Sign in / up

back to article Ubuntu 12.10: More to Um Bongo Linux than Amazon ads

A second beta of Ubuntu 12.10 has arrived and its biggest feature has proved its most controversial: the integration of Amazon.com search results on your desktop. A new Lens in the Unity Dash will poll Amazon to find results relevant to your search terms. And yes, if you click the link and buy the item Ubuntu-maker Canonical …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

    1. Nigel 11
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: Ubuntu?

      If all we need is a distribution that boots direct into Gnome 2 for that much-like-XP experience, then it already exists, and Linux will conquer (not the Ubuntu flavour, though).

      The block is Microsoft data-format lock-in. Openoffice and LibreOffice are not entirely compatible with MS Office, and the (slight!) incompatibilities are the reason that businesses continue to fork out several hundred quid per employee on MS office licenses, than loading one of the free Office softwares onto their Microsoft systems and then planning an exodus to Linux.

      It's not just Office, of course. Outlook is another lock-in. Ever tried using Thunderbird as a mail client in an organisation that uses Outlook calendar functions? Then there are Access databases. And of course, all the proprietary Microsoft-only applications that they've bought from third-party vendors.

      Truth be told, LInux lost the corporate desktop before Linux was born. The only business that can easily migrate to Linux for everything, is one that has yet to buy its first computers. And the trouble is that start-up businesses usually don't have anyone who knows about Linux and about the Microsoft data-format lock-in trap. By the time they are big enough to have even a part-time computer system manager, Microsoft will rule their roost.

      The unhappy face should be crying. The business model that Microsoft uses is very similar to that of a Cocaine cartel (albeit legal). By the time the user realizes Cocaine (or MS software) is not his friend, it's too late for most users to do anything about it.

      2 0
    2. keithpeter Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: Ubuntu?

      "I'll stagger on with a mix of XP (one ten year old laptop) and Debian (all the other Laptops, server etc)."

      What I can't understand is people changing their distribution because of the desktop/window manager. Desktop/window managers are just programs, there are plenty more of those in the repositories.

      Just pop IceWm on Ubuntu 12.04 (and add the icewm-themes package, thunar, some icons for thunar and add the Radience theme of box-look.org). Pig fast and I love that tiling thing icewm does.

      2 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: people changing their distribution

        Yes that's true. I use 11.04 with Gnome 2, and my 12.04 "testing" system Ubuntu Studio, which comes with XFCE but I'm running MATE. Not a Unity lens in sight!

        Mind you, the change from Ubuntu to Mint is not much more than a change of, err, flavour. If MATE doesn't work out with 12.04, that's what I'll do.

        0 0
  2. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Man in the muddle

    > if you click the link and buy the item Ubuntu-maker Canonical gets a small percentage of the income,

    That's all very well and I have no problem with someone making a bit of money for their efforts, but ...

    How can this prevent someone downloading the "proper" Ubuntu <obligatory cutesy name omitted for reasons of professionalism> 12.10 and fixing it so that instead of using Canonical's referrals to Amazon it uses their own, instead?

    Obviously the simply answer is to never download from anywhere except the approved repository and to always check the checksum matches the validated version. But I can see there is a lot of scope here for scammers to stick their oar into what has always been positioned as a Linux for the non-technical users who wouldn't be au fait with the reasons for taking these extra steps.

    0 0
  3. JimmyPage Silver badge

    Web apps on desktop/mobile ?

    Sorry, I can't agree with Scott that web apps are better suited to mobiles ... my experience is the reverse. Even at home, connected to my WiFi, I find web apps clunky and slow, whereas on my permanently-connected desktop they aren't *too* bad.

    Let's not start about when I'm out and about and on 3G.

    0 1
  4. Liam Thom
    Meh

    Quantal Quetzal

    Really?

    0 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Quantal Quetzal

      More like Quantal Quisling

      1 0
  5. Craig 2
    WTF?

