About Automatix, Arnie and his team

I've been reading a lot lately about how Automatix has been messing up systems for people and at the same time how so many people love Automatix. I believe that in any community, such as Automatix, there are those that love and those that hate the product they have released. Remembering that Automatix is a group of people who love Linux, especially Debian releases and derivatives, I think it's safe to assume Arnie and his team love helping people and getting things working for others.

Technalign moved to a programs folder concept and launched it with Pioneer Basic and Pioneer Explorer. We are working with more Windows users than with Linux users who visit computer stores for a boxed set and assistance/support from a store owner or companies working with solution providers for assistance and support. Working with the business community, we believe and from much input, that the folder was easier for them to maneuver. For Technalign, it's all about working with the Windows users. When we see more input from the Linux community, we will do our best to support them and provide what they would like as well with the community editions such as Pioneer Explorer and coming with Pioneer Renegade (gnome). This is one reason we moved to Pioneer Explorer for the community and later Renegade.

We hope that more and more Linux users will use the system and provide input as to what changes or enhancements they would like to see, and we do get numerous support inquiries via the contact forms though. We hope one day that people start using the forums more though and provide more input to the team here and the community leaders.

I want to explain why Technalign moved away from Automatix on our distributions, although we continue to support them via the server we provide. Working with Windows users required us to create a different approach to how we delivered difficult applications and how to make them work of course for those migrating off of Windows. We've found some like the concept while others don't of course within the Linux community. We've moved away from Automatix only because we are dealing more with the Windows community right now than the Linux. Although people may still install Automatix anytime they wish (I would suggest a Debian Automatix build instead of Ubuntu at this time).

I've read an article about how the Ubuntu folks ran some tests on Automatix, and that the tests reviled many problems with the Automatix application on K/Ubuntu. I never read anywhere when I searched how they provided input to Arnie and his hard working group of volunteers. It amazed me that the article didn't explain how to improve Automatix or how they might get feedback to correct the issues. I always thought, and may be wrong, that communities would work with each other and help when so many of their users were using the product.

All in all, I think that the K/Ubuntu folks should talk to Arnie and ask him if they would like any help. Since Arnie and his group are a great bunch of guys, they would be more than happy to work with anyone wanting to learn assistance. I believe that Automatix is a community product that provides assistance to many people, and they get over 50 million hits per month on their website to prove it.

All I want to say is that I hope more community members assist each other and communities in the future such as the Automatix team. These guys really rock and help everyone they can via the forums. It's just a great group of people wanting to help make Linux easier and help promote Linux.

When you see someone bashing Automatix, remember that because of this small group of Pioneers, no pun intended, people get their Linux systems working the way they needed it when a distribution may have not provided the functionality they got "out of the box". They are always working on improving things as well. You may ask the person bashing to get a hold of Arnie and the folks at Automatix to lend assistance where it may be needed and help other communities as well.


Dianne