Unity-2D/Ubuntu Classic (was: Unity: Nothing can go wrong!)

[Liam Proven]

On 17 April 2011 15:50, Paul Sladen <ubuntu at paul.sladen.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Apr 2011, Liam Proven wrote:
>>  - if you have hardware 3D, you get Unity;
>>  - if you don't, you get GNOME 2.
>
> The description of the hardware detection is correct.  Additionally,
> if anyone wants GNOME2 Panel anyway, then all that is required is to:
>
>  1. Enter the Username at the graphical login (aka "GDM")
>  2. Choose "Ubuntu Classic" from the drop down at the bottom
>  3. Enter the Password to complete login (with GNOME2 Panel).
>
>> They are working on a separate 2D version but it's not ready yet.
>  ^^^^
> There is no such thing as "they" and "us" in Ubuntu;  only *we*.

Sadly, that may be the theory, but it's not the practice. I've made
feature suggestions, written "paper cuts," filed multiple bug reports
against the problems on my 2 Linux-capable IBM Thinkpads since Ubuntu
6.10. Nothing has ever been fixed or acted upon; I've had to find my
own fixes, which I've documented, written up on
http://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/ and posted links to in
Launchpad, in the Ubuntu fora and mailing lists.

> *We* are all equally welcome to install Unity-2D!:
>
>  sudo apt-get install unity-2d

I'm on 10.10. Not an option there, is it?

I'm only running the beta in a VM, where the UNAD  works OK thanks to
some VirtualBox tweaks that I've also posted links to on here. I've
also been haunting the mailing lists since Warty came out and posting
help when I can, and I've published a number of articles about Ubuntu,
of which the latest was this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/21/reg_linux_guide_1/

I have tried to contribute - feature suggestions, bug reports, ideas
and proposals. All have met with silence.

Ubuntu, and indeed, FOSS in general, is not a democracy, as our SABDFL
reminds us. It's a meritocracy - unless you're paying. Mark is, and
I'm very grateful for it, but even so, it ain't no democracy.

> (It should have feature parity---and if it doesn't that's a bug, which
> can be filed at  http://launchpad.net/unity-2d/+filebug )

I will be trying 11.04 on my Thinkpad X31 on release, but since
netbook Unity *completely* broke that machine in 10.10 and the netbook
remix launcher only sort-of worked with some significant issues in
10.04, I really doubt that it is going to be a happy bunny with 11.04.

It will probably be fine on my desktop, but I tend to leave it a month
or two before upgrades on my main work machine. I only went to 10.10
in March.

Mind you, saying that, this install is getting a bit ropy and flakey
now. It started off as 9.10 and has been repeatedly upgraded since.
I'm very happy for all those people for whom upgrades are
trouble-free, but I add lots of stuff, remove things that I don't like
or don't use (e.g. Empathy, Evolution) and have loads of extra repos
and things. This causes Ubuntu to rot fairly badly inside about 4
releases, I find.

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
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