor and the RAM size (with appropriate and correct scaling/rounding), along with the desktop environments that the user has installed. |
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| * How do we show the Ubuntu philosphy and other such things like the current dialog box does? * And the XFCE menu? * MatthewPaulThomas: I think this spec is suffering from feature creep such that it ends up (a) duplicating the Device Manager and (b) not being implemented in the next five years. Ubuntu achieves elegance through simplicity; I think its About window should too. Show minimal information in the About window itself, and provide a button to launch Device Manager for more detailed information. |
== Future Work == Querying more about the computer, such as: * Hard disk size (use the disk / hangs off) * Graphics card * Network card |
Please check the status of this specification in Launchpad before editing it. If it is Approved, contact the Assignee or another knowledgeable person before making changes.
Launchpad Entry: hardy-about-ubuntu
Packages affected: about-ubuntu
Summary
Redesign the current "About Ubuntu" menu option such that it contains useful information such as the Ubuntu derivative name, version number, basic information about the system. This should be visually attractive, and could be an ideal place for easter eggs.
Release Note
New with this version of Ubuntu, the "About Ubuntu" and "About Gnome" dialogs have been replaced with a more generic "About This Computer" dialog that shows basic information about your machine along with software versions for Gnome or KDE.
Rationale
A dialog that shows basic information for a user's computer, along with the important software the computer is running, such as Gnome or KDE.
Use Cases
Someone asks you:
- What version of Ubuntu are you running?
- What kind of computer do you have? (not in this order)
- CPU
- RAM
- Version of GNOME
Design
[http://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/aboutgui Comparisons from other graphical environments]
Implementation
About Your Computer (about-window) is a Python script that determines if you are running Gnome or KDE, and then picks the relevant toolkit to display the window.
We query follow information:
- CPU type and speed, using /proc/cpuinfo
- RAM, using /proc/meminfo, or "free"
- Version of Ubuntu, using lsb-release.
- Version of desktop environment -- this is a can of worms, but we are limiting ourselves to querying the version of GNOME, KDE or XFCE. If we find none of them, then do not display anything.
- Version of the Linux kernel, using uname -r
Once we have all of this information, we use Glade and whatever it is PyQT uses to layout a dialog box. A title bar of About Your Computer, a large SVG of a computer on the left hand size, and the information laid out in two sections, the first being:
CPU: <CPU type> <CPU speed> Memory: <RAM information>
The second section is:
<icon grabbed from the icon theme> Ubuntu <Ubuntu version> (Only displayed if gnome-session exists) <gnome icon> Gnome <Gnome version> (Only displayed if kded exists) <KDE icon> KDE <KDE version> (Only displayed if xfce-session exists) <XFCE icon> XCFE <XCFE version> <tux icon> Linux <kernel version>
A Close button on the bottom right of the window.
All text should be able to be drag and dropped as one large block into IRC, a bug report or a forum post.
UI Changes
- New Dialog
- Grabs icon from icon them "start-here"
- Looks for system information from a file set by meta packages
- Has dragable text to e-mail/IRC/forum/etc
Migration
An "About This Computer" item on the System menu will replace the "About Ubuntu", and "About Gnome" menu items.
KDE
An "About This Computer" item will be added to the standard KDE application Help menu which will launch the QT version of the app.
XFCE
An "About This Computer" item will be added to the System menu.
Test/Demo Plan
Check that for common hardware (everything testers can get their hands on and more), that About Your Computer correctly detects the Ubuntu version, the processor and the RAM size (with appropriate and correct scaling/rounding), along with the desktop environments that the user has installed.
Future Work
Querying more about the computer, such as:
- Hard disk size (use the disk / hangs off)
- Graphics card
- Network card
See Also
DesktopTeam/Specs/AboutThisComputer (last edited 2012-09-04 11:08:23 by mpt)