The Ubuntu community has suffered a semi-serious blow in the newbie-friendliness department. The website and .deb repositories for Automatix, a popular project that allows for the easy and relatively painless installation of various non-Free (as in speech) software packages and multimedia codecs, and which has been widely hailed as the best thing to happen to Linux newbies since Ubuntu itself, has become one of the latest victims of malicious hackers. Both site and repositories have been offline for several days now, with no ETA on a possible return.

(UPDATE: As of 8:57 PM EST on Friday, 9 March, the Automatix site and repositories are back up and running. Only their forum remains offline, and they’re working on that.)

This comes on the heels of a severe weather-related outage just about a month ago, when an ice storm in the northeastern US knocked out power to the servers Automatix is hosted on for at least 48 hours.

Automatix has been hailed by some within the Ubuntu community as being the quickest and easiest way to install free (as in beer) software that falls outside the Ubuntu/Debian manifesto of being a distibution as purely FLOSS-based* as practically feasable. This includes non-Free multimedia codecs of debatable legality (such as the ever-controversial libdvdcss and the “w32codecs” package), the binary-only nVidia video drivers, several closed-source ports of Windows apps (including Google Earth, Picasa, and Skype), and the Wine “emulator” and freely-distributable VMWare Player for running selected Windows applications under Linux. Installing these sorts of packages have been traditionally frustrating for new Ubuntu users, but Automatix made it as simple as using Synaptic’s automated updater; just select the package(s) you want from a list, click “Install,” and sit back and watch Automatix do its thing.

There are, however, some members of Ubuntu’s userbase who feel that Automatix’s problems are not as bad a thing as they first seem. These types feel that scripts such as Automatix have made it almost too easy to get a working, usable Linux-based desktop, and that it takes away one of the traditional arguments in favor of using Linux in the first place — the way it all but forces the novice user to learn about the way his or her computer works, thus making that user less computer-illiterate in the process. Even so, there are plenty of “expert” Ubuntu users that appreciate the time-saving aspect of Automatix. There is also the ages-old debate over reliance on proprietary software when perfectly usable (if not as featureful) Free/Open alternatives exist.

If you’re a newcomer to Ubuntu and have been frustrated by attempts to get Automatix working after having had the installer recommended to you, there are two major alternatives (and one relatively minor one) that exist in order to get you fully up and running:

1. EasyUbuntu. This project actually predates Automatix by several months, and was one of the first attempts to put a user-friendly face on installing “restricted” packages. It’s still going, although it had sort of faded into the background in favor of the newer and more actively-updated Automatix project. Now that Automatix has been having issues, however, it seems poised to retake the lead in providing Ubuntu newbies with the non-Free packages necessary for full cross-platform compatibility.

2. The Unofficial Ubuntu Starter Guide. If you feel more comfortable doing things by hand, this community Wiki will guide you through the process of installing necessary proprietary software without needing a third-party installer. By doing this you’ll also learn a great deal about how the Ubuntu/Debian package system works, as well as some basic survival skills for when you find yourself with only a command line. While not as throrugh or as hand-holding as the comparable Gentoo guides, this Wiki is very newbie-friendly and well worth having in your bookmarks.

3. Ubuntu’s own RestrictedFormats HOWTO . If all you need are the multimedia codecs, Ubuntu themselves will tell you how to get them, even if they themselves cannot provide said codecs. This will allow Ubuntu to play various formats that aren’t completely “Free” by the Debian definition, including MP3, Quicktime, WMV, and AVI/DivX. It won’t tell you how to install other restricted packages, however; just those relating to the playback of these formats.

Just in case Automatix ever has issues like these again, any or all of these options are available to get your newly-minted Ubuntu box running the way it should.
* - FLOSS = Free/Libre/Open Source Software.

If you liked that, try...

1. Automatix: Obsolete?
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5 Comments »

1. 
   Migo
   March 9, 2007 at 8:32 pm

   The repos, site, wiki, and GPG keys have now been restored and the good folks at Automatix are now working on a full restoration of the forums.

   The problem is far from over, but at least they’re back on their feet. Just goes to show that people can have a problem with anything. Even offering proprietary and commercial software to the masses for free.

   While I enjoy being mostly a command line, build from source kind of guy, and don’t use Automatix myself, the argument of making it too easy to have a running linux distro is just as dumb as it sounds. If you want people to accept linux you have to make it easy for them to use. No one will use an OS if they can’t even figure out how to play their music collection or change their screen resolution.

   [Reply]

2. 
   Devin de Gruyl
   March 9, 2007 at 10:03 pm

   Thanks for the update; I’ve updated the original article to reflect the current status of the website.

   I know just how you feel, though my perspective is a little bit different; while I can (and sometimes do) install all the necessary non-Free .debs by hand, I appreciate tools like Automatix (and EasyUbuntu) for the speed at which they work. Too often are the times when I just don’t have the time to go through and add the necessary repos to my /etc/apt/sources.list, which is where these things come in handy; I don’t have to hunt around for what I need, it’s all right there for me. It can be a real time-saver when I’m in a hurry (which is often), and that’s something I don’t think is very often thought about by the “haters” out there…

   [Reply]

3. 
   Brad Phelan
   March 22, 2007 at 4:26 am

   Making something “too easy” sounds pretty elitist and doesn’t help Linux adoption. Anyway the automatix website is down again today :(

   [Reply]

4. 
   AbandonedHero
   September 15, 2007 at 5:09 am

   Site’s down again. Maybe down for good? I certainly hope not.

   [Reply]

5. 
   Me
   September 15, 2007 at 6:43 pm

   Their site goes up and down more often than a $1500 whore!
   Great software if you can ever download it.

   [Reply]

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