Unity: 3 Rants And A Tip
Shawn rants a bit about Ubuntu's new Unity interface, and gives us a couple tips on how to adjust.
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Comments
Nautilus-Action - Unity3D Desktop
I have managed to get Nautilus-Action working with Unity3D Desktop - it required a compile of the 3.1.2 source and a process to convert the gconf stored menu item - very happy now.
Basically I am very pleased with the overall result. There a wave of excellent App Indicators coming thru and these are really adding to the overall experience. I agree its a WIP but at the rate new apps are being added 11.10 will be excellent.
I did not like Unity
I did not like Unity either.
I'd prefer a side taskbar only, but with rapid menus like Gnome.
Sided taskbar would be nice because most documents are portrait formatted. Bars on the top or the bottom of the display reduce the visible area of the document, while are a lot of space unused on both sides. Why do not put task and/or menu bars on the side?
Unity and Ubuntu
I couldn't agree more with 'Shawn Powers' and his video on 'Unity'. It is slow to navigate especially when multitasking. I also prefer the bar at the top but I also use 'Docky' at the bottom with 'intellihide'. My Docky menu includes all of the most highly used items I use in hierarchical order from left to right. (i.e. Browser, E-mail, k3b, terminal etc.etc.)At the top of the screen is where I place and use desktop switcher using Compiz cube, for visual effect but it also is quicker at the top for changing sides if more than one program is open as I usually use it this way when doing photographic manipulation, touch-ups etc. and need to quickly switch from one program to another. I've used 'Unity' for about 2 weeks and it is just poorly thought-out and configured IMHO. My other peeve is Gnome 3 which I also used for a short period of time in 'OpenSuse' and 'Fedora' and it too is poorly organized and just plain ugly. The icons were way too big. Workspaces on the right side margin is just awful. It seems to me little though has go into both of these hurriedly designed program shells.
Unity and Ubuntu
One other point I forgot to make is that the mouse is by far a superior means when navigating screens than using keyboard scripts and key combinations when moving about doing different tasks on the screen. It only requires the use of one hand and not both.
With all of the packages out there such as Compiz, Dockey, minimizie and maximize buttons etc. It seems to me a better approach to this whole mess would have been to in cooperate these features into 'Unity' because
(1) they are available and provide some flexibility
(2) Workspace is no different to me with bar at the top and Docky with intellhide at the bottom. Left side menu launcher offers no advantage over 'Docky' with intellihide at the bottom of the screen.
(3) Forget the keyboard shortcuts and concentrate on just the mouse which is by far faster and only needs one hand to use.
Some positive thoughts...
I'm liking Unity - even though it has some performance flaws (it binds vim) that I'm sure will get worked out soon enough. I use the computer for advanced 3d modeling and high-end web programming. The web programming I do forces the need for many windows to be open - and that's in addition to the many buffers that I have open within vim. So, whereas Shawn wants his "launchers" in his 24px high bar across the top or easier access to the preferences and system folders (I get that one.), I am much more interested in handling the many windows that are already open - as they will be open for days on end and THAT is where all my work is occurring. The "Windows" button now launches a quick desktop "wall" where I can drag my windows into position. Better yet, I can see how many Firefox windows I have open by looking at the icons - and then clicking on that icon gives me an immediate view of all those windows regardless of which panel they are on. That's a very nice help. That means I can go from one FF browser in one panel to another one in an entirely different panel in one button and one click. Nice. that holds true with all programs that are launched. Put your Banshee music player on the fourth panel and when you want it simply scroll over to the left side to get the icon display, click the icon and the panel flips to the open gui for that app. That's nice, people. That's one click.
Keyboard shortcuts are very nice. Remember, linux has it's roots in software programming and programmers don't like to move their hands away from the keyboard as it takes time to reset their fingers back onto the home row for typing. The popularity of VIM is all about this phenomenon, even enabling all sorts of mouse actions to be done with special keystrokes that are accessed through different modes that the keyboard can be placed (mode) into. The fact that you've got to (usually) use the mouse to activate another another app is frustrating enough that some people install apps that over-ride the mouse! So, playing games and using the mouse is a relatively new thing - especially for Linux.
