Gnome Shell and Unity

[mmesantos1]

I would like to chime in on this conversation if I may, just to give you my feelings on both of these DE's. I have ran both for some time now and have watched them both mature with time as I thought they would though I will admit I thought Gnome-Shell would be the better of the 2. But after giving Unity a real try I can say now that I like both DE's equally though I am still a Gnome Fan at heart, can't help that.
But for those of you who watch the screenshot thread you will have noticed I have been running Unity for a good deal of time now both in 11.10 and in 12.10 Alpha1, Beta1 and was very happy with the changes that Ubuntu made to Unity and how well it did run. Even in 12.04 being it is a Dev ISO I had no show stopping issues and was happy with Unity there as well. I can say it is customizable and very much so now. I will probably find my self running Unity the majority of the time if they keep up there great work on it. Well again just my 2 cents on this and thank you for listening to me ramble on about it.

Marc

[exploder]

Nice post Marc! I have noticed your screenshots and what you were running.

[mmesantos1]

Thank you Don and thank you for starting this thread, has been some good reading hearing all the feedback about the 2 DE's.

[bimsebasse]

So where have you chosen to place the launcher in this new customisable Unity?

[mmesantos1]

I have run it at the left side and the bottom, either way I can work fine with both placements.

[craig10x]

Hey Marc! Glad to see we got you over to the "unity/gnome3 shell" side
I have 12.04 hard installed now and using it with unity and really enjoy it...as i mentioned earlier in this thread, it was all a matter of giving it a few weeks with an open mind/positive attitude and before you knew it, i got "hooked"

There have been many improvements and new features being added all the time...which continues to make it even nicer to use...

[mmesantos1]

Hey Craig,
Good to talk to you again and good to hear you gave it a honest go, I had to do the same thing, previous to that only cared for Gnome-Shell but I made my self use Unity for 3 weeks and found it was very usable and after using for longer got used to it and how it all works. Had to go into it with an open mind just like you said and found my self liking it after all.
And I agree after using 12.04 for a bit I was happy with the changes made and will continue to keep an eye on the dev work. Once 12.04 final is out I will do a fresh intall and see how things go from there, if all goes well will more than likely use 12.04 during the entire life cycle. I want to run it the entire course to see how it all works out, I have not run a Distro version for that long and being 12.04 is an LTS this will be a great test. Well sorry for going on so much but love talking about this stuff. Great talking with you my friend and thanks for your input.

Marc

[exploder]

I am seeing more and more people that give Unity a fair chance like it after awhile. I see more people interested in Gnome Shell too. I think it just took some time for these environments to mature a little for people to give them a good try. I think these new desktop environments are going to go a long way with people that have thought about trying Linux. I have noticed lately that more commercial software is being added to the Ubuntu Software Center, magazines, books and some pretty darn nice games. Availability of games for Linux was really holding Linux back but things are really turning around. Seeing more games available for Linux to me is a sign that things are going in the right direction.

I see a lot of good things happening lately, things I never thought possible. Even people that want the traditional desktop will not be disappointed, there is Mate, Gnome Classic, and Cinnamon and all of these should be pretty well tested by the time Ubuntu 12.04 and Mint 13 come out. My wife has been on the Fedora machine all day today! My wife would be considered a noob to Linux and she would never admit it but she seems to like Gnome Shell.

Time will tell but I think all of the new ideas being developed for Gnome Shell and Unity are going to finally put Linux into the mainstream. Bug number one in Ubuntu is Microsoft's domination of the market, so it's safe to say that Canonical is really trying their best with 12.04.

[mmesantos1]

Hi Don,
I really do agree with your statements, this actually reminds me of when the first KDE 4 was released, as a mater of fact. Really got the same rap and then as it matured allot of people started to love it. So I think it really comes down to getting people to accept change and also giving the new DE time to mature and get all the bugs worked out. So with Gnome-Shell and all the new extentions it really has taken off and Unity with all the new features and Lenses it also has made a change for the better.
So I guess given enough time these new DE's will all be ready for mainsteams use from standard users and will be more widely accepted by the community and develepers. This will really give Ubuntu and Linux a chance to shine finally in the mainstream OS market. Well thats how I see it at least.

[MALsPa]

Some people aren't gonna like GNOME Shell and/or Unity no matter how much time they spend with it. I'm thinking of how I feel about KDE4's Kickoff Application Launcher; can't stand it, even after all this time! Glad it's easy to change to the Classic menu style.

[craig10x]

Some people aren't gonna like GNOME Shell and/or Unity no matter how much time they spend with it. I'm thinking of how I feel about KDE4's Kickoff Application Launcher; can't stand it, even after all this time! Glad it's easy to change to the Classic menu style.

And although i have never really completely warmed to kde (having worked with it numerous times) i myself had the opposite experience, the "kick off" menu i actually took an instant liking to and always preferred it over the fan out style menu...it's probably because i have always preferred a "slab style" menu with search bar...which is what attracted me to mint in the first place (along with the 1 panel on the bottom like windows and kde)...

So, i always liked slab menus and also docks (having worked with macs for a time before discovering linux and switching over)...that's probably part of the reason i took to unity fairly quickly...And though i prefer 1 panel on bottom rather then the top (like ubuntu is now with unity) i don't mind it MAINLY because of the "global menu" which restores the space i'd otherwise miss having...

I am fond of some kde programs (which i add to my gnome installs) particularly K3b which i feel is much superior to brasero...though i'd say mostly i prefer gnome programs myself...

[cromat]

If I may chime into this Chat as well...

I started using unity when it came out and hated it. It was slow and buggy and had nothing I was looking for. So I switched to Gnome 3 Shell on my laptop and Desktop (with 3 monitors). I love the css customization, the plugin support, the minimalist look, and the generate workspaces as you need them. I had been running it for 2 months until about a week ago. On the laptop being a 13 inch screen (1600x900) I found window management to be somewhat of a nightmare once I opened a lot of windows at work have more than 5 open becomes and issue without a dock. The layout overview scattered the windows into the visible space and made them nearly impossible to distinguish between. On the desktop with the 3 monitors I dealt with the fact that the hot corner could only be on the far left monitor and got used to it, however, I continued to see problems with gnome 3 needing to redraw the windows and then not drawing the title bars.

So I decided to finally give unity a chance and installed the latest 12.04. I have found that as long as you use the certified proprietary drivers I have had no problems in unity not drawing correctly on the 3 monitors. I also love the fact that the launcher can exist on the middle monitor and work properly on it. Its my preference to have the middle monitor the primary one. I also noticed in 12.04 the speed of unity atleast on my machine is actually much snappier and faster than gnome 3 shell. The Unity team has really done a good job continuing to improve upon this brainchild. Now I won't say unity is perfect there is plenty to improve and still some noticeable bugs that cause usability problems (some of them regression bugs in unity 5., however, all the bugs I found have already been filed and most fixed for a bug update being released soon.

The other thing which I am going to argue for Unity is the Ubuntu for Android and Ubuntu for TV, getting use to this interface and then being able to utilize it through other devices and software is awesome. Consistent user experiences is what UI Developers strive for and it seems they are succeeding.

This once die-hard "gnome 3 shell" is the way to go is quickly becoming a unity fan. I however am very excited to see they continue to evolve and add competitive features. Without competition, I would probably still all be using Windows 3.1 or Dos because no one challenged the ideas. Cinnamon, Unity and Gnome 3 Shell are the big three I am guessing we are going to see continue to evolve and challenge each other to be better, and we will all use what works best for ourselves.

Without choice you get M$. Without freedom you get Apple.
Just my 2 cents...