Just a with almost anything Ubuntu, Ubuntu One is broken. They insist in releasing a new OS version every six month and the result is always the same: something really useful that was working before, stops doing so. Or suddenly disappears. Upgrading Ubuntu is a lottery. Ubuntu One is no exception.
That’s why I tend to upgrade only after some months (thanks to all those brave users that go ahead and have to deal with the plethora of bugs!). The problem is that in Ubuntu sometimes there is no easy way to upgrade single programs to take advantage of new features, and when there is something I really like, I feel ‘forced’ to upgrade the whole system way before I wish I had.
Upgrading to 10.04
This time I upgraded just a month after the launch of Lucid (10.04) and one of the things that made me took the plunge earlier was the system integration with social networks, like Twitter or Facebook. Well, no luck: Gwibber, the program that makes this possible, has bugs and doesn’t let me add accounts. Thank you Mark for releasing new great features… broken.
Another good reason was that I now have a 3G connection with Vodafone and wanted to connect without having to use Betavine‘s Vodafone Mobile Connect. Again, I have had lots of problems with Network Manager (I have had problems with this program since I started to use Ubuntu like 4 or 5 years ago) and when I decided it was not worth my time dealing with that program any more, I found that I couldn’t install Vodafone Mobile Client back! BTW, it was automatically removed when I did the upgrade to Lucid (see, that’s the kind of behavior I hate so much, like what Mozilla did with the link properties context menu option in Firefox 3.6). And while I can now finally conncet I still have some problems with the 3G modem, ozerocdoff and wvdial. Great.
Anyway, I have been able to sort all the serious problems (many more than what I have actually mentioned here, but I was just telling you my reasons to upgrade so ‘soon’), and I lost the count on all the hours I have spent in doing so. A shame considering that Lucid is a LTS version (what made me feel more confident about the upgrade BTW).
My Ubuntu One review
I like the idea behind Ubuntu One (just like I like Dropbox or similar services) and if I didn’t use it before was because, as you can see, I know how Canonical works and expected lots of bugs everywhere in the first months. Now that enough time has passed and we he a new LTS version here (which is a warranty of nothing as you can see), I decided to give it a try.
So I registered a new account at Ubuntu Single Sign On and followed every step after… I got an error: I went to a page named Confirm Computer Access and to to sync my computer all I had to do was to click a button labelled Add this computer, but it just took me to a Firefox error page saying
Unable to connect
Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at localhost:54034.
What is worse, there is no single mention of this problem in Ubuntu One’s FAQ so you are left wondering what could possibly go wrong. To add insult to injury, there is not a single link in the whole Ubuntu One’s web control panel to get to that Confirm Computer Access again. No one is perfect, the process failed, but… how can I go to that fucking page again? Are you telling me that I only had one chance to sync my computer? Of course there must be a way to try to sync the computer again, but where is it Ubuntu? The only way I found to get there is through the browser history.
A well known Ubuntu One bug
It turns out this is a well known bug and it’s been reported to Launchpad (here or here for example) as far back as… September of the last year! Amazing. That’s all I have to say because I just can’t believe they made nothing in almost a year to fix this bug.
And the whole Ubuntu One site is a mess: when you are in the ‘Subscription Details’ page you have a link to cancel your subscription and a link to view your account that when clicked takes you to the ‘Your Account’ page where you can do little more than editing your details (name, email and password) and click a link that says ‘View details or make changes’ which takes you to… the previous ‘Subscription Details’ page.
But wait, it can get even more stupid. There are three other links in the ‘Your account’ page:
- Ask account related questions. All it does is take you to a page where they say “Do you have billing questions regarding your Ubuntu One account?”. This makes clear that Ubuntu One is a desperate attempt by Mark Shuttleworth to make money (more about this in a moment).
- View the machines connected to this account. Of course this takes you to an empty page since the syncing process failed. That’s where you’d expect to find a “Sync computer” option to try again but all you’ll find is a link to the installation instructions, where they describe all the steps to create a new account at Ubuntu Single Sign On and sync the computer once signed in. What they don’t tell you is what to do in case the syncing process fails.