    Do people really succumb to these kind of adverts? I can't imagine a situation ever arising where I'm searching my computer for something then see an advert (even if it was supremely relevant) and click to buy it. I'm not even saying I'm immune to advertising; when the `Crunchy Nut` adverts appear I have been known to suddenly fancy a bowl.

    0 0
    1. Nigel 11
      Reply Icon
      Mushroom

      I am a buyer, not a sellee!

      Personally, I find unsolicited advertising of most sorts actively encourages me NOT to buy the product. The more intrusive the advert into what I'm actually trying to do at the time, the greater the enduring hostility towards whatever is being advertized.

      Exceptions, by the way, are mostly old media. Ads in trains and on walls and in newspapers and magazines present themselves while I am not busy with something else, and I may start thinking "interesting" rather than "annoying".

      A long time ago I decided that I'd always be a buyer, never a sellee. If I want something I'll actively go and look for it (and the best value method of obtaining it). If I don't yet want it, advertizing it to me has value for the advertizer between zero and minus infinity (the most annoyingly intrusive ads get the entire company, not just the product, onto my mental no-buy list until the memory fades).

      6 0
  6. Turtle

    The Logic Of Advertising

    "Search for 'iPod' and Unity will find any iPod manager apps you might have installed and it may also return some results to buy an Apple iPod from Amazon."

    If I am looking for an iPod manager of some sort on my desktop, that would seem to indicate that I already own an iPod for the iPod manager to manage, wouldn't it? And Canonical and Amazon think that, because I already have an iPod, they are going to succeed in selling my another one every time I look for my iPod manager? Or that being reminded that my computer use is being monitored in order to serve ads for products which I don't need to buy because I already own, is going to make using my computer more enjoyable and productive somehow?

    And they are going to do this for the sake of earning what minuscule fraction of a cent per user per year?

    *rolls eyes*

    1 0
    1. John H Woods Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: The Logic Of Advertising

      Can't believe how many comments I had to read before someone pointed that out. I was going to post the same if I got to the end of the comments without it being raised, and I'd almost given up hope.

      0 0
  7. Lee Dowling Silver badge

    So after spending years configuring my browsers to block adverts, replacing all my old ad-supported software with freeware/open-source, installing software to rip the unskippable ads from my DVD's, and going out of my way to configure an email reader to NOT show me anything that's probably an unsolicited ad,

    NOW my start bar will turn against me and suggest ads when I want to run a command prompt.

    Nice design decisions, guys (and supporting business model, i.e. one doomed to fail).

    And I hate the Unity interface, and I hate the "new Windows" interfaces (i.e. Vista / 7 / 8) and made a time-profit by installing Classic-shell to get run of that junk as quickly as possible when I had to move onto a Windows 7 machine recently from a 10-year-old XP image that had had countless years of setting up to get it how I wanted it. It has to be said, the underlying OS's on both sides of the coin are actually quite good, they are just let down by TERRIBLE interfaces bundled into apps and the desktop utilities which remove features and give you no options to get them back.

    I don't WANT things searching my hard disk when they are idle to propagate a menu of stuff that you might think I have installed. I know exactly how to get to every program I ever want to use and can get there before I could ever remember the name of the damn thing, let alone type it in enough to pop up in a narrow-down search. I actually spent my first few hours on my first, own personal copy of Windows 7 (after years of trials, etc. for my users) doing nothing but seeing if I could tweak the narrow-down so that I could eventually get used to it in preference.

    And yet, five minutes with Classic Shell and I was back to be (almost) as productive as before. That program is worth its weight in gold. But if they plastered it with ads, then it would be in the bin before you could find the network IP address without using command line utils on a plain-install of Windows 8.

    When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work, in a way that's directly translatable to lost productivity if you get it wrong (or even if you get it right, but it takes people such a long time to get used to it that they will never recoup that loss). Control of the desktop is a hugely powerful thing that affects how people use their machines unlike any other. That's why corporate desktops get lock-downs, that's why admins have group policies to configure them, and that's why messing them up and slapping ads on them is a sure way to make people find OTHER tools, or even OS's, that don't do that.

