Re: Better Bluetooth Integration on the Desktop

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Thu, 2007-02-01 at 02:47 +0530, Rogue wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> A few days ago, I was trying to talk to some friends over Skype. And
> was I in for a shock or what. I have FC 6 running on my Dell D810, and
> I do not have an in-built mic. So i decided to connect my blue-tooth
> headset to the system and use it for communicating, but I realized
> that I couldn't do it easily!
> 
> Then I tried connecting an external headset (wired), and ran around a
> lot of articles to figure out that I needed to turn on some settings
> in the volume-controls, and though i could hear what I was screaming
> into the mic (back into the earphones) I could not get it to work and
> by then i had given up and decided to use the landline instead.
> 
> Now, coming back to the point, since both Windows and Mac provide an
> easy to use interface when it comes to consuming external bluetooth
> devices, I feel that we should also provide a similar interface.
> Something that will help ease out the usability aspects of the
> desktop.

"Easy" is relative here, the OS X interface for using a device as a
modem over Bluetooth (ie, Dial-Up Networking) still has a ways to go,
and various 3rd-party software that I've used on Windows sucks too.  I
personally think we can do somewhat better.  But you're right, basically
everything Bluetooth sucks right now from a user-experience perspective
in Linux.  I shouldn't have to touch config files to set up dialup
networking.

Dan