- Set up phone syncing (beta). This is the funniest because of the ‘beta’ warning. I don’t want to imagine how it works (and that’s why in fact I didn’t bothered to follow the link).
The only option left in the control panel is a check box to subscribe by email for Ubuntu One tips and updates. There is that check box… and nothing more. There is no button to confirm or save when you check it. Brilliant.
Yes, Ubuntu One is crap
When I can finally sync my computer to Ubuntu One (and I don’t know how can I do it, I venture another wasted night trying to figure it out) I’ll update this review. But I can actually tell you that even being able to sync my computer problems may still come, and just a fast Google search will show what I’m talking about (overuse of CPU, excise RAM usage…). One quote I liked:
File syncing is unreliable, evolution contacts syncing works on some machines but not others, System/Preferences UI is irritating (combining html with desktop app SUCKS), can’t delete directories from web site, no android app.
So from my own experience and the countless bad experiences of others, the conclusion of this Ubuntu One review can’t be other than: don’t waste your time with it. Ubuntu One is crap. Use Dropbox instead. Or anything else.
Ubuntu One should have never been released to the public. It is still in Beta, just like Ubuntu itself. Why they released it anyway is something I will talk about another day (don’t miss it: subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me at Twitter).
Hi Antonio, sorry to read about all the problems you ran into using Ubuntu One. The process for activating an OAuth token to pair your computer with Ubuntu One works well for most people, but I know there are still some cases where it fails, and we’re working to solve every reproducible case we can find. We’re also working on replacing the registration process with something more robust built directly into the desktop so that there are fewer chances for error. I hope you’ll give things another try when Ubuntu 10.10 comes out.
Wow Elliot, I don’t know what to say. Really. It’s nice to see how you care about the product and take the time to post a friendly and informative reply. Now I feel like my post was too harsh…
Well, I’m a big Ubuntu fan, and It’s been my only OS for the last 4 or 5 years (I also used SUSE for about 2 years before switching to Ubuntu) and I currently have it installed in three computers (a desktop, a laptop and my 5 years old daughter’s netbook). I recommend it to all the people I know and I even installed it to my 60+ years old mother’s laptop (and she loves it!).
But that doesn’t change how bad I feel when Ubuntu releases half-baked products. And Ubuntu One is a good example. Why release it? Because it works for some users? Then why not a warning, a mention in the FAQ (most people I know can’t get their way to sites like Ubuntu Forums and find out what is wrong)… Even a BETA badge would be welcomed (and believe me, something so simple would have made me write a softer review because it sends the correct message). And then it is not only the problem syncing computers: as you can see the page itself still needs a lot of work.
Anyway, I look forward for new versions (see, as I said in my post, it’s annoying having to upgrade the whole OS just to get some new features). I really like what Ubuntu One has to offer and if it works I don’t mind paying for the service, if anything just for supporting Ubuntu. It’s nice to see how they try to make money with new services like this and the music store. I just wish they worked when released to the public.
When I can finally sync my computer (I hope I don’t have to wait 5 months!) I’ll write a new review. And whatever my conclusion, I promise I’ll try to be more more polite (I’ll wait some time to relax before writing anything…).
I just started this blog and have lots of thigs to say about Ubuntu, and most of them are positive. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Antonio – I’m right there with you. I’m a longtime user of Ubuntu, and Ubuntu One has been the most frustrating program to use. You’re right – if you miss the boat on adding your computer, there’s NO WAY to do it unless you start over from scratch. I don’t know how the hell we’re expected to add/manage multiple devices in this system.
And the documentation is terrible. It’s either generalities in the online manual, or a bunch of arcane bug reports that never quite seem to match up with my particular problem.
Really, this is a basic user interface flaw that should have been fixed months ago. A simple link on the “Computers on your account” page would do it. Why isn’t it there?
- Rob