As someone who would like to use Linux as the main OS, but doesn't think Ubuntu is yet that consumer-friendly, I believe this is much needed. What I dislike most about the Linux ecosystem is the applications. Most of them look like they were designed in the pre-2000 era. How is Ubuntu or any Linux distro to become a consumer OS when the apps are so ugly and not modern? How will it attract consumers in the market and increase demand for it?
So I hope they put a lot of emphasis on the design tools and design resources. They need to do it at the level Apple, Google (with Holo) and Microsoft has done it (with Metro). Make it extremely easy for developers to make beautiful apps with stock resources.
But before they even begin to do this, I strongly urge them to take another look at Unity, and rethink it a little before they go all-in with it for the next 5-10 years. I still find Unity slow and frustrating (usability wise). Unless the apps will also be made to be touch-ready, forget about the idea of having the UI look tablet-ready. It doesn't help much if only the OS is touch-ready, but all the apps aren't, and if it's only the OS, then it will just annoy the PC users.
I also think they need to further hide some of the complexities of the Linux OS, like all the package stuff and command line stuff. A normal user doesn't even want to see that, and will freak out if he does, because he won't understand what it is, and will just get the perception that Linux is too hard for him.
I like Unity quite a lot and find it very attractive, same for the most commonly used apps. GNOME Terminal looks great with dimmed transparency, Firefox looks the same as everywhere else but integrates with Unity nicely, Rhytmbox is OK, and all the other GNOME apps -- gPodder, gedit, nautilus -- while not stunning, look fairly modern and, most importantly, don't get in the way too much.
> I discovered alt+~ yesterday
Press and hold Super (Windows) key for a list of most useful Unity keyboard shortcuts. Even that list is pretty!
I think that's the problem I have. I don't care about a pretty desktop, I care more about functionality. Ingrained muscle memory is hard to change -- if alt+tab was the standard for 15 years, why should it be shifted? Similar little issues plague my Unity usage, not even to mention the lack of default configurability. If I want the right side or bottom of my screen to be the dock, it should be so. Instead I'm stuck with having the left side of my right screen being where I make an attempt to find the dock. Unacceptable, in my view.
Shifting paradigms require buy-in, and Unity just doesn't have it from me yet.
Before Unity, iirc, alt+tab default behavior switched between windows, regardless of program groupings (e.g. Thunderbird compose message and main windows).
I just wanted to say that I appreciate you acknowledging the need to buy-in and being almost completely unjudgemental of things that are preferences. I think your condemnation of Unity's configurability is pretty spot on, though I'm not sure how much of that is deficit vs intentional.
For what it's worth, Apple's been grouping windows by application, GNOME now does it, elementary OS does it, Android/iOS/WP7 arguably do it. Honestly, Windows and KDE(?} are the only modern DE that don't do it. I'm not saying that makes it de-facto right or that you must accept it at all though.
Also, I know in GNOME at least you can configure it. I only say because if that's a big issue stopping you from like Gnome-shell or unity, you might check it out. I know I was blown away at: one, how offensive the Amazon results were in Unity and two, once that was remove, how really, really, really good they've managed to get Unity to me. Compiz will never not be crashy for me... we just have too much history... but Unity itself, I was pretty surprised. Polish (not the people) helps, a lot.
> For what it's worth, Apple's been grouping windows by application, GNOME now does it, elementary OS does it, Android/iOS/WP7 arguably do it. Honestly, Windows and KDE(?} are the only modern DE that don't do it. I'm not saying that makes it de-facto right or that you must accept it at all though.
Fair enough. For now I run OpenBox with Tint2. It's quite minimal, but it does everything I need for a GUI at present. My poor wife on our home computer though... :D She's pretty techie but still Unity is a hard sell for her.
Perhaps Ubuntu could have a "Developer's Build" that includes Unity and other goodies as default, and a "Consumer Build" that defaults to Gnome Classic with many configurability options. Just throwing that out there.
iirc, OSX behaves in the exact same way as Ubuntu. Alt-Tab, to switch between applications, and Alt-something to switch between windows of an application. I could be wrong though, it's been over a year since I used OSX now...
Hmm, maybe the reason I like Unity is because my previous machine was a Mac and everything just makes sense. I guess if you're coming from Windows, you're going to get annoyed with certain things, but only the same things you'd get annoyed with if you were moving to OSX.
Are you serious? If that's true I owe you a huge "Thank You!"
Every time I have to put my hands on a friend's Mac (to show/help/diagnose something) the single most frustrating issue is trying to alt-tab between multiple windows within an application (mostly browsers). I do it, and instead it goes to another application.
I have asked every single one of them for such a hotkey get blank stares, and reluctantly use mouse instead. All of my Google-Fu never helped much either.
While we're on the topic, is there a hotkey to toggle maximize/restore of a window in OS X? I was impressed with the way Windows 7 handled it, so much so that I've emulated it in all of my various Linux configurations.
It doesn't help much if only the OS is touch-ready, but all the apps aren't, and if it's only the OS, then it will just annoy the PC users.
This is exactly my worry - an SDK for what exactly? I have been in favor of having one standard API/ABI for GUI applications in Linux for years now. Given the fragmentation in Linux, the only road to succes is if one vendor (e.g. Canonical) pushes it. But since the smartphone and tablet revolution, Linux has two problems: there is no standard for PC nor touch interfaces.
So I hope they put a lot of emphasis on the design tools and design resources. They need to do it at the level Apple, Google (with Holo) and Microsoft has done it (with Metro). Make it extremely easy for developers to make beautiful apps with stock resources.
But before they even begin to do this, I strongly urge them to take another look at Unity, and rethink it a little before they go all-in with it for the next 5-10 years. I still find Unity slow and frustrating (usability wise). Unless the apps will also be made to be touch-ready, forget about the idea of having the UI look tablet-ready. It doesn't help much if only the OS is touch-ready, but all the apps aren't, and if it's only the OS, then it will just annoy the PC users.
I also think they need to further hide some of the complexities of the Linux OS, like all the package stuff and command line stuff. A normal user doesn't even want to see that, and will freak out if he does, because he won't understand what it is, and will just get the perception that Linux is too hard for him.