Canonical Ubuntu splits from GNOME over design issues

[Mark]

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 2:58 PM, Bill <beau at billbeau.net> wrote:
>
> All the work that has been put in to Linux to get it to look close to M$
> so as to get more users to cross over to our side and they go and make
> it more difficult to use than before.
>

The first time I booted a Ubuntu Linux, it was too Windows like for
me.  (c. June 2008.)  I had invested a year and a half getting to know
CentOS intimately and I loved it.  Still do, actually.  I moved to
Ubuntu a few weeks ago just to see what it looked like now and to see
if it would support my new all-in-one, the one CentOS just refused to
work with properly.  It does and I find I like the Debian-base
differences, plus everything is so smoothly integrated it's hard not
to like, even if it is still very W-like.  I avoid a lot of that just
by using terminal windows and bash rather than all the W/X bells and
whistles, but the differences are still glaring (and nice).

Upshot: I like GNOME, especially in its differences from Windows.
Haven't tried Unity and I had problems with KDE more than not.  The
footprint no longer bothers me (although I avoid that, too  :-).

And then there are some who feel the other way, too.  It's all
personal.  A lot of the non-techie Windows users I know and talk to
would just as soon use Linux because it's free, but they haven't made
that jump.  The learning curve isn't the issue - they don't know
enough about Windows to be stuck in it, they just use what they like
(browser, email, games) and that's it.  There are also those, even
techies, who seem to be stuck in the M$ universe.  I use it when I
have to, like for some specific functions that Adobe Photoshop
Elements 2.0 can do that GIMP can't, or when a really really really
picky web site just won't work without IE, or to make CD labels
(haven't explored that one on L/U thoroughly yet), or to remember just
how to do that one little thing my Win person needs to do and I can't
remember the exact sequence to get there.

Oh, yeah, and then there are the employer systems where Win rules - we
really need a Linux Exchange Server....

Life goes on.

Mark