What is the future of Unity 2D?

[deserthowler]

I'm using Unity 2D and more or less don't dislike it. I realize there are several changes to be made; or hope there several changes to be made to improve the customization and stability.

With the new direction with Gnome, will Unity 2D retain the Metacity window manager or will it move to something else?

Earl

[An Sanct]

In Oneiric Ocelot (11.10) there will be no more 2D, just Unity ... I'll find the post and give you a link, so you can read for yourself...

edit: link to the promissed statement.

[nomko]

What is the future of Unity 2D?

Hopefully down the drain! Cause i don't want my desktop to look like some overvalued netbook.

[An Sanct]

+1

I would like to upgrade to Natty and so follow with the latest Ubuntu, but refuse to do so until I find some way to tear Unity out (100%) and replace it with something, that does not give me headaches.

I also dislike the "same look on any machine" way ... If it is a desktop, its not a netbook...

[coffeecat]

In Oneiric Ocelot (11.10) there will be no more 2D, just Unity ... I'll find the post and give you a link, so you can read for yourself...

edit: link to the promissed statement.

You have misunderstood. That link says that there will be no classic desktop fallback in Oneiric, not that there will be no Unity 2d. Classic fallback is gnome 2 panel. Oneiric is based on gnome 3 which is why there cannot be a classic fallback. However...

Unity 2d will be available in Oneiric.

And... In Oneiric you will be able to install the package gnome-session-fallback, which will give you the gnome 3 version of a desktop that will be very similar to classic gnome. Gnome session fallback is the fallback mode for gnome 3 shell.

So... In Oneiric you will get Unity 3d (if your hardware supports it) and Unity 2d as default. If you want gnome 3 shell and/or something that looks and behaves very much like classic gnome, both will be just a few mouse-clicks away.

[An Sanct]

Thanks for the clarification, coffeecat.

But still, if I take a look at gnome3.org and their introduction videos ... I don't want that messing up my desktop ...

[coffeecat]

But still, if I take a look at gnome3.org and their introduction videos ... I don't want that messing up my desktop ...

:sigh: Read my post again. The fallback mode for gnome3 shell will be very much like classic gnome. It is easily installed in Oneiric.

[Dave_L]

So... In Oneiric you will get Unity 3d (if your hardware supports it) and Unity 2d as default. If you want gnome 3 shell and/or something that looks and behaves very much like classic gnome, both will be just a few mouse-clicks away.

Will that also apply to the Live CD? With the 11.04 Live CD, you're auto-logged-in to Unity (if your hardware supports it) and there's no way of logging out to switch to the classic desktop.

[coffeecat]

Will that also apply to the Live CD? With the 11.04 Live CD, you're auto-logged-in to Unity (if your hardware supports it) and there's no way of logging out to switch to the classic desktop.

I believe not. At the moment - we're only at about the alpha2 stage - there is just Unity 3d and Unity 2d on the live CD. Which makes sense since Canonical are focussing their development efforts on the Unity desktop, so I guess that Oneiric will only offer Unity 3d and 2d out of the box. You will, of course, be able to install the gnome-session-fallback package for a classic gnome near-lookalike once you've done an install to hard drive, and it looks as though this package is being themed for Ubuntu rather than with default upstream gnome3 theme. I had a look at it a few days ago. It's still incomplete and buggy atm, but we are only at the alpha stage yet so I am confident it will be working just fine when Oneiric is released.

I haven't looked at gnome3 shell in Oneiric yet so I don't know whether that will have Ubuntu theming. I very much hope so. I do not like the default upstream theme at all, and that blue stripy wallpaper gives me the heebie-jeebies.

EDIT: just noticed this bit:

you're auto-logged-in to Unity (if your hardware supports it) and there's no way of logging out to switch to the classic desktop.

Oh yes there is! Click the shutdown button at top-right in the 11.04 Unity desktop (in the live session) and choose Log Out. At the log in screen, choose "ubuntu" as username. Then choose classic at the bottom of the screen. Then log in with a blank password (leave the password field empty and press enter). Voilà! Classic desktop in 11.04 in a live session.

[Dave_L]

Oh yes there is! Click the shutdown button at top-right in the 11.04 Unity desktop (in the live session) and choose Log Out.

When I boot the 11.04 Live CD, there is no Log Out choice in that menu. I assumed that was because of the auto-login setup. That was the point of my question.

Is your experience different? Is the Log Out function present when you boot from the 11.04 Live CD?