

Mark Shuttleworth announces Ubuntu 11.04 will use desktop version Unity - hasenj
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/ubuntu-11-04-unity-default-desktop/

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senko
For better or worse, it becomes more and more sensible to think about Ubuntu
as a separate operating system, built on top of technologies like Linux,
Debian or GNOME. Sort of like Android is built on top of Linux and Java,
except less extreme, or what HTC and other handset makers are doing on top of
Android. And on the more extreme example, one could argue Apple did the same
with BSD and Mach.

If the platform is commoditized, it's relatively "easy" for companies to build
a new personality in the way they think will add value. Canonical's great push
forward was and is realizing that one of the biggest problem with Linux
desktop nowadays is UX, and they're trying hard to fix that.

Personally, I prefer GNOME Shell and I think it's going to rock, especially on
tablets. I've tried Unity in Maverick on a few netbooks, just for a few
minutes each, since it's default for live install image. I do think it lacks
polish and stability and, compared to Moblin/Meego, it's still got a long way
to go towards tablet friendlyness.

But I love the fact that there are options [0], and that Linux Desktop, aside
from never having its year, is a viable platform on which people can
experiment and build cool stuff, even if the end users never learn that under
this Ubuntu (or Fedora, ...) operating system there's something geeks have
holy wars about.

[0] Then there is, obviously, KDE, which a great many people use and love. But
this is a comment about GNOME technologies :)

EDIT: markup

~~~
djacobs
> But I love the fact that there are options.

In a year when we've seen iOS increasingly restrict its own ecosystem, limit
options it doesn't like (see the current story about Jobs nixing the
orientation lock on the iPad) ... and even start to take over The Mighty
Desktop (see OS X Lion), that thought is a breath of fresh air.

Nuff said.

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YooLi
I think it's a great move. They were wasting time and energy in spats with
Gnome. Now they can do what they want with the desktop without anyone getting
upset that they are not trying hard enough to work their changes in upstream
or adding features that aren't wanted upstream.

~~~
aphexairlines
> They were wasting time and energy in spats with Gnome.

Gnome is much more than just metacity or gnome-shell. Even with Unity, Ubuntu
will still depend on upstream gnome software for its desktop.

~~~
YooLi
No one said they weren't going to include gnome software. This whole new ui
issue stems from differences in opinion in UI/UX and there was a lot wasted
going back and forth with Gnome about them.

~~~
jdub
Can you document or reference the _"lot wasted going back and forth"_? That
sounds like a convenient rationale, but doesn't appear to reflect reality.

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BCM43
For those wondering what unity is, here is a great presentation about it by
Mark Shuttleworth at DebConf10.

[ogv file]

[http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-
meetings/2010/...](http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-
meetings/2010/debconf10/high/1115_The_Unity_Desktop_Environment.ogv)

~~~
seltzered
streaming version: [http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/mark-shuttleworth-
talks-u...](http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/08/mark-shuttleworth-talks-unity-
at-debconf-10/)

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barnaby
I haven't tried Unity yet because I heard to wasn't quite stable. But from
what I saw of a friends laptop who had it installed, it looks PERFECT for
netbooks, even tablets (now that we have multi-touch support built in). I
think this makes sense seeing as the future of computers (desktops included)
will probably be touchable interfaces that can use that kind of layout.

Sweet!

~~~
hasenj
I tried it, unfortunately doesn't seem to work on my laptop :/

I'm not sure what's the deal with it, seems to have some special hardware
requirements. I can't fathom what these are, seeing as I have an ATI Radeon
video card.

~~~
SkyMarshal
Atom processor?

~~~
hasenj
I was under the impression that Atom is weaker than Core-i7

~~~
SkyMarshal
I was under the impression that Ubuntu Netbook Remix only supports Atom. It's
the only processor listed in the UNR System Requirements:

[https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequire...](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements#Ubuntu%20Netbook%20Edition)

~~~
harisenbon
I don't know what range of processors it supports, but it does run in LiveUSB
mode on my ThinkPad x60 (core2Duo) for what it's woth.

~~~
SkyMarshal
Atom is still x86, but UNR has made some Atom-specific optimizations to the
kernel. I don't know the details, but there may be some partial
incompatibilities that prevent it working on some non-atom x86 cpus but not
others.

