Window Managers for Kubuntu and Ubuntu

[Chris Robinson]

________________________________
 From: David Bowskill <david at bowskill.net>
To: ubuntu-au at lists.ubuntu.com 
Sent: Monday, 9 January 2012 8:34 PM
Subject: Window Managers for Kubuntu and Ubuntu
 

Dear All

I hope that this does not sound like a big whing but I do not like how the presentation of the later versions of Ubuntu and Kubuntu are going

I have been using Ubuntu 10.04 with Gnome interface and I find it very good. Then upgraded to 11.10 and I really don't like Unity at all.
I then switched to Kubuntu 11.10 and the interface while better than Unity, is still not as good as Ubuntu 10.04
_____________________________________________-

Some do like KDE and are as passionate about it as others are about Gnome 2 (classic).  I don't think KDE and Kubuntu have changed that much - it is what it is.

_____________________________________________
What are my complaints ??

The philosophy that the computer should be a functional working tool- easy to use,  fast in operation and requiring minimal resources.   These ideals seem to be being abandoned and the 'graphic arty types'  are taking over.  Flashy interfaces ( which of course must be 'original') seem to be the go, causing bloat, slows down operations and demands more RAM and CPU power.
_____________________________________________

Strangely enough, that is the philosophy of the design team too, but it's also obvious that people want a graphically stimulating interface as well.  The main problem with Unity is that it's different, not that the functionality is missing.  I agree with the issue of bloat but if you look at the development of all code, especially in the Linux world, you see the same pattern - code starts out bloated and with seemingly built-in inefficiency.  If the idea is good however, it gets continued development and constantly gets more efficient.

An example of this is Software Center: In 11.10 it runs so slowly on my Celeron that it can take 1.5 minutes just to open the first time - that is longer than the boot time.  I've noticed however that the Software Center in the Alpha of 12.04 is much quicker even though all the debug symbols are still part of the code.  I'm very much looking forward the release date to see how well they've really done with the new LTS.
_____________________________________________

For my part, I am not at all impressed by fancy interfaces - I want a machine which is minimal in presentation, quick in operation, easy to use, in other words totally utilitarianin design and presentation.
_____________________________________________

Actually, Unity is even more "utilitarian" in as much as the interface has been reduced to only two main elements - a top bar that is used for informational purposes and is being evolved as the Universal Application Menu Bar (an Apple idea I believe), and a launcher that takes the place of menus, task bar, switcher, access for removable media (among other things), and of course a launch bar that was never part of the classic Gnome philosophy.
_____________________________________________

The ideal interface in my opinion is that used by Apple; lots of drop down menus; icons which can be placed on the Desktop if required AND the tool bar with the sliding magnifier - truly brilliant !!
_____________________________________________

That's funny, because one of the main complaints from some that complain loudest is that Unity borrows too much from the Apple interface, and that's why they hate it.  But lets take a look at your objections:

Drop down menus: This has been replaced by the Dash, but you can still browse the contents and look at installed programs etc as much as you want. The browsing is done by classification, very much as you would do with a menu system.  People tend to miss this because it appears to be "hidden" by the main feature of the dash which is Search.  The philosophy behind this is simple: why would the hierarchical structure of menus or classifications be the prime method when you can just type "terminal" into the dash and it will show not just the terminal program you would normally find on the menu, but any other terminal type programs that are installed as well.

You can actually still place icons (I think you mean application launcher icons) on the desktop, it just that the design team has questioned why you would want to do so, (since that's what the launcher is for) and so they've made no right-click option for it.  Feel free to make a launcher however - they are just a basic bash script on the desktop and you can have as many as you like.  There's probably a utility you can install that will help you write them, or you can copy them from your 10.04 desktop.

As for your other specific objections...  Oh, you didn't list any...   

Sorry, I shouldn't be smug: I'm sure you have legitimate issues with Unity but the fact is that Unity is still evolving and many features that were missing in 11.04 have been quietly fixed for 11.10.  For example the issue of task switching with multiple instances of one application and using only the mouse has been addressed.  With 11.04 many things could be best done through the keyboard, I suspect because this was the easiest and quickest to implement.  As Unity evolves however the GUI features that we expect should be there are being incorporated.

I wouldn't say that Unity taken as a whole on first look is a vast improvement over what has gone before, it's often the little things taken altogether that can make a big difference.  For example on Classic Gnome, if I wanted to unmount a USB drive but already had an application(s) maximised I had three obvious choices: 1) to minimise all applications and right click on the icon for the drive, 2) Open a terminal window and do it manually, or 3) to switch desktops and right click on the icon there.  A less obvious choice was to open another application like file manager and do it from there, but really...  With Unity I can unmount a device from the launcher by right-clicking on it's icon in the launcher - slide and click.  A little thing, but one you miss when you go back to the Classic interface.
________________________________________

Does any know of a simple window manager like that of Apple's which can be used to replace Unity - especially the sliding magnifier tool bar
_______________________________________

Unity is without a doubt the most Apple-like interface we have.  As it is made more configurable I'm sure it will be possible to get it to look more like Apple, if that's what you really want.
______________________________________

I would be quite happy to stay with 10.04 window manger but that will be  phased out in the future.
Does anyone else out there feel this ?
Hope that this does not put too many noses out of joint.
______________________________________

I think that the online community in general and the Linux community in particular is much more mature that it was in years past.  No one is going to get upset if you don't like Unity, or prefer to use something else.  I will say though, that Unity is different enough that it does take a while to get used to it and to understand it.  Personally I'm still using 10.04 LTS on my main machine as well, but both Unity and myself have progressed to the point where 12.04 LTS is not looking like the problem it might have seemed to be a year ago when I was looking at the alpha versions of 11.04.

Chris
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/attachments/20120109/7644f149/attachment.html>