[CoLoCo] Unity vs. Gnome ( was Natty Narwhal (11.04) Release Party )

Tue Apr 5 15:23:06 UTC 2011

You might want to check out XFCE.  It's come quite far with the latest
release and Thunar (the file manager) can apparently now handle all the
network connections it didn't use to be able to.

I have tried Natty Xubuntu but have seen screenshots and it's really coming
into its own, although I've used XFCE 4.8 with Arch.  I'd consider it a true
successor to Gnome 2.

On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 9:06 AM, Aaron D. Gerber <gerberad at gmail.com> wrote:

> I read some article likening the change to Unity to the KDE 4.0 release.
> Not that the technologies are in anyway similar, but the releases to push
> them to the masses prematurely, are the same. We all have seen how KDE has
> grown into it's version 4 identifier, maybe Unity will do the same.
>
> I general, I like the idea of Unity and it looks pretty sweet! However,
> from my old GNOME shell with Avant Window Manager Dock, I am missing:
>
>    - Any kind of extra options in the dock for a running application. For
>    example, I can't set my pidgin status to away in the Dock.
>    - I can't manually add applications to the dock. I have to start them
>    elsewhere and then tell them to say in the Dock once they're running.
>    - I wish the Dock would appear if I moved my mouse anywhere on the left
>    of the screen, as opposed to only the top left corner.
>    - Likewise, if I want to change the options that are passed to the
>    application which is in the Dock, I can't do that like I could do with other
>    launchers.
>    - I no longer have a CPU monitor in the top gnome bar!
>    - I no longer can use the netspeed applet, which gave me the speed of
>    my upload and downloads in the top gnome bar!
>    - Currently, none of my apps are configured to use the new notification
>    area. I tried to white list some of the apps to use the old notification
>    area, but I couldn't get that to work.
>    - With the GNOME shell, if I want to run WarCraft 3 (with true
>    full-screen) in Wine, I can just rock a 'metacity --replace' and then I was
>    ready to play. I tried starting Unity-2D, but that seemed to mess stuff up.
>    The answer was to log out and then log back in with Unity-2D selected and
>    then it worked fine. By-the-way, my wine install got hosed along the way in
>    the upgrades, so I'll need to reinstall. I guess that's what I get for using
>    Alphas! :)
>
> I think there are some other annoyances that I've had using Unity, but
> these are the top ones. I realize that some of these issues may be resolved
> by the time Ubuntu 11.04 is officially released or in future releases. Also
> that there may be workarounds for some of these issues and I just haven't
> had the time to search them down.
>
> In general, I feel helpless in Unity. I guess that's to be expected when
> moving to any new shell. But if anyone has tips or info about how to reduce
> this helpless feeling, let me know.
>
> Aaron-
>
> On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 7:20 AM, Simon Engelbert <engelbert.simon at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> Unity and compiz work together. If you install the 11.04 beta and look at
>> your compiz manager you will notice that a lot of unity is controlled by a
>> unity compiz plugin.
>>
>> I was definitely not a big fan at first but am eager to see what they keep
>> coming up with. So far there are some cool ideas and some really smart
>> people working on it (rocky creator). My biggest gripe is how it looks but I
>> think that will get better in time.
>>
>> Also I think the competition is not between unity and old gnome but
>> actually the new gnome shell which is very similar to unity.
>>
>> -Simon
>>
>> Sent from my open source Android device
>> On Apr 5, 2011 6:59 AM, "David Overcash" <funnylookinhat at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > [new thread for sanity's sake] :)
>> >
>> > My understanding of Unity is that it has 3D Compositing and everything
>> built
>> > in, and that you would simply need to write plugins and whatnot (similar
>> to
>> > all of the plugins used to make Compiz actually useful) to get the most
>> of
>> > out it. However, I did see recently that starting with 11.10 - Ubuntu
>> will
>> > ship a 2D desktop version and a 3D version (I'm not sure if it'll be the
>> > same disc or not), but essentially the 2D version will be classic Gnome.
>> >
>> > -David
>> >
>> > On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 6:52 AM, Nick Post <nickjpost at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Personally, I've always been a fan of the classic GNOME desktop
>> >> environment. I don't know much about Unity, but just from what I've
>> seen, I
>> >> know I'd rather stick with GNOME; unless we can trick it out with
>> compiz or
>> >> something like it. Is compiz even compatible with Unity?
>> >>
>> >> Nick Post
>> >>
>> >> On Apr 5, 2011, at 6:41, David Overcash <funnylookinhat at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Bahahhaha - Same here! Someone want to present on making Unity have
>> some
>> >> more sparkles?
>> >>
>> >> Glad you're coming man!
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 9:50 PM, Aaron D. Gerber < <gerberad at gmail.com>
>> >> gerberad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> I'll be there! Topics I'd like to hear more about: How to make Unity
>> not
>> >>> be lame...
>> >>>
>> >>> Aaron-
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 4:32 PM, Nick Post < <nickjpost at gmail.com>
>> >>> nickjpost at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> I'll be there as well with one additional guest! I'm excited!
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Nick Post
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Apr 4, 2011, at 12:49, Ian Santopietro < <isantop at gmail.com>
>> >>>> isantop at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Me too, btw. Plus one guest.
>> >>>> On Apr 4, 2011 12:48 PM, "David Overcash" < <
>> funnylookinhat at gmail.com><funnylookinhat at gmail.com>
>>
>> >>>> funnylookinhat at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>> > The internet is a series of tubes... a complex one at that. It's
>> not a
>> >>>> dump
>> >>>> > truck... ;)
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > Glad you're in Andrew!
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 12:46 PM, Andrew Barilla < <
>> andrew at exit66.com><andrew at exit66.com>
>>
>> >>>> andrew at exit66.com> wrote:
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> >> I think my RSVP got lost in the tubes. If it did, I'm in.
>> >>>> >>
>> >>>> >> On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 12:45 PM, David Overcash <<
>> funnylookinhat at gmail.com><funnylookinhat at gmail.com>
>>
>> >>>> funnylookinhat at gmail.com>wrote:
>> >>>> >>
>> >>>> >>>
>> >>>> >>>> I had set the time on my Meetup Group to 6pm, let me know if I
>> >>>> should
>> >>>> >>>> change this. Also, I will be doing a presentation to my group
>> (and
>> >>>> anyone
>> >>>> >>>> else who wishes to participate) on some of the projects we are
>> >>>> getting
>> >>>> >>>> started. But I don't want to do this at the beginning, but
>> somewhere
>> >>>> mid
>> >>>> >>>> way through.
>> >>>> >>>>
>> >>>> >>>>
>> >>>> >>> Kevin - My mistake, I don't think I ever ironed that detail out
>> with
>> >>>> you.
>> >>>> >>> Let's set everything for 6:30 as I've already told a few people
>> >>>> off-list
>> >>>> >>> about that time. I'll be sending a more official email later this
>> >>>> week and
>> >>>> >>> posting details all around as necessary; I was waiting to get a
>> >>>> decent
>> >>>> >>> estimate for # of attendees so I could reserve the room w/o worry
>> of
>> >>>> >>> covering an unfilled tab requirement.
>> >>>> >>>
>> >>>> >>> Cheers,
>> >>>> >>> David
>> >>>> >>>
>> >>>> >>> --
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