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Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

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Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#81

Post by icebraining »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #46
rufugee wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding an OS being intuitive...my wife is typically the ultimate test. She's not a power user...she just wants to surf the web, process photos, and email. She also has very low tolerance for UX deficiencies. I've had Windows 7, Ubuntu with Gnome 2, and OSX Snow Leopard and Lion in front of her. She was ok with Windows 7...it was tolerable, but we hit our first virus soon in and I ordered it off the machine. She li…

I'm not so sure about "eating memory" with programs still running. I'm no OS expert but I'm pretty sure that assuming that app isn't doing anything then it's pages will be swapped out to disk (in essence , quitting the application from a memory perspective) if there are more pressing requirements for the memory. What is the technical difference between a program that is running or not running? As far as I can tell it…

I'm no OS expert but I'm pretty sure that assuming that app isn't doing anything then it's pages will be swapped out to disk (in essence , quitting the application from a memory perspective) if there are more pressing requirements for the memory.

Yes, but let's say you open an email client to receive notifications. Then you perform various tasks that involve opening new applications for a limited period of time, and they keep running after you're done with them. Eventually they'll use all the memory and the email client, since it's been idle for so long, gets paged to swap.

Now you get a new email notification and you click to open it, which forces the system to page something else and "bring back" the email client, which creates a huge delay between the click and the email window showing up.

If the temp applications had been closed as each task was completed, the email client would've never been paged out, so it'd remain fast when it was needed.

This might seem a contrived example, but if you have some applications that you tend to leave open, it can be hell.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#82

Post by supar »

technomancy wrote: post #61
supar wrote: post #34

I have experienced quite the opposite. A lot of colleagues that were once found of Ubuntu switched in flocks to other distros starting with Ubuntu Maverick. With Ubuntu 11, friends personally asked me how to switch back to the previous system, or to dump linux completely because the system got too slow with updates. And, sadly, that's true: the experience of the Ubuntu desktop, performance-wise, has degraded to the p…

What makes you think you don't have a choice? I'm running Ubuntu with xmonad, and before that was on xfce; it's super easy to switch. I will probably switch to Debian soon, but that has more to do with Ubuntu pushing nonfree software than Unity.

In theory yes, however alternative desktops are not supported. The choice of desktop is the primary difference between Ubuntu and (say) Debian which doesn't worship any. Not that "support" exists anyway, but there's no point in using Ubuntu if you use a different desktop.

I also agree about your non-free software argument. Plus all the useless, additional services ubuntu is trying to push (Apple-style).

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#83

Post by burgerbrain »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #77
burgerbrain wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the vast majority of cases, computers (software and hardware) are quite generic. It is only the people with exotic cars and computer setups (Linux on the desktop for example) that have a concern.

hardware in many cases yes, software less so. There are very few cases where one piece of software is a good substitute for another and where they are they are usually trivial pieces of software.

Approximately 80% of the time, the software that works on one computer will work on another. In most of the remaining cases, the software will still work on the other computer, or at least have an acceptable substitute. For example, Microsoft Office works on a high 90's percent of all personal computers.

It is only if you have an exotic car^W computer that you'll have trouble finding parts^W software.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#84

Post by wildmXranat »

Ugh, that is hype and nothing more. I've been using ubuntu since version 4 or so, and Unity has made me switch the windowing manager. Simple as that. It impedes my workflow and it doesn't even come close to what a simple, developer centric manager should be in my point of view. I installed the WM that comes with Lubuntu and unless Unity changes for the better, it will not be on my workstation.

I can also say, that many developers I work with feel the same way. It wasn't as if we didn't try to get used to it.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#85

Post by burgerbrain »

dextorious wrote: post #75
burgerbrain wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So, by you own logic" That is your logic, not my own. I care what he is writing because his perspective is similar to my own. I don't care what operating system he is using.

