First: This is really a review of Unity, not Ubuntu. The main ways that Ubuntu/Linux differ from OS X have nothing to do with the UI, but rather the underlying system.<p>That said, I'm glad to see that somebody likes Unity. Ubuntu's switch to Unity is one of the reasons that I left Ubuntu for another distro.<p>It seems like Canonical is targeting its product more towards people like the author of this post, in which case it seems that their strategy may be working.
The point about angle of escape was really interesting. However, my google fu failed me. The only relevant link mentioning angle of escape leads back to this post. Is there someone who can give me more information about this? (Or a more technical term, if the author uses the term colloquially).<p>Once again, UI design never fails to fascinate me. The first concrete reason I ever came across that explained the superiority of the Mac user interface was the application of Fitt's law to the menu items. This looks like another solid point in favor of the Mac.
the good news:<p>- in oneiric, the global menu bar is contiguously either clickable or not-clickable: when you hover over it, only clickable items are displayed.<p>- immediately after install, the new software centre displays a button to launch that application, you don't have to browse the list anymore. also, the list of installed applications is now sorted into relevant categories rather than filled up with system packages.<p>- the 'updates are available' message in oneiric's system menu makes it much more clear how to get updates, but i don't think it's really possible to teach ubuntu's package-management update paradigm through UI. it's not something new windows or mac converts will ever get immediately.
"Bad: Firefox 4 instead of the up-to-date Firefox 7!"<p>Official releases:<p>- Ubuntu 11.04: 28 April 2011<p>- Firefox 5: 21 June 2011<p>- Firefox 7: 27 September 2011 (5 days ago)<p>Yes, that's a valid criticism: I used a 6-month-old official installer and didn't get last month's software without doing any form of update whatsoever! Clearly a failing of ubuntu!
I got the Firefox 7.0 update through the regular update channels a few days after it was on the Mozilla FTP servers. So actually, the update was even before the official release. I have no idea why there was no update available for OP.
I recently (about two weeks ago) bought my first Apple ever, a Macbook Pro.<p>It took forever to find out function+backspace=real backspace not delete<p>Everything seems to be arranged around single clicks any right-clicking seems alien on a Mac.<p>It's very glossy and cartoons but you can tell the hardware and OS were made hand-in-hand or at least work very well with each other.<p>It's pretty but annoying at times it's has a hint of like Linux, I opened Terminal to feel at home, but it's like Linux out at its grandmothers on it's best behaviour.<p>I wouldn't say either is better than the other but different for sure although like I said very similar way more so than Windows and Linux or Mac and Windows.<p>Now if only I could stop that creepy "killer clowns on acid in a dark alley" start-up sound.
Why does the Unity menu bar's <i>File</i> menu truncate the application name to <i>"Firefox V"</i>? Mac OS X shifts the menu bar to the right for applications with long names.<p>I'm assuming "Firefox V" was something like "Firefox Version 4", which isn't an unusually long name (especially for such a popular application and one that is a default application for Ubuntu). They shouldn't even include the version number in the application name. Joe User doesn't care.
About the un-clickable program name in the menu bar. I agree that it'd be nice, like OS X, to have that as a menu. OS X, or probably Apple, forces control over what items go into different menus. Linux is a lot more free. So, a "preferences" menu item could go in 'file' or 'edit' or 'view' or 'tools'; or maybe only some of the preferences are there and the rest are in a config file. It took me some getting used to.
I found it interesting 'I got my hands on a PC to use as a web server (thanks Andrea!). Before I could get started on it though, I needed an operating system to install' ... but the version installed was Ubuntu Desktop, rather than Server ...?
I'm also a long time mac user, running the new Ubuntu on my desktop. Couldn't be happier with it, the UI is clean and user friendly. Feels like I'm using a slightly modified version of OS X. Apt-get can be useful at times...always sure to do my large-scale projects on Ubuntu.
I just wanted to correct something about Fitts' Law.<p>The article talks about how big the angle is, but this is not very relevant. In fact, if you throw the mouse in the upper right direction, it will hit the top right corner no matter which edge it hits first. Thus you actually can hit the corner spots without even aiming in a particular square.<p>Try this on a mac: throw your pointer into the top left or top right corners, and press the button. You WILL open the menu, even though it may not have been obvious that you would -- the highlighted region around the icon does not extend to the edge. So in fact, it's ok to make them smaller.
"My greatest concern was that I’d have to do a lot of installing and configuring before I could get anything meaningful done. All I wanted was a standard setup, and to not derail focus from my work."<p>And yet he had the time to document the whole experience at the same time?