Ubuntu Unity desktop back from the dead after several years' hiatus • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by lproven » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:20 AM UTC

knorker wrote: post #31

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!

What i remembered is that it was widely hated, and canonical was shoving it down everyone's throats and saying things like "we know that unity is objectively the best desktop environment that ever existed", allowing them to discard any critique. But eventually they had to face reality, and gave up. I'm sure there were people who liked it. I never met one.

Hi. I wrote the article at the top of this post. I am still using Unity now as I have been doing for about a decade.

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

#102

Post by signal11 » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:21 AM UTC

lproven wrote: post #95

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...

When you wrote wunderkind, I really didn't think you meant it literally!

The work is interesting enough coming from anyone, but that little detail makes it more impressive.

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

#103

Post by lproven » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:21 AM UTC

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.

They did a macOS ripoff directly because Microsoft was threatening to sue everyone doing Win95 ripoffs: https://www.theregister.com/2006/11/20/microsoft_claims_linu...

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

#104

Post by lproven » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:24 AM UTC

butokai wrote: post #55

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.

No.

The Qt-based Unity was called Unity2D. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity2D

It was dropped when LLVMpipe rendering made OpenGL fast enough to be usable on machines without 3D hardware:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE2MTQ

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

#105

Post by superkuh » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:24 AM UTC

This is great as it's from a third party any not forced on users. Convergence was never a thing and it will never be a thing.

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

#106

Post by lproven » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:25 AM UTC

Shadonototra wrote: post #68

Some day i'll sit down and port unity to arch linux, but damn i got too much stuff to do already..

It was done: https://github.com/chenxiaolong/Unity-for-Arch

I have not tried it, but Rudra Saraswat's new Unity-like desktop, UnityX, is also available in an Arch version: https://9to5linux.com/you-can-now-install-the-unityx-desktop...

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

#107

Post by lproven » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:27 AM UTC

thepangolino wrote: post #22

For me the killer feature of Unity is the HUD[0] allowing you to simply type to find menu items. Save so much time going through options it is incredible. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_WW-DHqR3c

I find it interesting because as a long-term Unity user, I never used the HUD at all and turned if off when I could.

But I think it says good things about the environment that different users found their own things they liked about it.

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

#108

Post by amelius » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:28 AM UTC

littlecranky67 wrote: post #20

To provide some historic context: Unity was released in times when there was this "Netbook" trend, started by Asus EeePC with 7" display, followed by a lot of other cheap Netbooks in the 7"-10" display category. Additionally, Canonical pushed to become a mobile/smartphone OS vendor. These constrained display sizes were some of the main factors in the UX design of Unity. Fast forward to today, Netbooks were a short-li…

There is also Ubuntu Touch for tablets etc., which was started by Canonical, but then dropped because of lack of interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Touch

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

#109

Post by lproven » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:29 AM UTC

signal11 wrote: post #102

lproven wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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...

When you wrote wunderkind, I really didn't think you meant it literally! The work is interesting enough coming from anyone , but that little detail makes it more impressive.

I entirely agree.

His handle on the Ubuntu Discourse is rs2009.

I believe that this is because he was born in 2009. When Unity débuted, he was 2.

As an Ubuntu user since 2004 and a Linux user since 1996, I find it hard to express how ancient this makes me feel. :-/

But yes, he is a great kid, super smart, and I hope his enthusiasm lasts and does not burn out.

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

#110

Post by simion314 » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 11:41 AM UTC

ginko wrote: post #99

simion314 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I am not sure if most, but there were a lot of happy Unity users , but the DE got of lot of hate , much more hate then other GNOME forks or alternatives, Probably Ubuntu/Canonical haters just found another project to attack and seen it as Canonical inventing something new instead of letting RedHat inventing shit and kissing TH ass and follow them.