

Metro and Unity Are Teenage Girls With Fluorescent Hair - JeremyMorgan
http://www.jeremymorgan.com/blog/programming/metro-and-unity-are-teenage-girls-with-fluorescent-hair/

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mycroftiv
There are a lot of problems with Metro and Unity, but starting your essay by
ridiculing the fashion choices of non-conformist teen girls is absolutely the
wrong way to frame the discussion. The essay would be much stronger without
the off-target metaphor of the title and first paragraph.

~~~
jamesmiller5
The metaphor chosen is weak because it requires a generalization of others
choices that is false.

"Remember the girls in school who were not overly ugly or attractive yet still
wanted to be the center of attention?"

No, I remember individuals who died their hair because _they_ liked the style
and wanted to express what it meant to them.

~~~
JeremyMorgan
I think you missed the point.

~~~
jamesmiller5
In all sincerity I appreciate the concern, and I do understand the comparison
the author has made, I even agree with some of the observations.

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slurgfest
This is a matter of polish. If Unity were as fast as synapse, and would ease
up on the configurability issue (like Gnome Shell has with its cool extensions
site), it would be head and shoulders better than the tired old start menu.

Ubuntu was never 'targeting hackers'. That is why they used to use slogans
like 'linux for humans'. However, they always have and still do provide a full
repo of packages, including xubuntu, lubuntu, etc. which anyone who claims to
be a 'hacker' should have ZERO problem installing. As always, Ubuntu is a
Linux distro, i.e. they provide packages, which is a very basic difference
from what you are getting out of Windows.

I found the analogy distastefully sexist (some of the smartest people I have
known dyed their hair funny colors, for fun) and the article to be mostly a
long, entitled rant.

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dpark
So in this metaphor, are you the crotchety old man at the mall passing
judgement against the teenage girls? Imagining you're fighting societal decay
when really you're just xenophobic?

~~~
Latricerzj
A crotchety old man with a motorola brick phone and a HUGE PC sitting at home

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emehrkay
A better analogy for Windows 8 is a recently divorced older man who decides
that the club scene is where he should be, so he starts dressing differently
in an attempt to attract younger mates. However, he can still be dad to his
teenage kids, but prefers that they call him by his new nickname: P-money.

"Dad, ugghh, I mean _pmoney_..."

Some of the best ADULTS that i've worked with had pink hair, tattoos, and were
into things like roller derby, they never "got over it."

~~~
sp332
To be fair, tattoos are permanent :)

------
mhd
_"If they provide some sort of functionality for your device you’ll gladly
install a new OS every 6 months. You want flashy and new, not old and stale.
You want to be able to stand 50 feet away and know that your operating is
different from the rest. If you want stability and proven formulas, you’d get
an Apple product."_

Unity applications haven't changed a lot since it came out, still using
basically the same gtk3 theme. And what was that "drastic" UI change? A
Quicksilver-/Vista-/KDE-like search functionality for programs? Sure, a few
hardcore users were bothered, but mainly because it didn't look like Win95 all
of a sudden. The main apps are still the same. Metro _is_ a big change, but
underneath there's still the same old GUI, let's see if the new one doesn't go
the way of OS X Dashboard on normal desktop devices (I'm not meant enough to
cite Bob).

Now, in what regard is Apple more stable? Sure, iOS isn't changing a lot, as
the visible OS functionality is still close to 0, mostly being an app launcher
and providing the basic APIs. But don't tell me that Lion's scroll handling
(weird/non-existant scroll-bars, scroll wheels heading in the wrong direction)
or "Mission Control" is the epitome of stability. Never mind the whole
skeuomorphic shtick or the "Save As" debacle. And decrying half-yearly updates
soon after Mountain Lion came out?

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PaulHoule
I wouldn't put them in the same class.

I love Ubuntu Linux... when I ssh into it. From the viewpoint of a hardcore
unix command line programmer, putty on Windows is much better than all the
various *terms that come with Ubuntu, all of whom feature their own unique of
fubared cut and paste. (xterm is better than most, but in 2012 the scroll
wheel on the middle button conflicts with the cut-and-paste use)

I only have one X Windows application I need so I can pretty much ignore
Unity.

As for Metro, I can say that the Metro launcher is a better launcher for
desktop apps than the start button used to be. I see some promise in the Metro
UI, and my experience as a Silverlighter in a past life leads me to believe it
should be fun to program for.

On the other hand, there are hardly any apps for Metro and the ones Microsoft
supplies really suck in the preview version. There's the "XBox Live"
application where it seems you can't play any games (even minesweeper) if you
don't have an XBox.

What the hell is this? Is this just "iTunes" for the XBox or is every Win 8
system going to be an XBox now?

Watch a video from your hard drive in the Win 8 preview and when you're done
you'll see teasers for all of these videos that you might be able to buy if
you were able to buy any at all, etc...

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BenoitEssiambre
Putting Ubuntu in the same boat as Windows 8 is not fair. Ubuntu has a much
simpler UI that hasn't been split into confusing dual tablet/desktop
interfaces.

Contrast this:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6z6hn6wZlg&feature=play...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6z6hn6wZlg&feature=player_embedded)

with:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fsyb-ttcw>

My only gripe with Unity is that there is no single click workspace switcher
instead they copied the stupid OSX two click "Spaces" UI. The single click
switcher has been on linux since like 1992 and was an aspect Apple had clearly
half assed when 'borrowing' the linux interface. I don't know why Unity copied
the botched version.

