Canonical drop the Unity desktop environment for Ubuntu favour of going back to GNOME

Liam ITS YOUR GUILT ...I switched from Ubuntu to Manjaro...and WTF?...its as easy...haha


#goVEGAN


Last edited by metro2033fanboy on 8 Apr 2017 at 1:03 am UTC

I personally tried doing a Linux news site myself once, but my personal time and ability to keep up with news properly impaired it, so it sort of became a sort-of news site, more like a bit of everything site/blog with some tutorials and game reviews and such thrown in lol.

If you can do it though and even have some other contributors on standby as well, as I imagine you probably do thanks to GOL, you can always have a go at a new one. All power to you I say.

When Ubuntu switched to Unity was when I got involved in GNOME 3 development, at least for the first release. I had been messing with GNOME 3 preview builds and was excited for the direction it was heading, and when Unity was announced and shown I was dumb struck, especially considering everything they wanted to do in Unity could be done in Base GNOME 3 through theming and extensions. Anyway, I helped out with trying to make it a good release and the rest of my family liked it as well so I set it up on their machines.

Unfortunately with some of the changes in future releases to keep supporting old packages required by Unity it became difficult to keep GNOME 3 running until thankfully Ubuntu GNOME came around, which is what I currently run. I'm glad that the waste in resources will be gone and more users will be on GNOME and pushing it forward as they did in the past. Rather than Ubuntu being the red headed stepchild that everyone uses but switch the DE to something else after awhile it will line up with other distributions and it will mean things like games likely being more easily supported on other Linuxes.

Because there is one thing that Unity 7 did absolutly right compared to ALL other Linux DE's out there, in times where 16:9 widescreens are the norm, vertical screen space is very precious compared to horizontal screen space. Having a monstrous launcher bar at the bottom is just bad UX design when you can have it at the left side of the screen, preserving precious vertical screen space and using the available but only 80% or so used horizontal screen space. And delivering such a good out of the box experience is what drives Ubuntu.

Really, ALL? So let's see, here I am using Mate, and I guess that thing on the right hand edge of my screen can't be a taskbar with a bunch of launchers on it because apparently ALL the Linux DEs other than Unity don't do that.

Question: Is there any interest in me doing a separate site to cover general Linux news?

I wouldn't be interested, but I think this news is so important that it's rightfully on GoL.

About the news:
I'm sad that this puts the end to a possible alternative for mobile phones.

Agreed - I'm interested in the occasional general Linux news post, but no need to put it on a different side.

And about the phone: I hate smartphones, but am somewhat forced to use one. I was hoping an Ubuntu Phone might become a decent option, so far that I might actually buy one instead of using my dad's hand-me-down.

About Unity and convergence going the way of the Dodo: I never liked Unity. PC's have to look and act like PC's, phones/tablets have to look and act like mobile devices.

My $0.03 on the vertical/horizontal taskbar:

$0.01: Having little use of horizontal screen space is a mistake of applications/websites (thankfully not GOL). Although having applications open side by side can be very useful (or panels within games).

$0.02: Cinnamon's taskbar is very slim, due to not using huge icons, but small icons with a wee bit of text next to it instead. And I like having that bit of text.

$0.03: Adding text to a vertical taskbar (for instance the word 'Menu' or just a digital clock) makes it wider than I'm comfortable with. Unless you auto-collapse it, but I don't like that either. My main grope with a wide vertical taskbar? It distorts the symmetry of my applications/websites. The horizontal middle of my screen is no longer the horizontal middle of 'my' application/website.


Last edited by lvlark on 8 Apr 2017 at 10:15 am UTC

It's a dumb move. Unity is great and going back to GNOME for no good reason is just feels like a betrayal. What's the benefit for the user who already picked Ubuntu with Unity and liked it?! :-(

It's sad to see people lose jobs, but the Unity 8 desktop will continue in development. Michał Sawicz has mentioned this. it's open source :) this is why open source can be the greatest thing, because even when a corporation or company sees no merit, the developers get to decide that ultimately if a piece of software goes into the graveyard of code.

In one way I like this, because we may see fresh Unity 8 builds pop up in the AUR in the near future :)
But besides that, I'm glad Canonical are back using and working with GNOME. hopefully we get to see some special Ubuntu flair on GNOME now. I wouldn't mind seeing a full global menu in GNOME. Not sure if that'll happen but it could as an optional feature on Ubuntu or an Ubuntu patched build of GNOME shell.

But nevertheless, I hope everyone that lost jobs will be able to find new employment quickly.

Yes please. Just don't be like phoronix and turn this website into a kde, mesa, manjaro, amd etc. zealots center. It's so annoying just reading over 9000 news about the latest commit on amd mesa and all of the hate towards nvidia in general (given that's still the best vendor hardware/software for gaming on linux).

So basically you are complaining that Phoronix covers topics that you hate? And then you turn around and complain about other people being haters?

I think you need to do a little introspection here.

