SteamOS Didn't Use Ubuntu Over Legal Issues

[wargames]

Let the motherfucker burn

[Attent?ter]

you know whats even funnier AMD has handed over pre released drivers to Valve

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648816742354224056

[NothingMuchHereToSay]

Unity is a tablet interface. It's good for those using a touchscreen/small device. If you want to know what many end users with prior computer experience think of tablet UI's with mouse and keyboard, look at the awful receptions that greeted gnome-shell, Unity, and Windows 8/Modern one after another. Windows is worst off as they offer no other DE's, only start menu hacks.

See, this is the mentality I fucking can't stand from people. Big icons = Touchscreen interface according to you guys. Try closing your windows on a tablet and watch what happens. Everybody's used the same fucking interface for years and nobody wants to try ANYTHING new. This is a problem when people limit themselves.

A touchscreen on a large desktop, BTW, has already earned a reputation for causing overuse injuries to the elbow. On a desktop with a keyboard and mouse, or a laptop without a touch screen, any tablet interface will slow things down. The one thing the Windoze crew got right was the keyboard/mouse interface in Win95, a huge improvement on Crapple's version. Only the addition of multiple desktops has really been a functional improvement on that so far as the workflow is concerned. For desktops and large/medium laptops, a new UI is a reinvention of the wheel. It does have one use there: making such machines usable to those whose initial computing experience is on phones/tablets and who never used a Win95 interface. They would work faster on big machines if they learned the big machine UI, but possibly only after a year or more of adaptation to it.

Oh god, just use a keyboard/mouse because it FUNCTIONS JUST AS WELL AS A DESKTOP. Again, Big icons = a fat fucking touchscreen interface says you people. It's FUD and you should try it out for 15 - 30 days. That way you could get used to it using a keyboard/mouse. Honestly the context menus are fucking shit, I hate waiting for them to pop up and BY DEFAULT you have to customize your desktop in order to get those taskbar (that takes up horizontal space btw) icons to one-click, while in Gnome 3/Unity you have a one click icon, move your mouse over the icons and you'll be set. "A reinvention of the wheel" is a phrase that is unnecessarily unjust that honestly is reinvented ALL THE TIME. Look at E17, Cinnamon, fucking Mate, I can respect them, but they're just more of the same bullshit.

Unfortunately Windows 8 can't be used for any purpose where data security is an issue(for the usual reasons), no matter what the UI.

Well.. yeah, it's Windows/Microsoft.

If I were going to set up a tablet for use standing up, I would probably use a hacked version of Unity, configured to keep online and offline functions strictly separate, block all Ubuntu's ads, and block all tracking functions. The big problem would be getting a tablet free of vender-installed malicious firmware. Certainly it could not come from any cell service provider, and it would have to be totally unlockable.

Again, use a keyboard and mouse, who the fuck feeds you this information that anything that doesn't look like Windows 95 is for tablets.

Another UI option for it would be to start with any light display server, many desktops, but put only program launchers for related programs on each one. Take the normal menus, etc out of the picture. The "all other apps" could just be a link to /usr/share/applications. The tray would be a mess, some custom tray that fullscreens when tapped would be needed,

You just described bits and pieces of Gnome 3 and Unity, but with Gnome 3, it does have a category view as far as I remember, it's that or they have a way that makes their apps appear on one page then another, it works quite nicely.

A hacked gnome-shell could be adapted, having it boot to the overlay with the menu showing and not the desktops. Only problem is this: both Shell and Unity are snails on Atom netbooks, as are all their forks when using x11 as the backend. ARM devices-even with 4 cores, are even slower. I saw one comparison of some ARM proc running at almost 1GHZ (unknown core count) really only being equivalent to a 233 MHZ Pentium 3 for CPU compute power. Software needs to be really light and fast to work on them!

Link sources and hopefully the Arm device uses hardware acceleration, that'd be an interesting watch.

Unless Wayland and Mir become much faster than compositing X on small devices, tablets and phones will have continue to have real performance issues. That's why the first ubuntu phones used Android's "surfaceflinger" display server. I suppose a nonaccelerated X could be used with a QT-based Unity 2d fork, but all those tablets and phones were intended from the start for accelerated graphics

From what I know, you're gonna need an ultra powerful phone or PC nowadays. I was once a hippie like most Linux enthusiasts out there, keeping old hardware for the sake of keeping old hardware and avoiding upgrading.

[sireangelus]

No it's not. I tried to use it on my tablet. It was absolutely terrible. For instance, you can't use any scrollbars at all (since they are one pixel in size and you can't hover with your fingers). Also, the 3D requirement meant that it was dog slow.

On the other hand, Plasma Active is a tablet interface and is good for use with a touchscreen. There all programs run in fullscreen, there is an application bar and the main menu at the top (slid down), a desktop wheel instead of buttons for switching desktops etc. I wouldn't really consider using any other UI other than Plasma Active on tablets (at least those that lack a stylus) at this point.

first, unity7 is not really meant for tablet.

second, yet another paranoid in the neighbourhood?

third: plasma active and unity8 have the same scope.I suggest you to install a 14.04 or a Ubuntu touch image

[dee.]

