Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#31

Post by indescions_2018 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:16 PM UTC

sliken wrote: post #20

Since 20+ years ago I used decent window managers that let me have a 2x2 workspace. VERY simple to use. Moving the mouse works within a workspace and the same way across workspaces (mouse off any edge). Moving windows worked within workspaces (click, drag, drop) same as across workspaces (click, drag, drop). Basically the principal of least surprise. Moving the mouse and clicking shouldn't have special rules across w…

>>> In the dual monitor config it only moves the left monitor across desktops

There is a fix for this in display settings.

I have personally gotten used to the vertical alignment and new key patterns. Still using 17.10 but performance seems improved from unity and looking to maybe get back into a bit of gtk development ;)

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#32

Post by throwawaymanbot » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:17 PM UTC

fortythirteen wrote: post #16

Ubuntu MATE 4 life. It's like running peak 200x Ubuntu frontend with all the up to date backend.

Top quality. Mate should have been the default. Not just general Gnome.

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#33

Post by leephillips » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:20 PM UTC

fb03 wrote: post #23

I've been skipping all the Unity drama by staying on Xubuntu which is really snappy and stays out of your way. Also, Gnome on this laptop (Dell Inspiron 15 7000) gave me (and several others users, as per forum post https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2358975 and some bug reports I found on the internet) a freeze or stutter every 10 or so seconds. So instead of having to start debugging shit from a fresh Linux i…

Exactly my approach. Periodically I ask what are the advantages of an environment like Gnome that would make it worth it for me to put up with the resource usage. I haven't heard anything compelling yet.

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#34

Post by chupasaurus » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:22 PM UTC

xab9 wrote: post #11

chupasaurus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gnome Shell is about extensions, you want something to work differently - find a suitable plugin or write it.

Except when they break horribly. Some of them modifies gsettings directly, so even if you remove it, you still have to clean them up manually.

It's up to developer/maintainer to provide rollback. My experience with Gnome 3 isn't deep because I've switched to KDE after 2 months of tinkering and feel happy ever since.

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#35

Post by rangibaby » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:24 PM UTC

jdub wrote: post #18

kleiba wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always been possible to run the window manager of your choice on Ubuntu, as it is the case on all Linuxen.

But they didn't spend the time to keep GNOME up to date or make sure it was well integrated. Now that it's the default again, it gets more attention.

Ubuntu Gnome was pretty good, I never had a problem with it for the three years or so I used it

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#36

Post by jeanmichelx » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:24 PM UTC

_blz2 wrote: post #21

I switched to arch linux a couple of weeks ago after being an ubuntu user for 8 years. After installing gnome3 I see not much difference between arch linux and Ubuntu. Sure, maintaining packages is quite different (and better) in arch linux than Ubuntu. I guess I was always a fan of desktop managers and not quite concerned about the distro.

The AUR is also really cool, no more of "add this dodgy PPA", instead you download a file that allows to install dependencies and compile the original sources.

It's more transparent, and if you don't care, you can install pacaur that hides all of this behind a pacman interface

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#37

Post by Sylos » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:29 PM UTC

_blz2 wrote: post #21

I switched to arch linux a couple of weeks ago after being an ubuntu user for 8 years. After installing gnome3 I see not much difference between arch linux and Ubuntu. Sure, maintaining packages is quite different (and better) in arch linux than Ubuntu. I guess I was always a fan of desktop managers and not quite concerned about the distro.

Yeah, choice of distro mainly matters in terms of how software is installed/updated, how recent the software is that you get in the distro's repositories, how well this software has been integration-tested how do the defaults look like (preinstalled software as well as settings) and most importantly of course, what color do they theme their stuff in?

If anything else irks you, you're probably looking for a different desktop environment or just to replace one application.

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#38

Post by tannhaeuser » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:33 PM UTC

neverminder wrote: post #2

I'm on Ubuntu 18.04 (upgraded from 16.04) and I'm still using Unity. Technically Unity is not gone, but it's no longer a default, Gnome is. I've tried Gnome and was very disappointed. No global menu integration which means losing useful screen space for no good reason. Tray icons somehow look squished and ragged. No fractional scaling is a massive issue for me since I'm working with dual 27 inch 4K displays. Tray bar…

Another serious issue with Gnome IMHO, also shared with Unity, is way too small window edges so that attempting to drag-to-resize a window becomes an exercise in patience.

I'm on a laptop most of the time and, like you, have absolutely no desire to go back to wasteful non-global menus. Have you eyed a replacement DE for Unity/Ubuntu going forward?

Edit: OTOH, Ubuntu have clearly spent a good amount of effort to customize Gnome so here's hoping they can morph it to work like Unity even more (OHD, global menu)

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#39

Post by arca_vorago » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:34 PM UTC

_blz2 wrote: post #21

I switched to arch linux a couple of weeks ago after being an ubuntu user for 8 years. After installing gnome3 I see not much difference between arch linux and Ubuntu. Sure, maintaining packages is quite different (and better) in arch linux than Ubuntu. I guess I was always a fan of desktop managers and not quite concerned about the distro.

Ubuntu is mostly about issues with canonicals practices, (I mean come on, I can't be the only one who remembers the litany of times canonical has betrayed users?) but there are some major practical differences. For example, arch is rolling release, has the aur as opposed to random ppa lists, and arch tries to keep it simple (not minimalist according to an arch dev that's a common misconception).

Other than those sorta of things... you could say there's "not much difference" between almost any two distros. Especially since the Trojan horse systemd.

I personally don't trust canonical at all. I bet more would think like this if they read up on them a bit more.

Re: Ubuntu 18.04: Unity is gone, Gnome is back, and Ubuntu has never been better

#40

Post by cdnsteve » Thu, May 10, 2018, 12:36 PM UTC

I just dumped Windows 10 for full on Ubuntu 18 on my desktop and so far so good. Great that it has whatever you need only a shell command away. Thumbs up so far.