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

#201

Post by hvis » Thu, Jul 07, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

lproven wrote: post #194

hvis wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity was a great project, but not all is lost. I've been using this GNOME extension for years, and it's been very solid: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/ It emulates Unity quite well (removing the titlebars on maximized windows, among other things).

It only provides some of the cosmetic look of Unity. It doesn't provide any of the functionality, such as global menu bars, keyboard controls, a dock with both keyboard and mouse controls, and so on.

I suppose you and I cared about different aspects of it.

But at least some of the things you enumerated should be possible to add. Maybe file an issue, see what happens.

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

#202

Post by lproven » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 10:49 AM UTC

hvis wrote: post #201

lproven wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only provides some of the cosmetic look of Unity. It doesn't provide any of the functionality, such as global menu bars, keyboard controls, a dock with both keyboard and mouse controls, and so on.

I suppose you and I cared about different aspects of it. But at least some of the things you enumerated should be possible to add. Maybe file an issue, see what happens.

No, it can't.

You can't move all the app's menu bars into a global menu bar when the new UI guidelines means that GNOME-conformant apps do not have menu bars.

You can't have a search tool that searches menu trees that aren't there.

You can't have add-on status icons in the top panel when the developers have removed the APIs for add-on status icons and combined their own status icons into a smaller number (gods know why, but they have, and it sucks.)

You can't make intelligent use of title bars, for example optionally putting menus into the title bars, or hiding them for full-screen apps, when the GNOME guidelines say don't have a menu bar, use CSD and put dialog buttons in there.

KDE can fake up a global menu bar; GNOME cannot and the GNOME team actively seek to prevent such things.

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

#203

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 5:37 PM UTC

lproven wrote: post #161

akho wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I opened that post. The top comment asks for mixed DPI, trackpad gestures, and better power management. I had to scan (and click the next page thing) quite a lot to get to something that looked vaguely critical of Unity (and even then it was "collaborate with Gnome more"). I wish they took the other suggestions as seriously… Unity was entirely pointless though.

Unity was not pointless. The point was that Microsoft was threatening to sue any company distributing a Windows-like desktop Linux. https://www.theregister.com/2006/11/20/microsoft_claims_linu... SUSE signed a patent-sharing agreement; Red Hat and Canonical said no. Both developed their own non-Windows-like desktops. RH sponsors GNOME, and many RH people worked on GNOME 3. Canonical tried to get involved and was rebu…

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