(OT) Explain to me again why Unity is so great...

[Tony Pursell]

On Sun, 2011-04-24 at 11:23 +0200, Christoph Bier wrote:
> Alan Pope schrieb am 22.04.2011 23:42:
> 
> > On 22 April 2011 22:27, Zach <zach at zcsmith.com> wrote:
> >> The direction that Linux has always been about choice and you have some
> >> propeller heads at Canonical who have decided that Unity is the way to go
> >> and everything else be damned.
> > 
> > Steady on Zach.
> > 
> > 
> >>  A bit of an exaggeration perhaps but you get
> >> the idea.  I know just about everything in the world of computers has an
> >> expiration date but getting rid of something when it's far from its time to
> >> expire just for the sake of replacing it with some newfangled gadget is
> >> unproductive and in most cases, a poor business practice.
> >>
> > 
> > You (and many others) characterise the change in the desktop to Unity
> > as 'change for changes sake' but that seems to undermine the hard work
> > done by skilled 'propeller heads' as you put it. These people have
> > done some considerable analysis and development work to figure out
> > what actually might be 'better' for the end user. Whilst that's not a
> > utopia, best for everyone, there's certainly an argument that it could
> > actually be a pretty decent desktop.
> 
> [...]
> 
> > You specifically said it's about choice. The choices are there. Take them.
> 
> That's why my Mac is gathering dust in the corner---because Apple
> thinks to know what's best for me. And just in case they were wrong
> I'd like to have choices *within* the environment I'm used to.
> Changing the environment---i.e. swichting to a different Linux
> distribution---is sink or swim and not freedom of choice, IMHO. But
> one of the most important and marvelous aspects of FOSS is
> participation, at least for me.
> 
> Useability is always also a matter of what one is used to. Changing
> a desktop environment in such a radical way it is done with GNOME 3
> and Unity is not user friendly, IMHO. To be honest I'm very
> disappointed by Ubuntu because many Ubuntu users were ignored. About
> seven years ago I switched from Debian to Ubuntu and was very happy
> with this decision. My wife, my father and some friends followed.
> Introducing Unity to them is just ridiculous---they have no need for
> it, neither I do. I'm very glad that I couldn't establish Ubuntu at
> work. At least with 11.10 my boss and colleagues would be
> questioning my sanity ;-). Unity may be a good choice for beginners
> that never used a computer before ...
> 
> Just my 2 cents
> 
> Christoph
> -- 
> +++ Typografie-Regeln (1.7): http://zvisionwelt.de/?page_id=56
> 
> 

Having tried 11.04 beta on a USB stick, and having followed some of the
links previously posted (especially Jorge's) that have told me a lot
about Unity, I think I am going to like it and stick with it.  It will
do all I want (I hope) - and it works well with my low powered ATI
graphics. I'm just wondering if I will still get the odd extra applets
(Invest and Power Manager inhibit) that I have on my top panel.

Where I do agree with Christoph is how it will be viewed by people who
have been converted to Ubuntu because its not that different from
Windows (the French Gendarmarie, perhaps).  Will they feel betrayed by a
new look that seems more aimed at leisure than business?

I'm sure that the Canonical designers think that Unity is a great
productivity tool, but they need to do more that the odd blip.tv video
to convince the world of this.  I found nothing installed to tell me how
to use Unity in the way the video demonstrates. There is no app simply
called 'Unity Configuration'.  There is very little to help new users
(and that will be EVERY Ubuntu user that upgrades to 11.04) to quickly
become fluent Unity users.   If there is, it is well hidden.  Such
information needs to be there to greet new users to Unity - a quick
start guide - a road map - or whatever, that is on the desktop and 'in
your face' when Unity first starts.

That's my 2p.  I won't be going to Debian - tried that and it was a
struggle that Ubuntu saved me from.

Tony