Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Still hate Unity on my netbook. My ubuntu 11.04 ended it's support at the end of October so I took a deep breath and upgraded to 11.10. I know Unity has its supporters, but I don't like it. The big icons on the launcher seem dumb, designer fluff. Great for folks who are into appearances I guess, and maybe better on a large display, but it adds nothing useful to my desktop. I'll admit I'm an old guy and I just want something that works. Problem is though that I can't get gnome shell to install and can't find where gnome-session-fallback is available. How can I install gnome classic? apt-get install gnome-session-fallback sends me a message that the package might be available somewhere else but I haven't found it yet.
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Gnome Shell should install nice and easy on 11.10, and it comes with the classic session. (It's not great - but it's better in 12.04, which is the LTS, which means that if you upgrade to 12.04, you probably won't have to upgrade that machine again ever.) What error are you getting in installing Shell?
My bedraggled old netbook is running Unity now, and I kinda like it for that form factor - now that I have a desktop running Shell, I don't mind having a slightly less complete-feeling desktop on the netbook, and it runs faster and cleaner than Shell does on the awful graphics card. The icon size can be changed down to 32px, which isn't bad on a netbook screen (from the default of 64, which seems ridiculous on any screen resolution.) The setting is in CompizConfig Settings Manager, if you have it installed, under Unity > Experimental. Have you tried that?
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
>Copper Bezel;12344781]
Thanks for the response.
>Gnome Shell should install nice and easy on 11.10, and it
>comes with the classic session. (It's not great - but it's better in 12.04, which is the
>LTS, which means that if you upgrade to 12.04, you probably won't have to
>upgrade that machine again ever.) What error are you getting in installing Shell?
It simply stalls with no error message when I try to install it from the Ubuntu Software Center.
When I try to install it from the command line I get
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package gnome-shell is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package 'gnome-shell' has no installation candidate
>My bedraggled old netbook is running Unity now, and I kinda like it for that form
>factor - now that I have a desktop running Shell, I don't mind having a slightly less
>complete-feeling desktop on the netbook, and it runs faster and cleaner than
>Shell does on the awful graphics card.
Okay, you like it. I'm fine with that but as I said, I don't. With the menus in the Classic Gnome, I could easily get to the functions and applications that I wanted to use. The horrible hide-and-seek icon bar in Unity is annoying and seems like it's there just to be different. I don't see any improved functionality, in fact I see a significant loss of function with the replacement of the intuitive menus by annoying giant icons. I know that my problems with it are probably operator error, but I just want to use something that works for me. Forcing Unity on users is the kind of arrogance I would expect from Apple.
>The icon size can be changed down to 32px, which isn't bad on a netbook screen
>(from the default of 64, which seems ridiculous on any screen resdolution.) The
>setting is in CompizConfig Settings Manager, if you have it installed, under
>Unity > Experimental. Have you tried that?
Haven't tried that. Can't seem to try that because I have no idea where to find Unity >Experimental. I looked for it in the Software Center but couldn't find it.
This is a horrible waste of time.
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
First, get off 11.10, 12.04 LTS is where it's at, plus once on it you won't have to upgrade for a long time, which sounds like something you'd like. Second If you don't like Unity then don't use it, it's not being forced on you no matter how much you think it is.
That being said I have come to love the search driven HUD and Dash, to me it's much easier to type what I want and have it shown to me than having to poke through annoying menu's. I also love the global menu on my netbook, it has more real estate than any other DE I've used.
XFCE is a great DE, I think you might like it, it retains traditional menu's and has an application launcher on the bottom. It seems to be the go to gnome2 alternative and for good reason.
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jerome1232
XFCE is a great DE, I think you might like it, it retains traditional menu's and has an application launcher on the bottom. It seems to be the go to gnome2 alternative and for good reason.
I've created a panel/launcher combo I have hidden on the right of my display and got rid of the top & bottom panels. Much more desktop space this way.
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Has the Unity hate cooled down? Good, if that's true. :)
I'm not running it currently myself, as I'm really enjoying Kubuntu. But I don't mind saying that I think Unity is really lovely. I have no problem using it, and find it very attractive and easy to navigate. My only issues are with performance and bugs generally (which is why I've shied away from 12.10 and stuck to KDE) but I reckon this will improve soon enough. It has to.
The missus is running 12.04 Unity on her laptop still, and it really has been a fantastic experience and a perfect fit for it. In fact she's literally just said to me "I love that Dash Home page". It's doing the right things to get that audience beyond Linux geeks. To me it knocks the socks off W8 too on a desktop or laptop (can't speak for tablets).
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jerome1232
XFCE is a great DE, I think you might like it, it retains traditional menu's and has an application launcher on the bottom. It seems to be the go to gnome2 alternative and for good reason.
I just tried it for the first time and yes, I am very impressed! it looks like a keeper to me.:)
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
don't care for it, won't use it....
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Thanks. I appreciate your response and the response from Copper Bezel. I guess I'll probably try to go to 12.04 or jump to one of the other distributions. My installation of 11.10 is very strange. CompizConfigurationManager will open only for about half a second and then closes before I can do anything with it so I can't easily shrink the disturbingly large icons. I guess I could figure out which file stores the icon size and try to edit it from the command line, but that sounds like a terrible option. I AM effectively forced to use Unity or the command line because for some reason I have been unable to install any of the purported alternative graphical desktops that I've tried. This upgrade has been painful. 11.04 worked beautifully for me. Thanks again for offering suggestions.
Re: Now that the Unity hate has cooled down, how do you feel about the WM?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sfyoung
Still hate Unity on my netbook. My ubuntu 11.04 ended it's support at the end of October so I took a deep breath and upgraded to 11.10. I know Unity has its supporters, but I don't like it. The big icons on the launcher seem dumb, designer fluff. Great for folks who are into appearances I guess, and maybe better on a large display, but it adds nothing useful to my desktop. I'll admit I'm an old guy and I just want something that works. Problem is though that I can't get gnome shell to install and can't find where gnome-session-fallback is available. How can I install gnome classic? apt-get install gnome-session-fallback sends me a message that the package might be available somewhere else but I haven't found it yet.
sudo apt-get install gnome-panel