Third-party software option is confusing and misleading

[Vish]

Binary package hint: ubiquity

The para before the third party option is very misleading and confusing.

It mentions "software to display Flash" , "other media"(?) , "wireless hardware" ..
and then later the install option is "Install *this* third-party software" which *only* references the Fluendo MP3 plugin. why not just mention the name?
Why are we referencing the other media,wireless options when we dont install those?
And reference to wireless might be unnecessary if the desktop does not have any wireless cards.

It's better to reword para appropriately to just mention an intro about third-party and closed source nature of those packages.
And reword the option
[ ] "Install Fluendo MP3 plugin, a third-party software"
     "includes MPEG .... Thomson"
----

MPT suggests: [comment #14]

A: Remove the border and background from the three "For best results, please ensure that this computer:" points. With the space saved by doing that, add separators on either side of "Download updates while installing", to make it more obvious that the following sentences apply to the "Install…" checkbox and not to the "Download updates while installing" checkbox.

C: Change "Fluendo MP3 plugin includes MPEG Layer-3 audio…" to "Includes Fluendo MP3 plugin with MPEG Layer-3 audio…".

Probably there are other possibilities. If no-one can think of any, though, I suggest trying A and C but not B.

[Vish (vish)]

Does ubiquity already detect the necessary available third-party software?, or do we now only have permissions for installing Fluendo MP3 plugin.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

I've found the offending text in ./debian/ubiquity.templates

My proposal for the main paragraph is as follows:

"Ubuntu doesn't include software to display Flash video, such as Youtube, and to listen to MP3 and AAC music files, such as those purchases from iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store. This is because of licensing restrictions which prohibit the distribution of this software by the Ubuntu developers. This does not stop you, the user, from installing all the software required by the above files. Would you like to do this now?"

I think the way I've worded this means we don't have to rewrite the text next to the checkbox. Comments?

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

Also, do we need the blurb that says "Fluendo MP3 plugin includes...."?

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

Actually scratch comment #3. How about this?

"Ubuntu isn't able to display Flash video, such as Youtube, and to listen to MP3 and AAC music files, such as those purchased from iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store. This is because of licensing restrictions which prohibit the inclusion of this software by the Ubuntu developers. This does not stop you, the user, from enabling these features yourself. Would you like to do this now?"

The text next to the checkbox could say:

"Enable additional audio and video support"

And I think removing the bit that mentions Fluendo will also help.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

Why isn't Flash installed alongside the MP3 codec? It's something that's as useful as the codec, if not more so given the amount of time people are spending on Youtube.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

Actually I've just tested the installation of the latest Natty daily build and Flash is indeed installed when the option displayed in the OP's screenshot is checked. The unfortunate wording of the associated text is still a problem, so I'm going to adjust the description and title accordingly.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

I'm going to find out about the 'wireless' and 'other media' options, specifically what they are referring to, and how the process works.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

I've gotten clarification of the third-party software installation process form http://askubuntu.com, question found here http://askubuntu.com/questions/22285/clarification-of-the-third-party-software-options-during-system-installation

In summary:
1) It installs ubuntu-restricted-addons much later on in the main install process. This currently includes gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly, flashplugin-installer (Adobe Flash support), gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg, icedtea6-plugin (Java and the browser plugin for it), and gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 (MP3 playback support).

2) It asks the Additional Drivers (jockey) program to enable any drivers that can be automatically installed. Currently this is limited to just the Broadcom wireless (binary) driver.

I'll rewrite the dialogue based on these two points.

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

The linked branch contains the patch for this bug.

[Evan Broder (broder)]

Chris, thanks again for your contribution. It's not necessary to both propose a branch for merging and subscribe ubuntu-sponsors to the related bug - either is sufficient to get it on the radar for sponsorship. Since you already have the merge proposal open, I'm going to go ahead and unsubscribe ubuntu-sponsors here.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Hi Chris. I worked with a couple of lawyers to produce the original text. So I might be biased towards my own wording, and there are legal constraints here, but don't let either of those things put you off. :-)

However, it looks as if you (and Vish) thought that the checkbox covered only the MP3 codec, not the other software; started rewriting the text accordingly; and then, part-way through, realized that the checkbox actually does install the other software too. So, I'm not sure what problem you're now trying to solve. Maybe it is a real problem that the checkbox caption makes the checkbox seem like it covers only the MP3 codec, but if so, changing the intro text probably can't fix that, and your revision of it at least does not.

Your revised wording also has several difficulties:
1. We are legally required to mention that "The software is subject to the license terms included with the software's documentation", but your text removes it.
2. Even without that vital sentence, your intro text is 73% longer than the original. With the license terms sentence restored, it would be over twice as long as the original.
3. The first sentence flatly states that Ubuntu can't play YouTube, AAC, or MP3, which is incorrect. It is true that you need to install extra software to do it, but "This does not stop you enabling those features yourself" three sentences later is an obscure way of saying so.
4. "isn't" uses a non-typographical apostrophe.
5. "Flash video, such as those" is a number mismatch. Should be "videos".
6. "Youtube" should be "YouTube".
7. The third sentence says "licensing restrictions … prohibit these features being built into Ubuntu", which is also incorrect: multiple OEMs ship Ubuntu with those features preinstalled. What is true is that licensing restrictions prevent us from including that software in a freely redistributable OS. (I judged it wouldn't be useful to explain that in the original text.)
8. "Enable these features now" is much less meaningful than "Install this third-party software".
9. We are legally required to say that "Fluendo MP3 plugin includes MPEG Layer-3 audio decoding technology licensed from Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson", but your branch removes it.

