My impressions of 11.04

**eolson** · May 9th, 2011

Fisrt let me start off my saying that I am far from new to computers and Linux. Computer wise I go back to 1976. Linux wise, I started with Red Hat 5, moved to Mandrake and then I think Mandriva when they changed their name. From there I went to Ubuntu. With the Unity interface I loaded it on my netbook about a year ago and started evaluating it on one of my workstations when alfa 2 came out. I've stuck with it as long as I can on the workstations. It just takes too many steps to get from point a to point b to be efficient in our environment. I had not used KDE since Mandriva, so downloaded Kubuntu. It's, for what we do, slower. Tried Gnome 3 and open Suse. Not a whole lot different from Unity. I've even tried Crunch Bang and it's faster, but need to do a lot of cusomizing before it would be usable. I do like the speed however. Right now I've moved my production machines to Mint. Yeah I know, I could chose the old desktop at boot up, but why bother. It's going away with 11.10. I've never been a big fan of Mint, but they claim that they will be using Gnome 3, but not the shell in the future. So may stay with that.

What I don't understand is why Ubuntu and Gnome are trying to make my workstations look like my cell phone/tablet. One thing I don't need is greasy/slimy finger prints all over my screens. It would be acceptable if it gave an increase in productivity instead of a decrease.

I've tried to like Unity for a long time and had hopes that the inefficencies and slowness would be solved (still do, we'll see), but right now, it and Gnome3 are losers for my shop.
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**scratman** · May 9th, 2011

I'm switching back to Ubuntu 10.10 as soon as I have a couple of hours to spare, and then setting my system updates so that I only get the Upgrade message at the next LTS, at which point either Unity will be usable, Gnome will be usable, or I will continue to operate on Gnome 2. he word upgrade is subjective, Unity offers me nothing I want, removes many things I do, and anything that is left is more difficult for me to use, so I'm doing the sensible thing and sticking firmly with 10.10, because it's the best option for me.

**FlashStock** · May 9th, 2011

Originally Posted by scratman

I'm switching back to Ubuntu 10.10 as soon as I have a couple of hours to spare, and then setting my system updates so that I only get the Upgrade message at the next LTS, at which point either Unity will be usable, Gnome will be usable, or I will continue to operate on Gnome 2. he word upgrade is subjective, Unity offers me nothing I want, removes many things I do, and anything that is left is more difficult for me to use, so I'm doing the sensible thing and sticking firmly with 10.10, because it's the best option for me.

Why not use Xubuntu 11.04? Me myself hated Gnome 3 and unity so I went with xubuntu, couldn't be happier.

**eolson** · May 9th, 2011

Upward and onward! Actually Xubuntu is an option. It has it's issues for us; no critical deal killers, but issues. It remains an option. One thing we're not is dogmatic about what we do. It's all about efficency for us, eye candy is a long distant third or fourth. On my personal stuff I get to play. Running Kubuntu on this laptop as I type. It will go bye-bye as soon as I figure out what I'm going to test next.

I just realized that I have NEVER tried a straight up Debian. Wonder what their plans for the future are?

Getting dogmatic about anything can get one in trouble, so we remain flexible. That's one reason Linux is such a great OS. Once you get past the desktop it's all Linux.

**scratman** · May 9th, 2011

@FlashStock I use my machines for a multitude of purposes, both business and pleasure. Business-wise, I've had problems with such mundane things as WinFF in Natty, Pleasure wise, I play OpenTTD among other things on a regular basis, I actually host a server for myself and friends to play on. I also have a suite of logic games that I play installed on my machines, they keep my mind active, and can be a convenient little distraction when working or playing (You know, those 5 minute spells that you need to fill from time to time) Neither functions on my machine with Natty, never had a problem with Maverick. There are other issues too, I don't like Unity, I have issues with the Gnome Shell in Natty, and to be honest, Natty just is not stable on my machine, I've had more software crashes than I ever did in Maverick, and I've had my computer lock up and throw me back to the Log In screen a dozen times in 12 days. I can certainly live without features like that!

Are they life or death issues, probably not for most people, but I have the option to keep them, and to use a more convenient and stable DE at the same time, so for me Maverick is simply the best option. There are certainly other options, but I have the freedom to choose, and I am doing.

**lfforman** · May 18th, 2011

I woulld like to add my comments. I use computers for at least the pastt 32 years and my first linux distro was a Caldera and kernel was 2.2.something. Since I tested ubuntu i became a huge fan, is very good for desktop use, stable, fast and etc. I tryed very hard to use unity and gnome3 and kde 4.6 in 11.04, it is just not stable enough yet, maybe because of the changes that where needed for unity.

I have to agree with you all I do not like the path both canonical and gnome are taking, and since the future will not have the classical gui for ubuntu, i decided to downgrade back to 10.10, and change to xfce 4.8, I am really happy, it is faster and easyer to customize then gnome 2.32, i am now really thinking on testing xubuntu 11.04