Oh gosh. My message is so difficult to understand? I'm not complaining that phoronix covers some topics (that I don't hate). I'd prefer it to be a news site that gives the same space to everything and treat it objectively, like a journalist do and unlike a blogger do. I'm more and more thrilled to see how many people just don't get what's written in a small comment.

My $0.03 on the vertical/horizontal taskbar:

$0.01: Having little use of horizontal screen space is a mistake of applications/websites (thankfully not GOL).

I wonder what you're referring to, here. For good reasons, lines are not printed too wide for at least centuries now - and so does GoL:



Last edited by Eike on 8 Apr 2017 at 12:32 pm UTC

Because there is one thing that Unity 7 did absolutly right compared to ALL other Linux DE's out there, in times where 16:9 widescreens are the norm, vertical screen space is very precious compared to horizontal screen space. Having a monstrous launcher bar at the bottom is just bad UX design when you can have it at the left side of the screen, preserving precious vertical screen space and using the available but only 80% or so used horizontal screen space. And delivering such a good out of the box experience is what drives Ubuntu.

Really, ALL? So let's see, here I am using Mate, and I guess that thing on the right hand edge of my screen can't be a taskbar with a bunch of launchers on it because apparently ALL the Linux DEs other than Unity don't do that.

Just clicked on the lower right hand of my KDE desktop and dragged the "Screen border" thingy to any side, and...
taskbar goes and stays there.

I've been using Ubuntu since 10.10, when i read that article i decided to change DE to KDE. For me this was big since unity and KDE have been my goto DE's, now i'm KDE for good. Cononical's choice makes perfect sence in allowing the team toy work on the distro as a whole and not split in two. for me OpenSUSE 42.2 Kde is my distro of choice, but i do love Kubuntu just as much, in my opinion i believe Mark should go KDE instead and work hand in hand with blue systems in supporting KDE and Ubuntu, just my opinion.

Complaining about fragmentation is completely ridiculous.

To you maybe, but some of us know what fragmentation causes.

A lot of people seem to think they can tell others what to do with their time.

No one is telling anyone what to do lol, cool down.

I hope you realize this in no way addresses my point.

Yes please. Just don't be like phoronix and turn this website into a kde, mesa, manjaro, amd etc. zealots center. It's so annoying just reading over 9000 news about the latest commit on amd mesa and all of the hate towards nvidia in general (given that's still the best vendor hardware/software for gaming on linux).

So basically you are complaining that Phoronix covers topics that you hate? And then you turn around and complain about other people being haters?

I think you need to do a little introspection here.

Oh gosh. My message is so difficult to understand? I'm not complaining that phoronix covers some topics (that I don't hate). I'd prefer it to be a news site that gives the same space to everything and treat it objectively, like a journalist do and unlike a blogger do. I'm more and more thrilled to see how many people just don't get what's written in a small comment.

You are annoyed by Michael Larabel's coverage of AMD and Mesa because you prefer Nvidia, and you are complaining about zealotry. I am not misreading your words here. Larabel for all his sins (and he has a few) does give fairly broad coverage of all kinds of topics in the Linux community, including Nvidia.

You just need to do a quick search to see that I am right:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_topic&q=NVIDIA

AMD and Mesa are going through a huge amount of change right now and have been doing so for the past ten years. I think that is worthy of the amount of news coverage it has been getting. Nvidia is not getting forgotten. You just seem to be irked by the fact that your preferred option does not completely dominate the conversation.

EDIT: Case in point, here are some statistics:
794 AMD news articles published on Phoronix.
612 NVIDIA news articles published on Phoronix.

Now that is a 9000/1 ratio if ever I saw one...

EDIT 2: And just so I can not be accused of selective quoting, in reference to your original post:

So yes, I'd like you to post news about linux in general, just don't be too obsessive writing at topics that generate traffic through hate and religion like phoronix do.

You mention KDE, Mesa, Manjaro, and AMD in the same breath as "topics that generate traffic through hate and religion" and yet you still maintain that you do not hate the subject matter. Again, some introspection here would be nice. You do seem to take considerable umbridge with them being discussed.


Last edited by Hamish on 8 Apr 2017 at 7:12 pm UTC

unity is the thing which made me turn back to linux os. its simple but keyboard oriented. (HUD DASH you have to use keyboard)
convergence idea still good thing to make things universal and clever and easy to learn adopt. imagine one universal interface for all kind of smart devices. but this needs little bit monopoly over smart device vendors and software industry so let it stay as a dream.
now ok come back to real life. ofc its sad news. made me think about to install windows cuz without unity it seems all rest of DE is old fashion and just a diversion. Then i installed gnome-shell 3.22 and what a mess is that. Then i found some extensions. now its shiny elegant more integrated than any other DE. and its new fashion. and has good community support. also Gnome-shell really faster than Unity7. only unity-2d (which is stopped) can be competitive to gnome-shell in the name of speed.
now i like gnome-shell more than any other DE.
Ubuntu's unity drop is kind of come back in the loosing game. And cannonical will make ubuntu gnome much more better state ever seen. more extensions more stability and bleeding edge softwares updates for ubuntu. no waste of resources on re-inventing somethings.
and about MS and partnership MS is almost 3rd open source contributor and supporter. unless there is no monopoly ideas all helps are welcomes and "freedom" for everyone.

now my current desktop is ubuntu 17.04 and de is Gnome-shell 3.22


Last edited by Kuduzkehpan on 10 Apr 2017 at 4:32 pm UTC

My $0.03 on the vertical/horizontal taskbar:

$0.01: Having little use of horizontal screen space is a mistake of applications/websites (thankfully not GOL).

