Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

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catweazel
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Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

Post by catweazel »

What a terrible application it is, that "Software Sources" in Mint 15. Woe unto the poor user whose local mirrors are at the end of the list. The poor soul has to either wait unending hours or scroll down really quickly and click on the mirror they want. And that assumes a) the user can make out the ridiculously small flags, and b) it doesn't crash out every few minutes when a server takes too long to respond. It's usefulness is zero, except as a thumb-twiddling time sink, in which case it rates 10 out of 10.

Please fix the horrible thing.

Making the speed test optional, and including country names instead of tiny icons would help, as would being able to select the region that the speed test applies to.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
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xenopeek
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Re: Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

Post by xenopeek »

Another idea suggested elsewhere about this (I can't recall) is to abort testing a server if it is already taking longer than the top fastest servers so far. Makes little sense to test all servers, if you already know while testing them that some are going to be slower than the top few--nobody is going to pick a slower server I think :wink:
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catweazel
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Re: Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

Post by catweazel »

Well, one thing's for sure, whoever designed it has a rotten sense of taste so he can't be a chef :mrgreen:

I'd write my own Software Sources, but I don't know how Clem would take to a C++ mintApp.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
MishaSherpa

Re: Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

Post by MishaSherpa »

xenopeek wrote:Another idea suggested elsewhere about this (I can't recall) is to abort testing a server if it is already taking longer than the top fastest servers so far. Makes little sense to test all servers, if you already know while testing them that some are going to be slower than the top few--nobody is going to pick a slower server I think :wink:
Disagree. You might want to learn about the fastest servers in YOUR country, even if they are faster than servers in another country.

IMO, the sources in LM14 was much better
Last edited by MishaSherpa on Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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xenopeek
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Re: Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

Post by xenopeek »

IDK how best to implement that graphically, but you have a point. That's how I've set up reflector on my Arch Linux install. reflector is a tool to test the speed of mirrors based on configurable parameters. For example, I run it to give me the fastest 5 mirrors from my country, or the neighboring country to which I'm geographically closest, from the list of 15 latest updated mirrors (so the most up to date ones available in those two countries). With this restriction, it needs to just test the speed of 15 mirrors instead of the entire list of over 240 mirrors. It takes just a few seconds to test. Of course there are many more ways to configure reflector, but it sums up that how I use it is actually very close to your comment :)
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MishaSherpa

Re: Please fix the horrible "Software Sources" in Mint 15

Post by MishaSherpa »

You are smarter than me if you figured out how to do all of that!
I think some people will want to know about countries and regions for reasons of TRUST, not just speed.
...maybe a user configurable box that says, "Ignore all pings over 500ms?"? or __x__ms
honestly the sources in LM14 is good!
Maybe just a list of top ten quick returns? That would would polish it a little
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