My take on Ubuntu after a few days of using

[argvar]

There are a lot of desktop usability issues in Ubuntu IMO. I do feel this is the best Linux end-user distro, but is a far cry from e.g. Windows or MacOs.

Here are a few issues, both usability, aesthetics and general linux issues:

1. Unity launchpad placement is awkward on the left. No possibility of moving the launchpad to bottom or customizing it in any manner.
2. Not possible rearrange the order of the icons in the Unity launchpad.
3. All instances of same application are stacked together, so it's not possible to select directly from the unity launchpad the instance you want.
4. Alt-tab disables the mouse.
5. Alt-tab stacks multiple instances of same application, so you need to first stop on the application for it to expand it...and even then the presentation is awkward.
6. Alt-tab does only show icons, but not live window capture.
7. Almost no possibility of customizing the look n' feel of the GUI. There are no alternative themes to select from, nor any way of modifying the theme easily.
8. Showing menu of an active application in the topmost bar makes no sense. I'd rather use that area for launch icons and move application menu to the application window.
9. Ubuntu does not help you install correct video card drivers after install.
10. Difficult to resize a application window, the border is too small. The resize cursor icons ugly.
11. The compact scrollbar is bad.
12. The toggle button is confusing.
13. Filesystem structure is confusing. You have no idea where an application is installed or things are.
14. Defaults fonts are not good enough. I switched to OpenSans. Some text on web pages looks awful, and I see lot of "clipping" and overflowing.
15. Not possible to minimize all windows except current, e.g. window-shaking like in Windows.
16. Inconsistencies in the UI. Try right-clicking in the web browser window, see how the context menu looks like. Then right-click on the desktop, and then right-click on a icon in the launchpad. 3 different look n' feels!
17. I feel like the UI is bulky, and that I have more space to work with in Windows.
18. Ubuntu does not help you discover nice tools to install, you need to know exactly what you want. There's also a lot of garbage in the software center.

Some can be fixed with tweak tools, but if I want to change anything more I feel like I need to spend a lot of time researching it, and do something I feel "hacky".

[Toz]

Since this doesn't appear to be a support request, moving to Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat.

[Copper Bezel]

Eh. A lot of this is just familiarity with Windows, and I imagine you'd have similar feelings trying OSX for the first time. Ubuntu is its own thing, and you can't expect it to work and think like Windows. Some of the complaints are warranted, and others are things that I personally don't really see as valid but that I've seen complaints about before even from long-time users.

1. Unity launchpad placement is awkward on the left. No possibility of moving the launchpad to bottom or customizing it in any manner.

Eh, you get used to it. Your mouse spends a lot of time over there anyway, so it's actually quicker to get to than the bottom bar. It does have the potential to get in the way, for the same reason.

2. Not possible rearrange the order of the icons in the Unity launchpad.

Drag the icon outward, away from the launcher, then back in where you want it.

3. All instances of same application are stacked together, so it's not possible to select directly from the unity launchpad the instance you want.

The Windows method, with the window previews, is so damned cluttered ... but there's no question that it's faster. I don't honestly use the Launcher for window switching - just Alt Tab and Compiz Scale, which is a plugin that works like Mac's Exposé.

4. Alt-tab disables the mouse.
5. Alt-tab stacks multiple instances of same application, so you need to first stop on the application for it to expand it...and even then the presentation is awkward.
6. Alt-tab does only show icons, but not live window capture.

One thing I really like about the 13.04 release is that they finally got the Alt+Tab switcher working properly. There are alternative switchers (more Windows-like) available in the settings, but this one finally at least does what I expect it to. Previously, it would switch applications outright, even if the previous window was another window in the same application, which made it useless to me. Now, just tapping Alt+Tab takes you back to the previous window regardless of whether it's in the same app or another. The grouped windows take a bit of time to get used to, but they certainly make for a cleaner, simpler presentation, and previews wouldn't make sense with grouped applications.

If you want to switch directly between windows in the same application, you can hit the key above Tab instead.

7. Almost no possibility of customizing the look n' feel of the GUI. There are no alternative themes to select from, nor any way of modifying the theme easily.

