Unity being ported to OpenSUSE

[PuddingKnife]

Nelson Marques announced that he's working very hard on packaging the famous Unity interface from Canonical/Ubuntu to the openSUSE 11.4 operating system.

Unity is the new user interface (shell) designed and created by Canonical for the recently released Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. It's not a secret that many Ubuntu users hate Unity, but it looks like the openSUSE users want it in their distribution.

At the moment, only Unity 2D will be included in the openSUSE 11.4 GNOME:Ayatana software repository, and work on porting Unity 3D will continue. An 1-Click installer will also be available for those who want to test Unity under openSUSE.

Nelson Marques's Unity packages will include some nice features, such as launcher auto-hide, workspace selector, applications menu and files, and transparency enabled by default.


This is an interesting development :)

Full article here:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Unity-Will-be-Ported-to-openSUSE-202076.shtml

[3Miro]

That's not surprising. As soon as Unity 3D gets ported to Gnome 3, you will see it available in every major distro with Gnome. That is just the way the open communities work.

[PuddingKnife]

Yea, I know.

I just thought Unity was so widely hated that no one wanted to use it, let alone port it elsewhere.

I haven't really tried it yet, as I do not consider myself one of Canonicals beta testers.

[BigSilly]

This is cool. :) As long as it doesn't affect their excellent Gnome 3 work.

I look forward to seeing Unity in openSUSE.

[forrestcupp]

I wonder if part of the reason people hate it so much is because it isn't popular. If it's only on Ubuntu, it can't be good. Maybe if it spreads, it will become more popular and people will start liking it more. :)

[3Miro]

Haters are loud, but many people actually like Unity. Eventually, we will have two wide spread UI for Gnome 3, Gnome-shell and Unity and people in all major distributions (Ubuntu included) will have an option to add either one from the repos. The whole Unity hatred is totally unjustified.

[Sam White]

The whole Unity hatred is totally unjustified.

Except for the fact that it IS rather buggy for A LOT of users... perhaps the haters suffer from this?

I am not a great fan due to bugs and requiring multiple reinstalls, but I am willing to give it another on a Live CD on 11.10.

[PaulW2U]

Except for the fact that it IS rather buggy for A LOT of users...
... and unfinished. I'm sure by the time the next LTS is released Unity will be fully functioning and relatively bug free.

Perhaps OpenSUSE users can see Unity's potential whereas many of Ubuntu's users can't?

[3Miro]

... and unfinished. I'm sure by the time the next LTS is released Unity will be fully functioning and relatively bug free.

Perhaps OpenSUSE users can see Unity's potential whereas many of Ubuntu's users can't?

+1. My point exactly.

[tmette]

I have a feeling Ubuntu 11.10 is going to be a huge release. Hopefully Canonical can "redeem" themselves after 11.04. I'm not saying that I don't care for Unity, just very buggy and feels unfinished.

Not only will users probably have a much better Unity in 11.10, but we will also be able to see how good Gnome-Shell will be implemented.

[FuturePilot]

Let the hating and rage begin.:rolleyes:

[BigSilly]

Unity is absolutely fantastic. I loved it when I had 11.04 installed. Unfortunately I couldn't use 11.04, not because of Unity, but because of other Ubuntu bugs. Unity was most definitely not my issue with 11.04.

TBH I think Unity is a pretty gorgeous design, and is going to go on to great things. I just hope that the Ubuntu devs sort out other bugs that take away that shine that they are working so hard to add.

[beew]

Nelson Marques's Unity packages will include some nice features, such as ... workspace selector, applications menu and files, and transparency enabled by default.

These are the features missing in Unity that I want! Wonder if we will get those eventually in Ubuntu, or at least be able to get them through ppas.

[inobe]

i didn't see this coming:)

[Quadunit404]

Ubuntu-exclusive: OMG this is terrible, Canonical really needs to send their design team to a design tutor; I'm using Arch instead!

Not-Ubuntu-exclusive: Oh hey this is actually a good design, I think a lot of people will enjoy it.

Uhhhhhh... yeah. Well, weren't they attempting to port Unity to the RPM-based distros in the past but gave up?

HA I (probably) beat you to it Merk42 :D

[sffvba[e0rt]

Porting of Unity to openSUSE and Fedora have been ongoing for some time now... it has been difficult and fraught with issues but it has been ongoing...

Link (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/220085/fedora_and_opensuse_linux_drop_unity_efforts.html)


404

[toupeiro]

Yea, I know.

I just thought Unity was so widely hated that no one wanted to use it, let alone port it elsewhere.

I haven't really tried it yet, as I do not consider myself one of Canonicals beta testers.

It is widely hated. However, it only takes one person to like it enough to port it. Thats the beauty of open source.

[67GTA]

Ubuntu-exclusive: OMG this is terrible, Canonical really needs to send their design team to a design tutor; I'm using Arch instead!

Not-Ubuntu-exclusive: Oh hey this is actually a good design, I think a lot of people will enjoy it.

Uhhhhhh... yeah. Well, weren't they attempting to port Unity to the RPM-based distros in the past but gave up?

HA I (probably) beat you to it Merk42 :D

It was being ported when Unity was first announced, but was put off until the updates slowed down. Now that it is "mostly" stable, it is being finished.