GNOME Panel dropped in 11.10

[Francis Bolduc]

Thanks for all the answers. I'll try to give a few answers of my own
to questions and concerns that were addressed directly to me.

Jeremy:

You're right about misconceptions. I had to dig quite a bit to find
the few items of verfiable information about the future of Ubuntu and
GNOME concerning the GNOME Panel. Thanks for the precision. I did not
know that there will be a GNOME 3 Panel similar to GNOME 2 Panel. I'll
look at it.

Also I agree that Unity lacks customizability. Maybe in it's next
incarnation I'll be able to remove the big icons and have a
"tree-like" textual menu.

Delan:

I'm currently downloading a couple of ISO to try out other
distributions, something which I have not done in years. However, I
think I'll find Ubuntu quite hard to replace, but I reserve my final
judgement for later.

Daniel:

False dichotomy if I consider all the alternatives. True dichotomy if
I add the arbitrary requirement that I must stay up-to-date with all
the new Ubuntu releases.

I do know that there are alternatives that could easily fit my need.
For instance, I'm quite familiar with XFCE and could switch to XUbuntu
for 11.10 and avoid Unity and GNOME Shell altogether.

However, I'll try hard to stick with Ubuntu and this message thread is
my attempt at finding out if I should try harder or forget about it
and go with the alternatives.

Bilal:

That is a comforting thought. I'm looking forward to try GNOME 3 Panel.

Alexandre:

When computers are concerned, I'm usually stubborn and conservative. I
know exactly what I like and dislike and I do everything I can to get
rid of what I dislike on my own computer.

As you can imagine, my desktop environment has remained pretty much
the same for the last 6 years. So I've grown accustomed to associate
programs to their names instead of their icons. For example, when I
think of the Appearance dialog, what I have in mind is the string
"Appearance", not the shirt icon. Of course I'll recognize some icons,
but it's genuinely harder for me to look at a screen full of icons
arranged in a grid than it is to scan a single column of text.

As for forking Ubuntu and doing it my way; there is such a thing as
programmer respect. I'd rather support Ubuntu than divide it. However,
I do want to voice my opinion (and those of my less outspoken firends)
on the Desktop Environment direction of Ubuntu.

Fergal:

I share your opinion. Providing feedback benefits the project.

Rodrigo:

Yes, I'll look it up.

Patrick:

Thanks for the link.

--
Francis Bolduc, B.Sc.