i wish it could have desktop thumbnails as icons in the dock -single click to get to a desktop, or support mousewheel/screen-corners for desktop navigation
FOI DESCOBERTO QUE OS CRIADORES E DEFENSORES DO UNITY SÃO NA VERDADE ESPIÕES DA MICROSOFT QUE QUEREM ACABAR COM O LINUX. POR TUDO DE MAIS SAGRADO, NÃO INSTALEM O UNITY, ELE VAI ACABAR COM SEU PC E TE MATAR DE RAIVA!
Only maximised windows makes sense for us with 2 monitors where we can copy and paste easily between 2 active windows. For those with small screens the Windows 7 (might have been added in Vista) show windows side by side is really convenient. If that was an option (or there was a convenient system for doing this) then it might be OK to only have maximised windows. Oh yeah, the clipboard is not that convenient method - it is a horrendous system that maybe I correctly or not don't trust.
I liked your introduction and your thoughts on the launcher bar, my personal thoughts would be to make the 'start menu' in the style of Android like I have on my phone. This makes it all alphabetical and big and easy to find. Must admit that I'm not sure how I would group icons I want together.
I do disagree with your thoughts on maximisation, on a widescreen monitor it is nice to have two windows open side by side :)
@gobbo241 I agree that Desktop Environments should develop but I am really not sure if Unity is the right direction. I personally like GNOME 3 a lot more and I recommend to try it and compare it to unity. It would be really nice if you could select it easily in the new Ubuntu without installing weird ppa's. I think this is a real problem that makes people angry and they blame Unity although it's quite okay.
Most of your suggestions point only in one dirction. You want to make the whole system more easy for inexpirenced users. But that means to give up functionality which makes the system really productive for experienced users and that is the wrong way. Maybe it will make your job easier but a good system has to find a good balance between advanced features and basic features for new users.
@vrael22 Yes I think you hit the nail on the head there. In fact thinking this way its easy to suggest three modes, begginer, regular and advanced user. Still I think Unity is an awesome step for ubuntu and we are seeing huge experiments being taken with the user experience which is well overdue. This is still so very new for ubuntu, imagine the kinds of things that will happen after this first version of unity. :)
I'd love to know more about your idea of forcing to maximize everything, since I can think of several use cases where that wouldn't be useful and I'd like to know what you thought about it. Isthere a video or blog post where you talk about this stuff?
I agree with the desktop issue, explaining how folder structures work to someone and then explaining where those structures are located is hard enough. Give it a few days and they just keep putting all their important shit on the desktop again and forget everything. As for Global menus its a bunch of mouse traveling to do I have never had to do before, I would move to keyboard shortcuts if its on default.
@isantop of course, I said "I would" move to keyboard shortcuts if global menus were forced on me, its annoying have to travel to the top of the screen for a small window when multitasking.
@isantop of course, I said "I would" move to keyboard shortcuts if global menus were forced on me, its annoying have to travel to the top of the screen for a small window when multitasking. I already have my mouse on full speed that anyone who uses my computer freaks out how fast it is.
Seems like a massive step backward from the fact Windows has just implemented the Aero Snap feature which makes using a single screen infinitely easier (web browser one half/word processor another)
If you want it to behave like Windows 7, ask them to provide options so you can make that so, or even better, just use Windows 7. Hell to the no for taking away the auto hide functionality.
Many excellent points. What I dont agree with is workspaces is useless. Workspaces are super, I have keyboard shortcut (Super + left/right) to toggle between my workspaces.
Also I dont really agree about the mounting, mounted drives such as usb drives or memory card should definitely show up in launcher.
And this was the worst review I've watched in a long time. You are using a WIP product that is outdated and you haven't checked to see if your complaints can be configured the way you want.
Against workspaces... that's terrible. That's one of the things I really like about Linux that Windows doesn't have. Also, what's with that 'get rid of the desktop' idea? A place to dump your files to sort them later, or just have them at hand's reach. Don't fix what ain't broken! No minimize? What are you, an alien?
Some criticisms were good and constructive; but others just seem the product of many days without sleep. :\
As for your problem with workspaces, I enjoy workspaces a lot, and would not have thought I needed that feature if I was not exposed to it. I would explain it thusly: You have pages in a book, books on a shelf, and shelves in a bookshelf. This corresponds to tabs in a browser, programs in a workspace, and workspaces in a overall group.
