What's supposed to replace menus?

[Ric Moore]

On 03/13/2012 10:46 PM, Pastor JW wrote:
> On Tuesday, March 13, 2012 5:23:56 pm Gerhard Magnus wrote:
>> As a newcomer to Ubuntu 11.10 (from Fedora 14, the last of its line to
>> run without problems) I'm still trying to adjust to the Unity desktop.
>> (By the way, is it correct to call Unity a desktop, equivalent to the
>> old Big Two of Gnome and KDE?) I'm getting more comfortable working with
>> that Mac-like bar at the top of my screen and have installed a
>> familiar-looking taskbar (Panel Tint2) at the bottom so I can easily
>> switch between windows. But the complete absence of menus (except for
>> the short one I get clicking on the upper righthand corner) has me
>> wondering if I'm missing some basic difference between old and new
>> desktops; maybe not as big as a paradigm shift, but still something
>> different about how this sort of interface is supposed to work. Is using
>> some customized version of the panel on the left, or else clicking on
>> the "Dash" button and then typing at least part of the program name
>> supposed to replace familiar menus like "Applications", "Places", and
>> "System"? What was the motivation here for getting rid of menus? I can
>> live without them, but I'd sure like to know why they left in the first
>> place!

Windows appears to be doing the very same thing, so I submit that some 
lawyers threatened a patent dispute and that one of the conditions to 
quietly settle it was that everyone shut up about it. As mad as it has 
made both the Windows and Linux camps, SOMEONE didn't want the negative 
press and the ire of the users, plus the benefit of the users being mad 
at their present distro, instead of who-ever-THEY-are. It fits nicely as 
a possible explanation. I'd point the finger at whoever still has drop 
down menus for their users. Go get 'em.

> I don't know what the motivation was but so far I have lost two of my users
> because of it.  One said, and I quote, "If I have to go through all this crap
> to start a program, I'll just go back to windoze".  So I had to load XP back
> on his computers.  Kinda sucks but I can't blame him.  I doubt I'll get him
> back even after Unity is dumped as he was very upset about it.  I can't think
> of a better way to lose market share than Unity so if that is what is wanted
> they should be very successful.

I have to ask, why didn't you install the XFCE desktop for your user 
instead, to "sin no more", Pastor??

To paraphrase "... I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a 
mustard seed, you can say to this desktop, 'Move from Unity to XFCE' and 
it will move." ... <grins> Ric


-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
http://linuxcounter.net/user/44256.html