I still like Gnome and would resist not having it. But if Unity helps to bring more "Windows" and "Mac" users to Linux then I say so much the better. What we really need here people is more main stream apps that are built on the Linux kernel. Let Adobe Photoshop sell a suite for Linux - for those unwilling to learn the free software of Gimp (for example). Let Dassault Systems build a Solidworks or Catia for the Linux kernel. The open-source community can only benefit when it becomes so popular that it drives the investment of money in order to play in our world. The only reason Linux is not dominating the PC market is because it needs to look more like a MAC or Windows 7. "LOOK" is the operative word, people. The system is so much more stable and safe it is ridiculous. If Unity gets us more conversions towards that "safer world" then I'll give in a bit and simply work around the "graphics" in order to recruit more to our side.
If I were Microsoft I would be very concerned right now. Ubuntu's stability is motivating the hardware people to align themselves with Linux systems in order to improve user satisfaction by way of stable systems that are getting more inter-connected. The Internet Explorer browser has been exposed as a hack job made to placate untalented programmers by getting them addicted to MS. I believe it's now 80% of the world's web pages are served on a *nix based OS. Google is a Linux powerhouse. Ubuntu sees the same writing on the wall as Microsoft and they are reaching for the novice-pc dagger (Unity) to bring the lion (Microsoft) down. Gaining hardware manufacturer support happens just before more software developer support. What we really need is a way to get linux software app programmers some money for their time. I hope you guys are "donating" when and where you can.
unity has it's problems but it isn't so bad.
like you said if you're just using the mouse then unity's dash is annoying. if you're just using your keyboard it's really not bad at all.
also, i haven't looked too hard but i'm not sure if there's a way to add things that you've installed from source code into the stuff that appears in and can be searched for using the dash. you can make your own .desktop files to add them into the launcher though so at least there's that.
i don't know if the launcher did this when you made the video but it auto hides when you move an active window over that space and you can shrink it's size down if you install ccsm. just don't mess with any compiz settings outside of the unity add-on or it will likely spaz out on you.
the thing i like most about unity is being able to add right click quick lists to the different launcher icons by editing the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications/ or by making new ones. i made my own for nautilus that had all the basic home folders (documents, music, downloads, etc) as well as a gksu nautilus option.
what i hate most about unity is the top bar. i really hate the global menus, not being able to auto hide the bar and the way that anytime i maximize a window the close/min/max buttons are stolen away the left side of the bar even if my window theme has the buttons on the right side.
if i could just replace that top bar with a gnome panel i'd be fine with unity but that top bar is dangerously close to being a deal breaker for me. i have disabled the global menus though a method in an article someone has linked to already.
my gnome setup was actually pretty close to unity's setup just not as obviously there as unity is to start with. i had a gnome panel up top and on the left with quick launch icons. biggest diference is that neither gnome panels were set to extend across the screen and both were set to auto hide.
Unity and Ubuntu
I prefer spending time learning how to use the programs that I accomplish my work with more efficiently. The OS and the Desktop should allow me to launch programs quickly and run them without crashing. How about MORE attention on fixing bugs, some of which I find unresolved with complaints dating back to Ubuntu version 6.06 or earlier?
Is KDE going to go the Unity route also? If not would it be a good choice Desktop in place of Gnome/Unity?
The new scrollbar was another problem that required returning to normal, not to mention Firefox changes that had to be restored.
Unity - its a journey to another place
Firstly everyone is right on this - we have the advantage of some new and exciting software that will be developed and shaped by the community and if you and enough people don't like it you can change it or select another dist that suites.
That said - I have been testing unity since Alpha 3 - and I agree its a bit different. I really love Nautilus-Actions - and they are missing from the right click context menu - have filed a bug on that - no movement on that - maybe they have been busy (:.
The Super key is fine - I can use that now and there are all kinds of add-ons coming out that are extending the dock and the panel.
Where Unity and I assume Gnome 3 (maybe) will 'shine' is with new younger users and older folk. I have seen older family members struggling with the traditional desktop format small icons and text and it is terrible. They have no idea where to find things and have difficulty reading the screens. Having the menu in the one place makes the user experience consistent for these guys and gals, "its on the top panel, the black bar at the top of the screen".
My experience of Unity on a
My experience of Unity on a netbook was really fine.
After upgrading my "desktop" (actually, a powerful notebook), dual monitor machine to 11.04, my Unity experience lasted less than an hour. I switched to Gnome (classic).
Some tweaks:
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/things-to-tweak-fix-after-installing.html
Upgraded to 11.04 and Unity
Upgraded to 11.04 and Unity yesterday.
My setup was exactly the same as Shawn's (except the taskbar was at the bottom, a la Windows). This is the one thing Windows beats OSX on, and the flexibility Gnome allowed in replicating this set up was a really good thing.
