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(Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

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Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#31

Post by freakwit »

spiffworks wrote: post #7
hristov wrote: 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.

On the contrary, Unity broke all my keyboard shortcuts. I gave it a fair shake (used it during the beta, tried not to mark it down for bugginess) and am back to classic.

For my settings, multitasking with the keyboard is very easy - just press super and the relevant workspace number - just press super and the relevant character to launch a particular application

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#32

Post by Typhon »

I was reluctant to update from 10.10. Finally, I updated to Natty, to see what everyone was talking about. I then discovered that my hardware is not compatible with Unity. I can't even complain about what it looks like, because I've been left behind in the "leap forward".

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#33

Post by cypherpunks »

I would call this a huge leap backwards. It is the first version of Debian or Ubuntu in 15 years that doesn't work. Wireless broke. Wired broke. Unity caused windows to randomly turn white. No obvious way to turn off visual effects. The UI feels like a clone of the Mac without a real understanding of what works and doesn't work on the Mac. A lot of the Mac paradigms come from a world of much lower resolution than modern desktops. The Mac-style top menu bar doesn't work well for modalless, Unix-style applications where you have several open at the same time. Focus-follows-the-mouse is slow and broken. Most of my favorite configuration options are gone. Clicking a second time on the terminal button brings up the first terminal, not a second one.

I'm waiting for 11.10 on the rest of my machines, but considering switching from Ubuntu.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#34

Post by CrazedGeek »

I have an earnest question for certain people who dislike Unity: Why are you switching distros entirely? I'd understand if Unity was the only available option, but GNOME2 still works fine, GNOME3's in a PPA, and there's other DEs that are more-or-less officially supported (KDE, XFCE, LXDE).

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#35

Post by hartror »

I don't know what it is like for an everyday user but as an experienced power user I found Unity slower than the classic interface. I use gnome-do for launching programs, and it runs faster and supports more than Unity does.

We aren't the target for this interface.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#36

Post by phlyingpenguin »

spiffworks wrote: post #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.

Heh, I did exactly the opposite. I'm pretty happy with it, though I may still return to Gnome 2.

My main reason to ditch Unity was the screen space that unity takes and does give good options for customization. I've been running with just a single top bar in Gnome for ages and can't stand the unity bar looming over me. I figured now is a good time to experiment. Awesome seems to pack a lot of functionality that I like so we'll see how things go.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#37

Post by tintin »

A thing I don't like about Unity are the context-menus. When your application is fullscreen they are ok, but when your window is smaller it's strange to have the context menu still on top of your screen. I also never understood why Apple is doing this. To me it just feels out of context.

But overall I think Unity is great. People don't like changes so there will be a lot of boo-ing and bah-ing, but I think in the end this is a great step forward.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#38

Post by irahul »

spiffworks wrote: post #7
hristov wrote: 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.

> Unity is much more keyboard friendly than Gnome. Multitasking with the keyboard is very easy, just hold super and press the relevant number.

Do you touchtype? I find it extremely difficult to use super or arrow keys or any other keys which aren't touch type friendly. super + num is worse than using the mouse for me.

alt+tab works better in my experience.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#39

Post by spiffworks »

kleiba wrote: post #28
spiffworks wrote: post #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.

Could you give examples for the features your find well thought out? Does Unity solve problems you had with Awesome?

The built-in search and launcher are killer features for me, and the multitasking with super+num is great. It also has the 'run-or-raise' capability that I've failed to get to work in Awesome. As such, the window management capabilities of Unity pale in comparison with Awesome, but the fact that I can run Matlab and get the speed and multitasking is pure win for Unity. Java apps in Awesome are a source of unlimited pain for me.

Re: (Ubuntu) 11.04, a leap forward

#40

Post by spiffworks »

freakwit wrote: post #31
spiffworks wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

On the contrary, Unity broke all my keyboard shortcuts. I gave it a fair shake (used it during the beta, tried not to mark it down for bugginess) and am back to classic. For my settings, multitasking with the keyboard is very easy - just press super and the relevant workspace number - just press super and the relevant character to launch a particular application

Heh. Close to six months in Gnome and I never realised that those shortcuts existed. Apparently, I have severely underestimated the Gnome desktop for a long time.
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