[ubuntu-za] Stop the Anti-Unity / Gnome 3 FUD!

[Werner Roets]

On 22/12/2011 16:28, Peter Nel wrote:
>> With the Upgrade to 11.10, I would recommend 10.04.  Seriously.  I have
>> "upgraded" several machines and than reinstalled to take them back to
>> 10.04 for lots of people.  Gnome 3 is broken, both in design, and in
>> stability.  (Unless you have that one exact system that is also owned by
>> a developer, but it is still broken in design)
>>
>>                         Lee
> Lee,
>
> It's opinionated comments like that that creates fear (uncertainty,
> and doubt) in the minds of less experienced users whom we are supposed
> to guide into adoption.
>
> Recommending degrading to 10.04 is a short term "solution" at best,
> and is irresponsible. It's already 3x releases old. The next one,
> 12.04 is the next LTS, and Canonical will be discontinuing support for
> 10.04 in the near future... Are YOU going to support them then? Or
> what, are you going to tell them to migrate to Linux Mint, that with
> Mint 12 (Lisa) has also seen the sense of going over to Gnome3 (it's
> supposed "edge" over Ubuntu having been Gnome 2!), or perhaps some
> other less-supported desktop?
>
> You have the right to your opinion but don't sell it as fact, or
> impose it on impressionable people who may take your word as
> authoritative on the subject.
> There are many (apparently the majority according to recent polls) old
> and new users that like Unity and/or Gnome3.
>
> Certain people find it hard to adapt I find, more due to old habits
> than the new paradigm being inferior in design or concept.
>
> Regards
Hi guys,

The linux desktop has moved on from gnome 2, it's time to accept that. 
Downgrading to older versions of Ubuntu is not a wise choice because as 
Peter mentioned it won't be supported for much longer.

I've been using 11.10 since release and although I found it a bit 
difficult to adapt at first, I decided to take an objective viewpoint on 
the work flow Unity gives you. If you give the system a chance you'll 
notice that you can find pretty much anything you need using the dash 
and that is accessible in a single click or by pressing the Super key. 
If you know what the file or application is called you will be able to 
find the file almost instantly. Also note that the search will check 
meta tags for music (and probably photos and videos too). You can cue a 
song in banshee simply by doing SUPER + string + enter (providing the 
song you want is the first item in the dash list or you will have to use 
the mouse or arrow keys). The same method can be used to open any file 
or application even those that aren't installed via a package manager 
(if you can remember the name of the binary).

This is a very unfamiliar but almost perfect way of using a keyboard / 
mouse equipped computer. Some of us can't remember so well and that's 
why there are easy to use and well organised menus in the dash. The 
launcher is of course basically just the latest version of the NeXtSTEP 
dock. This concept was obviously made famous by OS X's dock. For the 
fast majority of people who can't remember the name of a program, a 
picture is helpful and that's all a dock really is. It's just a bunch of 
little icons to launch programs. Why is it better than gnome2/windows 
style program switching? The dock is application-centric not 
window-centric. Windows 7 has grouping to try and fix that problem 
without alienating any of it's user base.

The difference is that linux is where cutting edge stuff gets right out 
for people to try and it's normally designed to be good, not to be 
familiar. Unity is sloppy, a little buggy and the lack of customisation 
is quite terrible. I use Komodo Edit for PHP programming and I 
constantly awaken the stupid thing when
switching files (as they are on the left). The launcher's delay for 
popping out should be slightly longer by default and should be 
adjustable. The launcher, in my opinion would also do much better at the 
bottom as the launcher hides itself so well, screen-space isn't really a 
factor. Did I mention the extra screen space that the new title/menu bar 
combination gives you? That screen space is truly golden for people on a 
laptop.

Unity needs some refinement but I'd love it if people stuck with Ubuntu 
because they've brought us this far. If you find that Ubuntu is somehow 
insulting your intelligence because it's so easy to use, I'd recommend 
being a big boy and getting hold of Arch Linux or Slackware.

Regards

Werner 'Cobolt' Roets

P.S Mint 12 is good too but i disabled most of the plugins because 
Gnome3 is better vanilla if your mind is open enough!