Frankly, Unity is fucking nonsense. What is it with all this reveal on hover stuff? It is a usability nightmare if you use a mouse and click on things (i.e. like 99% of the world).
My other big issue with it is that right click does nothing a lot of the time; so, if I right click on the launcher — nothing! I can't move it, modify it or anything.
How is the launcher saving space? It's huge!
Even XP allowed you to hide the taskbar, but people don't do this because they like to know where things are *all the time*. In Unity, there is no choice at all; it's always hidden until you hit the left edge of the screen.
Close/minimise/maximise buttons are not even in a corner.
Really, really poor. And I don't understand the thinking behind it at all.
Agree 100%
The Unity Launcher has to be one of the most unfriendly of all. Yes, you can minimally customize it, but it's ugly, big, and can really get in the way. Yesterday, while using Firefox, I moused over toward the location of the launcher (not really on it), while it was hidden behind Firefox. Suddenly, the bar came out on top of the window, and I couldn't do anything to get rid of it. I tried opening several other applications, and the launcher held its position over the open application windows in every case. Restarting the computer returned it to normal (hidden under the app window), but once again, it poked out over the window while I was using Firefox and, once again, I couldn't get rid of it without a restart.
I've been an AWN user, as I got used to using a dock running RocketDock on Windows. AWN is much more stable, can be customized out the ass, and looks good, too. The Unity Launcher seems like a half-baked attempt to re-invent the wheel.
Why Unity is better than Gnome 2
What I discovered in the years of trying to find an answer to the question: Why should Windows users try Linux? I found that the only thing an OS does (in a fancy way) is launch and run applications. The saying: "It's the apps, stupid" is very much true.
People like what they are USED to. Therefore everyone who is USED to Gnome 2 will like it more than Unity. It takes effort to learn a new User Interface. Even if the changes are small. This is the reason that Windows users are not switching to Linux. They know how to use Windows and it works for them. So if it works; why change?
But sometimes change is for the better. Hardware is evolving and is graphically more capable. Why not use this graphical power to create an interface that is attractive to use? This year Linux has changed. With KDE 4, Gnome 3 and Unity, Linux is once again competitive with Windows 7 and Mac OSX. And it's all about launching and using applications.
1) The most important improvement is that KDE 4, Gnome 3 and Unity are now able to search for applications. This saves a lot of time.
2) Another important improvement with KDE 4, Gnome 3 and Unity is the ability to 'tile' windows.
3) An advantage of Unity is that it saves horizontal screen real estate.
All in all, Unity and Gnome 3 are improvements. But they are also changes to your current workflow. So if you are not ready yet... keep using Gnome 2. It works, so why change?
But to everyone who prevers Gnome 2 over Unity and who has 'blamed' Windows users that they are afraid of change, look in the mirror.
Best regards,
Martin
I'm 0kay with it
I've taken some of the design changes in Unity, and brought them back to GNOME2. It's worked out well.
- Shawn's "OMG where are my application menus?" was a feature in GNOME2 for a long time: 'wajig install indicator-applet-appmenu', 'pkill -HUP gnome-panel' to make sure GNOME notices the new applet, and then add to one of your (horizontal) panels "Indicator Applet Appmenu".
- The dock/launcher thing on the side can be a vertical gnome panel. Put some application launchers on it, and add the applet "window list."
- the Unity "dash" (which Shawn is weirded out about most of all) is just Gnome-Do with additional eye-candy; the same Gnome-Do that was praised as a big improvement in interface design... though Gnome-Do is themeable, I don't yet whether Unity's dash can have it's appearance changed.
There isn't anything in Unity that we haven't already had at our disposal when using in GNOME2 nor KDE.
After griping like an old fishwife in the Ubuntu Forums with the usual "how do I do X in Unity?" questions, someone waved this collection of Unity guides and HOWTOs under my nose, and I've been parusing it: http://castrojo.tumblr.com/post/4795149014/the-power-users-guide-to-unity
from a windows7 user
I don't understand why some people compare the Unity interface to Windows 7. They got (almost) nothing in common. The Windows bottom bar, in addition to the pinning feature, also includes the clock/calendar/etc. features. So, both the left bar and the top bar in Unity exist in one single bar in Win7. Also, Win7 bar got the button for app launch (like classic desktop) plus the search (like the Unity dash).
I gotta tell you, coming from Win7 to Unity was not at all a super smooth experience like some of the people here claimed and I don't think they designed Unity with this in mind.
