Author Topic: Unity Desktop (Ubuntu) (Read 19,226 times)

Renegade · « **on:** July 05, 2012, 12:19 PM »

Does anyone actually like Unity?

I needed to do some testing, and downloaded a more recent Ubuntu distro with Unity, and wow... hatred, loathing, and frustration. I really can't express just how much I hate Unity. I LOVE Enlightenment, but Unity? United in hiding everything perhaps. Took me forever to figure out how to get a terminal... sheesh... Is this where Windows 8 got some of it's bad ideas?

But seriously --- does anyone like it? If so, why? I'm curious. What is improved? What is actually useful in it? I can't see any good points in it. GNOME or KDE any day.

justice · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2012, 12:19 PM »

You had trouble pressing the windows button and typing 'term'?

nite_monkey · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2012, 12:27 PM »

Just jumping into unity without any documentation, and knowing that in older versions of ubuntu, pressing the super key did nothing, he probably didn't know that you could push it to open the "start menu." I don't like unity either. Thats why I installed the kde desktop on top of ubuntu (can't remember why, but there is a reason I'm not using the physical kubuntu distro.)

Renegade · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2012, 12:30 PM »

Quote from: justice on July 05, 2012, 12:19 PM

You had trouble pressing the windows button and typing 'term'?

There is no button... Nothing is obvious. I'd looked for bash - nada. And you can't browse any of the installed software - or at least not to run it.

Renegade · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2012, 12:32 PM »

Quote from: nite_monkey on July 05, 2012, 12:27 PM

Just jumping into unity without any documentation, and knowing that in older versions of ubuntu, pressing the super key did nothing, he probably didn't know that you could push it to open the "start menu." I don't like unity either. Thats why I installed the kde desktop on top of ubuntu (can't remember why, but there is a reason I'm not using the physical kubuntu distro.)

Cripes... I see it now... It's faded and barely visible... Great example of how to abuse alpha transparency...

justice · « **Reply #5 on:** July 05, 2012, 01:11 PM »

Quote from: Renegade on July 05, 2012, 12:30 PM

There is no button... Nothing is obvious. I'd looked for bash - nada. And you can't browse any of the installed software - or at least not to run it.

I meant the windows key on your keyboard, or super key if you're using mac I think
[attach]

justice · « **Reply #6 on:** July 05, 2012, 01:17 PM »

Here's how to want to start start the terminal:
* hit the Windows / Super key
* type: term
* press enter or click the icon

http://screencast.com/t/59VagZMPPL

It's not any different than Windows 7 really?

Renegade · « **Reply #7 on:** July 05, 2012, 02:11 PM »

I already found it.

I was working on a larger screen before, but here:

[attachthumb=#]

The text was faded and smaller, and due to some bizarre reason, I had to sit farther away from the screen, so I didn't see it.

Still, it's quite awkward compared to other desktops. I suppose I just "don't get it".

mahesh2k · « **Reply #8 on:** July 05, 2012, 03:13 PM »

You'll get used to it, if you stop resisting it.

Here's list of shortcuts for making things faster. I am using them and I feel way better than browsing menus and clicking on links.

You can invoke these shortcuts by holding windows key for more than 1 sec.

Also to browse the programs, click on the application tab in the bottom and filter the results by clicking on right sidebar.

Note that unity is based on gnome 3 shell, so if you use gnome3, things are pretty much the same but with more difficult stuff while finding things as there is no HUD on gnome.

40hz · « **Reply #9 on:** July 05, 2012, 05:22 PM »

I've given it a one month long active workout.

My experience is no different than what has been published in reviews too numerous to cite.

If you like this sort of thing, you're all for it. If you don't like tinker-toy desktop metaphors with a 60s era Fisher-Price color scheme (hello Windows 8?), you don't like it.

As you might have guessed, I don't like it, want it, or need it.

And to Renegade's earlier point about "not getting it" I think he doesn't give himself enough credit. I think he suspects he didn't get it because - despite assurances from Unity's creators and advocates - there isn't really anything special to "get." Much like Gertrude Stein famously said about Oakland California: "There is no there there."

Unity isn't a breakthrough. Nor does it offer any real innovation (so far) to the user experience. It's just a different way of doing things you can already do (often better) with established desktop environments.

And being 'different' largely for the sake of being different has never been a compelling argument to me.

P.S. I find it ironic that something that has caused so much division in the Ubuntu user community was christened with the name Unity. Makes me wonder if somebody behind it has a truly warped sense of humor.

db90h · « **Reply #10 on:** July 05, 2012, 06:00 PM »

Few like Unity. I hate it, myself. It was a good *attempt* to unify a touch based interface with a traditional one, but it was a huge flop, IMHO. The ironic thing is that I've never even seen it deployed on touch screen devices, at least not yet.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #11 on:** July 05, 2012, 08:41 PM »

I don't understand the divide. Canonical wants to experiment and they should. I don't understand what's wrong with it.

Unity has HUD which makes it more powerful. Gnome3 default shell has no HUD, so it's useless without HUD.

