My OperaGnome 3 shell versus Unity: are they matured enough?
Saturday, April 23, 2011 5:32:15 PM
To my amazement both new desktops had evolved much into the same direction. However both still showing me details that I don't like so much. As I've written earlier: it appears to me a sideways development instead of one in a forward direction. That is: for my desktop computer. Owners of laptops, netbooks and other mobiles might think otherwise. Both Gnome 3 as well as Unity look promising. Yet, I am inclined to favour Unity for leaving the user more options to tailor his/her desktop, whereas Gnome 3 offers a rather inflexible display (without Compiz) that comes pretty close to the preset, corny Apple OSX environment. It is still too early to decide, but my intuition tells me that Gnome 3 with Unity (instead of G3s) could have the future. Most importantly while I noticed that WINE -to run certain (professional) Windows programs, but also CrossOver- produced strangest results with the Gnome 3 shell. Photoshop worked, not without hassle, on Unity. However it failed to produce a stable or even visible main window with menu's on Gnome 3 shell. The fact that certain popular Windows programs don't function well, may become a decisive factor for the acceptance of both new desktops. It's a dangerous road taken by Canonical and Gnome. A wheel that is round, shouldn't be made 'more' round than it already was. In that respect I assume that both new desktops are more hardware inspired (touch-screens), than a logical development of a basically and widely accepted UI-concept. Neither new desktop gave me the impression to have matured enough still. If the majority of users dislike both, it could throw back Ubuntu and Gnome a year or more. The user is and remains the judge. The advantages of both new developments are decimal for the average Linux user. I agree, for Unity there are still 6 days to go... But I'll wait until 11.10 to see where we've arrived by then!Url movie: http://youtu.be/joBXc3IGRBw
Url movie: http://youtu.be/oFCnNs8jbgw
Here are my 2 screenshots of Photoshop in Gnome 3 with Wine and Unity with Wine resp.:
And by contrast my current Gnome-Mint-10 desktop. Note the subtle difference from Unity:
Should the in May to be released implementation of Gnome 3 in Mint 11 "Katya" not improve on the behaviour of Windows programs like Photoshop, I see no need to change my current Mint 10 and self-tailored desktop. The differences between my current desktop and Unity is very marginal already. Furthermore I absolutely and profoundly dislike the absence of wobbly (or 'shivering') windows in Gnome 3. The very old-style, rigid windows that are present now give me shivers instead! Not offering Compiz-like effects, more than (too often) zooming workspaces, appears to me a fundamental flaw in Gnome 3. Clever Canonical (the 'Ubuntu' producer) had a new Compiz interface developed for Unity. It seems to me basically impossible for Gnome 3 to re-implement that in their new release because of programming (language) differences. Hence I firmly believe that the combination of Gnome 3 + improved Unity could next year (2012) appear to be the new road to the future...
John
(64%)
Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue # Saturday, April 23, 2011 11:22:02 PM
Dr. John v. Kampennepmak2000 # Sunday, April 24, 2011 4:08:24 AM
PS. On the other hand I also believe that Gnome 3 shell could have made it, had it incorporated Compiz or some 'alike'. The inflexibility of G3, its 'stiff' windows as main and for me decisive (!) issue, as well as its constant 'zooming' and 'hin und her' (as my Bavarian wife calls it), amongst other functional details, is what could make or break this development. Furthermore: do WE need it, do I need it? That is the ever asked question by me... Do I need a coffee? Yes.... Do I need 'no menu's'? No. People follow their habits and hate 'learning curves'. The compromise is called 'Unity', which is nicely inconsistent, leaves it to the user to create his/her good old Windows desktop mess etc. It is more convenient for touch-screens only. Why not improve the current basis: a renewed GTK, Metacities and Compiz? Particularly the latter, if speeds could be maintained. Both Unity and G3 go fairly slooowwww on my 3.5G computer.
Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue # Sunday, April 24, 2011 10:14:46 AM
I switched to the desktop version with Maverick because of Unity. I liked the old 'Netbook Edition' which was just an user interface on top of Gnome anyway. But then Unity came along, disguised as the 'Netbook Edition' but with behaviour that was non-intuitive and annoying.
In that implementation, you couldn't even get a 24h clock.
If I upgrade at all, I might be trying Lubuntu or Xubuntu as my default install. I'm also going to give OpenSUSE a try as I hear that distro is very good, especially for netbooks and laptops.
I've also decided last night that I don't like the Upgrade Manager's persistence.
One of the patches last night was simply adding compatibility for certain hardware. Since all my hardware is already supported, I really didn't need that update.
On the plus side, hardware support under Ubuntu just can't be compared to that of other distros that I've tried previously, let alone Windows.
Sn3ipen # Sunday, April 24, 2011 6:06:57 PM
For newcomers this can be a real mess. I am already anxious about upgrading my "mediacenter" computer. Me and my girlfriend have a shared computer in The living room, with our LCD TV as a screen. We basically use it as a file server, playing music and watching movies. She struggled hard enough to learn Ubuntu and she is using Spotify free. That is the Windows version trough Wine on it. Now I think she like it better than Vista at least. But I don't want to upgrade to early and find out that she hates it or something. I really like that we still can chose fallback mode at least. But newcomers won't know about this feature and in Ubuntu 11.10 there ain't any options like that. So until then I hope Gnome 3 or Unity have matured enough for us to do the switch. I cant just install Xubuntu on it because it is to different in many ways and she wont probably like it.
Back to the point. Personally I use to find workarounds for most things, but that is not true for most people.
Dr. John v. Kampennepmak2000 # Monday, April 25, 2011 7:18:53 AM
That says it all - and indeed I need to profoundly (!!) change the BIOS to satisfy Linux and myself using my very fast GA-PA55-UD5 board! Yes, of course I could run Ubuntu or Apple's OSX the 'standard' way, but at 70% of the available power... Best way to keep your competition at arm-length distance.
However, having worked myself 30 years ago on Mac OS-6 and understanding the backgrounds of the desktop layout, I am very skeptical about tampering with c.q. 'improving' that DTop-allegory. Huge icons and huge screen characters expose the deviation onto a sideway's approach that both Ubuntu and Gnome manifest. That is tmho why Linux Mint is waiting with changes. It's not enough for me to claim "you can switch back" when the underlying engine not fully allows this.
Wise to wait! My wife wasn't enthusiastic at all so far as well.
Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue # Monday, April 25, 2011 11:20:26 AM
Dr. John v. Kampennepmak2000 # Tuesday, April 26, 2011 8:41:50 PM