Feedback on desktop convergence changes

[Lutz Andersohn]

On 08/19/2014 02:10 PM, Michael Hall wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> As we move towards our goal of converging the Ubuntu phone, tablet and
> desktop into a single codebase, we need to make sure we understand how
> some of the new technology that was developed for mobile devices will
> impact desktop users.  I have created a short survey[1] to get your
> feedback on some of the bigger changes, which we will use to instruct
> our choices on what and how to bring these to the desktop.
>
> The survey will ask you about how different changes might affect the way
> you use Ubuntu, both positively and negatively. But it is important to
> remember that no decisions have been made yet regarding whether or not
> these changes will actually happen on the desktop. The purpose of this
> survey is to help us evaluate what their impact might be, and what work
> would be required to make them work for all of our users.
>
> If you have a custom or unusual setup with Ubuntu, we are particularly
> interested in hearing about those details.  It's easy enough for us to
> consider the impact on common use-cases of Ubuntu, but understanding the
> various edge-cases requires input from the people involved with them.
>
> Finally, none of the information you provide in this survey will be used
> for anything other than evaluating and planning for the use of these
> technologies in Ubuntu. No personally identifiable information will be
> asked for, and nothing will be sold to any 3rd party.
>
> [1] https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/UbuntuConvergenceFeedback
For whatever it's worth, I think this convergence a is supremely ill
advised idea, especially if it impacts appearance to a user: a phone is
different from a desktop and thus should behave differently. Any attempt
to combine will ultimately result in a software that nobody likes. My
analogy is that one can eat a steak and potatoes with a swiss army knife
but nobody is going to enjoy the experience.