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Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

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Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#51

Post by bmacho »

KronisLV wrote: post #7

Unity just felt consistent, usable and boring - all qualities that I appreciate in a desktop environment, which is why some of my devices still use XFCE and there's almost nothing that I find lacking in that regard. Now, GNOME isn't necessarily bad either but it was still sad that Canonical moved on from developing Unity because it did set Ubuntu apart and by the time of the official migration away from it, was actua…

> boring

I always found it neat, especially with the ubuntu colors and fonts. Aesthetically stimulating, really.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#52

Post by Avamander »

red_admiral wrote: post #43
simion314 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember that at one point Canonical had done real user testing, bringing people to use stuff and watching them struggling. Big difference vs the other DE that they use now where some big ego dude instinct determines what is removed or changed for the sake of brand identity or futuristic design.

Was that user testing on new users, or experienced ones? There's a big difference between how to make the onboarding as easy as possible for someone who's never used your system before, vs making it efficient to use for power users. The former gets you Ribbon UI and similar - which is really really good at that - but it means that people like me get annoyed when something they have to do 50 times a day now takes 3 cl…

Unity had a lot of features for power users as well (good default shortcuts for ex.) and the global menu was a godsend on smaller screens.

So I wouldn't say it's really an either-or scenario, just that tastes differ.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#53

Post by inferiorhuman »

knorker wrote: post #36
skocznymroczny wrote: post #18

I used to dislike Unity when it came out. I thought it's weird with the global menu, close button in the top-left corner and other ideas. However, after using macOS for a longer period of time, I got used to these ideas and actually prefer them nowadays. After that Unity became one of my favorite desktop environments.

The fact that unity just seemed like "let's cargo cult macos" while they were bragging about how awesome they were ("objectively the best" was thrown around) was a real turn off for me.

Hey if it worked for RedHat and Pottering it's gonna work for Ubuntu.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#54

Post by bmacho »

antman wrote: post #16

I remember what happened I think. There was a thread here on HN a few years back presenting something new Ubuntu Unity related and discussion developed about how Unity was bad. Someone from Ubuntu team saw the thread and said he did not know people hated it so much and they will look into into it/change it back to gnome? Apparently forgotten and I can't find the thread to verify the details!

Canonical and Unity went to the direction of Mir/phones/cars but then they gave up, and Unity died.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#55

Post by butokai »

thibran wrote: post #34

Canonical had at some point two variants of Unity, the regulate one (slow) and a qml based one (super snappy). I'm still sad that they did not stick with the qml version. GNOME nowerdays is fine, but for years it was slow and lacking compared to what we already had with qml Unity.

There's another comment below that mentions Unity 8, which has been forked and is being maintained as a mobile shell. Is that the same QML Unity you're mentioning? I remember they were going for some kind of convergence.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#56

Post by Lio »

thriftwy wrote: post #30
okasaki wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should be noted that compared to Unity, GNOME 3 is an even more extreme variant of the phone/netbook UI.

I'm wondering why more people are not using KDE. It is a honest desktop environment which does not try to pretend phone/netbook or parrot Mac OS X. Many of KDE apps are the best in a given category. Konsole certainly is.

I think I'm in a minority here but I prefer Gnome to KDE because it feels like it takes more inspiration from macOS than from Windows.

Different strokes for different folks but I don't enjoy the OS/2, Windows, KDE way of doing things.

I'm thankful we have choices.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#57

Post by majewsky »

rob74 wrote: post #44
threatripper wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I recall correctly, both GNOME and Unity shared rejection from a number of users (I don't know if that was large group or just very noisy) The GNOME redesign. The old 2D GNOME was OK. It was functional, stable and pretty (for someone who thinks that Windows 3.11 style is a good fit for a work environment). Then the old software was abandoned and the update was pushed onto users. KDE also had a transition disaste…

Has there ever been a good time for Linux on the desktop? I'm using Linux (Kubuntu) daily, and it works most of the time, but I still see some issues from time to time (multi-monitor strangeness, windows suddenly appearing without frames because kwin crashed, desktop wallpapers not being shown or being shown incorrectly etc.).

Isn't that just how all desktop OSes are? It works most of the time, and then sometimes you run into things that are bafflingly broken.

For me, it's the Windows desktop at work. I'm accustomed to Windows spawning windows fully or partially out of bounds, though at least that's something that you can fix with the "Move" option from the Ctrl+Space menu. But for a few weeks now, there seems to be a bug where the affected window just stops being rendered entirely. It's in the taskbar, I can start Ctrl+Space "Move" and see the movement cursor, but there's nothing there. I don't know what triggers it yet.

Meanwhile, my Linux desktop has no problems at all.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#58

Post by herbst »

Lio wrote: post #56
thriftwy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering why more people are not using KDE. It is a honest desktop environment which does not try to pretend phone/netbook or parrot Mac OS X. Many of KDE apps are the best in a given category. Konsole certainly is.

I think I'm in a minority here but I prefer Gnome to KDE because it feels like it takes more inspiration from macOS than from Windows. Different strokes for different folks but I don't enjoy the OS/2, Windows, KDE way of doing things. I'm thankful we have choices.

I am in the same boat. Windows 95 like desktops are simply not the most optimal way to work anymore.

The reason I like gnome most is because it is so out of the way. I am enjoying maximal screen estate while switching apps is just as easy as it is supposed to be.

When gnome shell was new some things were buggy, especially on low power machines, but that changed really quick. I can't think of a single issue.

Re: Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus

#59

Post by herbst »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #3
silisili wrote: post #2

That's exciting. I must be one of the few who actually liked Unity a lot, probably better than Gnome. From what I understand, a lot of the underlayment was 'hacky' and abandoned. While I don't like most NIH that Canonical does(snaps, upstart, mir), I really wish they'd have kept Unity.

When Gnome2 was finally removed from Ubuntu, I tried Unity desktop for a while, didn't like it and installed Gnome3... ... ... ... and after an hour decided, that Unity is actually not that bad . Almost every change Gnome3 did over Gnome2 was a change for the worse or for far worse . Unnecessary waste of space on meaningless panels, unnecessarily revamped menus, etc. Just no. I didn't dive in this matter in detail, b…

If you didn't give gnome shell a second chance, maybe it's time to do so. When it was released many defaults made gnome 3 awkward to use, mostly wasting screen estate for huge icons and so on.

Meanwhile it's all configureable and at least with Manjaro also comes with sensible defaults that work well on a 28" as well as a 15" notebook.

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