Canonical Ubuntu splits from GNOME over design issues

[Doug]

On 10/28/2010 12:17 AM, Cristopher Thomas wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 06:59, Fred A. Miller<fmiller at lightlink.com>  wrote:
>    
>> *Canonical Ubuntu splits from GNOME over design issues*
>> <http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/6910772/120843337/333385/0/>
>>
>> Canonical shook the Linux world yesterday when it announced that the
>> next version of Ubuntu -- "Natty Narwhal," or version 11.04 -- will no
>> longer use the GNOME interface by default. Instead, Natty will feature
>> Unity, the multitouch and 3D-enabled interface that made its debut
>> earlier this month in the distribution's netbook edition of Maverick
>> Meerkat, or Ubuntu 10.10. *Read More*
>> <http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/6910772/120843337/333385/0/>
>>      
> This does not constitute a split, not that they were ever joined.
> Unity is nothing more than a shell run on top of Gnome.  Most
> distributions provide some level of customization for the sake of
> providing what they feel to be a more productive or comfortable
> experience for their users.  This is a bit more dramatic than other
> distros, so far as that goes, but it's the same principle.
>
> The simple fact is that Ubuntu is the product of a company with a
> commercial goal.  In order to make that goal a reality, they need to
> provide the best experience for their users possible.  Gnome-shell was
> not going to be it.
>
> But that's just my opinion.  :)
>
> --
> Cris
>
>    
Ubuntu has put up the most different GUI of the more common Linux distros
already, now they want to make it even more unusual.  I fail to see how 
this is
going to provide "the best experience for their users."  If they want to 
provide
the best experience, they need to provide something that looks like MS 
Windows.
If they could do that, and return to some of the flexibility that the 
earlier versions
Win had--I'm thinking of Win 98 without the BSoD--they might really have 
something
that would give the users the best experience.  Just to come up with 
something that
looked a little more familiar, I had to do more tweaking to Ubuntu than 
any other
Linux distro I have tried, with the exceptions of those that have gone 
full out with
KDE 4. Think Kubuntu! Ugh! (KDE 4 can be tamed to look like a regular GUI--
PCLinuxOs 2010 has done it.)

I really don't understand how a company that wants to commercialize 
their distro
can come up with such weirdness.  I should think that they'd want any 
secretary
in the business world to be able to sit down at their system and use it, 
not have
to take a class in how to.

So that's just _my_ opinion.

--doug

-- 
Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A. M. Greeley