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Thread: Dash

  1. #1
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    Dash

    I don't understand the Dash.

    Let's try a thought experiment.

    I work in an office. I need a file. I go to the file room open the cabinet titled 'games' and pick the game I want.

    That's the old way. This is the new way-

    I need a file. I go to a file room and knock on the door. I enter an empty room and a voice asks me what I want. I can't answer that except that I want to look at the selection of games. So I go to the next door and knock. I wait while somebody inside runs around and grabs five or six files at random. I wait longer while this same person then grabs 5 or 6 other files from other offices because they are popular at other offices. The door opens I enter into a foyer rather than the file room and see these ten files lying on the floor. I go to the actual door to the file room and knock on that door. When I enter I find every file lying on the floor in alphabetical order. So I walk around the room looking for anything that might be a game. I open some to check. After a while I find a game I'm familiar with and exit the file room but I have no idea what all the games are, which is why I went to the file room in the first place.

    What is the facination with Dash? I just don't get it. Take all the nicely organized files out of their properly labelled folders and toss them all into one big folder. I don't understand how anyone can think this is better. I thought organizing all the files into folders was a big improvement. So getting rid of them until a new generation can rediscover the value of organizing files into properly labelled folders is what? Can anyone explain this?
    Last edited by VietCanada; April 29th, 2013 at 06:09 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: Dash

    This isn't a support question, moved to Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat

  3. #3
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    Re: Dash

    The dash isn't about looking through the fifty games you have, but getting to the one game you want to run.

    Why fumble through x amount of folders looking for something, when I have a secretary who I tell what I want and gets it instantly.

    If I forget the game I want, the dash application menu has filters to limit the categories.

    And by default, the most recently used are always up front, so you don't have to keep repeatedly going through those x amount of folders looking for it.
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  4. #4
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    Re: Dash

    Quote Originally Posted by deadflowr View Post
    The dash isn't about looking through the fifty games you have, but getting to the one game you want to run.

    Why fumble through x amount of folders looking for something, when I have a secretary who I tell what I want and gets it instantly.

    If I forget the game I want, the dash application menu has filters to limit the categories.

    And by default, the most recently used are always up front, so you don't have to keep repeatedly going through those x amount of folders looking for it.
    None of this helps me when I just want to see what games are on my PC or what video or audio programs are available. System programs. It's only useful if I like Aislerot, only play aislerot and don't mind typing aislerot everytime I want to play a game. Personally I think it's easier, faster and more intuitive to click the dash button then click on Games and then click on Aislerot. If I want to actually explore my new OS and see what's been installed and check things out well, that functionality is lost with the introduction of Dash.

    As for your secretary you now pay her much more each time she gets a file for you, that's become more expensive. She has less time available for other tasks while she is hunting down a file in Dash. IOW you have lost some productivity because one task now takes longer than it used to.
    Last edited by VietCanada; April 29th, 2013 at 07:10 AM.

  5. #5
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    Re: Dash

    Imagine your newspaper dispensed with organizing files into well labelled folders. You like sports? Well now you have to search the whole newspaper looking for sports stories. They may be arranged alphabetically but this doesn't help you if you don't know the headlines does it?

  6. #6
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    Re: Dash

    It's easy enough just to find what you want in Dash & then drag it onto the Unity dock so you can find it

    Screenshot from 2013-04-29 07:54:43.jpg

    In the attached Screenshot I've got all my most used apps Locked to the dock for easy access, & only need the Dash for finding apps that I don't use that much.

    Dash has been in Ubuntu since the introduction of Unity, but the first versions listed all your Apps with an All button to expand the list, it's only been introduced in recent versions of Ubuntu the new way of searching for Apps and only show the most recent apps by default. Mac OSX uses a similar thing but you don't have Dash but have an Apps folder in Finder with all your Apps in.

    If you type Games in the Search field it will list all your Installed games along with a suggestion of games that you can Install.

    Roland
    Toshiba Satellite Running Ubuntu Development Release

  7. #7
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    Re: Dash

    Quote Originally Posted by roly33 View Post
    It's easy enough just to find what you want in Dash & then drag it onto the Unity dock so you can find it

    Screenshot from 2013-04-29 07:54:43.jpg

    In the attached Screenshot I've got all my most used apps Locked to the dock for easy access, & only need the Dash for finding apps that I don't use that much.

    Dash has been in Ubuntu since the introduction of Unity, but the first versions listed all your Apps with an All button to expand the list, it's only been introduced in recent versions of Ubuntu the new way of searching for Apps and only show the most recent apps by default. Mac OSX uses a similar thing but you don't have Dash but have an Apps folder in Finder with all your Apps in.

    If you type Games in the Search field it will list all your Installed games along with a suggestion of games that you can Install.

    Roland
    Thanx for the advice. I do do that though. I get rid of all the Libre office stuff that I don't use and add software I use all the time. What I am missing though is the ability to explore. I don't create a lot of DVDs or CDs these days but when I wanted to in the past it was very simple to open the audio/video folder and look at what was there and try some stuff out. I can't do that anymore. I have to look on line for what I want and then check and see if I have it installed or not. The search function is absolutely useless unless you know the name of the software you are looking for. Which is just such an obvious absurdity.

    I type 'games' into search and I get Aislerot plus about five suggestions. I want to know what's on my machine. I'm not installing anything without some research. Hence the suggestions are a waste of time. And where do they come from? Does search go online to find them everytime I use it? That takes time and is expensive in countries where you have dl limits.Do you know what a song is about and whether you'll like it just by its title? Of course not, you have to listen to it first. Music is a bit different however since you'll have a clue by knowing who sings it.

    When I want to know what I can install I go to the software centre. That is a different task and a different interest with entirely different motivations than wanting to know what is installed on my machine. Combining the two makes no sense to me. It just wastes time and potentially money as well. I haven't liked dash since its introduction. As I've said it's just putting all the files into one big bucket instead of neatly organizing things into easily found folders. I think organizing things for the dash should be an option for the user if no one wants to do it in the OS.

    And what's up with the 5 icons on the bottom of the big empty window that opens when I click on dash? Is that an 'A' for all? Music, photos and videos should list what I have on my machine, that would be useful but they don't. So what's the point? I have firefox if I want to go online and search for things. I need something that simply lists what's on my PC in an organized fashion rather than someone dumping a box of stuff on the floor which includes other people's things and saying it's maybe, possibly in here somewhere just use your ESP to divine the name of it.
    Last edited by VietCanada; April 29th, 2013 at 10:30 AM.

  8. #8
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    Re: Dash

    You are about four years late with this kind of complaint. And that is as polite as I can get to be after seeing posts like this again and again. I keep hearing that Linux is about freedom. Well, we have the freedom to choose the distribution we like but unless we are a developer we can only choose from what we are given. We are not paying customers. We get what we pay for. And we do not pay enough to tell community developers what they should do.
    It is a machine. It is more stupid than we are. It will not stop us from doing stupid things.
    Ubuntu user #33,200. Linux user #530,530


  9. #9
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    Re: Dash

    Just don't use Unity.
    Simple as that.
    Try [L|X|K]ubuntu instead.
    Or better yet, Crunchbang.

  10. #10
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    Re: Dash

    Quote Originally Posted by cortman View Post
    Just don't use Unity.
    Simple as that.
    Try [L|X|K]ubuntu instead.
    Or better yet, Crunchbang.
    I use Mint Mate. I keep checking back with Ubuntu to see if they have fixed their problems yet so I can use it again. Apparently I'm wasting my time.

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