From my POV, having the left bar on autohide is not so productive. I work in the automotive SW business and any colleague of mine who ever had the intention of using an auto hide bar gave up on it. Having the bar visible makes the app switching much faster. The 30-40px are irrelevant. You don't just open 10 apps and remember the keyboard shortcut to it. You alternate the apps alot, they get closed, then reopened, they change order... you need to see them to be able to switch between them fast.
And my answer to the guys complaining about people complaining and telling them to switch distro or DE: stop trolling please. Legit claims about things people don't like are not supposed to be replied with "switch distro!". Maybe someday when half the user base of some product you make walk away from you without saying anything, you will want them to have said something beforehand.
I used to feel the same way
I used to feel the same way but then I saw these videos from Jorge Castro
How I multitask in Unity
How I use the Unity Dash
and they practically convinced me to give Unity a try. In Unity you don't move around like on Gnome, you have to think a little different.
These videos show a different type of use
If you are a point and click user, I can see where Unity would suck beyond the 10 apps you dock.
OTOH, if you check out those videos, you will see a power user on Unity. It got me excited enough to load it into a VM, get 3D-Accel working and try it for 30 minutes.
No more stupid mousing. It has keyboard shortcuts that actually make sense.
Is it perfect? Definitely not. I dislike that the dock/launcher thingy doesn't let me control whether a new instance or the old instance is displayed. I don't like most of the default apps shipped either, but a few of them ok, only gwibber, firefox and LibreOffice, I actually use.
Use the super-key (Windows-key) to make your life easy. My main keyboard doesn't have that key (IBM 101M from the late 1980s), but I'm hopeful I'll be able to select a different "super" key, perhaps the CapsLock?
I just found how to change the setting to have the window focus follow the mouse. Wonder if that will screw other things up.
Unity is worth a few days of trial for anyone, but especially power users.
Power Users
Power users can exist with most GUIs for Linux. It seems that Unity, in its current state, is only reasonable for those that have minimised their mouse usage with a list of short-cut key combinations. The same efficiency can be accomplished with Gnome+hotkeys. Decreasing the number of point-click-engineers that can use the GUI effectively is not an improvement IMO. My parents use Gnome and love it. They will have no idea what to do with Unity, especially with a lack of submenu navigation.
Unity is not for me yet...
I agree with Shawn on all points in this video. The side bar definitely needs an off switch and the menus need more function. I'm sticking with Gnome until unity sucks less. Now I know what KDE folks went through when KDE4 came out.
I agree, for the moment I'm
I agree, for the moment I'm granting it the benefit of the doubt and I'm trying to give it a chance.
I believe the keyboard shortcuts are the way to go with Unity. BTW the sidebar disappears if a window is nearby or if it's maximized, you can make it appear again if you hold the Super key.
How can you not know what application you want to start?
As you state @2:50.
I'm Forgetful
If I don't see an application's name every day, I often forget its title. I'll know I want to edit a video, but might forget the video editor is named pitivi, or kdenlive. If I have a menu, I can go to the "video" submenu and see the installed apps in that category. With Unity, it takes several non-intuitive (for me) clicks to get there.
Shawn Powers is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel, or Twitter
Doing More
I have the same problem remembering program names. Perhaps the answer is to do more stuff with more stuff more often so we can remember the names of all that stuff.
Unity
I like it. It has a few advantages and doesn't seem to have any drawbacks. The docky on the side is very cool. It disappears when not in use and if you want to switch to something running in the background then just move the cursor to the docky area and it bounces out and has small white arrows beside programs that are running. You can drag and drop to customize docky or right click to get to a lot of files very easily. (Good Tips) I haven't seen the downside to this upgrade except compiz doesn't work...yet. I think everyone needs appreciate the hard work that went into this and not fear change. I love firefox 4 also. I was hesitant to upgrade but glad I did now. :~)
Some good and some less than good
I have found the top bar (panel) to be confusing with respect to the individual menus. Like Shawn, that is one of my annoyances with mac os.
Also, the fact that the menu is not visible until you put your mouse over it, baffles me too. Just curious, how does a touch device access that menu, or how does one even know that the menu is there?
I am running this in a virtual box, so some of the controls (including the top panel) don't look right. I don't know if that is impacting some of the apps or not, but when I open libre office writer, the menu actually stays with the app and not on the top panel. But firefox, terminal and others, the menu goes on the panel. That is really confusing and inconsistent to me.
When two or more apps are full screen, I think the average "windows" user might have a hard time going from one app to the other (at first). Many may not know alt-tab, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that if you move your mouse over to the left, the launcher comes back and you can select the apps from there.
