Natty Narwhal with Unity: Worst Ubuntu beta ever

Completely disagree.<p>I've been using Unity for a while now, it's pretty awesome and much much better than anything (classical) gnome could ever be.<p>This article sounds like "I've just used OS X for the first time and there's no start menu, instead it has a weird thing that's like a dock or something."<p>So, no more gnome-panel applets. What's the big deal? Most of them were useless and ugly anyway. And yes, there <i>is</i> a weather indicator application that you can install.<p>On the other hand, you have a global menu that becomes also a title bar when the window is maximized.<p>So in Ubuntu 10.10 if you maximize Firefox, you have the following taking up vertical space:<p>- The top gnome panel<p>- The title bar<p>- The menu bar<p>- (by default) a bottom gnome panel.<p>With unity, there's only one thing:<p>- The Unity panel.<p>It's the panel, title bar, and the menu bar combined into one panel. (there's no bottom panel).<p>I would never want to go back to the classical gnome desktop.<p>The Ubuntu button at the top-left is like gnome-do[0] on steroids.<p>There's honestly nothing from classical gnome that I miss.<p>Btw, you <i>can</i> drag and drops applications onto the launcher. At least it works when you drag them from the desktop. He's right though, the lense view[1] doesn't let you drag/drop. You've gotta keep in mind though that's not a finished product yet.<p>Having said that, dealing with application icons in (classical) gnome was never a pleasant experience, so in this sense, Unity doesn't really lose you anything.<p>[0] gnome-do is a quicksilver clone<p>[1] That's the new fancy thing that pops up when you click the Ubuntu button on the top-left

I'm running unity since yesterday - feels like they compromised massively on the full desktop experience for the sake of compatibility with touch-based and netbook devices.<p>I'll give it a week or so though; no-one likes change, and it's impossible to make any significant UI change without hoares of angry and confused users foaming at the mouth until they get their bearings.

This seems pretty typical of Ubuntu releases, frankly. Anyone remember the Firefox 3 fiasco? Luckily, if you don't like it, you've got lots of choice, the current version will be supported for another 12 months, and the next version will be out in 6 months. It's not a big deal.

People understand this is <i>why</i> other people release betas right? To test new things? To test unfinished products? To gather early feedback? I've been using Unity for a month or so in Maverick Meerkat (10.10) and I find it great for daily usage, in spite of it's minor glitches.

"Unity is a radical departure, but no less so than GNOME 3.0, which has wisely been pushed back until later this year."<p>I was wondering where the article author got this idea. It seems as if he must have fallen for an April fool's joke (<a href="http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/2011-04-gnome-3.0-rescheduled.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/2011-04-gnome-3.0-resche...</a>).<p>I compared Unity and Gnome Shell a couple of months ago. At that point there was no comparison; Unity felt like a hacked-together prototype, and Gnome Shell felt like a beta. That's a very short-term view of course.

A good thing I am on the LTS release then. Unfortunately if they keep the main menu is separate from the window it belongs to (a huge break with the standard usability rule which says that things which belong together should be physically together) I will have to find a new distro.<p>It's the worst move Apple made, why did they copy that?

Users always resist change. We should not be afraid to change because of that. Unity has a huge potential IMHO and the best time is when unity does not do very much. It will evolve with people learning to use it. "Release Early, Release Often". I am completely with Canonical, Mark and Ubuntu. The fate favors the brave. Go for it Team Ubuntu. As for the geeks, they know how to take care of themselves.

"The problem isn't that everything you know and love about GNOME is suddenly gone, and Ubuntu 11.04 is, for all intents and purposes a completely different experience than everything that came before it."<p>Am I to assume, then, that it follows that because I haven't used Gnome since 1998, the article's claim that this is the "worst Ubuntu beta ever" is absolutely inapplicable to me?<p>I suppose that since it says "with Unity" in the title as well, I'm expected to forgive its overall link bait nature?

Between Canonical shipping unity and Redhat shipping gnome shell with gnome 3, it's going to to be a turbulent spring on the linux desktop. The screams of protest about the gnome shell are already strong on the F15 alpha forums. I've used both and I'm not sure they're so bad, but everything takes some getting used to for people. Then again, I use KDE and am very happy, 4.6 runs and looks great though I do use a dock.

Yes I agree with this writeup. Having tested the unity desktop I was thoroughly disappointed. I felt as though the interface was dumbed down and all of the advanced features or navigation that I once had control of were now gone. It will perhaps as they gear more towards a touch based interface and even netbooks but as a main desktop manager it really does fail quite badly.

I've been using the 11.04 beta for a day or so, and it seems ok to me. Sure, it's not exactly the same as Gnome 2.x, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's worse. I never used panel applets much anyway, and like the keyboard shortcuts and the universal menu bar. So far I havn't found anything which I thought was really irritating or stopping me from working.

apt-get remove unity; apt-get install gnome<p>Done. What's the problem?

The only complaint I've ever had with Unity is that the dock consumes the super key for shortcuts. The only reason I've been unable to stick with Unity is that I can't assign gnome-do to the super-based hotkey I'm used to. I could learn to use the Unity Launcher, but it never seemed to be anywhere near as easy to use as gnome-do.

Not the best choice in names. If there are problems people are going to refer to it as "Nasty Narwhal."

I installed it myself today. The W7 style auto-tiling feature is really pretty convenient when you combine it traditional Linux Alt-clicks. I installed the Compiz Settings Manager and made some modifications to the default keybindings, of course, and sped up the animations but nothing too invasive. I'm going to give it a chance before deciding if I want to go back to my beloved tiling window managers.

Can anyone using the beta tell me whether:<p>* I can still do focus-follows-mouse if I hack around with the settings?<p>* If it has a 'workspace manager' thing that lets you have multiple workspaces?<p>Without those, no way, no how. Other stuff I can probably get used to.

So how long until a Gnome remix of Ubuntu appears? Already with Natty, or in 2012? I guess gubuntu name is free. Or maybe some existing remixes get a sudden popularity spike. Or maybe nobody cares, and those who care switch to Fedora/Arch/Debian/&#60;distro-du-jour&#62;.

To be fair, we have been program-and-file centric for since the arrival of the Mac (Lisa was less like that, with the stationery thing, Star even more and Smalltalk 80 didn't look like this at all) and a new metaphor could be useful.

I remember there was about the same whining last time about the "wrong" placement of the window controls. How old this seems now :)

One thing I wish for is that they would show the Unity panel if I move the mouse past the left edge of the screen.

How much additional development will Unity get because Ubuntu has put its massive weight behind it?

I couldn't agree more.