There's a light theme in Appearance settings. There are also, of course, hundreds of themes available online. Modifying themes is trickier, although I'm just finicky enough to have to "fix" one or two things about any theme I install. I do still think the default theme is a little ugly, which is a very, very old complaint (and the theme is so iconic now that it would probably be a brand identity problem to make any major changes.)

8. Showing menu of an active application in the topmost bar makes no sense. I'd rather use that area for launch icons and move application menu to the application window.
17. I feel like the UI is bulky, and that I have more space to work with in Windows.

Which is a subjective effect - you don't - but an important one, I guess. The Launcher takes up as much space as the Windows taskbar if the taskbar is moved to one side, and the menu in the panel means that a maximized window is effectively full-screen, while the content areas of non-maximized windows are still as tall as they would be without a panel at all. Honestly, I think the damned theme has an effect here - that dark panel just seems so heavy.

The Launcher can be set to hide itself, again from Appearance settings, and that certainly helps the "boxed in" feeling.

16. Inconsistencies in the UI. Try right-clicking in the web browser window, see how the context menu looks like. Then right-click on the desktop, and then right-click on a icon in the launchpad. 3 different look n' feels!

The contrast between the Launcher menus and application menus is intentional and matches the contrast between the Launcher and the menu panel (along with the applications themselves.) It's a visual cue to distinguish between the application and the OS shell. The contrast between the smooth menus in some apps (including the file manager, which is the menu you see when you right-click the desktop) and the flat ugly ones in others is la-la-la technical BS as a result of recent changes to how windows are actually drawn - changes that started rolling in around 2011 and depend on application developers supporting the new standards.

9. Ubuntu does not help you install correct video card drivers after install.
18. Ubuntu does not help you discover nice tools to install, you need to know exactly what you want. There's also a lot of garbage in the software center.

It actually should prompt you about installing non-free video drivers. I don't have a lot of experience with this, but it worked the one time I had a non-Intel video card. (Intel cards just mostly work.)

10. Difficult to resize a application window, the border is too small. The resize cursor icons ugly.
11. The compact scrollbar is bad.

Eh, it led to a lot of arguments when it was introduced, but I think the hidden scrollbar is enough for those cases where you actually need a scrollbar, like jumping to a particular point in a document. It pains me to see Windows users pecking at the little arrow buttons on the scrollbar. I think the idea is that any pointing device made in the last five years has either a scroll wheel, a scroll region, or two-finger scrolling, so it's less important to have a scrollbar (at least until you need it) and more important to have an indication of where you are in the document. Personally, I like the edge-to-edge content.

It's also not remotely as fiddly as those damned resize areas. For about two glorious releases, Ubuntu used Mac OSX Aqua's neat little triangular grab handle superimposed onto the bottom right corner of all windows for resizing and no borders at all. No fat borders, nice, big click target; everyone's happy. It was ugly and functional in one release, pretty and functional in the next, and then inexplicably disappeared. The decision to switch back is one of my least favorite things about the current UI. I'll take the fiddliness over fat borders like the ones in Windows, but I know what I'm missing in Aqua.

15. Not possible to minimize all windows except current, e.g. window-shaking like in Windows.

A very neat little feature I'd love to have, but like the Mac OSX grab handles, just an odd little thing another OS does. It's not a common enough feature to expect it in a random OS. So far as I know, only Windows does this. You can do it in two steps with the window switcher - Alt+Tab to the desktop, then tap Alt+Tab once more. A workaround, but if you're going for "focus mode," it's probably worth the extra step.

More to the point, in Linux broadly, it's more common to move to a fresh workspace (desktop) when you want to focus on something. If you haven't tried workspace switching, try it out - it's the weird little button with the "cross" in it on the Launcher. Hit that, drag your window to an empty space, and then click that workspace to follow it. Very nice for getting away from the clutter, and it also means you don't have to dig back through minimized windows later to pick up where you left off.

13. Filesystem structure is confusing. You have no idea where an application is installed or things are.

Also true of an iPhone or Android, and for the same reasons. There's no reason to need to know where applications store their files in Ubuntu. They're usually spread out over a bunch of system folders, but you don't interact directly with that stuff anyway. That's what the package manager (Software Center) is for. In Windows, it sometimes makes sense to just download an executable file (the program itself) and run it from wherever you put it, but that's not how Linux works. All applications are handled through the package manager, which means that they won't leave files around when you remove them and always stay updated.

