back to article No pain, some gain: Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot examined

Ubuntu 11.10, just released as its first beta differs only slightly in its looks from its 11.04 predecessor – a fact that will be welcome news to penguins still reeling from that earlier version's grand re-boot. That earlier release shed GNOME 2.x, ignored GNOME 3.0 and set its brand-new Unity interface as the default. …

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    1. Matt Piechota

      Sidebar

      "Windows has always allowed its taskbar to be dragged to any edge of the screen, but I've never seen anyone move it from the bottom edge - so it's a solution looking for a problem."

      I use it that way right now. Granted, I just started within the last few months, but I was getting sick of having no veritcal resolution. It only makes sense with todays wider and wider screen displays.

      That being said, I used of WindowMaker and Afterstep (set up with one column of buttons along one side of the monitor) for quite awhile. I see to remember running a command to move the Apple dock to the left side of the screen on my housemate's Mac some years ago too.

    2. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Happy

      Sidebar

      I do this with Windows and KDE, but not with Gnome 2. I've done this for years, and also auto-hide it.

  1. Jethro Q. Bunn Whackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot Walrustitty
    Facepalm

    Note to developers

    if ( UNITY == MY_DESKTOP_PC ){

    install_Debian();

    }

  2. D. M
    Linux

    LMDE

    Try it, everything good about Debian, plus everything works out of box, and none of the unity/gnome 3 crap.

    If I want to turn my desktop to a phone interface, I'd use a phone instead desktop. Those "designers" behind unity/gnome 3 must be brain dead.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Desktop Linux

    I guess that since the Unity interface is soo.. much like those on Smartphones this will finally be the year of Linux On The Desktop...

    Not....

    When I read all the discussions on whick Desktop Environment/Window Manager to use it makes me think of two bald guys arguing over a comb.

    How many people actually use *nix on the desktop (outside of El Reg readers)? Very few

    Wise up. Microsoft won the race and Apple got the silver.

    Linux is big on the server side but as for the desktop forget it. Even big projects like Munich failed. Live with it.

    If you want to use a minority/hobbyist DE/WM go ahead but don't expect that anyone in the real world will notice or pay attention.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Why...

    ... are so many supposedly grown-up and tech-savvy people winging and whining like a bunch of spoilt kids?

    Yes, unity threw me for a bit until I got used to it and did a bit of RTFM. I tried pure Gnome 3 too and that was also a culture shock. In the end I decided to stick with Unity. I particularly like the way it minimises the wasted vertical screen resolution on my wide-screen laptop.

    If you don't like Unity, you've got a choice of other desktops and distributions to chose from so stop crowing and move on.

    I've used Puppy Linux a lot too and if you're after a lightweight desktop then it doesn't come much better than that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC

      We are seeing a lot of these posts lately "if you don't like it move on ad shut up"

      Erm no. It's only with people moaning about it that things may change, or alternative distributions can differentiate themselves by doing *WHAT THE USER WANTS* not *what the devs want*

  5. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance

    Linux Noob here...

    Linux Mint 10 Julia was my first introduction to Linux.

    I guess I struck it lucky for once.

    It gave me a thrill and a sense of empowerment that I never

    have got since all those years ago inhaling the wonderful

    world of computers. Now, If I could only figure out

    why it turns my laptop into a frying pan. Some say Katya

    (11) is worse. Get lots of help at the Linux Mint forum. So,

    I'll figure it out soon. Anyone semi-computer-literate would

    have no problems and would revel in the experience, I should

    imagine. Plus there is the Xfce, Debian and original flavours

    to choose from. My first distro. I shan't be looking

    elsewhere for a while. Solving the over heating issue

    has given me a good project to delve deeper into the mighty

    Penguin world. Finally, I get what all the fuss is about.

    Now, If I could just figure out how to post a message at El Reg

    without the super-imposed double-spacing.....

    I may be gone for some time................

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Joining the chorus...

    Xubuntu!

    Unity is the worst mistake Canonical have made with Ubuntu, bar none.

    If it weren't for the Xubuntu distribution , I'd switch back to Debian in a heartbeat.

