Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 2

**Chdslv** · September 28th, 2012

Played with 12.10 Beta 1, added Gnome 3.6, uninstalled Unity and after while, I found that it is better get back to Unity with or without the shopping lens. Downloaded beta 2, installed it in the same partition, taking out the 12.10 Gnome 3.6 episode.

Both Unity and Gnome-shell are new and racing each other, but after a while, I found that having the Unity launcher always on at 32 pixels is not a problem at all. If I keep the default window and GTK theme, the top panel matches it self with the rest with a pretty interesting contrast of black & grey.

I also found that the Gnome 3.6 doesn't have much 'extensions' and also very bad with Compiz, but with few glitches Unity 6.6 got itself friendly with Compiz. Usually, I like to install Cairo dock and play the Mac-feel, but with Unity I thought do I need that Mac-feel...? I got rid of the shopping lens, as it was distracting me. I never buy on line. I like to see and touch what I buy, before I pay.

The 12.10 Alpha, Beta 1 experience was very nice, so sticking to Unity in 12.10 beta 2. Hope the devs would let me keep on updating and dist-upgrading and give me the 12.10 release, without the need to re-install.

**exploder** · September 28th, 2012

I installed 12.10 beta 2 on my laptop last night. My laptop has the ATI discrete graphics or whatever it is called. The open source drivers seem to be working much better than they did in 12.04. In 12.04 one of the cores in my processor was running rather high a lot of the time but in 12.10 everything seems normal. The bottom line for me is that 12.10 just seems to be working much better for me on the laptop.

I like the refinements that have made it into Unity. The launcher looks better and the icons go smaller so it looks good on the smaller screen. Unity seems quicker and more responsive. I plan on keeping the LTS on my desktop and going with 12.10 on my laptop if 12.10 continues to run as nice as it has so far.

**Chdslv** · September 29th, 2012

I have a 12.04 in another partition, Exploder. I check both of them to "feel" the changes. I don't know why there is a LTS release, when Canonical keeps on making better and better distros. Maybe the LTS is needed for the businesses, as changing an OS is pretty expensive matter for companies. As a user, I like to upgrade or re-install the newer Ubuntu. My home partition is untouched. Installing Gimp, Inkscape, Skype, etc goes without a problem, while I am working on something else. There is no real problem of re-installing few apps after 6 months. By that time, there are usually upgraded apps.

I found some glitches in 12.10, but are they real problems, I don't know, maybe depends on the user. They are not bugs for me. Well, I couldn't change to any other window themes, other than what's given by default. I tried some Malys ones, but they didn't give the desired result, not like in 12.04. It doesn't really matter as I am beginning to like the Ambiance theme.

I couldn't get the minimize, maximize, close to the right side in this Beta 2, while I could do that in Beta 1. I tried all the tweak tools, but to no avail. Anyway, must wait for the release to see what the Ubuntu devs are thinking. It would be a surprise, but be a very nice one.

I never buy on-line, after getting few low quality Chinese made stuff. It is an exercise to walk around in a mall, even if one doesn't buy a thing. I don't look at buy now, pay later beckonings. It is always better to throw away the credit card(s) and pay with cash. You might be surprised that you can bargain in a large shop if you pay cash, or from a debit card. This is just a by-the-way talk--don't use credit cards, if you want to have a real idea of what you can afford to buy or how to plan your future. So, Amazon application was deleted.

Another interesting matter; usually, Gnome-Tweak-Tool pulls in Gnome-shell--it happened in 12.04--and you could have another DE in the Unity-Greeter, but this time it only pulled gnome-shell-common without any DE at the greeter. I believe, if I install Cairo dock or Awn dock, they might pull in those DEs. This situation would be pretty troublesome for other "OS developers" as they won't be able to re-spin 12.10, add few files, wallpapers, docks and call that a new OS, but may have to start from scratch--mini.iso and build their operating systems based on 12.10--an interesting situation.

It'd be interesting to see, how the Distrowatch Ubuntu re-spins (Mint, Pinguy, Zorin, etc) play catchup...