14. Defaults fonts are not good enough. I switched to OpenSans. Some text on web pages looks awful, and I see lot of "clipping" and overflowing.

Weird. What browser?

12. The toggle button is confusing.

The toggle button widget in some of the settings screens, or something else?

[argvar]

Thanks for a great reply Copper Bezel!

Eh, you get used to it. Your mouse spends a lot of time over there anyway, so it's actually quicker to get to than the bottom bar. It does have the potential to get in the way, for the same reason.

Perhaps.
I find the answer "you get used to it" really not satisfactory, but seems to be the default here. I can't believe this important issue is perceived as a trivial usability issue that does not really matter... this is the biggest most visible usability feature of the OS, the launchpad, and they don't think users don't want to customize this any differently than they WANT?
It's really frustrating in two ways, first the placement itself and then the ignoring of the issue by ubuntu like it's trivial and doesn't matter. The only trivial thing here is allowing users to place it at bottom! This reminds me of arguing with a unix troll, who does not care about end users needs, like arguing with a rock trying to convince it that people are different and have different perceptions and needs, the unix troll always refuses and says nothing can be changed. This is putting some pre-determined design above the needs of the end user. This simple thing just proves how far Linux still has to go before being considered a proper end-user consumer desktop OS.

Frankly I see more emphasize put on useless visual features, that serve no usability purpose.

Drag the icon outward, away from the launcher, then back in where you want it.

Great! Thanks

There's a light theme in Appearance settings. There are also, of course, hundreds of themes available online. Modifying themes is trickier, although I'm just finicky enough to have to "fix" one or two things about any theme I install. I do still think the default theme is a little ugly, which is a very, very old complaint (and the theme is so iconic now that it would probably be a brand identity problem to make any major changes.)

I'd like to try out more themes, but I don't know how to get them. Ubuntu doesn't help with that, although it's probably one of the few things new users start to tinker with.

Which is a subjective effect - you don't - but an important one, I guess. The Launcher takes up as much space as the Windows taskbar if the taskbar is moved to one side, and the menu in the panel means that a maximized window is effectively full-screen, while the content areas of non-maximized windows are still as tall as they would be without a panel at all. Honestly, I think the damned theme has an effect here - that dark panel just seems so heavy.

The Launcher can be set to hide itself, again from Appearance settings, and that certainly helps the "boxed in" feeling.

Usually the bar at the top is 90% blank, with a few icons at the right and the title at the left. This is a total waste of space. The windows taskbar almost fits in that area, and has much more options than the unity launcher. The windows taskbar shows you start button, application shortcuts, current application tabs, icons and date. Much more variety, much more compact.
How ubuntu has it cuts both into your vertical screen real estate and horizontal screen real estate, effectively reducing your desktop size. Having two windows side by side is not possible with the unity launchbar. Either the windows are too small or the left window goes under the unity bar.
Anyway, I have a lot of opinion about this. I just feel Ubuntu doesn't give you any choice... when it should!

Also true of an iPhone or Android, and for the same reasons. There's no reason to need to know where applications store their files in Ubuntu. They're usually spread out over a bunch of system folders, but you don't interact directly with that stuff anyway. That's what the package manager (Software Center) is for. In Windows, it sometimes makes sense to just download an executable file (the program itself) and run it from wherever you put it, but that's not how Linux works. All applications are handled through the package manager, which means that they won't leave files around when you remove them and always stay updated.

I hated how files were managed by Windows, they were scattered everywhere, program files, appdata, roaming, local files, users, registry stuff etc. etc. I want applications to be contained in one place. You never knew where to find your files.
But the linux file structure is just strange. You have so many directories in the root. I have used linux for a long time and I still don't know what the difference is between /var and /opt or /lib and /sbin or whatever. Why don't they just put everything os related into /system and application related into /apps... oh well whatever. This is like fighting with a unix troll Change is always bad in their mind.


Anyways, thanks for the feedback.

[sanderj]

Perhaps.
I find the answer "you get used to it" really not satisfactory, but seems to be the default here.

IMHO it has to do how you write your questions and opinions: as facts. "xyz doesn't work / abc is confusing". This post and your other posts more look like the start of an argument.