To me this makes a lot of sense, as it allows me to have boxes within boxes to keep things organized.
I do believe they have changed the problems you listed with the dock, namely the dock edge exposure and the icon rearranging. You can now reveal by simply going to the left edge of the screen, and you can simply click and drag icons on the dock to resort, without having to drag off first.
@JinjaDK I don'tlike it either, however, you can resize them. On his video, I bet all was default so they're 48px. But you can resize them to as little as 32px I believe. And of course, this being Linux, just wait a few days and hacks to make it even smaller will pop-up ;)
If you "had your way" you'd get rid of minimizing (& obviously maximising) and workspaces. Then what would you get ?
Workspaces are actually one of the greatest features Ubuntu/Linux has. And the new "worspace" integration within firefox 4 (tab candy or however they're calling it today) is really useful and awesome.
To achieve a good workflow, you'll NEED to multitask, and I just can't see it happening with what your "perfect desktop" as you see it. Anymore.
My favorite solution for the title bar thing is to just keep it consistent. When maximized, close/restore buttons, title, and menus would appear in the top bar that the window was docked to. When floating and not maximised, those things should appear in the window decoration on top of the window that its docked to. In this manner, there is never any disconnect between what you're closing or using the menu of. Yes, its harder to code :)
Don't listen to the folks complaining. You did a great job in picking out problems, especially those that may crop up to new users, and supplied constructive criticisms, and even suggested some ways to fix them. Which is more than most of the complaining commenters on youtube are doing.
@Vektacle I've introduced Unity to many "New Users", from various backgrounds (Ubuntu/Gnome 2, Windows, and Mac OS X), and while there is a few minutes to get used to it, they generally get it within half an hour and enjoy it.
@isantop I don't get how your point relates to my comment. It seems like you just want to post general support for unity. That is not helpful. Please point out problems and ways to correct them so the software can be improved. Unless you already believe its perfect, in which case why are you posting?
@Vektacle UI design is all subjective anyway, so one person's issues are another's features. IMO, there really aren't very many problems with the Unity interface. They ought to show the menus instead of the active window title, but other than that, it's fine.
The issue here is that the uploader hasn't mentioned any problems, he only says things he doesn't like about the interface. That's subjective opinion, since his preferences don't reflect the majority of users out there, new or not.
Comments like "pretty weird", "confuses me", "bugs be"... they're unprofessional and personal opinions. This shouldn't be consider a "review". And btw just because unity confuses you, doesn't mean it's not well designed, and I think it's hard for you just because you're used to windows 7.
The current iteration of the Unity dash looks as though it was designed by committee, a disjointed amalgamation of competing interests. Instead of making something easy to use, and that makes sense for the vast majority of non-technical users, the UI developers seem to have focussed on what they deemed useful and easy to use, and then came up with a comprise solution they could all live with. The resulting dash design is anything but unified, and it shows...... That’s really too bad,
I also have to disagree with workspaces. Workspace management in Ubuntu was really the reason i quit being a Windows user. I don't find that novice users have trouble with the concept or idea, personally.
You always compared Unity with Windows 7. I don't want to be rude, but Windows 7 is NOT the perfect example of an operating system/user interface. It is NOT the standard and other operating systems are NOT MADE to look LIKE Windows. Each operating systems has its up and downs. I think Unity is a big up and that it's going to be a really good desktop environment when its done. That's just my opinion.
Can‘t they just ditch stupid Unity and stupid Gnome 3 and GTK prehistoric toolkit and ship Ubuntu with KDE 4? It will make Ubuntu much more advanced and user-friendly.
the man's got a point, and I agree that global menu is not really useful nor pretty. I'd make menu bar combined with title bar and close button within each window, and then get rid of top bar. it'll look the same as the maximized one looks now, but the menu bar would still be along title bar even when the window is unmaximized. does that make sense to you?
Very bad video. Consider that Unity is not designed to "imitate" Windows 7. Obviously you love Windows 7. So, use it, and don't worry about Ubuntu. I also think that Unity needs improvement in several areas, but comparing the interface to an "ideal Windows 7 interface" is so bad... Also, what you said about workspaces... That is for me and lots of Linux users one of the reasons for using Linux and not Windows.