    5 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work..."

      True, but I'm wondering if it isn't a bigger mistake than that.

      Given that for many people their desktop is an expression of their own individuality, your quote could equally have been "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with them...".

      And that might explain why there is so much hostility to this move.

      7 0
      1. johnnytruant
        Reply Icon

        Re: "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work..."

        I've wondered this very thing. The interesting thing about it is that it's true for us nerds. We customise, we tweak, we make things our own. But most users don't do that. How many non-techie people do you know who even set a non-standard desktop image, let alone adjust colour schemes, icons, set up custom launchers or keyboard shortcuts, etc. etc.

        So for them - a group who represent the overwhelming majority of computer users - this kind of thing is less of a big deal. Much less of a big deal. Canonical do lots of user testing, they don't just punt stuff out at random. They've tested this and it's gone down well. The small - albeit very vocal - minority of nerds who feel this is a personal assault on their computing privacy are going to install Arch/Fedora/Debian/Whatever. But frankly it was only a matter of time until those people ragequit anyway.

        But I think there's a great deal of people who don't post their opinions about computing on web forums are just going to say "oh look, it searches Amazon now, that's handy/annoying" and will then use/ignore the feature as appropriate. Canonical may bank some cash, and if so good for them. They are a business, after all. Personally, I consider the "mainstreaming" of Ubuntu to be a very good thing - ease of use and features like built-in search are things people like and will bring more users to the OS - and when/if it reaches the point that I'm feeling constrained by it, I shall just go and install something else.

        3 1
        1. Bonus
          Reply Icon

          Re: "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work..."

          "How many non-techie people do you know who even set a non-standard desktop image,"

          Loads, although they mostly call it a screensaver for some reason.

          3 0
        2. Lee Dowling Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work..."

          Yes, but I think you miss a step.

          At some point, every business has to pay a nerd of some breed, to implement their systems in a secure and efficient way so that information does not leak out and users don't waste their time on the Internet. As much as I'd like to give a user a text-only console with only option that did what they absolutely had to do, the reality is that we take a commercial distro and customise it to remove things that shouldn't be there before it's deployed out.

          This is where both Windows 8 and new Ubuntu's are suffering. They are creating work for those vocal nerds, who service thousands of unknowing users, and thus are going to lose out where they don't need to. There's even something to be said for a "productivity" configuration and a "home" configuration, in that case. I can name half a dozen IT admins who would kill to get business versions of Windows, Office etc. with all the junk turned off by default but compatible with the home versions. It doesn't tend to happen - Windows 8, for example, is quite clearly a "home" distro, designed for flashy tablet PC's and not corporate workstations. ME and Vista were much the same. But XP and 7 had a much more business-like approach to things and were easier to lock down and customise.

          We can't just look at the home market here and say "Nobody customises their PC". Maybe "nobody who uses the PC casually does", but who's going to spend MORE on their OS and PC in the first place? Those people who are using it as a highly customised tool in whatever respect, and thus those people who will be hit by a productivity loss at such trinkets adorning their highly-maintained desktop.

          My personal desktop has 5 icons on it. My start menus are organised into customised categories and no program is more than Windows-key, P, Category Initial, Program Initial, Program Initial away (that's a worst-case). The personal desktops of other staff that use the unmanaged machines I build are 50% horrendous messes of unkempt folders and half-installed programs and 50% clean-as-a-whistle affairs. But still the actual working managed desktops on the domain are MY pristine organised, categorised icon sets and used by 450+ users without complaint.

          My opinion of Ubuntu counts for a million times more than any single user's, or even my superior's, impression of it. Nerds veto these sorts of things in corporations as well as their personal machines. It's dangerous territory to launch a monetising assault on their desktops and that of ALL their users, especially without adequate consultation.

