Plea for desktop environment

[emma3]

For the sake of the users, when you guys design a new interface, please do not forget us.

We are the people who use your systems. We need them for our work. So I beg you, please think of us as you think of making our experience a pleasant one.

i use(d) Ubuntu 10 happily and found many of the things outclassed other operating systems. With 12 it has become more like my mac, and a lot less easy to use. I could go into detail, but it takes me longer to sort the details out than it's worth.

So my plea is this: PLEASE LEAVE THE FUNCTIONALITY ALONE!! If you want to make choices for us, please make sure that you know that these are things we want. I find Ubuntu 12 lacks several key features that i regularly used. They are available as standard on other operating systems - so my choice is to buy one of those instead of beating my head against a concrete programmer. Sorry, that should have read "wall" but the effect is the same. I have a sore head and the programmer/wall has not taken any notice.

Just remember that your brilliant ideas are sometimes a burden to a busy user. In successive upgrades I've seen all these cool ideas make what was a very useful operating system into one that is far less capable.

[emma3]

I just needed to pour out my heart, okay? I know it'll not make any difference - but if you did listen you might gain more of the market. Instead of losing me

[emma3]

And now Filezilla isn't working ... and I need to get a new website tested. Nor is dropbox working ... I'm at my wit's end.

[howefield]

Thread moved to the "Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat" forum.

If you need to post a support query you know where to go

It's tough when things don't work out the way you want, but you still have choices, use an Ubuntu variant or other Linux distribution that looks and acts according to your needs, get someone proficient to set it up for you or buy hardware that plays nice, and a whole other load of options.

Good luck.

[robin7]

... you still have choices, use an Ubuntu variant or other Linux distribution that looks and acts according to your needs, get someone proficient to set it up for you or buy hardware that plays nice, and a whole other load of options.

Ansolutely! If you want an "old familiar" desktop interface, there are the other "sibling" Ubuntu flavors to try, and if you have plenty of room on your hard drive, you can even try them out on your existing installation! Have a look at Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu (the latter for older, modest hardware). If you see one you like, you can actually install it to your hard drive if you have plenty of room - Xubuntu only needs about 5 GB of hard disk space, for example by installing
kubuntu-desktop,
xubuntu-desktop, or
lubuntu-desktop from Synaptic or a terminal, like this:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

These are community-developed "flavors" of Ubuntu that have all the awesomeness of Ubuntu but are built with input from the users. Getting involved and having your say is as easy as signing up on a mailing list!

At least have a look at these before you spend a bunch of money, okay?

[ssam]

i use(d) Ubuntu 10 happily and found many of the things outclassed other operating systems.

The old desktop environment was called Gnome 2. It is no longer supported (I imagine you will not like Gnome 3 if you don't like Unity). However enough people still like it that it lives on under the name MATE. http://mate-desktop.org/ While it is possible to install MATE on ubunu, there are some other distros that officially support it listed on the MATE site.

[buzzingrobot]

The old desktop environment was called Gnome 2. It is no longer supported (I imagine you will not like Gnome 3 if you don't like Unity). However enough people still like it that it lives on under the name MATE. http://mate-desktop.org/ While it is possible to install MATE on ubunu, there are some other distros that officially support it listed on the MATE site.

Right. Mate is the Gnome 2 code that was the basis of Ubuntu 10.04, with some bug fixes, some name changes, and some accommodations to allow for runnng contemporary software. Anyone who wants to stick with that interface is well advised to use it.

Mate installs and runs well on Ubuntu. Best bet is to follow the install instructions at the Mate site: mate-desktop.org.

Another very viable candidate is the Mate version of Linux Mint. The current release -- 16 -- is very nice.

Gnome is, and always has been, an independent project. Canonical adopted Gnome 2 as the primary interfce for Ubuntu, as did many other distributions. The Gnome team stopped working on Gnome 2 in 2011, leaving Ubuntu and all other distributions using Gnome 2 in search of a replacement.

Given the nature of open source -- no real way for users to control or constrain developer choices -- these things will happen.

[Elfy]

For the sake of the users, when you guys design a new interface, please do not forget us.

We are the people who use your systems. We need them for our work. So I beg you, please think of us as you think of making our experience a pleasant one. ...

Hi, unfortunately you are talking to the wrong people in the wrong place - 99% of us here are just users like you - we didn't have anything to do with design.

Mailing list is the best place to talk to developers.

[ibjsb4]

If you want the old look and feel, just run the classic desktop.

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pr...eClassicTweaks

[grahammechanical]

I just needed to pour out my heart, okay? I know it'll not make any difference - but if you did listen you might gain more of the market. Instead of losing me

Market? What market? Ubuntu, like other open source projects, is a gift of the developers. We should appreciate the gift we are given.

Now, if there is a market place for Ubuntu it is with OEMs to market phones and tablets with Ubuntu as the OS. Ubuntu 10.10 would never have stood a chance in that market place. On the other hand, Ubuntu + Unity 8 stands a very good chance of getting a paying customer market with those millions of people who buy phones and tablets.

Regards.