I swear all these hate mongering Ubuntu h8rs are so friggin' stupid. Who the hell said that "Canonical wants to be paid"? If that's the case then Linux Mint has been leeching off of Ubuntu for so long I'm surprised that they haven't been sued over it since 2006.

Well, since you mention it, Canonical has demanded Mint for monetary compensation for the use of their repositories.

That's probably also the reason why Valve didn't go with Ubuntu, they didn't want to be dependent on a company that would be likely to cause them problems like that down the road.

[kripz]

Steam OS itself is still a big construction site. This is mainly due to the fact that you have a very late change the underlying distribution. Originally Ubuntu was provided as a basis, but because of legal issues were unclear to some additional components to be switched just before just to Debian. There you have some need to program yourself what Ubuntu would have already had it.

Bad google translation but it sounds like it's related to something they took out and then made themselves (for debian or before swtiching to debian?).

[madjr]

Mark Shuttlworth must be some kind of idiot, and Ubuntu is going to die with his new direction, I'm sure just 4 years ago before all this nonsense with Unity they would've gladly let them use Ubuntu for Steam OS, now they want to be paid?

"Pay us to double our userbase and create games for it" It's not like Valve's not giving you any benefit, in fact what they're going to give you is more beneficial than money, a FUCKING SIGNIFICANT USERBASE. Not just some 1% bullshit.

God... read the article 3 or 4 more times, those were rumors.

Now I know most complaining about ubuntu have reading or comprehension problems.

[Bathroom Humor]

They do have GNOME Shell installed, so the desktop choice and its support does matter. And they did say it's because of a legally questionable situation, not anything technical...

They went with Gnome shell because it's default on Debian, I'm pretty sure. I'm not confident in knowing what is the real problem or if I was right, but it doesn't seem like Canonical and Valve ever talked about this change so I'm assuming it's not just purely legal, but more of a way to avoid possible future issues while trying to update their system.
I wish more details would be brought up, but if Debian was best for them, it's a good thing they switched to it.

[Luke]

I like my oldschool desktop

See, this is the mentality I fucking can't stand from people. Big icons = Touchscreen interface according to you guys. Try closing your windows on a tablet and watch what happens. Everybody's used the same fucking interface for years and nobody wants to try ANYTHING new. This is a problem when people limit themselves.



Oh god, just use a keyboard/mouse because it FUNCTIONS JUST AS WELL AS A DESKTOP. Again, Big icons = a fat fucking touchscreen interface says you people. It's FUD and you should try it out for 15 - 30 days. That way you could get used to it using a keyboard/mouse. Honestly the context menus are fucking shit, I hate waiting for them to pop up and BY DEFAULT you have to customize your desktop in order to get those taskbar (that takes up horizontal space btw) icons to one-click, while in Gnome 3/Unity you have a one click icon, move your mouse over the icons and you'll be set. "A reinvention of the wheel" is a phrase that is unnecessarily unjust that honestly is reinvented ALL THE TIME. Look at E17, Cinnamon, fucking Mate, I can respect them, but they're just more of the same bullshit.



Well.. yeah, it's Windows/Microsoft.



Again, use a keyboard and mouse, who the fuck feeds you this information that anything that doesn't look like Windows 95 is for tablets.



You just described bits and pieces of Gnome 3 and Unity, but with Gnome 3, it does have a category view as far as I remember, it's that or they have a way that makes their apps appear on one page then another, it works quite nicely.



Link sources and hopefully the Arm device uses hardware acceleration, that'd be an interesting watch.



From what I know, you're gonna need an ultra powerful phone or PC nowadays. I was once a hippie like most Linux enthusiasts out there, keeping old hardware for the sake of keeping old hardware and avoiding upgrading.

The whole POINT to FOSS software is freedom: I like my desktop as it is, have used the same basic setup in GNOME 2 and later Cinnamon and in ICeWM since 2008. I decide what runs on my own computers,nobody else. Why big icons=touch? Because using normal icons on a small phone type device could be danmed near unusable. Every DE has it's fans, an ideal distro would be set up to be able to work with any or all distros. Hell, the whole reason Ubuntu forked the gnome control center was so it would not be so hard to install Gnome-Shell and Unity side by side, a common combination. Speaking of "shell," the original name for the Win95 UI was "Newshell" so the GNOME team invoked some history with the name "Gnome-shell." Back in 95, the term shell often referred to any UI, including but not limited to a console or terminal.

No, I am not going to buy a smartphone, and I won't even carry a dumbphone with the battery in(it's used only for outgoing calls). I do not allow law enforcement to track my so easily.

[all2well]

No, I am not going to buy a smartphone, and I won't even carry a dumbphone with the battery in(it's used only for outgoing calls). I do not allow law enforcement to track my so easily.

You underestimate the power of law enforcement, and the tools they have at their disposal. If anything, not carrying a cell phone makes you more suspicious, and so more likely to be tracked.