[Vish (vish)]

Matthew, My main confusion with the initial para and the latter option was:
Para mentions ".. software to display Flash" , "MP3 and other media" , "wireless hardware" ; thats 3 different items there.
While the check mark option says "this" (singular) and lists only 1 Fluendo MP3 plugin.

Why is the information overload if we are installing only one item?

My idea was,
If we are installing only 1 Fluendo MP3 plugin , then the top para need not mention other 2 items(Flash/wireless).
If we are indeed installing all the 3 items mentioned in the para, then the checkmark option needs to list all those 3 items, or atleast say
[ ] Install these third-party software
(*Fluendo MP3 plugin, .... Thomson )

"These" (or maybe some better wording to imply plural?) would imply the above mentioned 3
and using "(* )" or "*" would make it seem just as an extra Fluendo info for a licensing note alone.

Without which, is just seems like an explanation of the option we are selecting.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

As Chris Wilson described above, selecting the option does not install "only one item", it installs six. "Software" is a mass noun, so "this software" is correct and "these software" would be incorrect.

I have three suggestions for making it clearer.

A: Remove the border and background from the three "For best results, please ensure that this computer:" points. With the space saved by doing that, add separators on either side of "Download updates while installing", to make it more obvious that the following sentences apply to the "Install…" checkbox and not to the "Download updates while installing" checkbox.

B: Change "Install this third-party software" to "Install these third-party software packages".

C: Change "Fluendo MP3 plugin includes MPEG Layer-3 audio…" to "Includes Fluendo MP3 plugin with MPEG Layer-3 audio…".

Probably there are other possibilities. If no-one can think of any, though, I suggest trying A and C but not B.

[Vish (vish)]

On Tue, 2011-03-15 at 10:20 +0000, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>
> Probably there are other possibilities. If no-one can think of any,
> though, I suggest trying A and C but not B.
>

Yea, mentioning "packages" in option B does seem odd.

For B, How about just dropping the "this"? And use it as :
"Install third-party software"

And we use B along with the other A and C

(btw, I dint know till now that "software" was a mass noun :-D )

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

"Install third-party software" would be vague. Which software? The word "this" is the clue that the text above is involved: it's necessary, but this bug seems to be basically that it isn't sufficient.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This bug continues to be quite irritating. I'm concerned many users may give up on Ubuntu simply because it's not obvious how to get their Broadcom wireless working out-of-the-box.

If the trick is to tick a box that mostly talks about MP3 support then we need to rethink that text and make it more obvious: "You need this option to support some Broadcom wireless chips!"

If the user doesn't know the trick then they need to be quite advanced to fix their wifi after installation: Download bcmwl packages on a separate machine and copy them over manually. I'm guessing many users just give up instead, with no working wireless support.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I was probably wrong to think that people would understand what “this” in a checkbox referred to, if understanding it required reading a 39-word paragraph beforehand. Adding separators to group the paragraph with the checkbox, as I suggested, might have helped a little but not much.

So, I’ve redesigned this step to put all the important stuff in the checkbox label: “Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware, Flash, MP3 and other media”. Then the necessary-but-less-interesting text goes in the caption underneath. (The sentence “Fluendo MP3 plugin includes MPEG Layer-3 audio decoding technology licensed from Fraunhofer IIS and Technicolor SA.”, missing from this wireframe, should be in the caption too.)

(This design also abolishes the checklist — which consists entirely of things the computer can check for itself! — and adds necessary Secure Boot configuration. But both are independent of this bug.)

[Graeme Hewson (ghewson)]

Why is it the case that "installing third-party drivers requires turning off Secure Boot"?

Is there a technical reason, or is it purely a policy decision (there's no chain of trust, so Ubuntu isn't going to take responsibility for security)? It's not explained either in the "Learn more..." popup (not shown in the .png).

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

true secure boot (as matthew garret wants ubuntu to do for example) means that only modules that were signed by the same key the kernel was signed with at build time (i.e. the ubuntu archive key) can actually be loaded at all ... so this excludes nvidia and friends who deliver a binary blob.

[Graeme Hewson (ghewson)]

After installing 16.04 without third-party drivers and with Secure Boot still enabled, I clicked on Additional Drivers in Software & Updates settings, and selected the one available driver, microcode firmware for Intel CPUs. After rebooting, the setting still shows "1 proprietary driver in use".

The Ubuntu Software tab in Software & Updates has "restricted" set by default (as well as main, universe and multiverse).

So I'm not sure what you say is entirely true.

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

it is true for the case where you do "real secure boot" .. today ubuntu does not do that (there is currently no enforcing of signed modules o4r signed initrd images) ...

[Daniel (hackie)]

See Bug 1564119 - the optimum is not reached yet

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

See also bug 1715527