"""I care what he is writing because his perspective is similar to my own. I don't care what operating system he is using.""" So, you: (a) "care what he is writing because his perspective is similar to [your] own", but: (b) "[you] don't care what operating system he is using.". I fail to see how (a) can be conciliated with (b), given that he is writing about "what operating system he is using", that is the very thing…

Linux is an exotic car. People trying to push linux on the general population so that they have an "easier time getting parts" are just as annoying as people who drive expensive cars and think that everybody else should too. I don't care if the expensive/exotic car is Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, Plan 9, BeOS, OSX,... ...It's just fucking annoying.

Interestingly, if you are unable understand that, I don't really give a shit. I believe I have now clearly articulated my position, the rest is on you.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#86

Post by felipehummel »

hamoid wrote: post #80
Anderkent wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alt-tab works, but alt-shift-tab does not - or at least did not work for me when I upgraded. Not wanting to waste time looking for a workaround, I just reverted to my backup and forgot about Unity.

With Unity you can press Win+1, Win+2 ... Win+N to directly jump to an specific open window. Much faster than alt+tab.

After I discovered this feature/shortcut I started not caring anymore about Unity bugs. Navigating applications this way is much faster than alt+tabbing. Another useful shortcut is alt+` (backtick). It cycles through open windows of the same application. If you have 10 PDFs open, you can cycle through them with alt+`.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#87

Post by bryanlarsen »

redthrowaway wrote: post #53
daliusd wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK. I see how it can be problem with two monitors but aren't shortcuts like (Start+1) helping in this case? While I still see problem with eyes movement. Lastly I'm against idea using multiple monitors so I don't feel competent enough to comment. Problem with GUI apps from shell script is bug in my opinion but I was not affected by it yet.

I use two monitors at work, and I can't imagine using just one. The productivity boost is great.

Even better than 2 monitors is a single 2560x1600 30".

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#88

Post by gnaritas »

wildmXranat wrote: post #84

Ugh, that is hype and nothing more. I've been using ubuntu since version 4 or so, and Unity has made me switch the windowing manager. Simple as that. It impedes my workflow and it doesn't even come close to what a simple, developer centric manager should be in my point of view. I installed the WM that comes with Lubuntu and unless Unity changes for the better, it will not be on my workstation. I can also say, that ma…

Unity isn't for developers.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#89

Post by fader »

DanBC wrote: post #79
fader wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/what-are-unitys-keyboar... You can launch or switch to any of the first 10 applications on the launcher, resize/maximize/minimize a window, tile multiple windows , switch workspaces, or bring up the dash with a single keybinding for each. The only one of those I remember being able to do in GNOME 2 was switch workspaces.

> resize/maximize/minimize a window, ( http://k12linux.mesd.k12.or.us/docs/gnome/ch01s02.html ) Alt-spacebar Opens the Window Menu. etc etc.

Alt-spacebar requires multiple keystrokes and does not allow easy tiling or snapping to corners/center.

Re: Ubuntu’s move to Unity is the best thing that ever happened to Linux

#90

Post by jeffnappi »

danking00 wrote: post #31
daliusd wrote: post #10

I consider myself power user. I am developer, I have experience with Windows, Mac OS X, BSD OSes and Linuxes. I have actually tried various desktop environments and WMs (including several tiling managers, I have used awesome WM for half a year). Overall I really love experimenting with software to the very deep level. I have tried Unity and I really like it. It is simple and it does what I need. It respects my screen…

Thirded, Geeks are coding away at some application feature, managing servers, updating designs, watching some TV show, browsing the web, discussing project goals over skype with team members and other mundane things – all this on a slow day. I disagree. I have three windows open. Google Chrome (with, unfortunately for my productivity, Hacker News open), Emacs, and a Gnome Terminal (I X forward my Emacs session from m…

I concur, I'm using a few applications - Yakuake Terminal, Chrome, Thunderbird, Eclipse+viPlugin, Empathy and Skype.

Unity took me a while to get used to, but I've found it to be fantastic and look forward to seeing the production release with Ubuntu 12.04.

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