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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

#111

Post by okasaki »

addicted wrote: post #82
okasaki wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know which idea is worse, (1) that they forced desktop users on a phone UI intentionally (2) or that they weren't trying to make a phone UI but somehow ended up with the gross garbage that is GNOME 3+ anyway. Either way GNOME 3+ stinks. Even the GNOME developers had to concede and offer the alternative GNOME flashback ( https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeFlashback ), which looks like GNOME 2 (but not custom…

Lol, because Linux users are the biggest whiners on the planet. Almost no one appreciated Unity when it was around. All this nostalgia for it is just that. If Ubuntu switched to Unity tomorrow people would just start whining like mad about it. I bet Gnome Fladhback doesn’t even get 1% of the usage of actual Gnome.

Unity wasn't appreciated because it wasn't better than what it was replacing (GNOME 2). Though at least it had a sort of window list you could use to quickly switch windows with a mouse. You know - the device people use on desktop PCs.

Nothing to do with whiners. Although I'm sure the world feels like it's full of whiners if you work on UIs at Red Hat. As is often the case though, that feeling is more a reflection of your situation than objective reality.

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

#112

Post by philliphaydon »

addicted wrote: post #82
okasaki wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know which idea is worse, (1) that they forced desktop users on a phone UI intentionally (2) or that they weren't trying to make a phone UI but somehow ended up with the gross garbage that is GNOME 3+ anyway. Either way GNOME 3+ stinks. Even the GNOME developers had to concede and offer the alternative GNOME flashback ( https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeFlashback ), which looks like GNOME 2 (but not custom…

Lol, because Linux users are the biggest whiners on the planet. Almost no one appreciated Unity when it was around. All this nostalgia for it is just that. If Ubuntu switched to Unity tomorrow people would just start whining like mad about it. I bet Gnome Fladhback doesn’t even get 1% of the usage of actual Gnome.

I was using Ubuntu but when Unity got dropped I went back to Windows... Now I'm on Fedora 36 with KDE, and :'( my new work laptop has to be Windows :'( so sad.

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

#113

Post by reidrac »

simion314 wrote: post #110
ginko wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I profoundly dislike all that "hater" rhetoric. Sure, there will always be trolls, but by tagging any dissenting opinion as "Ubuntu/Canonical haters" I feel like there's a lost opportunity to improve.

You can't please everybody, but both Unity an GNOME shell had some very bad ideas, and it took too long to correct course (and in some cases it didn't happen). I believe some of the criticism came from people that really loved those DE, and that's why they were passionate about it.

When people don't care, they just use something else.

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

#114

Post by simion314 »

lproven wrote: post #98
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:

>I am astonished at what a short memory HN has.

I remember this events too, probably HN hate was not the main reason but probably it was the final straw.

Then you see some dudes ehre hating on snap, dudes calm down, your fucking flatpacks are not equivalent, they are GNOME/desktop centric, can't use them on a server.

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

#115

Post by dingi »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #83
pndy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost every change Gnome3 did over Gnome2 was a change for the worse or for far worse. At first it felt like they just went for change for a sake of change so they could be unique among the DEs but now, it seems the long-term goal wasn't just creating a combination between desktop and mobile environment but aiming at being the mobile environment first with optional support for desktops. And indeed, reading all exp…

> but aiming at being the mobile environment first I'd say, being 'touch environment first', not mobile. And it resulted in a very poor UX for mouse users, while touch GNU/Linux computers never appeared (except androids, but they have no use for gnome anyway).

GNOME has excellent support for keyboard based navigation BTW. Almost anything can be done with the keyboard. Most shell actions has a keyboard shortcut.

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

#116

Post by Veliladon »

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…

From the article:

> As a small example, the update makes right-clicking the trashcan in the Launcher to empty it work again, without needing to open the trashcan's own window.

I feel like that single line illustrates just how badly GNOME has lost the plot over the last decade.

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

#118

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

dingi wrote: post #115
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but aiming at being the mobile environment first I'd say, being 'touch environment first', not mobile. And it resulted in a very poor UX for mouse users, while touch GNU/Linux computers never appeared (except androids, but they have no use for gnome anyway).

GNOME has excellent support for keyboard based navigation BTW. Almost anything can be done with the keyboard. Most shell actions has a keyboard shortcut.

They could have done it without taking away convenient menus. Previously all apps had standardized interface, now everyone invents the bicycle for themselves.

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

#119

Post by jeroenhd »

Veliladon wrote: post #116
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…

From the article: > As a small example, the update makes right-clicking the trashcan in the Launcher to empty it work again, without needing to open the trashcan's own window. I feel like that single line illustrates just how badly GNOME has lost the plot over the last decade.

AFAIK GNOME doesn't really do desktop icons and the ones Ubuntu added were actually a GNOME extension. Ubuntu chose to bundle that extension so the burden on creating a unified experience should be on them.

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

#120

Post by kijin »

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 wasn't a fan of Unity when Canonical was pushing it, but I totally agree that it was better than the GNOME Shell version we're left with nowadays.

On the other hand, that impression might be because the default GNOME apps back then had much more usable menus packed with features. Now it doesn't really matter whether your menu bar is global or not, because all those menu items are being killed anyway. Otherwise the multiple empty bars you see wouldn't have been as empty as they are.

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