First impressions of 11.04

[Thierry de Coulon]

On Tuesday 26 April 2011 10:30:56 pm Knapp wrote:
> I was a very happy Kubuntu user and then came the changes. Kubuntu forced a
> very early kde4 on us and then proceeded to do the same thing with a bunch
> of other software for no good reason that I could see, but I have stuck
> with it. kde 4 has at last become usable. Dolphin still sucks but is usable
> too, as are the rest of the changes.
>
> The REAL problem is that the users jumped ship like rats from a sinking
> ship.
(...)

I don't see this as a problem: they did not accept the change, so they left.
Good decision, considering that after three years you consider only KDE 4 
as "usable" while they "killed" what I consider to have been the best desktop 
environment ever (OS/2's workplace shell is second). This is what the 
customers must learn: their only power is in _not_ using what they don't want 
to use. All those who don't like KDE 4 should stop using it, same with Unity 
or Gnome 3. Then _maybe_ those developpers will consider changing their mind.
You can get KDE 3 back on Ubuntu with Trinity.

>  The keyboards days are numbered. Voice recognition that is really usable is 
only a few  more years off. 

Keyboardless computers are just like the paperless office: they will _never_ 
get through for normal business.

Yes, maybe you can use voice recognition in your room. Try that with 20 people 
talking to their computer in an office! Even _if_ voice recognition was so 
advanced that it could reliably identify it's "owner", there would be no way 
to concentrate. Imagine you're writing a letter to your boss and your 
neighbour is navigating a sex site :)

You'll not find many people who correct on screen, and my student print the 
pdf we give to them. As to the cloud, who would ever have his important 
documents on the net - not only for security, what if the net is down when 
you need them? Would you put your accounting on a Microsoft or Google owned 
server?

i don't believe either voice or handwritiing recognition will ever make it. 
Apple tried handwriting recognition on the Newton almost 20 years ago, Palm 
tried it too, but most modern smartphones got rid of the stylus. Seems it 
tries to come back on the iPad - I predict it will fail and remain a geeky 
fun stuff.

Tablets usually can be used only with one hand. Smaller devices are not suited 
for typing _at all_, so I bet the keyboard is here to stay...  and maybe in a 
few years whoever find this post will say I way completely stupid :) I take 
the risk!

Cheers,

Thierry