Quoting: F.UltraStrange, in 23.04 they used the GNOME Software Center and I routinely clicked on .debs to install them externally (though have to be said that the .debs that I installed externally didn't also exist in the repos).

Ubuntu always packages an out-of-date version of Lutris, which lacks certain important features, so the newer version was a requirement. I didn't do any testing outside of that package, so it's good to know that the Lightworks .deb package would likely have worked, for example.

Quoting: F.UltraNot sure how correct any of Linus's rant are here (I never used Gnome 3.x myself), but the Internet was not kind to Gnome 3 when it came out:

Linus Torvalds finds GNOME 3.4 to be a "total user experience design failure"

QuoteI only dislike the latest version of the GNOME Linux desktop, Linus Torvalds, Linux's primary inventor, hates it.

And that was for 3.4 what was the fixed version, imagine just how much was written when 3.0 came. It's the whole reason why MATE exists and for Canonical that up to then had been THE Gnome desktop they saw no other path forward than to create Unity, it was less of a NIH and more of a major user backlash.

Linus Torvalds would like to see a GNOME fork
A shiny new ornament for your Linux lawn: Ars reviews GNOME 3.0
GNOME 3: Shocking changes for Linux lovers

Linus came around in the end though: Linus Torvalds switches back to Gnome 3.x desktop

Thanks! I knew a little about Linus and GNOME 3, but it's good to have a comprehensive account. Linus was more active in the desktop space back then, but it's still surprising to see him make comments (positive or negative) on the state of a particular desktop. He never does that anymore. I suppose that's a good an indication as any as to how polarising (or dire, if you take a certain view) the design was.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualLike any GNOME purist, I completely disagree with the premise. GNOME is great even without extensions and I don't use any.

I'm sure that's true now, (for you and many others, even though I still disagree) but back in 2010, the original Shell beta was baffling and largely unusable unless you followed blogs that described the philosophy behind it.

I've heard stories. Not having a "shutdown" button was the one I remember, but I can't find sources for it.

Please, if you can find anything about dumb designs for the original GNOME 3, I'd love to see it.

I think GNOME has the best interface, hands down, but they need to catch up to KDE Plasma in terms of Wayland support, they need better multi-monitor support, and why can't they just get along with everyone else?

So I use both. And soon, COSMIC, hopefully.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI think some felt that they were acting like it was intended to be one DE to rule them all, to "Unify" the Linux experience, and weren't enthused about that perceived attitude.

There's no pleasing some people. And Linux users are the hardest to please. Cynical by nature; pedantic by vocation.

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Now to wait for the stable NVIDIA driver to be out...it can't be long now.

Interesting they couldn't ship the new Reef wallpaper with 6.1. It looks nice.

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Quoting: scaineThe extension framework did eventually land, making Shell usable again, but by that time Unity had a groundswell of fans.

Like any GNOME purist, I completely disagree with the premise. GNOME is great even without extensions and I don't use any. Though needing to hit alt when selecting the power options to get to a "hidden" option was a decision that was thankfully quickly reversed.

Quoting: scaineAs usual, it baffles me that people pick on Canonical as the bad guy whenever they innovate. They're not afraid to drop things when better things come along, but they have a vision and when existing tech can't supply on that vision, they innovate. The essence of Linux, but they're constantly trashed for it.

I think Unity was cool though I've never tried it, Upstart was a good idea, and Bazaar was definitely a good idea. I thought Ubuntu Touch was probably the best idea but Canonical weren't committed to it.

I agree in general that Canonical's innovation is something to admire. Waiting around for upstream to implement your changes if they even feel like they match the project's needs is just the wrong move. Especially when you have the resources to move on your own.

Snap, though, I really don't like. Because it's doing way more to divide the community than bring it together. Snap only works properly and securely on Ubuntu because Ubuntu is the only distribution that carries the correct kernel patches and they still haven't managed to get them upstreamed after several years. So even though Canonical is doing a great thing by directly engaging with software vendors to get their software on Linux through Snap, I wish they'd do something that benefitted every distribution rather than just themselves. They're under no obligation to, obviously, but it's just annoying.

I wish they'd at least pre-install Flatpak and setup the Flathub remote on Ubuntu. Then, users from every major distribution wouldn't need to use the terminal to setup the easiest way to install software on Linux.

And Mir's still around, though it's a Wayland compositor nowadays. I don't know enough about it to say whether it was a good or bad thing. But they contribute to protocol discussions, so that's cool.

I also think System76 are doing some really cool things with COSMIC. I don't think there was anyone who thought Unity was a poor decision? Are there really people that have that opinion?

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Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: pleasereadthemanual

Quotesupporting externally downloaded .deb files

It still baffles me that a supposedly user-friendly distribution required you to use apt in the terminal to install .deb files until now.

Note that this is for the App Center that they introduced in 23.10, their previous app did support installing external .deb files from the GUI just fine.

I'm only speaking from experience; the last time I needed to try Ubuntu for the sake of documentation was 23.04 and I could not for the life of me figure out how to install a .deb file. When I double-clicked it, it would open up the software store and try to install the older one in Ubuntu's repositories. Maddening.

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Quoting: TuxeeAnd when Mir was announced in 2013 Wayland was a long shot from being remotely usable.

Though notably Intel "[did] not condone or support Canonical in the course of action they have chosen":

[1]: https://www.phoronix.com/news/MTQ1NjY
[2]: https://lwn.net/Articles/566115/

Canonical always manages to annoy other stakeholders when they come up with their own stuff. Though Upstart was probably cool and generally well-liked, and Ubuntu Touch seemed nice enough.

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Quotesupporting externally downloaded .deb files

It still baffles me that a supposedly user-friendly distribution required you to use apt in the terminal to install .deb files until now.

Quoting: grigiJust, why do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

True, Snap supports more use cases than either Flatpak or oci, but its such a closed ecosystem that nobody else dares adopt it.

Canonical started developing Snap before Flatpak existed.

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30% is not excessive. Get real. Have you seen the book publishing market? Try 70%.

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Another exciting game from Microsoft!

It seems like the new game is partially inspired by the original Quake concept where "The protagonist would become a Thor-like being wielding a giant Hammer."

Now I feel like watching that Ahoy retrospective again.

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Quoting: Liam DaweGalaxy works on Linux with Wine too, has done for ages.

Not in my experience...I've been failing to get it to work for a few years now.

I stopped caring some time ago, though.

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