I wonder what you're referring to, here. For good reasons, lines are not printed too wide for at least centuries now - and so does GoL:


I'm referring to the horrendous amount of non-useful things spamming the sides of my screen.
Having lines not span the width of a screen is, indeed, a good thing. But often websites will cut them too short to do an inline picture, that could've gone to the side, but there's advertisement/clickbait/whatever there.

I'm suprised and glad that Cannonical is dropping Unity.
I've always considered Unity in beta, even after final releases. It was always buggy.
Also, the information that if offered was not of interest to me.

If Cannonical want to swing Ubuntu back in the game they should start polishing more the release and ask in the forums what people really want from the OS, and do it. It's so simple I really don't understand why nobody does it.

Is it me or is launching of apps in Unity much better than Gnome 3? I installed Gnome 3, to try it out, and it's app launching methods is lacking. Unity: Superkey+n (n= 0-9), Gnome: Super +Hover to app/Type and navigate with arrow key+Click/Execute key. Am I only one who have noticed this?

Is it me or is launching of apps in Unity much better than Gnome 3? I installed Gnome 3, to try it out, and it's app launching methods is lacking. Unity: Superkey+n (n= 0-9), Gnome: Super +Hover to app/Type and navigate with arrow key+Click/Execute key. Am I only one who have noticed this?

use the Dash to Dock extension on GNOME, not only can it give you a unity like launcher but it has the same functionality with superkey+n. it is highly configurable. you can even scroll the mouse wheel on the launcher to switch virtual desktops.

Is it me or is launching of apps in Unity much better than Gnome 3? I installed Gnome 3, to try it out, and it's app launching methods is lacking. Unity: Superkey+n (n= 0-9), Gnome: Super +Hover to app/Type and navigate with arrow key+Click/Execute key. Am I only one who have noticed this?

use the Dash to Dock extension on GNOME, not only can it give you a unity like launcher but it has the same functionality with superkey+n. it is highly configurable. you can even scroll the mouse wheel on the launcher to switch virtual desktops.

Cheers:)

Yes please. Just don't be like phoronix and turn this website into a kde, mesa, manjaro, amd etc. zealots center. It's so annoying just reading over 9000 news about the latest commit on amd mesa and all of the hate towards nvidia in general (given that's still the best vendor hardware/software for gaming on linux).

So basically you are complaining that Phoronix covers topics that you hate? And then you turn around and complain about other people being haters?

I think you need to do a little introspection here.

Oh gosh. My message is so difficult to understand? I'm not complaining that phoronix covers some topics (that I don't hate). I'd prefer it to be a news site that gives the same space to everything and treat it objectively, like a journalist do and unlike a blogger do. I'm more and more thrilled to see how many people just don't get what's written in a small comment.

You are annoyed by Michael Larabel's coverage of AMD and Mesa because you prefer Nvidia, and you are complaining about zealotry. I am not misreading your words here. Larabel for all his sins (and he has a few) does give fairly broad coverage of all kinds of topics in the Linux community, including Nvidia.

You just need to do a quick search to see that I am right:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_topic&q=NVIDIA

AMD and Mesa are going through a huge amount of change right now and have been doing so for the past ten years. I think that is worthy of the amount of news coverage it has been getting. Nvidia is not getting forgotten. You just seem to be irked by the fact that your preferred option does not completely dominate the conversation.

EDIT: Case in point, here are some statistics:
794 AMD news articles published on Phoronix.
612 NVIDIA news articles published on Phoronix.

Now that is a 9000/1 ratio if ever I saw one...

EDIT 2: And just so I can not be accused of selective quoting, in reference to your original post:

So yes, I'd like you to post news about linux in general, just don't be too obsessive writing at topics that generate traffic through hate and religion like phoronix do.

You mention KDE, Mesa, Manjaro, and AMD in the same breath as "topics that generate traffic through hate and religion" and yet you still maintain that you do not hate the subject matter. Again, some introspection here would be nice. You do seem to take considerable umbridge with them being discussed.

I could reply to you to all these points (like making you notice that the pure number of articles is of absolutely no meaning towards what you're trying to demonstrate (hint: objectivity and not doing click-baiting covering topics that will generate free hate, more hints? look at difference between omgubuntu and phoronix reader base.) but it's no more worth my time. You're using rethoric and mixing pseudo science with real (infused?) truth, while, of course I was talking about an opinion. The fact that you replied so hard on this, and that you want me to admit my supposed guilt, simply demostrate, at my eyes, that my personal opinion was right and reinforced.

Therefore, I won't reply again, my ego does not depend on people reading comments on forums.