Can't adjust to 11.04, what to do as a gnome lover?

[culfunius]

I've spent the day using the 11.04 live disk and as hard as I tried to like it, I'm afraid to say I ended up hating it. I liked the lenses, and quick search, but the interface changes are painful, especially the forced left hand dock, thin scrollbars that are difficult to click on and the forced left-side window controls. The differences I have with these interface choices are irreconcilable and I'm worried that my love affair with Ubuntu might be drawing to a close. I hope not!

I have several questions.

1. How well supported will the gnome classic be with this release? Will it be as smooth as 10.10?

2. If I keep 10.10, will it continue to update itself?

3. Is it true that Ubuntu will ditch Gnome altogether in 11.10?

4. Is there likely to be a new spin-off ubuntu package along the lines of kubuntu or xubuntu, but for gnome?

5. If I have to move to another distro, is there anything you can recommend that is as easy to dual boot alongside windows? (one of Ubuntu's best and most underrated features)

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer me.

[Hedgehog1]

Well, you already appear to know you can load Natty/11.04 and still use the 'Classic’ UI: Natty Info: Your UI options (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1741293)

The support for the classic gnome 2.x desktop will continue for the life cycle of Natty. The 11.10 release has a lot of buzz about what exact form it will take. Mark has indicated Unity 2d and 3d as a likely offering.

The reality is between now and then, things will change. Unity 3d will get better. Unity 2d may or may not be an offering. Gnome 3 with a desktop that looks and feels like the 'Ubuntu Classic' may be a third option.

You may find the next version of Unity works for you.

I suggest: Relax and enjoy 11.04 and it's 3 UI options for now; let the 'forces that be' battle and see what comes out of it. One thing you will always have as a Linux user: Lots and lots of choices.


The Hedge

:KS

p.s. Another underrated feature of Ubuntu is the LTS (Long Term Support) release. You can operate nicely in 10.04.02 and enjoy the 'classic gnome' for a long time to come.

[trollger]

You could give XFCE a try. It is simular to GNOME and plays nice with compiz.

[culfunius]

Thank for your reply, hedgehog. I'll use the gnome classic option for the time being and keep my fingers crossed that 11.10 includes options to opt out of the new scrollbars and move the window controls to the right, as was possible in 10.x. I realise I can probably adjust to the dock, with enough time even the scrollbars. But the Mac-style window controls are too much.


Well, you already appear to know you can load Natty/11.04 and still use the 'Classic’ UI: Natty Info: Your UI options (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1741293)

The support for the classic gnome 2.x desktop will continue for the life cycle of Natty. The 11.10 release has a lot of buzz about what exact form it will take. Mark has indicated Unity 2d and 3d as a likely offering.

The reality is between now and then, things will change. Unity 3d will get better. Unity 2d may or may not be an offering. Gnome 3 with a desktop that looks and feels like the 'Ubuntu Classic' may be a third option.

You may find the next version of Unity works for you.

I suggest: Relax and enjoy 11.04 and it's 3 UI options for now; let the 'forces that be' battle and see what comes out of it. One thing you will always have as a Linux user: Lots and lots of choices.


The Hedge

:KS

p.s. Another underrated feature of Ubuntu is the LTS (Long Term Support) release. You can operate nicely in 10.04.02 and enjoy the 'classic gnome' for a long time to come.

[culfunius]

That's Xubuntu, isn't it?


You could give XFCE a try. It is simular to GNOME and plays nice with compiz.

[Rasa1111]

what to do as a gnome lover?

Well if you ask many of the "know it alls" here...
They have a simple solution for it all...

ready?....

"move to something else if you don't like it"

Very wise, helpful and 'community-like' huh? :rolleyes:

Sorry mate, I do feel your pain. <3

[dino99]

like me, if you definitly hate it and dont want it on your system, simply remove/purge ubuntu-desktop & unity from synaptic

[MugOTea]

I'm not normally the person for change, but if Unity is where desktops are going I'm happy to try it out. My opinion so far (for what its worth) is that the Unity way of doing things could be quicker and smoother - it's just different and has 1 or 2 minor niggles.

