
First look: Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) alpha 4 - drm237
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080202-first-look-ubuntu-8-04-hardy-heron-alpha-4.html
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simianstyle
Am I the only person that doesn't like the brown?

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dkokelley
You're not alone.

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rms
Thankfully, there's a config menu that lets you change the color, as long as
you pick a set of "controls" other than Human, You can have the Human icons
and window borders with any color though.

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spif
Strange how on the surface much of the UI looks copied from windows
(configuration screens, file copies, system monitor -- those tabs, yuk!).
Apart from the start menu, things look very similar. I haven't used Ubuntu
myself, but is this true? Is it very much like Windows?

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tx
Someone downmodded you for simply asking a question. I didn't know we had
Ubuntu nazis here...

The answer is yes and no. I cannot stand KDE because it reminds me of Winodws
too much. Gnome is more "authentic" - sure there are close/maximize/minimize
buttons, and hotkeys are the same. Gnome is much younger than Windows and
picking up established standards for keys wasn't a bad idea. One of the
reasons I went with FireFox instead of Opera some time ago was because FireFox
had all the hotkeys I was using with IE.

However, under the surface Gnome is very different from Win. For instance
windows can have two additional states: "vertically maximized" and
"horizontally maximized" - and there are hotkeys for both. Additionally there
are many little nice gems, like you can drag your windows around without use
of the title bar, just hold Alt key. Virtual desktops are also tightly
integrated, you can switch between the two and easily throw windows between
them.

I also love the menu bar at the top: it has everything on it. By everything I
mean literally "everything I want to see in front of my eyes at all times":
status of hardware, weather, shortcuts, etc.

But the real "bomb" IMO is Ubuntu's font rendering. On high DPI screens the
comfort of reading text is approaching that of paper. Granted, I am using non-
standard libcairo (font rendering) package and my settings are adjusted from
Ubuntu's defaults, but the point is that it's there: and going back to Windows
makes me feel crippled and tired after a while. I end up taking my Ubuntu
laptop to work and use it for web browsing and email, anything to take a break
from thin and low-contrast Windows fonts.

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sadiq
Interesting.

Have you got any more info on your custom libcairo setup and the settings
you've used?

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tx
Search for "Turner patches" on google. They enable native font hinting.

My font rendering settings are set to: (a) native hinter, (b) automatic
subpixel rendering, (c) slight hinting, (d) subpixel smoothing.

Settings a) and b) are set in dpkg-configure fontconfig-config and settings c)
and d) are set in Gnome.

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sadiq
Thanks!