With Firefox, I can right click the launcher button and get a new window. With terminal, I can't right click and get a new terminal window. What?
How do I open multiple terminals? I have to use the terminal menu? Or use the ubuntu button and find the terminal app and launch another?
In most cases, I like the whatever you call it when you click the ubuntu button or push the super key. Typing an app works pretty well, assuming you know what you are typing for. I also like that you can navigate reasonably well with the cursor keys.
When you click the launcher button labelled "Applications" a similar window opens up where you can select apps to launch. I like that, but for some reason, it took me forever to find the small text that reads "See 74 more results". I could not figure out how to truly see all my applications.
I like the placement of the launcher on the left side since most screens are of a nice wide format these days.
A lot of times, maybe it's a vbox thing, when at least one app is in full screen, the left hand launcher hides while my mouse is hovered over it. Not every time, but often enough. For example, libre calc is open full screen and I click on the button in the launcher to bring it to the front. Then I mouse over to the left again, and the launcher comes up. I mouse over firefox and the launcher hides. No tool tip or anything.
I hate the min/max/close buttons being on the left. That's not new with this release, though :)
I think there is some promise, and I look forward to comparing it to gnome3. Hell, at least Unity will run in vbox! I can't even get gnome3 to run in vbox.
It seems like too many options...
First of all. I'm not against the multitude of anything ;-)
But I do agree with "The ESR comment" and also, sometimes more options doesn't means better options. The large variety of graphical interfaces as Gnome, KDE, among others on Linux world, on one side is welcomed since you have options. But it remember me how difficult is to chose a pasta's dich in my favorite pasta restaurant's in town. Yes, instead of they only serve pasta, you realize that they have so many option at the Menu... It become a hard choice.
Just a thought: At some point in the development cycle of Linux, might be opportune to unify (like we have at Kernel level) the graphical environment. Something like to join the efforts from the several developer in order to create a unique graphical "CORE". I know it can sounds a little crazy idea at first.
But this joint could give us a simpler(and optimized code) and an universal environment. From this point each developer could offer their own extra enhancements, visual effects, flavors and so on, as extra packages allowing people to differentiates and turn the desktops adherents for the work and the machine utilization.
Regards,
What about Gnome3?
Shawn,
I am interested to know what your opinion is concerning Gnome3. If you need something to test it with I would suggest the Fedora LiveCD from the Gnome3 website. It performed better for me than the openSUSE LiveCD.
-Jason
Unity
It is interesting that my setup is identical to yours. I've customized the desktop so that I have one panel at the top that contains everything I want it to contain. And my rants about Unity are also the same as yours. It was deja vu watching your video.
I'd like to continue with Ubuntu, but it seems that the distro is no longer intended for users who don't want to follow the default path. I'll stick with Ubuntu 10.04 until I have time to look into the alternatives that have been suggested here and elsewhere. Then I'll switch to something that doesn't restrict me to one setup. Goodbye Ubuntu. It was great while it lasted.
Tried it and like it
I have been using Ubuntu 11.04 since the last beta on my netbook. I was going to give Ubuntu one last try before sticking with Lubuntu or moving to a certain rolling release debian distro. I actually like it. No crashes yet. I haven't learned all the tricks, but It doesn't get in my way at all. My wife picked up my netbook a couple of days ago-she normally runs an XP netbook-no problems finding and launching applications. Puzzling as I have been using ubuntu since Hoary Hedgehog and I was flummoxed initially because Unity was different.
Also, power use way down, hibernate works perfectly compared to what I used previously. Can't wait for the 2d version to try on my old desktop.
no dash
Shawn thanks for the video. I too am completely befuddled with Unity Dash and Launcher. Let's hope Mr. Shuttleworth has a rethink before completely ditching Gnome. It would be a great disservice to the wonderful things he's done with Ubuntu.
touch interface
One area where Unity seems to be better than the classic menu is with touch/tablet displays. The bigger icons are easier to hit with your index finger out of the box and w/out calibrating. Otherwise, the cursor seems to be just slightly off from where my finger is actually on the display. For the bigger unity icons this isn't a problem but with smaller menus and the close button on windows it can be hard to hit. Using a digitizer solves this problem, but for those w/out pen support, Unity could be helpful.
I do agree that the File, Edit, ect menus are rather annoying being placed along the top bar.
Some points about where unity is aimed (I suppose)
Disclaimer: Canonical employee here, but not working on unity.
