First impressions of 11.04

[Tom H]

On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:10 PM, ssc1478 <ssc1478 at aim.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I still prefer that Unity be a choice. This is part of the reason I am
>>> going to Gentoo.
>>
>> Since when is it not a choice? Don't want it? Gnome is available
>> from the login screen.
>>
>> Don't like Gnome? There's still Xubuntu and Kubuntu and Lubuntu...
>>
>> How is that not a choice?
>>
>
> I don't know yet if I will like Unity. Will moving from X cause
> problems with the different window managers?
>
> I'm investigating options in case I don't like Unity. I installed
> kubuntu a few days ago and had a go with it. Maybe I would have
> gotten to the point where I liked it but gave up and uninstalled the
> many packages. What I observed is that ubuntu has put its resources
> behind gnome, not kde. So if in the future they are putting their
> resources behind unity, gnome will eventually lose the polish that it
> has today with ubuntu.
>
> Today I installed Fedora on an old Thinkpad T41 that I have. So far
> so good. 3D desktop works and so far no performance issues.
>
> I don't know if I'll like fedora in the long run.

Unity is a GNOME shell so Ubuntu hasn't completely abandoned GNOME.
Unity's Canonical's latest GNOME "polish." Instead of applying a few
patches, it's overlaying an entire shell.

IF you're looking for something close to Ubuntu, try Xubuntu or Mint
(since Mint's not moving to either Unity or GNOME 2; for how long they
can pull this off is a mystery).

If you don't mind changing environments, you can try Kubuntu if you're
OK with a heavyweight DE or Lubuntu for a lightweight DE.

There's a "rapprochement" between Canonical and KDE because the
former's announced that it's going to install and use KDE libraries
(as well as GNOME libraries) by default (I'm not sure whether it's in
11.04 or later but Unity 2D's using QT AFAIK).

I consider Fedora to be a good choice (because I'm a RHEL admin and
because I prefer Fedora's graphics and color schemes) but installing
proprietary stuff's more involved on Fedora.