Is gnome-classic different from Unity on the inside or are they really the same?

[daal]

I am using 12.04 and I prefer gnome-classic.
I realize that the "real" ubuntu is the terminal.
So my understanding is that the GUI is just a window-dressing for the human touch.

Thus I am left with this vital (to me) question:

Is unity/gnome-classic only a surface difference or are there actual things that can be done in unity that cannot be done in gnome classic ?

Thank you so much.

[ibjsb4]

Under the hood, they are both the same. Both powered by 'Gnome3' :)

[DuckHook]

Perhaps a better metaphor is not "window dressing" so much as skin, hair and facial features. What I'm trying to say is that the desktop environment (DE) is much more integral to the end user experience than window dressing is to a shopper. But I am in danger of nitpicking and you are essentially correct: the fundamentals (heart, lungs, skeleton, muscles) are the same for both Unity and Gnome-classic.

To my knowledge, there is nothing that can be done in the one that cannot be done in the other, although the actual procedure will sometimes differ.

[coffeecat]

Thread moved to Desktop Environments.

[grahammechanical]

They are user interfaces. And it should be remembered that the user interface was going to change anyway because the Gnome organisation stopped developing Gnome 2 upon which the so called Gnome Classic UI was running and switched to Gnome 3 and Gnome 3 Shell which has more similarities with Canonical's Unity UI than it does with its old Gnome Panel.

This is how Ubuntu would be looking if the developers had choosen to use Gnome 3 shell in the same way as they choose to use Gnome Panel and not the KDE user interface.

http://www.gnome.org/gnome-3/

The trend both in Gnome 3 shell and Unity is to limit user modification. Those who like to mess around and know what they are doing consider that limiting to be a bad thing. But I think that new users who do not know what they are doing and who do not want to know too much about the computer will find it a protective limitation.

Regards.

[daal]

If there is a Thank You function, I would like to know how to do it. <-- to DuckHook

In lieu of that, thank you.

Is there a Solved?
(Indeed.)

[buzzingrobot]

Daal, the terminal is as much an interface as any GUI. It just uses different ways to collect info from users and show the results.

Terminal apps are not inherently more capable than GUI apps. They can, though, expose much more functionality because they don't need to fit every possible option into a screen image.