~~~
bilban
I installed 10.04 netbook edition on an old Dell inspiron, and it didn't
grumble. Didn't do any subtle animation effects either, but that wasn't a
biggie. Was a little slow flipping between the global menu and other apps
which was a bit annoying for a 1.5ghz laptop with 512MB of ram! I was alarmed
to see the omission of virtual desktops, and menu integration was a little
odd. The person who received their updated laptop appears quite chuffed, given
the choice again I would have used bog standard Ubuntu, but I was hoping the
netbook edition might have some sensible power saving features.

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Ocho-Bits
On it's current state it's pretty slow and bloated. Let's hope that on six
months they can fix the suck. Kudos for trying something new and not copying
OSX or Windows 7.

~~~
mishmash
Did you look at their Dock drawing and menu titles? Straight ripoff of the Mac
OS X Dock and Dashboard dock.

~~~
hugh3
In fairness, pretty much _every_ user interface feature that isn't a command
line has been copied from the mac at some point in the last 26 years.

~~~
adambyrtek
To be even more fair, Steve Jobs was so impressed by the innovative graphical
user interface he had seen at Xerox PARC that he copied many of its features
in the original Macintosh.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing. We all stand on the shoulders of
giants.

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JofArnold
Fingers crossed this encourages Parallels to improve their support of
compositing in Ubuntu VMs (since, I assume from another article, Unity
required compositing). I've still not yet had it working reliably. Any idea if
Parallels 6 works any better?

~~~
kijinbear
VirtualBox too. I've never been able to make Unity on Maverick Netbook Edition
work on VirtualBox 3.2.x.

~~~
JofArnold
I hear you! VMWare Fusion also has these issues for me.

I miss compiz (or whatever it's called these days) when devving under Ubuntu
under OSX :/

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kingkilr
Cool. I always thought Unity looked awesome, I'll be happy to have it on my
desktop.

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metamemetics
I've already completely removed gnome-panel in favor of just Gnome-Do and
Docky. Don't see the appeal in Unity. Looks like my gnome-panel setup used to:
skinny left bar with Talika window list plugin. I don't see the need to have
panels to go all the way across a screen dimension anymore.

~~~
technomancy
All I use gnome-panel for is the wifi applet and the the load monitor. I make
it auto-hide and bind a key to show it in order to save screen space. But I
don't see the appeal of Docky over gnome-panel--isn't it just for launching
programs? xbindkeys is way better for that.

~~~
metamemetics
i use it just as a windowlist autohiding on bottom to show open programs. I
like the UI\feel more than a panel extending across the whole screen. Also,
the clock docklet is better than the default gnome-panel system clock. I also
really enjoy the Timer docklet as well. I open new programs with Gnome DO by
typing and do not pin stuff to it.

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gord
Is this a new C api [competing with KDE / QT and GTK] ?

Why not use Javascript/SVG/HTML5 for Linux desktop UI ? It will happen
eventually, anyway, Im not the only person saying this.

The browser stack is a better alternative to X-Windows protocol, on balance -
you can keep the advantages of client/server separation by using
ajax+websockets.

Or go the Node.js route and expose OS parts as Javascript API.

Either way you'll have an environment many more people will enjoy hacking UI
on, and therefore better chance of improving Linux desktop.

Although its open source, its still another API that is used nowhere else.. so
its expensive for a developer to jump in.

~~~
pufuwozu
Unity is just a window manager - not a new toolkit (you still use GTK, Qt or
whatever else).

But you're right to think web technologies could work elsewhere. Gnome Shell
is being developed in JavaScript amd CSS. See also the Palm Pre.

<http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell>

~~~
jdub
Unity (and GNOME Shell for that matter) is probably best described as a
"shell" rather than a window manager.

Like the old school GNOME Panel (and taskbar in Windows, Dock in OS X), the
shell is for launching things, the entry point to getting your computer to do
things.

Both Unity and GNOME Shell rely on an external window manager, albeit in an
interesting way: They are _plugins_ for mutter (a Clutter-based version of
Metacity). When Unity switches to Compiz, it may be as a plugin or as a
separate processs, not sure.

~~~
pufuwozu
I thought I used the wrong term. Thanks for clarifying the differences.

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robwgibbons
Aaaand I just stopped using Ubuntu as my desktop distro.

