Ubuntu's OK - don't like the desktop defaults though!

[hazel]

I've recently started with Ubuntu 6.06LTS, which I think is equivalent to Dapper Drake, after cutting my Linux teeth on old versions of Red Hat. I must say I found my first sight of the Ubuntu desktop distinctly offputting. All the things I'm going to gripe about are alterable and I have altered most of them. The point I am making is that default settings govern the look and feel of the system for newcomers and I think these ones have serious disadvantages.

1. The system boots up with a dark brown splash screen on which the startup messages appear in dark red. This makes them virtually illegible and illegible messages cause stress. It must be even worse for Windows users because they aren't used to getting startup messages unless something is going wrong! Either Ubuntu should go the Windows route and not have startup messages at all or they should appear in a contrasting colour - say white or cyan. Or get rid of usplash (which is what I did in the end) and start with a nice legible text console.

2. I hate the default colour scheme and standard wallpapers. Who decided that that faecal shade of brown was a good colour for a desktop? I can understand that you don't want to use the Windows sky-and-clouds motif but there must surely be some less nasty alternatives.

3. A completely empty desktop looks really unfriendly to a newcomer. There should at least be a home folder and a wastepaper basket, perhaps also a preferences tool. According to the "Ubuntu Book", icons are not placed on the desktop by default because they get covered up by windows. But the Ubuntu desktop has a "desktop recall" button (top marks for that!) so that you can get back to your icons with one click - not to mention that in Linux you can usually get a pristine desktop simply by switching to a different workspace.

4. That tiny wastepaper basket on the taskbar is ok for people who use right-click/delete to get rid of their files but it's not so easy for those of us who like to use drag-and-drop deleting. It's mechanically difficult to steer files into it and it's a long way away from the files themselves. A full size wastepaper basket on the desktop is easier to use.

5. I really like the menu bar compared with the traditional main menu/start button. One click less to get to your target! But having the desktop recall button at the extreme left of the taskbar where the start button used to be is very confusing. I thought it was a start button and couldn't understand why nothing happened when I clicked it!

6. Having the workspace pager appear as a linear array instead of the more familiar 2x2 matrix makes it look like a normal button bar whose legends have somehow failed to appear. This is also confusing (it certainly confused me!) Again I think this must be even worse for people coming over from Windows who have never met a paged desktop before. It's also easier to pull apps over from one workspace to another when they are grouped around a point rather than stretched out in a line. I found that changing the pager to 2x2 required a deeper taskbar to make it look right but I don't see this as a problem when you have the amount of real estate that Linux makes available.

Little things but they make a big impression. Are the later releases any different?

[avik]

Newer releases are better.

1. Feisty (maybe Edgy also) doesn't show start up messages by default. I like them so I enabled them.

2. The color scheme has changed a bit since Dapper.

6. Like you said, it takes a bigger panel for a 2x2 pager, which is something people don't want, as forum users have already pointed out.

The important thing to realize is that it's impossible to please everybody. So the Ubuntu devs do their best, and as you've already seen, most of the issues are minor and easily fixed. Most of the interface seems to be fine for your needs, right?

[ticopelp]

Well, fortunately for you, it's really easy to change.

I don't mean any offense, but that's an awful lot of work put into what comes off as an extremely petty whine. I mean, I hate XP's default window borders and wallpaper, too, but you know what? It's easy to change, and so one of the first things I do is change it.

I agree that it's impossible to please everyone. Personally, I love having an empty desktop. If I install a new OS and it has tons of links and crap all over the desktop, the first thing I do is delete it all, grumbling to myself all the while.

[Steveway]

That brown is a coffee-brown not a shi*-brown.
I don't know how you come to such an idea, maybe my friend Freud knows it.

[aysiu]

1. The system boots up with a dark brown splash screen on which the startup messages appear in dark red. This makes them virtually illegible and illegible messages cause stress. It must be even worse for Windows users because they aren't used to getting startup messages unless something is going wrong! Either Ubuntu should go the Windows route and not have startup messages at all or they should appear in a contrasting colour - say white or cyan. Or get rid of usplash (which is what I did in the end) and start with a nice legible text console.

