Unity MEGA Thread

[nothingspecial]

Well, I thought I would try out 11.10. See what the whole Unity thing is all about, and to be frank, I hate it. 10.04 LTS was way better, far more superior desktop experience. Unity sucks in my opinion. Very bothersome. I am considering going back to 10.04. Seriously, GNOME is superior to Unity by my experience. I mean, in GNOME, everything was right there on your panels and you don't have to hunt down what it is your looking for unlike in Unity. I understand GNOME 2.x is a dying breed, and GNOME 3.x is the new thing. I might try out GNOME 3, but I can say at this point very confidently that I will return to 10.04 LTS, or maybe even Kubuntu or Xubuntu.

If the next release of Ubuntu still has Unity, I'm going back to Linux Mint all together.

Anyone care to share their experience with Unity? Does anybody like it?

Merged

Lot's and lots of people are sharing their experiences with Unity in this thread.

[haqking]

Is the next release going to have GNOME 3 or Unity?

Both as does the current version, Gnome 3 is already there, Unity is a shell which sits on top.

[mörgæs]

Ubuntu has a lot of things people do like, like easy setup, a simple to use installer, large active support forum, huge repository of applications, the list goes on. Hating one portion of the experience shouldn't force someone to leave. Maybe just suggest a another desktop environment. People are allowed to disagree and as a member of the forum staff you should have a more neutral stance on people's dislikes.

I will happily change my statement to

Rather than complaining about a desktop environment which you dislike you should find one that suits your needs.

[philinux]

Is the next release going to have GNOME 3 or Unity?

Both.
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/expec...4-precise.html

If you want to follow the development of 12.04 see here.
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=412

One of the threads from this forum may interest you and others.
Gnome Classic Megathread

[Garthhh]

Merged.

About 6 or 7 posts that were in a thread named "Now you can complain to Canonical for the Unity shell" that was in the cafe for those that are interested.

thanks for the context

[BobSongs]

I will happily change my statement to

Rather than complaining about a desktop environment which you dislike you should find one that suits your needs.

Mkay, that sounds like a reasonable suggestion. So, what's on the table before me?

• A freshly installed copy of Ubuntu 11.10 (like many others my experience went from 10.10 to 11.10).
• A side-by-side install of the GNOME3 desktop.
• A DVD of the latest release of Mint Linux, Debian's grandchild through Ubuntu.

what am I looking for?
Hmm. Let's start with what did I disliked most about Vista: Microsoft's desire to create a different environment because they could, not because it was good. Vista brought my attention back to the O/S instead of to my apps. Rather than being a familiar environment that's fine-tuned, fast and faultless ... it resulted in frustration.

• Is the "Start" button a fantastic and perfect idea? No.
• Is the "Start" button a familiar idea? I've used it since 1995, so... yes.

The similarity between my Windows experience and Linux raises the following question:

• Are Unity/GNOME3 similar enough to my now-familiar GNOME2 experience to make the transition smooth and enjoyable?

No. Because I now know what I am looking for: familiarity.

is it just me? am i being stubborn?
distrowatch.com reports that interest in Mint over the last 12 months has displaced Ubuntu's #1 position proudly held since 2005 (threatened only once by PCLinuxOS in 2007).

While distrowatch may not be considered a perfect barometer or litmus test for people's opinions it is noteworthy that that we vote with our feet... or in this case, mouse clicks.

Now that Unity has had a fair trial on this desktop, its removal to test Mint 12 for the same duration awaits 12's official release.

final note
The challenge put forth here was "...you should probably find [a desktop environment] that suits your needs..." My need is for familiarity. When I'm in a rush and need to find something quickly, a shiny new and unfamiliar environment does not "suit" my "needs". And it's good to see that I do not stand alone in this matter.

[snowpine]

The challenge put forth here was "...you should probably find [a desktop environment] that suits your needs..." My need is for familiarity. When I'm in a rush and need to find something quickly, a shiny new and unfamiliar environment does not "suit" my "needs". And it's good to see that I do not stand alone in this matter.

I hear you completely, I need familiarity and stability on my work desktop, which is why I chose Scientific Linux (support for Gnome 2 through 2017 by the way, although that had nothing to do with my decision since I'm not really a big Gnome 2 fan).

Funny however to hear that you value familiarity above all else, yet you chose to go with the latest 11.10 release instead of 10.04 "long term support," a familiar, stable, comfortable option that will be supported through 2013/2015!

[BobSongs]

I hear you completely, I need familiarity and stability on my work desktop, which is why I chose Scientific Linux (support for Gnome 2 through 2017 by the way, although that had nothing to do with my decision since I'm not really a big Gnome 2 fan).

Funny however to hear that you value familiarity above all else, yet you chose to go with the latest 11.10 release instead of 10.04 "long term support," a familiar, stable, comfortable option that will be supported through 2013/2015!

Excellent post and excellent point!

I do appreciate the "cutting edge" of Linux. I use Inkscape as a graphics tool and this tends to force my hand to the latest Ubuntu release. I also have some hardware in my PC that even 10.10 cannot properly handle. So stepping back to 10.04 (a much enjoyed release) is not in the cards.

I'm all for gtk3. Linux components should definitely move forward. But my suspicion is that the GNOME developers may not have put in as much time/money/effort into polling older GNOME users for their opinions (it took distrowatch to expose that). It smacks of MSFT's decision to put a ribbon into MS Office without the option to "flip back" to the previous style should an emergency arise and the ribbon fails to satisfy.

Hey: give me gtk5 with "Applications", "Places" and "System" on the top left hand side and I'll be happy.

Changing the user experience to "keep up with the pack" can sometimes be good. But it (and by "it", I mean GNOME3's new interface) doesn't accommodate

• MacOS users (their dock is on the bottom)
• Windows users (their task bar is on the bottom too)
• GNOME2 users (top and bottom)
• KDE users

I'm not upset with Ubuntu at all. In fact, my desire to test Mint is based primarily on it's lineage from Ubuntu. Is GNOME2 perfect? Not by a long shot. Is GNOME2 what I use most and can swing around in it like a kid on monkey bars? Ohhh yes!

I've never ever been upset with Ubuntu's UI change. All such frustration has always been pointed to the culprit: GNOME. And 11.10's attempt to find a middle ground between GNOME3 and GNOME2 is worthy of applause. But it's not similar enough to 2 for my taste and needs.

[MarjaE]

I will happily change my statement to

Rather than complaining about a desktop environment which you dislike you should find one that suits your needs.

Easier said than done.

I installed Xubuntu, but between the installer going bad, and the lack of touchpad support [I had a malfunctioning touchpad, and the computer was unusable until I could disable it for typing], and various other aggravations, I had to reinstall Ubuntu.

I understand that Gnome 2 was technically inelegant, but it had some touchpad support, and it was easy-to-use, relatively easy-to-customize [although I've still not figured out how to widen the scrollbars], and mostly free from visible-on-mouseover nonsense [after I disabled the new-style scrollbars]. In my view, that counts for an awful lot.

[s.fox]

Closed for review.

This thread will remain closed. A new thread is in place here. Please do read post 1.

Thank you all for your patience.