~~~
danoprey
Is that a big issue? I don't use the UI for switching workspaces, just ctrl-
alt-arrow key. Works perfectly and faster than clicking.

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px1999
What the post says makes sense if you assume that it's an entirely cosmetic
change, which it's not.

YMMV on the styles (I'm undecided on them), but there's a ton of stuff under
the hood that just couldn't be slapped into the desktop, without huge
drawbacks or compromises. In the second section the post kind of recognizes
this saying they're doing it because "the world is going mobile"/low power,
but then immediately goes on with "It's change simply for the sake of change",
and I don't think it can be both. Simple squares, non-overlapping windows and
text rather than (pixel shader'd) graphics aren't just an aesthetic thing,
there's a fair amount of practicality in there.

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Kurtz79
I can't speak for Windows 8, but I'm a 'hacker', and I'm using Unity right
now, I don't see what's the fuss about it.

I hate the sidebar, just like I hate the Windows Start Menu, but I can't see
any reason to use it(then again I'm a vim person, and keyboard/shortcut
oriented).

I love being able to call up the search window and select the app or document
I'm looking for in two/three keystrokes, tops, much faster than looking it up
in a menu with a mouse.

If I want to see which apps are active or switch on the fly then I go ALT-TAB
and ALT-tilde.

You can use the interface like a power user or a general user, you are given
the option to do both.

~~~
JeremyMorgan
Most people I've talked to hate Unity, a few say it's "OK" and a tiny fraction
actually like it. If you like it and can use it that's great, but most people
don't and their opinions are being ignored by Canonical.

~~~
slurgfest
Ubuntu is nothing but a Linux distribution. The job of a distribution is to
provide packages, not dictate to you which packages you must use.

I use Ubuntu because it seems to still be the desktop distro most widely
supported by third-party apps and drivers, and I have had good success with
release upgrades. Otherwise, if I had any problem with Ubuntu's package repos,
there's no reason not to use Debian or Fedora instead. Among desktop distros,
Debian stable is great if you think Ubuntu LTS doesn't have a long enough
lifespan, Fedora is great if you have a little more experience with Linux and
want faster package updates. Both Debian and Fedora have always had more
'hacker cred' than Ubuntu without losing the benefits of being mainstream
distros, if that is what you are looking for. If you want even more hacker
cred, try BSDs, Slackware, Arch, Gentoo.

Canonical isn't forcing anything upon you or anyone else. They aren't doing
anything unethical with Unity's design. Nor is there anything to distinguish
your opinion as more worth listening to than others'. As a private company, it
is Canonical's choice how they spend their money and try to build market
share. You can type 'sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop' in seconds. You
aren't paying anything for it. And there are really no external forces pushing
you to use Ubuntu over anything else. It's just a distribution of packages.
Serve yourself however you please - this shouldn't be a problem for you, since
you are complaining that Ubuntu has abandoned 'hackers'.

------
7D8
The biggest problem with Unity (for ME!!!!) is its performance, I have issues
with how it behaves on a dual screen. Otherwise its perfectly fine. It's the
OS X dock on the left hand side. To me, Metro is a larger start menu that's
faster than the other ones and I don't use the full screen metro apps on my
desktop or laptop, although they make perfect sense on a tablet; although I'm
sure some people will and it will be fine. A lot of people maximize their
windows and use them, so why not give them no chrome and just all window.

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mtgx
I do not like Unity and its sidebar, and I'm saying that as a non-regular
Linux user, which I assume puts me in the target market for Ubuntu, strangely
enough.

I also do think the Metro UI is a passing fad, of which we'll probably get
bored within a year, and if Windows 9 continues using it, it won't feel that
exciting by then, especially considering it still gets in the way of using the
PC as people are used to. We've had this sort of "UI for kids" trend with
websites before, and it will probably pass just as quickly as it did back
then:

[http://cdn.iwastesomuchtime.com/5192012043239windows8vsaol.j...](http://cdn.iwastesomuchtime.com/5192012043239windows8vsaol.jpeg)

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Ramonaxvh
Well that's one way to put it!

