The Register writes about Linux Mint, Gnome3, Ubuntu

[igor83]

This article in The Register hit the nail on the head. It's difficult to see any future with Ubuntu, and too bad about Gnome3 as well. The good guys are KDE & Linux Mint, with its KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, and Mate flavors. A glance at DistroWatch shows Linux Mint now getting twice as many hits per day as Ubuntu, a trend that only accelerate in the future as more users become aware that Canonical no longer has their interests in mind.

I purchased a laptop with Ubuntu installed recently and didn't even consider keeping it. I just wiped the drive straight away and installed LM. Interestingly, the seller had an old version installed--11.04--which makes me wonder whether he didn't much care for Unity, either.

[MALsPa]

This part of one of the comments following the article "hit the nail on the head" for me:

"johnnytruant":

[GNOME Shell is] fast, clean and efficient for the way I use my computer. I accept it may not be for other people but I don't get why that causes so much hate, I really don't. It's fine. It's just a UI. I use loads of different UIs every day. They all have their issues, they all have their plus points. At least it's not TIFKAM (which is still fine, although a bit less fine). Not one of the non-techie people I've introduced to Gnome Shell have moaned about it, rather they're all commented on how nice and easy it is to use.

[MALsPa]

And, this one:

"Greg Eden"

To the author of this article.

You have made a lot of assertions, rehashing "what everybody knows". But can you back it up with real evidence? There are a lot of "news" items all repeating the same assertions, and all referencing each other and a comment by Linus Torvalds. In his time Linus has criticised every desktop, next year it will be KDE again.

How many Gnome Shell users are there in the world? How many Cinnamon, Unity, Xfce4, KDE and Enlightenment? A group of angry and noisy bloggers filling comments sections does not imply "everyone". I could almost guarantee that Unity would win by 20 million users (a rough estimate plucked from the air). Given the popularity of Fedora and Debian then Gnome Shell will be at number two (if not now, soon). Debian Wheezy will be Gnome Shell 3.4 by default (news items to the contrary have proven to be rubbish). Linuxmint might have a hundred thousand users, split over their desktop offerings. Cinnamon and Unity are merely alternate Gnome 3 shells, without Gnome they cease to exist.

I am a happy Debian Sid Gnome Shell user. There are possibly millions of Gnome Shell users, who knows? The difference is that we do not usually fill comments sections with angry comments. We just get on with using our computers. And given some of the rubbish printed above I think many of the commenters have never used Gnome Shell, or only in a trivial sense. I have themes, I can maximise and minimise, alt-tab., task switch. I do not know what Gnome Shell you are railing against but it is not the one I use. Locked down and not configurable? Seriously? https://extensions.gnome.org has 20 pages of extensions and growing. Gnome Shell can be bent and twisted in a myriad of ways using extensions and Gnome Tweak Tool. Gnome Shell leaves Gnome 2 in the dust for modifiability. Gnome 2s configuration superiority is another myth that "everybody knows" and rehashes without thought or research.

cheers

[igor83]

In regards to the article in the Register, I think the main focus is Ubuntu. I like Gnome Shell, because isn't it the basis for Linux Mint? Cinnamon, Mate? Good stuff.

My next desktop is going to be KDE though, because I've tried Dolphin and K3b, and both of those programs are just eons ahead of anything in the Gnome line.

I've noticed that Gthumb crashes a lot when it tries loading pictures passed by Dolphin. I don't notice it anymore though, because I uninstalled it, but I think I'd like to run Dolphin in a pure KDE environment rather than Xfce.

[mockturtl]

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=485846

If you open this bug again, I'm not going to close it, I'll just add 485846 to my email killfile. It's not like I'm going to get pressured from my boss to work on this if it's been opened a specific number of days.

Software isn't designed by committee where you have to rationalise every decision before you take it. Software is a vision, and I'm writing g-p-m to that grand plan. If you don't like it that's fine. Thanks.

Congratulations, Rich: you're still generating bad press for the project, after four years.

[igor83]

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=485846

If you open this bug again, I'm not going to close it, I'll just add 485846 to my email killfile. It's not like I'm going to get pressured from my boss to work on this if it's been opened a specific number of days.

Software isn't designed by committee where you have to rationalise every decision before you take it. Software is a vision, and I'm writing g-p-m to that grand plan. If you don't like it that's fine. Thanks.

Congratulations, Rich: you're still generating bad press for the project, after four years.

Heh heh, I can sympathize with a grumpy programmer though, especially one that's not getting paid, and I assume he's not being paid. Computers are so ornery, in their technological infancy as they are today, that those of us who must make them work, well, it's hard to keep a smile on the face all the time. That's why in many companies there's one layer of IT that does the work, and one layer of IT that interfaces with the customer. If all I had to do all day was drink coffee and chat with customers, why, that'd be just the thing.

I don't really know anything about Gnome3. I'm a linux novice. I do like Linux Mint though, and it seems so much better than the Ubuntu alternatives. So, that is why I thought the article in the Register had something to it. I don't see why Ubuntu can't just co-opt Linux Mint, merge, or something, let the Linux Mint people take over the design and the user interface.

[mockturtl]

I do like Linux Mint though, and it seems so much better than the Ubuntu alternatives.

I imagine the Unity and GNOME strategy meetings went like this:

"Okay, what's our target market?"

Apple customers? They spend money.

<taking notes> "Excellent. Who else?"

People who don't use computers!

"BAM! Love it. Give him a raise."

[from way in the back] Steve Jobs

*frowns* <shrugs> <writes it down>

[igor83]

I do like Linux Mint though, and it seems so much better than the Ubuntu alternatives.

I imagine the Unity and GNOME strategy meetings went like this:

"Okay, what's our target market?"

Apple customers? They spend money.

<taking notes> "Excellent. Who else?"

People who don't use computers!

"BAM! Love it. Give him a raise."

[from way in the back] Steve Jobs

*frowns* <shrugs> <writes it down>

That's about my take of the situation as well. Ubuntu & Windows are just chasing the big spenders, those with more money than ...other resources.

I wonder if Windows Ache (8) is any easier to network than Windows 7? I had a whopping big problem connecting my Linux computers to Windows 7. Same deal as with Windows XP, but I had figured out Windows XP already; installing Windows 7, I had to learn a whole new bag of tricks. Killed an entire day getting Windows 7 shares accessible from my Linux Mint computers, and no, this was not a Linux Mint problem, it was a Windows 7 problem. The Linux computers were both communicating with each other via the Network and they had been working fine with the old XP computer as well. Well, I finally figured out what was amiss. It seems to me that for $100, the operating system could at least have a halfway intelligent wizard for setting up the home network. Windows 7's wizard could not even cast a first level spell, such as Magic Missile. (D&D reference) In fact I don't think their wizard knows magic at all. As far as I can see Windows 7 is just a facelift over Windows XP, plus support for additional memory and hard drive space. I wish that operating system developers would make their systems easier to use, install, configure, and maintain, rather than fiddling around with the appearance of the thing.