I miss the startup messages, actually. Dapper Drake (the version you're using) still had them, but the current version (Feisty Fawn) doesn't. Maybe you'll like the new version of USplash.

2. I hate the default colour scheme and standard wallpapers. Who decided that that faecal shade of brown was a good colour for a desktop? I can understand that you don't want to use the Windows sky-and-clouds motif but there must surely be some less nasty alternatives.

Tough noogies. That's the default. I happen to like it, but you're not alone in disliking it. It's improved a lot since Hoary Hedgehog, though, and it'll likely keep improving but also likely stay an orange/brown tint. If you want some other default, try Linux Mint or Kubuntu. Both are essentially Ubuntu (different artwork, different default programs) and both do not default to brown.

3. A completely empty desktop looks really unfriendly to a newcomer. There should at least be a home folder and a wastepaper basket, perhaps also a preferences tool. According to the "Ubuntu Book", icons are not placed on the desktop by default because they get covered up by windows. But the Ubuntu desktop has a "desktop recall" button (top marks for that!) so that you can get back to your icons with one click - not to mention that in Linux you can usually get a pristine desktop simply by switching to a different workspace.

I disagree. Desktop icons are clutter. You're entitled to your opinion, though.

4. That tiny wastepaper basket on the taskbar is ok for people who use right-click/delete to get rid of their files but it's not so easy for those of us who like to use drag-and-drop deleting. It's mechanically difficult to steer files into it and it's a long way away from the files themselves. A full size wastepaper basket on the desktop is easier to use.

Don't want to drag? Then right-click the file and select Move to Trash. Or, better yet, just hit the Delete button once you've selected the file you want to move to the trash. You don't have to drag anything if you don't want to.

5. I really like the menu bar compared with the traditional main menu/start button. One click less to get to your target! But having the desktop recall button at the extreme left of the taskbar where the start button used to be is very confusing. I thought it was a start button and couldn't understand why nothing happened when I clicked it!

Sorry. What do you want?

6. Having the workspace pager appear as a linear array instead of the more familiar 2x2 matrix makes it look like a normal button bar whose legends have somehow failed to appear. This is also confusing (it certainly confused me!) Again I think this must be even worse for people coming over from Windows who have never met a paged desktop before. It's also easier to pull apps over from one workspace to another when they are grouped around a point rather than stretched out in a line. I found that changing the pager to 2x2 required a deeper taskbar to make it look right but I don't see this as a problem when you have the amount of real estate that Linux makes available.

A workspace switcher will appear alien to most Windows users no matter how it appears. Get used to it or get rid of it. I've been using Linux for over two years now, and I still don't get the point of workspaces, so I just delete that off the panel right away.

[hazel]

Yes, of course these things are alterable. But it's the defaults which make the first impression and it seems I'm not the only one to dislike the default colour scheme. The fact that someone doesn't like the Windows XP default desktop either is hardly relevant; there's more things wrong with XP than I can count!

As regards desktop icons, I agree that a cluttered desktop is difficult to navigate. I know people (Windows users admittedly) who have rows and rows of icons and I often wonder how they find the one they want. But I still think a home folder and a wastepaper basket make the desktop look homelier. Besides, why go to all the trouble of including a desktop recall button if there's nothing on the desktop to see? As to the position of this button, anywhere but on the extreme left of the taskbar would do - for example in the centre or on the right. Or somewhere on the top panel. Anywhere where it won't be confused with a main menu button.

I like having startup messages. They're reassuring and I'm glad that Dapper Drake still has them. I just don't like it when they're illegible because of the colour scheme.

By the way I've just discovered something that I really like and have never seen before - the way the task button for a minimised window flashes when the window has changed. That is really cool. I don't care much for eye candy but that sort of thing is useful.