If you check ubuntuforums, many members are realizing this fact, atleast about HUD. As HUD makes unity cool. There is no comparison of unity if it's loaded with HUD. I don't know how come it is compared with Win 7 or 8. It has nothing close to these desktop.

40hz · « **Reply #12 on:** July 06, 2012, 12:04 AM »

Quote from: mahesh2k on July 05, 2012, 08:41 PM

Canonical wants to experiment and they should. I don't understand what's wrong with it.

There's nothing wrong with experimenting as long as you don't insist large portions of your user community (remember: Linux is supposed to be about community) become unwilling guinea pigs while you thrash around trying to figure out how to develop a tablet oriented OS for a piece of hardware that allegedly doesn't exist yet.

Where Canonical really wants to go is fairly obvious. They want a piece of branded hardware, and will probably introduce one within the next year. Once they have that, you can expect Ubuntu to drop support for regular desktop users. They'll keep their server because they are now offering their own cloud solutions. But Shuttleworth is firmly convinced the future lies in tablet devices so it's only a matter of time before Ubuntu shifts its efferts in that direction.

Apple got where it was today by customizing a borrowed OS core and building their own proprietary device to run it. Why can't Ubuntu do the same?

Apologies if I sound so cynical towards Ubuntu. It's only because I am. $:-\$

Tuxman · « **Reply #13 on:** July 06, 2012, 06:12 AM »

I recently "tried" Unity (I needed to do some quick boot sector recovery and had no Debian live CD with me). Conclusion: A bloated, ugly version of the lovely WindowMaker with a bad "look" and no "feel". Ridiculous DE.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #14 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:25 AM »

Quote

There's nothing wrong with experimenting as long as you don't insist large portions of your user community

Why are we blaming canonical for that? Unity was built on top of gnome3. It was gnome which started this new change,they enforced it, not canonical. Mark and canonical are only taking gnome3 ahead where gnome3 is stagnated with no further improvements. That said, there is nothing wrong with tablet UI's, afterall the days old desktop UI are outnumbered. I know, I used to mock from the other side, but after using it I feel way more comfortable than to click on button, open menu that takes entire screen space type UIs.

Quote

Where Canonical really wants to go is fairly obvious. They want a piece of branded hardware, and will probably introduce one within the next year. Once they have that, you can expect Ubuntu to drop support for regular desktop users. They'll keep their server because they are now offering their own cloud solutions. But Shuttleworth is firmly convinced the future lies in tablet devices so it's only a matter of time before Ubuntu shifts its efferts in that direction.

What's wrong with that too? They are not going to be walled garden like apple or windows, you and I both know that for sure. There is nothing wrong with canonical attempting for tablet. As for ditching desktop users, mark made his statement on future vision, so your assumption is nowhere near what He thinks about desktop. So that assumption about desktop is purely out of fear.

Quote

Apple got where it was today by customizing a borrowed OS core and building their own proprietary device to run it. Why can't Ubuntu do the same?Apologies if I sound so cynical towards Ubuntu. It's only because I am.

At one point we don't like unity being like apple UI and on another we like apple's minimalism?

Why ubuntu has to do everything that apple does? Why ubuntu has to be what windows users want? I am damn sure now that HUD on windows and apple platform could have been praised but just because canonical released it, people are not talking about it. Why?

40hz · « **Reply #15 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:50 AM »

^ As I said earlier: If you like this sort of thing, you're all for it. If you don't, you don't.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #16 on:** July 06, 2012, 09:30 AM »

I am sure you're surprised at the way with which I converted to HUD, I used to mock it a lot in the past.

40hz · « **Reply #17 on:** July 06, 2012, 01:14 PM »

HUD is probably the best thing Unity has going for it. That said, it looks almost exactly like Launchy and behaves very much like FARR in operation. Where it gains its power is in creating the appearance of being context aware. But that's not a great engineering achievement once you come up with an API and convince major software developers to incorporate it into their applications. Of course, with open software, somebody with sufficient resources like Ubuntu can simply put it in themselves, and then incorporate the customized app into their repositories. GPL specifically allows you to do that.

In the "old days" this used to be loosely referred to as "embedding hooks" in something. It's really nothing new. It's just implemented differently these days. Like much everything else when it comes to computers.

Old wine, new bottle, add a twist - and you're done!

Thus what passes for technological "progress" is largely achieved.

Which is one more reason why we need to get rid of software patents.

mahesh2k · « **Reply #18 on:** July 06, 2012, 01:55 PM »

Getting the Menu options in prompt was big improvement IMO.

app103 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 07, 2012, 04:04 AM »

Choose Ubuntu Classic when logging in and you won't have to deal with Unity. It will be like nothing changed. (that's what I did)

Renegade · « **Reply #20 on:** July 07, 2012, 04:27 AM »

Quote from: app103 on July 07, 2012, 04:04 AM

Choose Ubuntu Classic when logging in and you won't have to deal with Unity. It will be like nothing changed. (that's what I did)

I'm only running VMs, so it wasn't available. If I'd installed it, I would have tricked it out a bit more.

I still really like Enlightenment... It's such a gorgeous desktop.