Unity MEGA Thread

[Mozai]

Press F1, or use the Dash to search for "Help"

D'oh! I disabled my F1 key over a year ago because I keep hitting it when I reach for the Esc key with my left pinkie... which in GNOME means anything GTK slows down while that heavyweight help app loads up and searches for whatever is relevant to the window that had focus.

11.04 is here, I'll give Unity another go-round and put it through it's paces since it's supposed to be out-of-βeta. I gotta write a HOWTO for my mom anyways, since I told her to wait on switching to Ubuntu until the next major release.

[lovinglinux]

Docky can, not sure abot the others, but I thiink Cairo and AWN have those options too. It's called "window dodge". Docky's creator is also the guy who wrote the Unity plugin.

Thanks. I see know that it indeed works. However, the dock still unhides with mouse over edge, which is exactly what I don't want.

[Copper Bezel]

This behavior can actually be modified in CompizConfig as well, so that the dock only shows when you hover the upper left.

Docky can, not sure abot the others, but I thiink Cairo and AWN have those options too. It's called "window dodge".

CD and AWN have it as well and have for some time. Technically, it's the "Dodge Active Window" or "Intellihide" behavior. It's especially nice combined with AWN's Transparency hide, where the dock becomes a just-barely-visible overlay instead of disappearing completely, so that you can see you click target while you're moving the mouse toward it.

Docky's creator is also the guy who wrote the Unity plugin.

This explains a lot. Docky's pretty sleek and popular but fairly simplistic compared to Cairo Dock and AWN. By design, but still.

[mutantstargoat]

Take a step back, you're using a different UI, it means you have to alter your workflow, you have to CHANGE what you are used to doing, get comfortable with it to the degree that you no longer draw upon the experience and expectations of your former UI's paradigm, and THEN you can complain.

No offense meant, but I don't have to do anything. I will not go out of my way to adapt my workflow and I absolutely will not waste my time relearning a UI when there is no good reason to do so.

I dropped KDE when KDE4 was released. I have no problem dropping GNOME 3 if necessary or Ubuntunity, either. I have better things to do than dealing with this sort of nonsense.

[dsfitzpat]

There are instructions for disabling the global menu here, if it bothers you too much. I haven't tried it yet myself. Like I said, I really like the global menu on a netbook, where it frees up precious vertical space. On my desktop with a 24" monitor, I like it for maximized windows, but not for small windows, especially for windows near the bottom of the screen.

I never have too many open windows on one workspace, so it hasn't taken me too long to get used to it. The above link tells you how to disable the menu for specific programs too - so if you're wasting time with Aisle Riot running down at the bottom of the screen you can let it keep its menu. In the link I gave there's also a link to a mailing list discussion; it sounds like this is not yet settled among the devs. It's possible that in a future Ubuntu we'll see an option to have the global menu in use for maximized windows only, which could be useful.

[Mozai]

Press F1, or use the Dash to search for "Help"

Back again, after a good solid 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && reboot' for the sake of hygiene. And I re-enabled my F1 key.

Ubuntu Desktop Guide this is faster than the GTK Help I'm used to seeing when I hit F1. Hey! This is the same /usr/bin/yelp I was using with 10.10; I wonder why it's faster now? This looks really good, and it still works when I'm disconnected from the Internet. Good stuff; this addresses my concerns about a lack of documentation.


I'm going to give Unity a good try. First thing I gotta do is get rid of that autohide that's making the tray... uh, dock? launcher? Microsoft calls it a 'tray', Apple calls it a 'dock', GNOME calls it a panel, Unity documentation calls it a 'launcher' or 'dash' at different places in the documentation. They even refer to it by both names on the same page:

Ubuntu Desktop Guide » Use the Launcher to start applications › Customizing the Launcher »
To add an application to the launcher for easy access:
Drag the application's icon from the dash onto the launcher.
...

Ubuntu Desktop Guide » Overview › The Desktop »
Dash
 The dash is the list of your favorite applications that is shown on the
 left-hand side of the activities overview. Applications that are
 currently running are also shown here. The dash is sometimes referred to
 as the dock.

... so to add an application to the launcher (that thing on the left side), I'm supposed to drag it from the dash (that thing on the left side) to the launcher (that thing on the left side). [sound of head hitting desk]

ANYways, whatever it's called, it's sliding in and out every time I change focus between windows. Motion in my peripheral vision makes my reptile-brain focus on it, so I keep looking away from whatever I'm working on. Gotta fix that.

wait, no, nevermind, bigger problem: the panel (menubar? whatever) that thing that's the 1/2 centimeter at the top of my screen just went entirely black. Still response to mouse clicks, if I can guess where the buttons are. And two of the Unity ?lenses? the launcher/dash widgets (GNOME calls them 'panel applets') for the applications button, and the Files & Folders button just vanished off the launcher/dash while I was writing this. I saw them blink away while I was writing this paragraph about the top bar thing turning black. asdfjkl, it's like Unity is falling apart before my eyes, this is nuts.

I can't recommend this to my 57-year-old mom; she's used to GNOME, and she'll find this more frustrating than I do. I can't answer the questions she will have before I can answer my own questions.


I will say the documentation is there, and the interface for the documentation is pretty good, better than what I could've done on my own, and better than what I'm used to with GNOME. Kudos to the Ubuntu-doc team... just gotta iron out wrinkles.

[ivanovnegro]

I for one had to stop all upgrades for my friends and family, change the update behavior to never or only to LTS. They are all new to Ubuntu and now they felt a little bit lost, I told them to not upgrade, they got used to Ubuntu with Gnome 2.x a little bit and now this change wasnt good for them. I will have some work if someone really want to upgrade, I have to do some fresh installs.
Or even to change their machines to XFCE because Unity wont support the hardware.
It will be exciting anyway for me, the first time I have to help them again with computers like before with Windows, a bit paradox.
Unity could be really good for real newbies but for newbies accustomed to use the older Gnome interface it could also be a bad move, still there is Classic.

[cariboo]

For a guide on how to use Unity, have a look here

[mutantstargoat]

I love it, makes things so much easier. the secret is to use the search, don't bother looking for the app, type a couple of letters & it should show, you don't even need to know the name, you can use generic like sound or monitor for example. launchers are simple drag & drop, install compiz manager if want to tweak the launcher.

I just don't get this obsession with searching for everything. I don't want to search for anything ever. I want things to be where I left them. Do searchophiles throw their stuff into a closet and then search for it when they want something?

[Docaltmed]

I just don't get this obsession with searching for everything. I don't want to search for anything ever. I want things to be where I left them. Do searchophiles throw their stuff into a closet and then search for it when they want something?

I don't have to remember where an application is, whether it's in the Office submenu or the Accessories submenu....

All I do is hit Super, type in a few letters of its name (not even the first letters) and hit return. Much, much, much faster than all that mousing around.