          I'm not saying nerds rule the world or override huge company's CEOs, but it's wrong to alienate any one category of your users when they could have been appeased by such things being a) optional, b) disabled by default.

          2 0
          1. johnnytruant
            Reply Icon

            Re: "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work..."

            It's not really about customisation per se - the point I was trying to make was that we (the nerds) make things our own by customisation, but at a deeper level it's about control. My computer is a tool which I bend to my will, not a device I have to figure out to get something else done. Because I'm engaged with my machine on a deeper level than someone who just* uses it for spreadsheets/word processing/email/etc - then when "my" OS is changed, it can be more upsetting. Me, I'm not bothered, but some people are.

            I can see what you're getting at, but I think most nerds in professional positions can manage a little more objectivity than the forum dwellers bleating (again, comes around at least once a year) about how this is the end for Ubuntu. Me, I don't use Unity - but I do recommend it to people. My Mum loves it, for example. I can make decisions based on what other people need not what I personally prefer. Ubuntu doesn't alienate me by making itself more appealing to non-techies, it just makes itself a slightly different tool in my toolbox - considering this is a toolbox which is quite well stuffed with almost-identical Linux distros already, a little differentiation ain't a bad thing. I may choose not to run Ubuntu for myself, but that doesn't mean it's not something I'll choose for someone else.

            * just to be clear, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. These people are applying their brain in different places to me. I can't do their jobs any more than they can do mine.

            0 0
            1. Anonymous Coward
              Reply Icon
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: "When you play with someone's desktop, you are interfering with the way they do work..."

              The thing that really ought to concern Canonical is the lack of privision by OEMs of pre-installed Ubuntu. Most who use Ubuntu are either nerds (or the clued-in if you prefer) or people who have had it installed by a friend/family member who is one of that group.

              If a significant portion of the clued-in users drop Ubuntu then I think it is likely that the 'clueless' userbase that Canonical wants to monetise will shrink markedly.

              Canonical really need to get the OS shipped by the OEMs if it wants to continue on this path.

              1 0
  8. ForthIsNotDead
    Stop

    What if...

    ...they produced a version that you paid for, say five or ten dollars, that had no adverts/spyware.

    Would you pay for it?

    1 0
    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: What if...

      Yes, but only if they also had an option to not install Unity in the first place as well!

      I actually have no problem in paying a reasonable amount for useful software, but the definition of reasonable is flexible. I would not mind paying, say, a tenner per download of Ubuntu, especially if it allowed Cannonical to include licenses for patent encumbered components (think H.264, which is free for personal use, but needs a volume license for Cannonical to install as part of the OS install - it's a volume thing).

      In the past, I did pay for an official Redhat 9.1 (no, not Fedora or RHEL) box set, because I wanted to support Redhat in their continuing efforts (and downloading 6 CDs over a V90 modem was going to take a while, not to mention finding the disk space to store it and the effort of burning the disks).

      2 0
      1. Nigel 11
        Reply Icon

        Re: What if...

        @Peter

        If you want Red Hat but don't want to pay, take you pick from CentOS or Scientific Linux. Or Fedora, if you don't mind living on the bleeding edge. I used not to, until they inflicted Gnome 3 on me. Apparently Cinnamon is now a standard Fedora package, so I may pay a return visit soon.

        0 0
        1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: What if... @Nigel

          If you look at your Linux history, you will find that RedHat 9.1 was made available before either Centos or Scientific Linux were available. I have been using Ubuntu since Dapper (from about when RedHat stopped patching RH9.1), and stick to LTS releases, as the normal Ubuntu releases and Fedora moves too fast for my liking. My day-to-day systems are to use, and the less time I need to spend maintaining them, the better.

          I have been using Linux since RH 4.1, and UNIX a lot longer than that, so I do know my way around.

          And if you read what I said, I got something out of it other than the knowledge that I was helping RedHat, in that I did not have to download the iso images over a modem....

