It's time to jettison CCSM

Jorge O. Castro jorge at ubuntu.com
Thu Jan 26 16:28:11 UTC 2012


With tools like MyUnity now in universe, and didrocks putting basic
configuration in the control panel I'd like to propose the removal of
compizconfig-settingsmanager.

I don't mean "stop telling people to use it" or "add a warning", I
mean total removal from the archive until the tool is either better
tested or doesn't break people's configuration. Here are some of the
problems with the tool.

- It's possible to accidentally uncheck the Unity plugin, breaking the
user's desktop.
- It has a load of checkboxes for plugins that we don't support,
allowing infinite combinations of untested options, which result in
either a broken desktop or a misconfigured one.
- People report these bugs, and instead of fixing real bugs we have to
deal with corner case bugs for things we never plan on supporting.
- Since it's settings are separate from Unity a "unity --reset"
doesn't fix it, you have to blow away .compiz or some other dotfile
directories to get a desktop back.
- Alex Chiang has documented some of the issues he's run into here:
http://askubuntu.com/a/80590/235
- I'm sure at UDS you've seen didrocks show you one of the ways it
breaks even when using parts of it that shouldn't break.

MyUnity is a better user-facing tool anyway for those that want to
play, it would be a shame to have the ccsm tool ship in an LTS. If
anyone cares about it they can plop it in a PPA.



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