There's Little Love For Ubuntu's Unity Desktop

[KAMiKAZOW]

What makes you think they haven't designed a UI? They might have some super secret UI for months now

No, the don't. https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.ne...ty-form-factor was opened October 9th.

Finally, a new image for Linux. I don't know how this will turn out (good I hope) but at least for now all of you have got to admit: There's someone other then Google finally trying to do his own thing on the Linux desktop space. Never saw Suse/RedHat/Debian/the other mainstream distro's do that (apart from changing the icons in Gnome/KDE; which is just annoying).

Simply wrong. Look at SUSE's GNOME. It's very different from stock GNOME but the difference to Unity is that SUSE did that only by rearranging existing elements and writing a single new panel applet.

I'm pretty sure Compiz 0.9 can run without hardware acceleration. Unity will switch to that soon (if it hasn't switched already) so...

Not according to the blog post of a Canonical employee.

[etnlWings]

I was a little put off by this news item being 2/3rds reporting on forum posts. Oy vey. Also:

There is, however, presumably at least one bit of good news out of today's announcement. With Unity needing Compiz/Mutter to run, accelerated graphics drivers are a requirement.

The 0.9x branch/rewrite of Compiz makes compositing optional. That's probably a big part of the reason why Unity is switching to Compiz: they don't have to maintain a separate EFL-based netbook shell for systems which don't have 3D acceleration.





Anyway, the move to compiz is a relief, partially because I'm a Compiz user and partially because the current Unity shell needs to die. Hopefully the new Unity will just be a bunch of UI plugins for Compiz, which is something Compiz has needed forever: finally, being able to activate <insert compiz plugin functionality here> with an actual, honest to goodness button! No more hot-corners and keyboard shortcuts, being stupid and undiscoverable, respectively.

[KAMiKAZOW]

The 0.9x branch/rewrite of Compiz makes compositing optional.

Does it? I've read that 0.9x theoretically supports different back-ends but where are they actually located? Do alternative plug-ins even exist? I couldn't find any after a quick look at the compiz git repo.

[etnlWings]

Does it? I've read that 0.9x theoretically supports different back-ends but where are they actually located? Do alternative plug-ins even exist? I couldn't find any after a quick look at the compiz git repo.

It's not a plugin. In the absence of the composite plugin being enabled in 0.9x, Compiz falls back to being a vanilla stacking, re-parenting WM on X. That's why they made it reparenting, which the 0.8 branch was not. I CBFed finding the official announcement in my feeds but this more or less proves it: http://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2010/...dow-decorator/

[KAMiKAZOW]

It's not a plugin. In the absence of the composite plugin being enabled in 0.9x, Compiz falls back to being a vanilla stacking, re-parenting WM on X. That's why they made it reparenting, which the 0.8 branch was not. I CBFed finding the official announcement in my feeds but this more or less proves it: http://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2010/...dow-decorator/

Looks ugly but seems to work kind of but seems to require a special decorator. Thanks for the info.

[etnlWings]

Looks ugly but seems to work kind of but seems to require a special decorator. Thanks for the info.

The gtk-window-decorator? The default deco in both the 0.8 and 0.9 branches? Emerald has been unofficially depreciated since the Fusion merge, although there's a half-functional port of it to 0.9 (and I still use it, since I like having more than just 3 buttons).

[slumbergod]

Canonical meh desions

Remembering the opposition and complaints to KDE's new version, I can't help but think this decision is one of Canonical's worst so far. Unity needs a lot more work and a lot of refining before it's ready. They should stick to the traditional gnome desktop for at least one more release even if gnome devs have decided no new features will be added.

[Mereo]

Bah, Phoronix articles are usually sub-par just to get money from their ads...

With that said, people are jumping to conclusions. Yes, changes are difficult but we shouldn't jump to conclusions without even seeing the beta product.

Ubuntu has hired some designers, meaning they will be a hell lot more proactive to people's reactions than Gnome. Also, I feel that Gnome is a product of servers and work distros, not for the general public. And with Unity, Ubuntu will have a COMPLETE control of their Look and Feel of the distro.

Also, this is Linux, you don't like Unity? Feel free to change it to Gnome Shell, KDE, XFCE... whatever. Or change to a different distro.

So I'm giving Mark Shuttleworth the benefit of the doubt before judging Unity.

[locovaca]

With that said, people are jumping to conclusions. Yes, changes are difficult but we shouldn't jump to conclusions without even seeing the beta product.

Oh, you'll see a beta product alright. It'll be released on April 28, 2011.

[Mereo]

Oh, you'll see a beta product alright. It'll be released on April 28, 2011.

Well there you go. When we can actually USE Unity, then we can be mad about it if it's not up-to-par. And no, Unity on the Desktop won't be like the Notebook version because the latter only shows maximized windows.