[ticopelp]

The fact that someone doesn't like the Windows XP default desktop either is hardly relevant; there's more things wrong with XP than I can count!

Nice double standard.

[stchman]

I've recently started with Ubuntu 6.06LTS, which I think is equivalent to Dapper Drake, after cutting my Linux teeth on old versions of Red Hat. I must say I found my first sight of the Ubuntu desktop distinctly offputting. All the things I'm going to gripe about are alterable and I have altered most of them. The point I am making is that default settings govern the look and feel of the system for newcomers and I think these ones have serious disadvantages.

1. The system boots up with a dark brown splash screen on which the startup messages appear in dark red. This makes them virtually illegible and illegible messages cause stress. It must be even worse for Windows users because they aren't used to getting startup messages unless something is going wrong! Either Ubuntu should go the Windows route and not have startup messages at all or they should appear in a contrasting colour - say white or cyan. Or get rid of usplash (which is what I did in the end) and start with a nice legible text console.

2. I hate the default colour scheme and standard wallpapers. Who decided that that faecal shade of brown was a good colour for a desktop? I can understand that you don't want to use the Windows sky-and-clouds motif but there must surely be some less nasty alternatives.

3. A completely empty desktop looks really unfriendly to a newcomer. There should at least be a home folder and a wastepaper basket, perhaps also a preferences tool. According to the "Ubuntu Book", icons are not placed on the desktop by default because they get covered up by windows. But the Ubuntu desktop has a "desktop recall" button (top marks for that!) so that you can get back to your icons with one click - not to mention that in Linux you can usually get a pristine desktop simply by switching to a different workspace.

4. That tiny wastepaper basket on the taskbar is ok for people who use right-click/delete to get rid of their files but it's not so easy for those of us who like to use drag-and-drop deleting. It's mechanically difficult to steer files into it and it's a long way away from the files themselves. A full size wastepaper basket on the desktop is easier to use.

5. I really like the menu bar compared with the traditional main menu/start button. One click less to get to your target! But having the desktop recall button at the extreme left of the taskbar where the start button used to be is very confusing. I thought it was a start button and couldn't understand why nothing happened when I clicked it!

6. Having the workspace pager appear as a linear array instead of the more familiar 2x2 matrix makes it look like a normal button bar whose legends have somehow failed to appear. This is also confusing (it certainly confused me!) Again I think this must be even worse for people coming over from Windows who have never met a paged desktop before. It's also easier to pull apps over from one workspace to another when they are grouped around a point rather than stretched out in a line. I found that changing the pager to 2x2 required a deeper taskbar to make it look right but I don't see this as a problem when you have the amount of real estate that Linux makes available.

Little things but they make a big impression. Are the later releases any different?

Your complaints are about things that can be very easily changed. It will take you about 5 minutes to change the default look.

[Steve1961]

You know that saying about not being able to please all of the people all of the time.... Well personally I hate the default colour scheme, but it takes a couple of minutes to change things how I want. I also miss the startup messages. However, my wife, a self-confessed techno-phobe, loves the simplicity of the default Dapper theme. She says it looks 'friendly' and won't even change the wallpaper. Windows used to frighten her, but she loves her Dapper lappy. Hey, she likes brown!

[steveneddy]

Why didn't you search the forums for an answer to your problem instead of posting a whiney thread about things that are so easy to change that you could have changed them in the time it took to type the post, Mr. 2 beans?

If you use the forums as a tool instead of a sounding board for your rants, then you may get more out of Ubuntu than you expected.

As no else posted the links, then please look here for you answer. I suppose this is your way of asking a question, right? So, I am assuming you need an answer.

You can choose a background image (wallpaper), change the theme of the icons that your system uses and even the color scheme of the toolbars and things.

Tell you what, here's a quick tutorial on how to change the look. Right click one of the tool bars at the top or bottom of your desktop. Select Properties. You can chenge the size, the color, make it transparent or put a picture up there. Easy.

No go make yourself learn something and tweak around on your little 'puter.