Mark Shuttleworth announces Ubuntu 11.04 will use desktop version Unity • Hacker News Board

Re: Mark Shuttleworth announces Ubuntu 11.04 will use desktop version Unity

#51

Post by pufuwozu » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 4:31 AM UTC

jdub wrote: post #49

pufuwozu wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity is just a window manager - not a new toolkit (you still use GTK, Qt or whatever else). But you're right to think web technologies could work elsewhere. Gnome Shell is being developed in JavaScript amd CSS. See also the Palm Pre. http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell

Unity (and GNOME Shell for that matter) is probably best described as a "shell" rather than a window manager. Like the old school GNOME Panel (and taskbar in Windows, Dock in OS X), the shell is for launching things, the entry point to getting your computer to do things. Both Unity and GNOME Shell rely on an external window manager, albeit in an interesting way: They are plugins for mutter (a Clutter-based version of…

I thought I used the wrong term. Thanks for clarifying the differences.

Re: Mark Shuttleworth announces Ubuntu 11.04 will use desktop version Unity

#52

Post by old-gregg » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 4:43 AM UTC

technomancy wrote: post #44

metamemetics wrote: post #35

I've already completely removed gnome-panel in favor of just Gnome-Do and Docky. Don't see the appeal in Unity. Looks like my gnome-panel setup used to: skinny left bar with Talika window list plugin. I don't see the need to have panels to go all the way across a screen dimension anymore.

All I use gnome-panel for is the wifi applet and the the load monitor. I make it auto-hide and bind a key to show it in order to save screen space. But I don't see the appeal of Docky over gnome-panel--isn't it just for launching programs? xbindkeys is way better for that.

I spent like an hour trying to figure out how to bind a hotkey to show the panel (when it's auto-hidden). How did you do that?

Re: Mark Shuttleworth announces Ubuntu 11.04 will use desktop version Unity

#53

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 4:43 AM UTC

technomancy wrote: post #44

metamemetics wrote: post #35

I've already completely removed gnome-panel in favor of just Gnome-Do and Docky. Don't see the appeal in Unity. Looks like my gnome-panel setup used to: skinny left bar with Talika window list plugin. I don't see the need to have panels to go all the way across a screen dimension anymore.

All I use gnome-panel for is the wifi applet and the the load monitor. I make it auto-hide and bind a key to show it in order to save screen space. But I don't see the appeal of Docky over gnome-panel--isn't it just for launching programs? xbindkeys is way better for that.

[deleted]

Re: Mark Shuttleworth announces Ubuntu 11.04 will use desktop version Unity

#54

Post by bilban » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 2:25 PM UTC

SkyMarshal wrote: post #46

harisenbon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what range of processors it supports, but it does run in LiveUSB mode on my ThinkPad x60 (core2Duo) for what it's woth.

Atom is still x86, but UNR has made some Atom-specific optimizations to the kernel. I don't know the details, but there may be some partial incompatibilities that prevent it working on some non-atom x86 cpus but not others.

I installed 10.04 netbook edition on an old Dell inspiron, and it didn't grumble. Didn't do any subtle animation effects either, but that wasn't a biggie. Was a little slow flipping between the global menu and other apps which was a bit annoying for a 1.5ghz laptop with 512MB of ram! I was alarmed to see the omission of virtual desktops, and menu integration was a little odd. The person who received their updated laptop appears quite chuffed, given the choice again I would have used bog standard Ubuntu, but I was hoping the netbook edition might have some sensible power saving features.