The menu at the top bar: it's far from the window. Yet it's faster to get there than to the menu bar on the window. It's called Fitt's law, and it has been tested the right way, by having people do it and measure how fast they do it.
Also, since the window now has no menu, you just gained some 24/30 px in height. Considering the vertical size in pixels of the average screen has not increased in 10 years (I had 1024x768 in 2000, I have 1366x768 now!), that is *very* important. Also the reason to lose the bottom bar. Also the reason to merge the window decorations with the top bar when maximizing.
All that leads to much better usage of precious vertical screen real estate.
That we have wider screens is also the rationale for putting the dock on the left edge. One thing you may not have noticed is that if you maximize a window, the dock goes away. So, basically the dock is using lots of space, maybe, but only if your windows are not using it.
As for the search interface being the default instead of the menu... it's a taste thing. I have not actually clicked on the apps menu in maybe 6 or 7 years, using ALT+F2 in KDE or GNOME instead.
So, I think there are reasonable answers to your gripes, which of course you may decide are not enough to tip the scales, but it's not exactly madness ;-)
> The menu at the top bar:
> The menu at the top bar: it's far from the window. Yet it's faster to get there than to the menu bar on the window. It's called Fitt's law, and it has been tested the right way, by having people do it and measure how fast they do it.
Share the data with us. Also share the data on the systems they tested with. Quite frankly, I've never, ever found this set up better on anything larger than a single 1680x1050 monitor.
I've just been using unity on a dual 30" monitor setup, and I have to say this layout is definitely slower, and quite irritating. I've switched back to the gnome interface, and perhaps I'm just a freak of nature, but it's far easier for me to move a short distance and correct than it is for me to move alllllllllllllllll the way up and over to where the menus are and click. I'm aware of Fitt's law, but remember the distance you have to travel is a factor (big one) too. I may be uncommon in my set up, but this change is something I find very disappointing and irritating, and slows my workflow considerably. I'll have to find another distro to work with from now on.
so clicking on alt-f2 then
so clicking on alt-f2 then typing in the name of a program to launch is faster than moving the mouse over to the applications menu and mousing over to the application you wish to start? I don't think so.
Unity (and gnome3 shell) are a response to tablet computing. This isn't a good desktop and mouse interface. This is why there are menus on the left (unity launcher) and menus on the right (the lense menu) and why applications appear as large icons in the middle (like a smartphone).
Unfortunately tablets are not the majority of users of linux (or ubuntu) for that matter, hence the strong negative response to it.
I'd like someone to tell me how I can drag a window from one desktop to another. and how to switch easily from desktop 1 to desktop 3. I used to be able to just click on the destkop switcher and do that in less than a second. Now I have to scroll the unity launcher click on the icon for the switcher, then the desktops appear then I have to click on the desktop (double click) and finally get the desktop I want. That is not good usability.
Thanks for the comment. My
Thanks for the comment. My biggest complaint is indeed the menu/dash thing. I agree it's a taste issue. I just wish Canonical hadn't taken away the choice there. It seems as though it would be trivial to allow even rudimentary Unity options.
I think with the ability to configure things to my liking, I'd feel like more of an owner of my desktop. This release feels like Canonical has scolded me for using my computer in a way other than "The One True Way" in the past. Now, if I want to keep using Ubuntu, I have to do it the Unity way. It may be nicer for new users (I'm not convinced, but I'm willing to admit I don't know), but what about the geeky among us?
I didn't like the "Me Menu", but I could remove it. I don't like Empathy, Evolution, or Gwibber, but I can remove them. I don't like the "dash" with Unity, but my only option is to boot into the mostly-working classic mode, which will be eliminated in the next release.
Thus my friendly rant. I truly do appreciate your rational answers, hopefully some of my concerns will make it to the right people. :)
Shawn Powers is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel, or Twitter
I understand the feeling...
... after all I was until recently a user of Arch Linux! Heck, I was a KDE developer! (in the prehistoric age when Qt was not free software, too!) We *loved* options!
Mostly these are matters of taste, as we both agreed, and right now there is something interesting going on at Ubuntu that I have not seen before. There is *a* taste that is being used to decide how things are done, and which things get implemented.
Sadly, it's not mine (or you would all be using green/blue desktops running openbox and tint2), but it is one, and I am very curious to see where this goes. That decision to go along one specific, clearly chosen design path, has always been the norm in the proprietary world, but was never the case on FLOSS (unless you count E17, I suppose).
I find it a fun experiment.