          I actually have little sympathy for the "must be completely free of cost" Linux brigade. If someone wants to create some software which has real value, and wishes to get some remuneration for the work, let them. Provided that they abide with the GPL and/or LGPL, then Linux should be a platform that they can use.

          I am getting a little jaded with the Open Source model. We are now getting to the point where very useful parts of the Open Source landscape are becoming abandonware, with the original maintainer moving on to other things, and no-one else picking up the baton. Other projects go the other way, and get managed by large groups, who then argue about direction causing fragmentation. Gnome and KDE and even the XFree86/Xorg groups have been guilty of this in the past.

          What it means is that there is no continuity, with new releases of distributions changing the tools used by default. For example, for ripping CDs, I've been through so many different ripping tools, all of which work in different ways, store the tracks in different directories, tag the files differently, use different profiles for the back-end decoders, and generally leave their detritus all over the . files in my home directory (I keep my home directory when I upgrade distributions). I would have been absolutely happy sticking with Grip, which was small, efficient, and suited me perfectly. I could have asked to become the maintainer, but I have too little time to do what I need to, let alone taking on a software project.

          0 0
    2. FatGerman
      Reply Icon
      Headmaster

      Re: What if...

      No, because it's open source and therefore I can remove the adverts/spyware myself. Plus I wouldn't give anyone money for what is basically a rolling beta that breaks every time I upgrade it. Make it as stable as the distro it's based on (Debian) and then I might consider it.

      0 0
  9. Chimp

    Unity...

    ... works rather well for me. If you need an unencumbered OS with a short learning curve for a fairly large group of users, it's fine.

    If you don't like it, try Mint, another fine distro.

    7 1
    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Unity... @Chimp

      I'm not arguing there.

      0 0
  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    A Sad Tale

    Walks into hall, switches on outside light. Opens front door and peering out into the dark cries, "Ubuntu, where have you gone?"

    2 0
  11. WylieCoyoteUK
    Happy

    Unity is Ok with me

    I quite like Unity, been using it for a while now.

    Compared to say Win8, it is quite a nice easy to use interface.

    It is especially good for newbies and non technical users.

    Mind you, since I bought a tablet, I mainly use my desktop for writing and image manipulation, so I'm in Android more than any other OS these days..

    4 0
  12. 45RPM Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    So what?

    I like Ubuntu. I like what they're doing with Unity - it's brave, and God knows that the Linux GUI world needs some bravery. Sure, it's often a step back - but it will lead to a better desktop eventually, I'm certain of it. Mac OS X 10.0 was such a step back that it was actually unusable. Vista was, well, Vista - unfortunately. Progress sometimes means temporary sacrifice (sadly, it sometimes means permanent sacrifice too!)

    As for the shopping lens, yes, it's tacky. Yes, I don't like it. But look at it this way, there's no such thing as a free lunch - and Ubuntu is a very tasty lunch indeed. Pay up, cheapskates - and by paying you'll either have to put up with Amazon (and maybe buy once in a while, ensuring the future of Ubuntu) or put in a little effort to disable this lens.

    As for me, I shall install Quetzal. But I'm really looking forward to:

    Randy Rhino

    Sexy Squirrel

    Tarty Toucan

    …and so forth. Well, we've had Whorey Hedgehog, so why not?

    5 2
    1. johnnytruant
      Reply Icon

      Re: So what?

      Reliant Robin.

      7 0
    2. Nigel 11
      Reply Icon

      Re: So what?

      X-rated Xenosaur?

      0 0
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @45RPM - Re: So what?

      Did Ubuntu paid anything to Debian ? Who are the cheapskates here ? Also if Ubuntu feels entitled to get some money they should ask me to pay for Ubuntu instead of selling me to Amazon.

      0 0
      1. 45RPM Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Flame

        Re: @45RPM - So what?

        Given that Ubuntu is an OS, not a business, I very much doubt that Ubuntu paid anyone. Canonical may have paid money to the Debian Project - I have no idea. You'll need to check that yourself. I'm damned certain that Canonical has advanced Linux's cause and code base more than most though, which in turn benefits Debian.