I like the dashboard so far, it's like a much better/faster version of what MS tried with the start menu. I like being able to type the first few chars of a command or program then hit enter and voila!

The side bar (launcher) is basically like DOCKY but with better integration with the desktop. For those of us who used docky on 10.04 - 10.10 the launcher doesn't look to alien. It's a little bit annoying when it pops out everytime I go to click the back button while browsing the Internet but I'm sure I'll get used to it, or find a setup that suits me better.

Personally I left the unity desktop wall plugin, but added the sphere <ALT><TAB> 3D application switching.

I've always found Gnome to be a quick and reliable way of launching applications and managing windows, but it is getting dated and possibly needs a big revamp which will inevitably bring about some new bugs and glitches (Gnome 3? I don't know coz I haven't tried it).

I'm still getting used to Unity but I reckon I can live with it on my main laptop and possibly commit the upgrade to other systems on my network when I get this one how I like it and stable. We just need to give it a chance, it hasn't stopped me from working yet.

Good luck all...

[Valpskott]

I made the crappy choice of updating 2 machines to 11.04 thinking I can always revert back to gnome 2(classic desktop). But I guess they've made a few changes(in compiz at least) that has broken my old setup.

On the first machine, Unity didn't work at all with nVidia own driver, then I used the open source drivers and I had no icons in the left launcher bar. I installed Unity 2D and well, the work day was over. So I got home...

Upgraded my home computer, which also sports a nVidia card, this time Unity worked. But customizations wheren't what I am used to, so I felt limited, and the autohide function and I weren't getting along at all, any way to leave it always visible or setting the trigger boundery?

I'd also like to be able to change the colors of the icon backgrounds, so I can arrange them like Internet = Blue, Settings = Gray, Folders = Brown, etc... adjusting the size of the launchbar would also be welcommed. And setting a short command for the search option (so I can replace Gnome Do which all that often just unloads/hangs without notification, so that I have to relaunch it).

Another addition to my wishlist is the option to have desktop icons automatically align to the right side of the screen.

Anyway, I switched back to Ubuntu Classic(gnome 2) and the addictive Compiz effect Wobbly Windows was sometimes acting up, trying to move a window (located in the middle of the screen) sometimes behaves like a corner is stuck/snapped(to nothing) so instead of moving it, the window gets bent out of shape. For some reason it often happens if another unrelated window is placed over 2 desktops, but ever so often, that is not the case, but it seems like moving around other windows often fixes this issue. Don't know if it's related to Natty or not, but Virtual Machine chrashed 2 times while trying to boot XP(which never happened to me in Karmic).

I figured there would be a high frequency of updates that fix all the issues people been having. But updates arn't frequent at all, it's like the agenda is "maybe if we make the transition to Unity difficult for a long time, people will go with another distro".

Okay, I've rambled on for quite a while now, and to balance things out, Natty isn't all bad. I like the over all look of Unity, the voting/review system in Ubuntu Software Center is also highly welcommed. I sort of wished they'd branch Unity of in it's own Ubuntu-distro until it was ready for a LTS release.

My recommendation is that people stay away from Natty and use Karmic instead... not because Unity is different, but because Natty isn't all that stable.

[ThatCoolGuy220]

Sorry For my interuption

But that happily ever after also applies to (10.10 Maverick Meerkat)????

On the topic


You can also make Clasic Desktop Default option
Just go to:

System>Administration>Login Screen.

Looks something like this



http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/9081/screenshotpzi.th.png (http://img197.imageshack.us/i/screenshotpzi.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

Then click on unlock and type your password.

Then at the select......Menu.....v.as Default seesion


Choose your favorite


http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/2470/screenshot2py.th.png (http://img863.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2py.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)




....Though i wouldnt use 11.04 now cause last time it had too many bugs and wireless worked

But Itz cool indeed