I am sure lots of people at Canonical are subscribed to the LJ RSS feed, so I am sure you will get responses from them at a more civilized hour ;-)
Unity was originally designed
Unity was originally designed for netbooks, but I think it was a really bad move from Canonical to set it the default for Desktop edition. I personally might abandon Ubuntu altogether if they stop supporting Gnome.
Re: Unity: 3 Rants And A Tip
I'm not surprised at your take about Unity on Natty. I'm not planning to use Unity.
I'm running a business and need to get my normal chores done w/o a new learning curve and wasting time finding my files. Business is tough enough already in today's economy w/o these new wrinkles.
My plan is to stay with Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop LTS until H... Freezes Over in the 18-mo. cycle. Then I'll probably install Ubuntu 10.04 Server LTS, install Gnome 2.? Desktop and related needed software, get all the updates and then disconnect from the Internet. That should take me through the 5-year server cycle with the 10.04 series.
Linux Mint on another computer should be okay for e-mail and web browsing with a Gnome desktop. Perhaps that'll work for my other software as well.
Perhaps by then Gnome 3.? will have the normal feature back on the panels, the minimize buttons, Applications, Places, System, etc. I regularly use w/o the Unity craziness.
move the menu to the application
http://www.flynsarmy.com/2011/04/how-to-move-app-menus-back-into-their-w...
Like it or not ... your choice
If you like Unity, great! Enjoy.
If you don't, I gotta ask, why do you care so much about a GUI when you can pick 50+ others easily? I've never understood why Linux users put up with the bloat of either KDE or Gnome all these years. There are other OSes if you like bloat after all. **Any** window manager will launch apps for you. I'm still confused about what these "OEs" add for all the bloat they demand.
Come over for a visit with Lubuntu. The water is fine, actually it is very nice. Less bloat, more of why you like Linux. Customize as much as you like - easily. Lubuntu 10.04 is snappy on a Pentium4 with 1GB of RAM. My 81 yr old mother likes it. She found the migration from XP easier than to Win7.
If you need something lighter, check our TinyCore - you'd be hard pressed to find anything lighter. It makes DSL and Puppy look like huge oil tankers in comparison.
give KDE a try :)
That makes complete sense, all those "features" are annoying.
I like how you set up your custom work space, I have similar one buy in KDE (and yes the bar is at the bottom -- that makes sense, it's easier to select the top of the window or the window buttons, I just have to move the mouse pointer up and not care where it lands, if you have the toolbar on top you need to fish for the windows buttons, or for the tabs in the browser).
Give KDE a honest try, you might like what you see.
unity
You can resize the panel on the left but you have to install CCSM to do that. They should make it a little more intuitive. The dash does kind of suck, but I use it like gnome-do sort of. I just hit the Super key and then type what I need. For example if I want to bring up a terminal I will type just 'te' and then hit enter and the terminal will open. Now if you have more apps installed that start with te then you will have to type more letters but just hitting enter will pull up the first application shown when you start typing. I think unity has potential, but it shouldnt have been pushed out so early. That being said I feel the same way about Gnome 3. They both rushed out the newest version when they should have held off another 6 months or so and really polished it up. But I guess we will have to beta test these desktop shells before they know exactly what we as users want.
hard to use
unity is hard to use. i will wait it developing...
What if Focus Follows Mouse?
I tested one of the betas, and the "menus at the top" *infuriated* me, because I like my activation to follow the mouse. If one application, not maximized, was sitting on top of a maximized application and I wanted to access the menus for the un-maximized one, when moving the mouse towards the top of the screen it would pass over the maximized application, and the menus would switch over. This has to be some of the stupidest behavior I have ever seen, it just wasn't thought through very well. I know Canonical worked very hard on it, but I honestly can't see myself using this on any of my desktops. I like my 2-panel gnome (1-panel gets a little too cluttered for me!). Everything about unity is entirely too large, and not nearly "discoverable" enough (where programs are, browsing different categories). I don't like to click the damn mouse, and I felt like I had to do it much more often than in the standard gnome desktop. Ugh.
Hold down the ALT key
Hold down the ALT key leaving your mouse in the active window. This will show the menus. You can use acceleration keys or arrows to make your selection.
Just an option. I too use "focus follows mouse" and I do not raise the active window. I've been computing this way for almost 20 years and I don't need to change.
I watch the progression of
I watch the progression of the development of Ubuntu and I can't help but wonder if some of these things aren't driven by the desire for eye-candy.
Maybe we should get back to basics.
