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Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

lunduke.com

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Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#31

Post by batista »

bho wrote: post #27
demetris wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says more about the quality of the review than about the relative merits of the 3 systems. These things are simple: If Ubuntu were so much better, or just plain better, than other operating systems, more people would use it. Firefox is, and has been for a long time, much better than IE, and so people use it. OpenOffice/LibreOffice is not better than Microsoft Office, and so people don’t prefer it over Microsoft Of…

The cost of switching is a high barrier for many people. Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need. Changing from your browser -> Firefox = most websites will still work, no additional effort on anyone. Changing from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice forces you to ensure all the documents open correctly and others can open yours correctly. It's not always so black…

>Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need.

Yes, but that goes both ways. If Ubuntu lacks equivalents for all of the software you need, you cannot say that it's "better than the other OSs", i.e. software availability is a very important metric of "better" in an OS, even more important than the network stack being 5% faster, or the filesystem supporting more esoteric features etc.

So, it would be like saying "Ubuntu is better than OS X/Win if we exclude things that also matter a lot".

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#32

Post by scribu »

swah wrote: post #21

My yearly "lets see if Ubuntu is good enough now" a few days ago: installed the beta, froze when I connected the external monitor. Then the same happened with 11. And with Xubuntu. And I went back to Windows 7.

That's not really fair. Why not wait for the final release before trying it out?

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#33

Post by sharms »

swah wrote: post #21

My yearly "lets see if Ubuntu is good enough now" a few days ago: installed the beta, froze when I connected the external monitor. Then the same happened with 11. And with Xubuntu. And I went back to Windows 7.

Let me offset that with a different view: I have bought 4[1] different laptops over the past month, running Ubuntu 12.04 on them. One of my key tests was plugging in my external HDMI monitor, in which it worked for all of them.

In all seriousness, if this is happening to you send me a private message and we can look over your specs and dig into what could be causing it.

[1] HP Envy 15 3033, Acer S3, Asus TimelineX, Macbook Pro

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#34

Post by BenoitEssiambre »

rbanffy wrote: post #25
dlsym wrote: post #10

Unity and gnome-shell might be OK on a netbook. Or a notebook. Or maybe on a single monitor desktop. For a triplehead setup this concept is just not bearable. I think this really bad design-decision goes back to the days when there was this "Linux the great netbook / eee-PC OS hype". The good thing is: Nobody is forced to use this . There is Mate ( http://mate-desktop.org/ ), or KDE, or XFCE, or ... The only thing th…

20+ people on my team are using Unity on dual-head setups and it works very well. There was some pain in the transition from Gnome 2 to Unity, but, in general, people are happy and productive. Most have split their desktops into 9 spaces and run all apps full-screen, usually with a terminal on the notebook screen and something else (Eclipse, Emacs) on the larger LCD.

How is the multiple spaces experience? This is my biggest fear. If this isn't very streamlined my productivity is going to go down.

It is my biggest gripe with OSX that the "Spaces" functionality requires multiple clicks with lengthy animations in between to navigate the spaces. I could setup keyboard shortcuts but, damn it, a one click panel or dock widget is what I am used to and what I like. This has been included in unix type IDEs since the early 1990s (except Apple who managed to break it) the lack of it is a deal breaker for me.

Do we get one in unity.

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#35

Post by simonw »

batista wrote: post #30
keithpeter wrote: post #17

Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? Examples of reviews that changed the way you think about the GUI would be very welcome. We are going to get a rash of articles like this one, which make some valid points, but do not really compare Unity in its 12.04 guise with any kind of model of interaction or external standard. It would be nice to try to produce something better. Canonical design have d…

> Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? I would suggest you check out John Siracussa's reviews for OS X releases on Ars Technica.

Absolutely. I'd love to see a Siracussa-style review of the new Ubuntu release.

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#36

Post by keithpeter »

batista wrote: post #30
keithpeter wrote: post #17

Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? Examples of reviews that changed the way you think about the GUI would be very welcome. We are going to get a rash of articles like this one, which make some valid points, but do not really compare Unity in its 12.04 guise with any kind of model of interaction or external standard. It would be nice to try to produce something better. Canonical design have d…

> Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? I would suggest you check out John Siracussa's reviews for OS X releases on Ars Technica.

The 10.6 review seems Comprehensive and quite technical. Thanks.

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#37

Post by keithpeter »

simonw wrote: post #35
batista wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? I would suggest you check out John Siracussa's reviews for OS X releases on Ars Technica.

Absolutely. I'd love to see a Siracussa-style review of the new Ubuntu release.

Challenge: can anyone out there do the bits about the change in the libraries, the indicators, the way Unity ties in with Gnome 3 (remember Gnome Shell and Unity are both Gnome 3 shells)?

I'll risk the slings and arrows and have a go at the surface/UI bit. That'll be next weekend. I'm no Siracussa but everyone has to start somewhere.

PS: 12.04.1 is when you install on a production machine, that's around June

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#38

Post by bostonvaulter2 »

cobychapple wrote: post #24

The author says that doing something simple: "takes several clicks on parts of the screen that are nowhere near each other and are not immediately obvious the first time you see them". ... and that this process requires the user to: "click the “Ubuntu” button in the top left, then click the little white icon on the bottom center that is, I assume, representative of “a comb, a pencil and a building with pacman on it”.…

You need to read further. The next sentence says: "Remember when I said “quick and easy”? I lied."

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#39

Post by bostonvaulter2 »

cobychapple wrote: post #22
stock_toaster wrote: post #2

> The short version: Ubuntu 12.04 is the best release they’ve ever had and > absolutely blows the upcoming releases of Windows and MacOS X out of the > water in just about every way that matters. The second half of that statement may be a touch hyperbolic.

When I read this article, I was open to hearing how this could be the case, but then I read: "Working with Ubuntu 12.04 is quite simple and elegant… until you want to sit down and see what applications are available on your system." Which sounds like it really doesn't blow anything out of the water. Then I also read: "click the “Ubuntu” button in the top left, then click the little white icon on the bottom center tha…

Yeah, it is really weird for him to open a positive review with that.

Re: Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

#40

Post by dfc »

franciscoapinto wrote: post #15
jiri wrote: post #5

I've also tried beta 12.04, seems ok, but article is a really bit hyperbolic. IMO this ubuntu has similar progress from previous version as other versions in the past. Big surprise for me: I've upgraded 4 years old laptop with new SSD disk and 12.04beta and its really lightning fast compared to windows 7 (altough I have to switch to Unity 2D because of too hot gpu). It really feels like new machine.

Too hot gpu? If you have a ATI graphics chip on that machine, you can try one of the following: - Installing the proprietary drivers (fglrx). https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI - Properly configuring power management for the libre ones. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1569512 Disclaimer: I'm not an ubuntu user (debian here)

No self respecting debian user encourages the use of non-free video drivers.
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