**Chdslv** · September 29th, 2012

Installed Cairo dock and it pulled in Gnome, just enough for Cairo to work--Cairo with Gnome. I can now dazzle my Mac user pals with both the Mac-feel and the Unity-feel. I would like to know what Ubuntu devs are planning for October 18th!

With Cairo dock, you can have a working weather applet, but with the Awn dock, you can't as its weather applet won't respond. I'd mainly use Unity to get used to it.

By the way, in both Cairo and Unity the desktop cube won't work and pulls everything with it and blurred. It works only in the Gnome-Classic.

**Version Dependency** · September 29th, 2012

Originally Posted by Chdslv

With Cairo dock, you can have a working weather applet, but with the Awn dock, you can't as its weather applet won't respond. I'd mainly use Unity to get used to it.

AWN is a dead project. It hasn't been updated in 2 and a half years...and it appears their wiki site is no longer active and their forums have been nothing but spam for a long time now.

**Chdslv** · September 29th, 2012

Originally Posted by Version Dependency

AWN is a dead project. It hasn't been updated in 2 and a half years...and it appears their wiki site is no longer active and their forums have been nothing but spam for a long time now.

I noticed that too. Looks like only Zorin OS is using the dead Awn. All Awn packages are still in Quantal repos, though. The weather applet and some few others don't work at all.

I still can't get the desktop cube working. I forget that this is beta 2...Everything works well...I really don't need the cube, but that is enough to dazzle the Windows and Mac users.

**Chdslv** · September 30th, 2012

I got little tired of using Unity, just like Gnome-shell. Too many mouse movements--too many wrist movements. So, I installed Elementary daily-testing Luna. No need of Compiz and very much less wrist movements. Unobtrusive nice DE called Gala..

Uninstalled Unity, and most of what's left with it, even Rhythmbox. Left Gedit as I like it, even though Scratch appears to be better. The same with Nautilus, but its much easier to use Pantheon Files or Marlin. Took off Thunderbird and using Geary for a while now. Ubuntu's system settings doesn't work, so I'd uninstall that too.

One thing I can tell quite surely; the Unity DE tires me. I don't know about others, but I don't want it. I don't think it is getting any better, but just a whim of a powerful person. Elementary's menu does the same thing, much easier and faster.

**Version Dependency** · September 30th, 2012

Too many mouse movements with Unity? That's crazy. One of Unity's strongest points is the lack of having to go from one side of the screen to the other with the mouse. It was designed with that in mind.

Everything is to the left...the launcher is on the left, the dash opens on the top-left, the HUD opens on the top left, the back and forward buttons on your browser are on the left, the windows controls are on the left of the windows. You should almost never need to move your mouse to the right of the screen, minus grabbing a scrollbar on a large document...and you never have to go to the bottom of the screen for anything.

**mseney** · September 30th, 2012

Originally Posted by Version Dependency

Too many mouse movements with Unity? That's crazy. One of Unity's strongest points is the lack of having to go from one side of the screen to the other with the mouse. It was designed with that in mind.

Everything is to the left...the launcher is on the left, the dash opens on the top-left, the HUD opens on the top left, the back and forward buttons on your browser are on the left, the windows controls are on the left of the windows. You should almost never need to move your mouse to the right of the screen, minus grabbing a scrollbar on a large document...and you never have to go to the bottom of the screen for anything.

I'm with you on this. At first I didn't like the close, minimize, and maximize buttons on the left but now I love it and wouldn't want it any other way. Unity has totally grown on me with more use and new releases.

**Frogs Hair** · October 1st, 2012

The beta 2 experience has been good so far. I have the Gnome Shell and XFCE 4.10 session installed and running well although there are some updates pending for the Gnome Shell.

It's nice to have only one Unity selection and the beta ride has been less bumpy than 12.04 for me so far and I haven't had to confirm or file any bug reports yet . At he rate which things are changing I plan to stick with the 6 month release cycle. I started with 9.10 and have favored the October releases.