        Sheesh. All these noobs. I'm amazed that they know enough about computing to find this website, much less sign up and comment on its articles. <shakes head in mock despair>

        1 2
  13. DvorakUser

    Does no one realize...

    ... that you are capable of removing the Amazon integration features? Or that they're working on a simle 'kill-switch' for the end-user to disable them? Admittedly, though, having an opt-in/out checkbox during installation would be nice....

    I just don't understand all the hate towards the Unity UI. Sure, it's not Gnome 2 or KDE, but I find it to be a fairly decent UI. Even fired it up on an eeePC 701 without too many major problems (biggest one: the dash is too large for the screen).

    5 0
    1. MissingSecurity
      Reply Icon

      Re: Does no one realize...

      "I just don't understand all the hate towards the Unity UI."

      I'll give you some. I am not a Linux Guru by any stretch. I'll push linux until the my grave probably, but I'm still primary working with windows. When I first switched to Linux, I tried Ubuntu, Fedora, and even messed with slackware. Ubuntu was by far the quickest for me to grasp from an entire OS standpoint. I could correlate between windows utilities and Linux utilities and operate.

      With the New UI I can't do that. I have no fucking clue how that setup is suppose to be used or designed. When I dropped down in menu in 11.04 I could make the connection "Administrative tasks", "System Tools". Sure if I know the CLI commands or already know the utility I can search but man does it seem that no matter when I dig in that UI its never where I was expecting it to be.

      It appears that Ubuntu wanted you to click applications by opening the unity GUI, but at best it seems like a gloried book mark. If you like it and understand it, kudos, you also probably have more Linux knowledge than I, thankfully I saw Mint on here a while ago and it was my new instant favorite with CentOS as a nice alternate to Redhat and Ubuntu Server.

      2 3
    2. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Does no one realize...

      Unity is a personal thing. I've noticed that younger people often are happy with running one application at a time, full screen. These people can cope with Unity quite well.

      Everybody else, especially those used to *lots* of windows, Unity is a distraction, and not only is the change unwelcome, but the way of working is foreign.

      I know that you can set up multiple windows, and 'pane' them, but the way of controlling the positioning is not as easy as in Gnome.

      On my eeePC 701, I found Unity unusable, mainly because it did not like the small screen, but also because of the lack of graphics power leading to severe lag in updating Dash.

      2 0
  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Patents

    I'd rather see some of the money being used to fight stupid patents of the sort that Amazon supports.

    0 0
  15. ppp.an
    Devil

    Big deal. (Pun intended). Just disable the Lens. I do not begrudge them trying to make some money. Especially when I can disable it. However, I wonder what the non-technical world of users think about this. My parents mayn't even notice, or care.

    4 0
  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    $$$

    Surely this will increase Amazon's revenue beyond proportions. Imagine when all Ubuntu users start shopping on Amazon.

    0 0
  17. Robert Grant
    Linux

    Everyone panic and-oh wait. This is Linux.

    sudo echo "127.0.0.1 amazon.com # I also have root, Mark" >> /etc/hosts

    2 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Everyone panic and-oh wait. This is Linux.

      More effective to kill it in the source, so you can still use Amazon if you want. I'm sure someone will produce a diff and a script to do that pretty quickly.

      0 0
    2. CaptainHook
      Reply Icon

      Re: Everyone panic and-oh wait. This is Linux.

      "sudo echo "127.0.0.1 amazon.com # I also have root, Mark" >> /etc/hosts"

      *****

      That shouldn't work because the requests are going to Canonical first, and then being forwarded. Supposedly with any identifying data removed.

      Trouble is, we have no way to confirm that. There must be some identifying data sent to canonical and we just have to trust it's removed before Amazon see it. Even if the data stream from canonical to Amazon was audited tomorrow and shown no identifying information was forwarded to Amazon, they could flip a switch and send that data the day after tomorrow.

