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(Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

markshuttleworth.com

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Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#3
I am a longtime Ubuntu user and I turned off Unity as soon as I figured out how to do it. It is really really wrong IMO.

Shuttleworth should realize that a desktop computer with a mouse is very different from an iPad and things that are all the rage for tablets are not necessarily good for desktops.

For example on a desktop you have a mouse which has very high precision and accuracy, whereas on an iPad you have your fingers which are not very accurate at all. Thus, tablets make sure they have few and large buttons, while this is not necessary for desktops. In desktops you are allowed to have more and smaller buttons.

Also, tablets usually have limited real estate so that they make sure any program you use can take up the entire screen. Desktops on the other hand can have huge screens and thus should allow people to have several windows open and visible at the same time.

Unity is cute for the first time but it is almost unusable if you have multiple windows open. I want to see which windows are open so that i can switch between them easily. Unity requires several button pushes to find a minimized window.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#4
One of the great things about Linux in general is that this is non-news plenty of users who don't use the default window manager anyway. Prefer something else? Just switch. You're not married to the window manager like you are on OS X and Windows. I'm very happy for that.

(Edit: I should clarify that I'm writing this in anticipations that the general sentiment will be that Unity is terrible. If you don't think it's terrible, then it's also not an issue.)

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#5
post #3

I am a longtime Ubuntu user and I turned off Unity as soon as I figured out how to do it. It is really really wrong IMO. Shuttleworth should realize that a desktop computer with a mouse is very different from an iPad and things that are all the rage for tablets are not necessarily good for desktops. For example on a desktop you have a mouse which has very high precision and accuracy, whereas on an iPad you have your…

I kinda liked Unity at first but after a few days of using it I am really finding I am not as productive and am switching back to good old gnome. I think ultimately its failure is the difficulty of seeing what apps are open and switching between them quickly.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#6
I have to say, as an Awesome WM user, I was sceptical of Unity. But after a day of using it, I think I might never go back to Awesome. It is just ridiculously well thought out, in a way that I have never experienced on Linux before. It really is a leap, if only for the methodology they used. I hope other distros start doing this kind of deep analysis.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#7
post #3

I am a longtime Ubuntu user and I turned off Unity as soon as I figured out how to do it. It is really really wrong IMO. Shuttleworth should realize that a desktop computer with a mouse is very different from an iPad and things that are all the rage for tablets are not necessarily good for desktops. For example on a desktop you have a mouse which has very high precision and accuracy, whereas on an iPad you have your…

On the contrary, I find that Unity is much more keyboard friendly than Gnome. Multitasking with the keyboard is very easy, just hold super and press the relevant number. I find that it is much more conducive to multitasking once I got used to it. Give it a fair shake. It's different, and I had some initial revulsion, but once you get over it, it can be one of the most pleasant desktop experiences you've ever had.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#8
post #3

I am a longtime Ubuntu user and I turned off Unity as soon as I figured out how to do it. It is really really wrong IMO. Shuttleworth should realize that a desktop computer with a mouse is very different from an iPad and things that are all the rage for tablets are not necessarily good for desktops. For example on a desktop you have a mouse which has very high precision and accuracy, whereas on an iPad you have your…

http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/unity-keyboard-mouse-sh...

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#9
post #4

One of the great things about Linux in general is that this is non-news plenty of users who don't use the default window manager anyway. Prefer something else? Just switch. You're not married to the window manager like you are on OS X and Windows. I'm very happy for that. (Edit: I should clarify that I'm writing this in anticipations that the general sentiment will be that Unity is terrible. If you don't think it's t…

Indeed. I just installed 10.10 on a Thinkpad W500 using the Trinity KDE3 dstro.

I ever cared for Gnome; lack of easy menu hacking and navigation and not being able to set different backgrounds for each desktop were among my peeves.

KDE4 didn't work for me, either. Too much slickness for stuff I had no use for.

Lucky for me some smart, motivated people decided to keep KDE3 alive. My eternal thanks to them.

A downside is that most often when I search for help on something it ends up being how-to in Gnome or maybe KDE4, but with a bi of digging I find what command line invocation to run or what config file needs editing.

Truly a great thing to be able to have such a range of UI options (and every so often I try xmonad) while under the hood it's same hackable OS.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#10
I have to say that I was very skeptical of Unity before I tried it yesterday for the first time. It's certainly different from what most people are used to, but it's also better in many ways. I have tried at least GNOME2, KDE3, KDE4, XMonad, wmii, and different versions Windows, and I can't decide which of them I like the best. Unity is not the best for everything and takes some getting used to, but it certainly isn't bad either.
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