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

theregister.com

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

#91

Post by longstation »

nothatscool wrote: post #80

Unity’s global menu system was wonderful and once getting used to how well it used vertical space switching to gnome was like going back 10 years. Seeing multiple empty bars across the screen makes it completely unusable to me not to mention their need to replace simple menus with seemingly random icons scattered everywhere. I’m using kde plasma now with a global menu set up. It’s good but isn’t as hassle free as Uni…

I am same there (using KDE Plasma with global menu). Recently, with VSCode's menu on title bar, it seems to have started a trend doing so. For example, JetBrain's IDEs are also designed that way. I found the term for that, it's called LIM (locally integrated menu). Now, Unity has done that many years ago. If I remember correctly, the behavior was: when maximized, it behaves like a global menu; when not, it's a LIM.

Fortunately, there's a PR for implementing such things in KDE Plasma. Here is the discussion [1]. Right now, you can use it, but it probably won't be merged into the main branch soon.

PR: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/breeze/-/merge_requests/126

There's also a KDE theme the PR draws inspiration on (which you can use for KDE now): https://github.com/Zren/material-decoration

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

#92

Post by kkfx »

noisy_boy wrote: post #64
rob74 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.).

I would have disagreed with you except atleast once a day (usually more), my monitors go blank and once the display is back after few seconds, all the windows get shoved to the smaller monitor on the right, all resized to the monitor size. I move the windows again one by one to the main monitor, resize them to how they were and curse NVIDIA while praying that this doesn't happen again too soon. Even changed from Pop!…

I see this happening on few low-end machines (Intel core i3 integrated graphics and Celeron integrated one), not know the cause though...

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

#93

Post by kkfx »

simion314 wrote: post #41
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…

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.

Probably you refer to the "forced" passage to Unity-Qt, who was not mature at that time, witch means buggy and laggy.

BUT such move was not bad, was needed because too much people do not want to evolve, keeping on menus-based systems who start to age, without this move GNU/Linux would probably lost many new users who want modern desktops...

Unfortunately modern desktops are still crappy floating WM with a completely lost design underneath but that's another story...

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

#94

Post by Yizahi »

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.

Not many distros ship KDE as a main and first class DE. On the ones which allows KDE during install (meaning it was at least somehow tested, probably), in my anecdotal experience KDE 5 often run horribly with severe visual bugs. AND then community says this "why did you pick distroname+KDE, it is cutting edge, go pick Mate/Gnome/Cinnamon/XFCE". And both of these things together are rather frustrating.

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

#95

Post by lproven »

sph wrote: post #35

"This new release doesn't come from Canonical: it's from Linux wunderkind Rudra Saraswat", a 12 years old Linux enthusiast from Bengaluru, India. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/rs2009 Incredible stuff, love to see it.

[Article author here]

He does amazing work. I did a little profile piece on him a few months ago: https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/04/rudra_sarsawat_ubuntu...

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

#97

Post by bregma »

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!

I doubt very much that that anecdote is true.

I was involved in the development of Unity at Canonical, just as I was involved in the development of the Eee PC at Xandros before that. Unity developers were very well aware that there was a small but extremely vocal minority of users who expressed their strong dislike and contempt for their work. We were also aware of the much larger and quieter plurality of people who liked and appreciated it, and maybe the majority of people who just turned on their computer and got to work without a second thought about the desktop environment. A part of my job was managing the negative feedback from users... I think would have been aware of any decision to change back to Gnome based on the strident and biased opinion of some rando on the internet.

For the record, Unity was discontinued as a business decision to make Canonical more profitable for its investors. Plain and simple. Normal everyday business.

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

#98

Post by lproven »

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!

[Article author here]

I am astonished at what a short memory HN has.

The Ubuntu project manager did an "ask HN" post on what people wanted to see next. It is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14002821

The result was fairly overwhelming: stop Unity, Mir, the mobile stuff, etc.

So that is what happened.

I personally feel it was a huge mistake. :shrug:

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

#99

Post by ginko »

simion314 wrote: post #47
reidrac wrote: post #12

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), and an approach to community management that was basically if you don't like, go away . In the early days, Unity was more usable than GNOME (could be my hardware, perhaps; apparently my nvidia drivers were buggy and I was told to change GPU), but back then Mark Shuttleworth wa…

>If I recall correctly, both GNOME and Unity shared rejection from a number of users Of course GNOME fanboys complained that someone dared to replace their precious DE with a nicer Qt based one instead of kissing the ass of giant ego GNOME designers. Even when Ubuntu got back to GNOME Canonical listen to the users and put features back in on Ubuntu.

Actually, I think most Gnome 2 refugees eventually settles with XFCE or Mate. I did at least.

..wonder what I'll do after the Gnome team kills XFCE by enforcing Wayland for GTK.

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

#100

Post by lproven »

bitcharmer wrote: post #32
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!

I don't think Canonical cares at all about community input on things like that (just look at snap). It was just that unity really was that bad. No need to blame HN crowd for this.

This is incorrect.

What Canonical did is exactly what HN asked them to do in this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14002821

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