      There would be no way for us to tell the if data is stripped of identifying information except maybe if Amazon screw up and send back ads which are related to you personally rather than just the most recent search results. For example, having an ad based on previous shopping done outside of the Ubuntu installation you are using the seach lens on.

      0 0
  18. paulc
    Mushroom

    abandoned ship when they started pushing Unity on people

    and removing means for changing how desktop customisations worked. When I found I couldn't tell the screensaver to use a different directory for the slideshow images and the gnome developer had a smugger than thou "we know best" attitude when it came to bug reports. Gnome using a registry was also a major fail for me...

    Ran off to Mint Debian with LXDE and rolling updates... none of that praying the update works every six months or finding it was better to wipe and do a fresh install after having a borked upgrade.

    1 1
  19. vpbp

    What about the other 95 per cent?

    Yes - major UI changes can be disruptive, and for us 'tech savvy' Linux users all this stuff may be enough to drive us away to Mint, Fedora or whatever - but we'll still be using some flavour of GNU/Linux, so where's the harm?

    But remember, Linux only accounts for around 5% of users. Maybe Canonical really are doing the right thing with Ubuntu. Maybe it's the other 95% that are the target audience. And when they've learned to appreciate what's on offer, they can move on to other distros if they need to.

    You've got the choice, so use it.

    3 0
  20. MrWibble
    Unhappy

    If the lens was just that, it would be fine (i.e. if I wanted to go shopping, I'd click on the shopping lens and search. Great.).

    However, this puts it into the default home "dash". So everything you try to do on your local machine, will also have an advert for something possibly connected to your "search". So open dash, type in "sound" (to maybe open the sound controls?) and you'll get a load of amazon adverts for headphones, soundcards, and lots of other irrelevant (to the task I was trying to do) shite.

    That's where the problem is to me.

    2 0
  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pray that you don't have any applications called "analytics" (or similar), because it searches amazon whilst you're typing, and may come back with some "interesting" results if you're not quick at typing the letter "y"...

    1 0
  22. Tom 7

    I'm taking my four machines off Ubuntu and off elsewhere

    not because of this but because more and more programs are stopping working with every upgrade.

    Your target audience may be the 95% but you need the 5% to at least consider not swearing when its mentioned.

    0 0
  23. Steve Graham
    Meh

    grep would be better

    Nobody has mentioned that Amazon's search functionality is next to useless anyway. Many a time when I've actually wanted to buy something off them, I've had to resort to a Google search of the site instead.

    As a concrete example, I was interested in a Freeview HD recorder. Amazon came back with over 300 hits, the vast majority being not Freeview, not HD, or not recorders (or none of the above). And there's no way to refine a search.

    Contrast that with eBay, where the item descriptions are mostly written by incompetent members of the public -- yet you can find stuff!

    0 1
  24. FatGerman
    FAIL

    "...because the only way to learn what's not perfect is to have other people - real people - use it."

    This is true. So why not, before dumping yet another load of half-finished shit into a release, spend some real time beta testing it. And then actually fix some of the bugs that get reported. Ubuntu's current strategy is to release a beta about 3 weeks before the release, let about 2 people use it, then release it anyway. This is why fewer and fewer people are using it, because they're utterly beholden to their release schedule, and making things actually work is secondary.

    0 1
  25. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    *shrug*

    *shrug*, as long as it can be turned off I don't care too much. That said, I'm not about to use Unity anyway.

    0 0
  26. BozNZ
    Facepalm

    Anyone using this?

    This is becoming more of a Unity rant, maybe Unity is not to everyones taste but many actually prefer it.

    Linux Mint is a nice Ubuntu derivitive for people who prefer a more traditional desktop, nobodies stopping you from using it but remember not everyone wants command prompts and root access from linux, they just want to write a letter and go on facebook.

    The real issue is amazon search sponsorship integration, this is a beta release and they are planning a kill switch, did anyone read the fucking article!

    2 0

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like