  7. Kurgan
    FAIL

    So Debian it is...

    I have always run Debian on servers, and I have run Ubuntu on my desktop since 6.04 if I remember correctly. Now, given the fact that EVERY new interface looks like Barbie's kid computer, it's time to switch to Debian also on the desktop. Maybe I'll look at KDE4, but it's time do say bye bye to Ubuntu anyway, I don't like its philosophy any more.

    I'd need an EXTRA-FAIL icon...

  8. John Sanders
    WTF?

    So, unity madnes continues...

    XFCE then thanks.

  9. Martin
    FAIL

    Invisible scrolling - URGH.

    For me, the major annoyance introduced at 11.04 wasn't Unity (I tried it, didn't like it and switched back to Classic). It was those damn invisible scroll bars. To scroll a window up and down, you hover over where you think a scroll bar should be and it appears. Sometimes. And on at least two applications I know, you try to click on it to scroll down - and it promptly vanished.

    And they are there in XFCE, Gnome or Unity.

    Yes, I found out how to revert to normal ones. You have to do a command line hack.

    FFS. Scroll bars have worked for twenty years or more. Why change them just for the sake of it?

    1. ed 8
      Stop

      But

      Back when scroll bars were invented not everyone had a mouse wheel, Its pretty rare that i reach over for a scroll bar to do some actuall scrolling these days.

      Obsolete clutter ... get rid!

      There is a lot of "ew change is scary i dont like it" in this thread today.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        And I use them almost constantly as mouse scrolling is often too slow for the things I am doing.

        Useful clutter.... keep!

  10. D. M
    Coat

    I don't think develpers want to f*ck up perfectly good UI

    I believe the madness was caused by a few individuals (who are in position to push their ideas). Normally, developers don't want to break things that work, just for the sack of something new.

    As "Do what users want", Linux Mint is your best bet..

  11. Albert
    Linux

    Not too bothered - so sticking with Unity

    I have 10.04 on a notebook and 11.04 on a different notebook.

    I can use both and once I'm in an application which is where i do my real work the desktop doesn't matter.

    I have to click on something to launch the app, but that's about it.

    So, I'm sticking with Unity because I'm not that bothered and actually looking forward to seeing how 11.10 makes it better because that's my main take away from this article is that 11.10 makes Unity better.

  12. nederlander
    Trollface

    When I were a lad...

    we chiselled our calculations on rock with our teeth. Unity makes things easy and beautiful. Bloody outrageous!

  13. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    @phlashbios, out of the box? Really? Or did you get a Win7 install that is customized for that machine and preloaded with it's drivers? In general, I haven't had great luck shoving a Windows disk into a box and having everything just work. XP of course is a disaster since even with later service packs they didn't add any actual driver support for newer stuff. Win7, a lot better but still tends to miss drivers, and of course for older hardware they just don't exist. Anyway, yeah, Ubuntu (and Linux in general) support *most* wireless cards out of the box, but it's a bitch when it doesn't. Probably ndiswrapper is the quickest and easiest solution.

    @James Hughes 1, it's there. Unity's performance in 11.04 isn't *that* bad, and if you have some high-powered box meant to run bloat like Win7 probably not noticeable at all. But, it is slower (i.e. more bloaty) than it should be, which apparently 11.10 addresses.

  14. DrXym

    Lots of issues to sort out

    I've been messing around with Oneiric for a couple of days now and it's still pretty flakey. Processes drop like flies, the bug reporting system constantly crashes and there are still annoyances in Unity which weren't addressed at all in this release.

    Biggest annoyance for me is the Ubuntu icon ALWAYS resets to the first page even if I want to see my apps every time, and it doesn't dismiss properly when I click away from it. Other annoyances carry over from the last release such as why is this sodding Ubuntu panel is eating up 1/3 of the screen space to recommend me apps from the store? I don't care about apps from the store. Why can't that crap be on its own tab where I don't have to see it?

    I do think Unity is better though than it was and almost tolerable. I sure as hell hope they resolve these crashers though. As it's a beta I'll let them off on those points.

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