A quote from, "The Art Of Unix Programming" by Eric Steven Raymond, may be in order here.
(Note the reference to "chrome" in this quote predates the Google Chrome OS. In my opinion it is more a reference to what we would call eye-candy today.)
The Art Of Unix Programming
Rule of Simplicity:
Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.
Many pressures tend to make programs more complicated (and therefore more expensive and buggy). One such pressure is technical machismo. Programmers are bright people who are (often justly) proud of their ability to handle complexity and juggle abstractions. Often they compete with their peers to see who can build the most intricate and beautiful complexities. Just as often, their ability to design outstrips their ability to implement and debug, and the result is expensive failure.
Even more often (at least in the commercial software world) excessive complexity comes from project requirements that are based on the marketing fad of the month rather than the reality of what customers want or software can actually deliver. Many a good design has been smothered under marketing's pile of “checklist features” — features that, often, no customer will ever use. And a vicious circle operates; the competition thinks it has to compete with chrome by adding more chrome. Pretty soon, massive bloat is the industry standard and everyone is using huge, buggy programs not even their developers can love.
Either way, everybody loses in the end.
The only way to avoid these traps is to encourage a software culture that knows that small is beautiful, that actively resists bloat and complexity: an engineering tradition that puts a high value on simple solutions, that looks for ways to break program systems up into small cooperating pieces, and that reflexively fights attempts to gussy up programs with a lot of chrome (or, even worse, to design programs around the chrome).
Oops, you quoted ESR
Quoting ESR on anything related to programming is a disqualifying offense. Really, it's like Godwin's law for the 21st century ;-)
In any case, how can someone look at GNOME 2, then look at Unity (as in this very video) and find unity more complex is a bit beyond me.
:)
The ESR comment made me laugh. :)
Regarding the complexity of Unity -- I find the process to start an application complex. That doesn't mean it's difficult to understand (although I'd argue finding the categories isn't as obvious as it could be), but rather it takes more effort to start a program.
With the old school menu, you can literally click once. Click and hold, navigate menu, release button on app, and it starts. With Unity, the dash/menu thing is cumbersome at best, at least for me. I'd like to see an option. Click on the corner and get the standard Gnome 2 menu, or get the Unity dash -- then everyone wins. Choice choice choice, that's what I like. Unity seems to take most of the choices away.
Shawn Powers is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel, or Twitter
Well, that assumes you know
Well, that assumes you know on what sub-sub-menu the app you want is located (or else, you may add a few backtracks there while holding the button).
Then again, if you know that, you probably know the app's name.
And if you know the app's name, then you could just press Alt and start typing it.
The Gimp? Alt gi
Firefox? Alt fi
Guake? Alt gu
And so on. There is also the added feature of unifying app and file search. Maybe what you want is not really to open gedit, but to edit devicenzo.py. Once you get used to that, it's quite handy, and is just not there in the classic menu.
Argh, whenever I say Alt,
Argh, whenever I say Alt, assume it says Super, which probably means the "Windows" key on your kbd. I have swapped that because I have a weird keyboard in my notebook.
My Issues with Unity
My issue with Unity is a love/hate thing. On the one hand I love the integrated notification and the global menus that actually work. I also love the way in which the max/min/close buttons are integrated into the global menu. toggling multiple desktops is handled nicely as well (though Gnome 3 might do this a little better - but not much). All in all, very nice touches.
On the downside I hate that the App dock (and don't call it anything else, as that is exactly what it is) is pinned on the left. Sure that is cool on limited screen spaces and touch screens, but on Everything else its a pain in the arse. I would rather have mine at the bottom of the screen, but no, I'm stuck on the left. Adding aps to the dock is not hard, but when compared to other linux docs, Macs dock and window's Rocketdock, the extra steps make it feel clunky. Then is the matter of the menu.
Who the hell thought this one up. when I click my menu I want to see local aps. If you're going to use most of the screen to show me the menu, then show me all of my aps and make category filters readily available. Instead what I get is an abbreviated list of aps, categories hidden under a toggle menu and a bunch of suggested aps that I might or might not want to download. WTF is that? If you want to give me suggestions then ad those to your software center like Mint does with theirs. As it is the menu is not effective and intrusive for no reason.
Personally I would like to see something more like the main menu from gnome shell used in Unity: full vie of all my apps; category filters right on top; no app suggestions in the main menu; a dock that can be moved around; and maybe better integrated drag and drop features in the dock. Keep the awesome notification integration and the nice global menus (which I daresay are better done then Mac's own).
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