If you write things like questions ("how does xyz work"), you probably get more help.

HTH

[treb0r]

IMHO it has to do how you write your questions and opinions: as facts. "xyz doesn't work / abc is confusing". This post and your other posts more look like the start of an argument.

If you write things like questions ("how does xyz work"), you probably get more help.

HTH

I totally agree with this sentiment and find it hard understand why / how people are willing to come across as so arrogant when talking about an operating system that has been provided to them for free.

I myself was an early Ubuntu user who drifted away. After years using a Mac I'm back and I'm very impressed with how things have developed over the last few years.

We can argue about interfaces and unity until the cows come home but the basic advantages of Ubuntu for me are freedom and control. That is true of most GNU/Linux distributions but Ubuntu provides them with the polish and professionalism usually associated with more commercial, binary only operating systems.

Congratulations Mr Shuttleworth on a bold vision well executed. I expect we will be seeing a lot more Ubuntu in the mainstream over the coming years.

[Skara Brae]

I totally agree with this sentiment and find it hard understand why / how people are willing to come across as so arrogant when talking about an operating system that has been provided to them for free.

What, you mean one mustn't whine about it, because one already gets it for free?

I myself was an early Ubuntu user who drifted away. After years using a Mac I'm back and I'm very impressed with how things have developed over the last few years.

We can argue about interfaces and unity until the cows come home but the basic advantages of Ubuntu for me are freedom and control.

What freedom and control, if I have to get used to Unity (or get another DM or distro)?

That is true of most GNU/Linux distributions but Ubuntu provides them with the polish and professionalism usually associated with more commercial, binary only operating systems.

Congratulations Mr Shuttleworth on a bold vision well executed. I expect we will be seeing a lot more Ubuntu in the mainstream over the coming years.

No comment...

-oo-

I don't want to sound "arrogant" or anything. After having used it since 2007, I am "just" disappointed in where Ubuntu has gone to, that is all.

[Skara Brae]

Eh, you get used to it.

I am being sarcastic now, but I've read someone saying the exact same thing about Windows 8 - one just "has to get used to it".

Is that what OS's have become about: "having to get used to it"?

That is not the way it should be. I should not have to "get used" to an OS. It is the OS that should have to be the way that I want, and not the other way around.

I thought that was _the_ biggest argument for switching to Linux: one can configure it any way one wants. But more and more, this is no longer true. Ubuntu has Unity, and if you don't like that, "get used to it", period. (Or get KDE, or LXDE, or xfce, or whatever.)

After I accidentally deleted my Ubuntu partition last year, I didn't bother reinstalling it (end of support was in April anyway) and I switched to Linux Mint. I don't like Unity and I most certainly don't want to "get used" to it. I tried Fedora 17, but I find Gnome 3 as terrible as Unity, so Fedora was out after 1 day - I didn't give it a change, some/many will now think/say? Again, why do I have to "get used" to an OS/desktop/window manager? I don't buy/acquire things and then "get used" to them for a certain amount of time first. I get them because I like them the way they _are_, period. It has to be the other way around: not the OS is in charge of my computer, but I am.

I am sorry, Canonical, but you have lost a passionate "lover" of Ubuntu. Linux Mint is fine, but Ubuntu (10.04) was the greatest OS I have ever had (Windows 95-7; MacOS X). It was stable, everything worked, and Gnome 2 was extremely user-friendly (talk about (old) KDE 3, on the other hand...). I loved Ubuntu. Ubuntu really used to "rock". It doesn't rock any longer.

It is my personal opinion that Canonical has ruined Ubuntu in teh same way that Microsoft has ruined Windows with "Metro" (in Windows 8).

I miss Ubuntu 10.04/Gnome 2.

Just my 2 cents.

You need to use Ubuntu for longer. Most of your points are completely inaccurate, or demonstrate that you haven't explored your operating system yet.

See? 3rdalbum, you are saying: "Get used to it".

[Megaptera]

Have you tried Xubuntu, Kubuntu or Lubuntu? Their layouts might suit you, or look at changing to perhaps Mate or Cinammon DEs, you might be more comfortable with them.

[3rdalbum]

You need to use Ubuntu for longer. Most of your points are completely inaccurate, or demonstrate that you haven't explored your operating system yet.