Explain to me again why Unity is so great...

[Todd A. Jacobs]

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Zach <zach at zcsmith.com> wrote:
> it's nothing to write home about.  I realize that I can fall back onto
> "classic" Ubuntu but I've read that starting with 11.10 this may no longer
> be the case as the "classic" Gnome desktop will not be a choice.

In the end, it doesn't matter. Unless Ubuntu deliberately breaks
things or removes packages entirely from the repository, one should
always be able to add pretty much any desktop environment even if it
isn't installed by default. Worst case is you'd have to download your
desktop of choice from a PPA or compile it yourself--or forgo a few
Ubuntuisms and install Debian.

At the end of the day, Ubuntu is a Debian derivative. Except for a few
Ubuntu-specific packages like Ubuntu One and Desktop Webmail, Ubuntu
is just Debian with a different installer and some different
installation defaults. I think Ubuntu *usually* gives a better
out-of-the-box desktop experience than Debian, but your mileage may
vary. Linux is Linux is Linux.

Personally, I have not found much to love about Unity, but can see the
appeal for people who want to maximize screen real estate. I think it
will be popular on touchpads and netbooks, but can't really see any
advantages to it on a desktop system. That said, I don't care if it's
the default; it's easy enough to use Gnome, LXDE, or dwm for that
matter. Linux is all about choice!