Unity and 11.04 (I know -- yawn -- another opinion)

[swfiua at gmail.com]

Re configuration.   If you install ccsm then you can actually do a fair bit
of customisation.

I've been using unity since 11.04 was released and I actually quite like it.
 It has some real annoyances (eg if you have two terminals open you don't
seem to be able to pick one of them to switch to from the launcher -- but I
suspect this will be fixed in the next release).   It has a few bugs -- some
apps seem to make the panel disappear on me, but  'unity --replace' seems to
fix that one.   I'm sure mileage varies depending on your graphics card, but
I do feel it is stable enough to release and this will pay dividends for
then next release.

I like that it is compiz based -- I've enjoyed compiz for a while.   I find
that the keyboard support is pretty good and there are some good guides out
there that introduce you to unity.

I'm probably atypical, I've been using linux pretty much exclusiveIly since
1997 and have been through a number of desktop/window managers
(sawfish/sawmill was a favourite, I used ratpoison for a good while,  compiz
in gnome2 with docky and now unity).   I like a change now and again.   I
find retraining the brain only takes a short while + it is amazing how well
that fingers can adapt to what might be a pretty sucky interface.

And, as others have mentioned, you can always fall back to gnome or your
favourite desktop.

Whatever way you look at it, Ubuntu has been a very powerful force for the
adoption of Linux.   I wear Ubuntu T-shirts and regularly get comments from
people -- this would never have happened in my redhat days.    It is good to
see Canonical trying a few different things -- sometimes I feel there is a
bit too much change (just fix some of the existing bugs!) -- but each
release I enjoy that little bit more.

I do wonder how much of the negative publicity about Ubuntu is driven by
astro-turfers with their own agendas -- indeed maybe this is an indication
that Ubuntu is doing a lot of things right.

John

On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 4:52 PM, Darcy Casselman <dscassel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Probably should touch on this as well...
>
> On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 4:12 PM, George Standish
> <george.standish at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Stability?  How can you honestly say you find Ubuntu "stable" with
> radical
> > changes to the UI [I'm not referring to stability in terms of uptime
> here,
> > which is also an issue with Ubuntu as of late]?
>
> I didn't say that, Mark did.
>
> Unity is 1.0 software, at the end of a six-month development cycle.
> I'm surprised it works as well as it does.  I use it every day.  It
> crashes maybe once a week (I'm starting to think it might actually be
> Flash, actually).  That's bad.  But I don't know if there's a better
> way to do it.
>
> My advice to people for a while has been, "if you need a stable,
> production system, use the LTS."  And probably wait until the .1
> release before you upgrade.  I think I'm going to start pushing this
> idea harder.  I really like new shiny things every six months, but if
> you just want to get your work done, the LTS is the best platform to
> do it on.
>
> Unity will be in an LTS in 12.04, in a year.  By then, it will have
> had 18 months of solid development work behind it.  I think it needs
> the shakedown of being the default desktop in order to work out the
> problems.  The Oneiric cycle will be mostly evolution based on bug
> reports and user testing.  The P cycle will probably be hardening and
> stabilization.  If you still find Unity unacceptable then, then I'd
> suggest that would probably be the best time to find a different
> distribution.
>
> Darcy.
>
> --
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> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>
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