Ubuntu deploys cloud-ready Ocelot beta A year that started with radical and controversial changes to prepare Ubuntu for touch-based consumer computing is finishing up with a big push into the cloud on servers. The Ubuntu community has released the first beta of Ubuntu 11.10, codenamed Oneiric Ocelot and expected as finished code for download in October. The beta …
There were so many glaring issues in Unity that I hope they've addressed them. Main ones for me would be the intrusive integration of the Ubuntu store with apps (no I don't want you to recommend an app for me, I want to find the sodding app which I've already installed and you've chosen to bury somewhere where I can't see it), the HORRIBLE global menu (great for netbooks, bloody awful on large screens), and the confusing Ubuntu / Power drop down menus which should be unified.
<p>
Address these things and Unity will be fairly tolerable. Don't and it's a another 6 months of angry users.
<p>
I'm glad to see Ubuntu picking up GNOME 3 (except for the shell) though.
@DrXym: "I'm glad to see Ubuntu picking up GNOME 3"
That makes one of us. I just upgraded one of my computers, and unavoidably picked up Gnome 3. All the things about the UI that allowed me, a technical user, to work quickly and efficiently are gone. I may as well have an Etch-a-sketch. And the Gnome developer's standard attitude of "We Are The Gods Of User Interface Design What Are Not To Be Ignored and We have Decided this is Better For You" (Gnome 2 style interface will not be supported, the ability to switch back will be hidden under "Graphics Fallback" behind a "Beware of the Leopard" in the disused lavatory under the missing stairs in the dark) does not help.
I have converted some family members from Windows to Gnome 2 - a task made simpler by Gnome 2's general adherence to the same UI principles as Windows XP - and shudder to think what will happen when I can no longer shield them from the new changes.
I was at the start of a website build project when the Ubuntu 11.04 update arrived.
I have been an Ubuntu devotee since 2004 and was a real fan!!.
So in early June I decide to upgrade to 11.04, despite thoughts I shouldn't, based on the comments flying around the Interweb!
BIG BIG Mistake! I suddenly found that certain essential plugins in Gimp would not work under the Unity UI.
That was enough of a boo-boo for me.
I had to reinstall my machine so I regressed/slid over to Debian 6.0.
At least, I have much more flexibility to choose my UI and avoid MS Widnows-type evolution of Ubuntu where Canonical are telling me what's good for me!
Don't fix what works....!!!!
Give the user a choice of GUI , IN BIG CAPITAL LETTERS, during the initial phases of installation!
Luckily I have enough TUX experience to customise Debian to my one requirements!
The only way Canonical will get me back is an all-expenses paid return trip to the ISS to celebrate the Shuttleworth visit.... (must be 8 years or so now!) on a Canonical-funded SpaceX Dragon Capsule! (not Soyuz...Roskosmos, after years of great service in the ballistic human field, seem to be going the way of Ubuntu!)
«The only way Canonical will get me back is an all-expenses paid return trip to the ISS to celebrate the Shuttleworth visit.... (must be 8 years or so now!) on a Canonical-funded SpaceX Dragon Capsule! (not Soyuz...Roskosmos, after years of great service in the ballistic human field, seem to be going the way of Ubuntu!)» Pray tell, Chris, to what experience in the «ballistic human field» can SpaceX Dragon point that makes you so willing to trust your mortal coil to it, rather than to Soyuz ?...
Otherwise, we are in complete agreement - «[g]ive the user a choice of GUI , IN BIG CAPITAL LETTERS, during the initial phases of installation». Alas, this doesn't seem to be the direction in which Canonical is going ; rather, the firm seems determined to (re)cast all Ubuntu users in a single mould....
Henri
I said except for the shell. The remainder is largely infrastructure stuff, changes to apps.
Personally I think the GNOME shell has as many problems as Unity but I'm of the opinion that neither GNOME 3 (shell) or Unity is broken by design. A few more iterations of both I think will take the rough edges off them. I actually like GNOME 3 in principle, it's just in practice it does some really stupid things.
My main beef with GNOME3 shell is that there is no onscreen dock / taskbar and you have to flip screens to launch an app or see what apps you already have open. The rationale for this design in the FAQ that this somehow confuses people is laughable. It might seem sound on paper but in practice it causes little brain farts where you were intending to do something but in the process of flipping apps you lose the context that prompted you to do it in the first place. The same issue affects Microsoft apps with the ribbon - the act of flipping to a different tab, possibly losing site of your document is horribly disruptive. At least for me.
Other problem with GNOME 3 is it dumps spatial desktop icons on the floor. This can be fixed but it boggles the mind they though to disable it in the first place. GNOME has a lot of good ideas but sometimes I think they follow through on something when a rational look at what OS X or Windows 7 does should convince them to pull back a bit.
One technical user to another...
Several distros have quasi-supported 'forward ports' of Gnome 2 & KDE 3.5.x to the current release of the distro. This is the case with OpenSuSE and Fedora - I'd be surprised if the same is not true of Ubuntu.
You'll have to install it yourself, which sucks.
What sucks even more is the people who do not understand "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Gnome 2 & KDE 3.5 are excellent desktops, very much the pinnacle of their respective paradigm. I really think distro makers should keep them in the mainline RPMs/DEBs - even if the default is KDE4.x (gaaahh!) or Gnome 3 (puke!).
"made simpler by Gnome 2's general adherence to the same UI principles as Windows XP"
Bloody hell! I failed to convert even myself to Gnome 2 because it was so annoyingly and pointlessly different from Windows XP. (The rest of the family just laughed indulgently and waited for me to find a sane alternative.) If that's what you are calling "general adherence" then Gnome 3 might as well be in cuneiform.
What a pity that KDE is so shit, too.
When I first started using Linux all those years ago, I did start with KDE - coming from a Windows environment and all.
However, when KDE4 was unleashed, I bit the bullet and learned Gnome - it allowed me to get things done with less of an uphill struggle than KDE4 seemed to require.
So sadly, whilst it was the answer a few years ago, I don't agree these days ;-)
Now I've not seen any screenshots or played with Gnome 3 yet, so I won't pass judgement, but based on others' comments I do fear I'll be ending up using XFCE (which I have found more than stable and usable on all my Mythbuntu installs).
I don't know if it's just me on my Samsung N130, but the UI/unity seems to be a metric fuckton faster - lots of 60fps action, and it's still nice and smooth when it's busy, too.
11.04 would stutter around a lot.
Is this to do with GTK or something? Dunno, but it's made me hold off buying a new laptop for the moment...
Steven R
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