@9:40 aprx your comments on the home icon.. you may want to check out lenses (used to be called "places") I think the idea behind this is that you can install additional lenses for this section for additional sources you can search in. The two I currently have (and afaik the only available) are "ask ubuntu" and gwibber, so by searching in that top section I not only search my applications and files, I also search everything in my gwibber and the ubuntu help forums.
"In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories."
Regarding the Dash: Canonical UI design team please explain the rationale behind not having an Office, Games, and Accessories group icons available. Taking up Dash space with shortcuts to your Browser, Check Email, and Music player, seems a tad redundant when you have these same shortcuts on your launch bar. Why not include the same Dash configuration as comes with the Unity Netbook Edition?
You do want to make this desktop easy and enjoyable for non-technical folks to use, yes??
about always maximized windows... i relay often need to see 2 windows in same time.... so always maximized is no go... for me... but realy interesting review...
@alauzhajkungs Actually that's my one exception: the only time I want more than one window on one screen--even on my 27 inch screen--is when I want two windows side-by-side. There's also situations where you want to horizontally squish a web page, and the way we do that currently is by resizing the window. So (without going into details) those are use cases I account for.
@alauzhajkungs I think that what he meant that 1 maximized window, 2 miximized windows could coexist side by side... or a 2x2 grid, and so on. No need to see a floating one over few others.
That would make sense to me. But I do hate small apps, like a calculator having to be maximized on a 27 inch display or a webpage that is not well formated like Wikipedia where the lines can be like a mile long.
"No use for workspaces", really? You sir clearly are not a 'Linux User'.
There's a reason why experienced users sometimes use tiling window managers.
Also, users are continuously getting smart. Users nowadays don't just get confused and annoyed by features, they get fascinated by them, mostly thanks to smartphone UIs.
@swook7 You're thinking about a different class of users. I've taught computer literacy professionally, so I can say on authority that many people need a stripped-down environment to at least learn on, and many of them will never want anything more complicated.
All I'm saying is that workspaces should be turned off by default: no launcher button, no keyboard shortcuts until enabled.
"All I'm saying is that workspaces should be turned off by default: no launcher button, no keyboard shortcuts until enabled."
Linuxpeople continually underestimate "the average user". The average user will find multiple workspaces to be just as good of an idea as tabs on a browser and therefore it should be turned on and on display. It's not as if the concept is hard to wrap your head around.
your solution to make the menus in the title bar more like Firefox's button is actually in KDE. I'm actually trying KDE on my netbook right now (thanks to OSGUIShow's videos) and it had an option to have an option to put the those menus in a button. It's not a default option though, at least it isn't for my liveusb version of KDE....
Unfortunately, a lot of the "bugs" that you assume will get fixed (launcher peeking out, global menu covering half the application name in top bar) are actually design decisions. Really odd design decisions.
I actually hate the beavior of the windows7 task bar in every single way.
There's a good reason the launcher in Unity is never gonna be on the bottom of the screen: vertical screen space.
I like how the top bar is merged with the title bar and menu bar for maximized windows, that saves a lot of vertical screen space. I just don't like how the menu is invisible unless you hover the top bar. Instead I think it might be better to slowly fade the menu in as the mouse approaches the top area.
@TheDesertDragon My point was that Unity is really really close to Windows 7 with a bit of Macisms thrown in. If they're going to get that close but with small differences like a taskbar with weird auto-hiding behavior, then those differences require justification.
I also said I wish Unity would take a few queues from gnome-shell: no minimizing, maximize only by dragging/double-clicking, getting rid of all desktop icons.
@briantwill The window buttons are to the right to allow the top-window merge and it makes sense. The global menu... well it seems aimed at netbooks, but Ubuntu usually gets installed on these.
I agree with getting rid of desktop icons. No so with your thoughts on autohide - but they did, so there. I also like min/max because I am no particular fan of workspaces. I also like global menus.
Different tastes. Unity needs more polish, but some of the changes you suggest are very fundamental.
Unity sucks. Compiz crashes all the time, leaving you with nothing. They should of went with gnome 3 and gnome shell. They need to get with the times, Compiz is a thing of the past. I am moving on to Arch Linux.
I've been using Unity for two weeks and I can not think of a single feature over the customised GNOME I was using, that I like. Contextual window handling is painful, the launcher gets in my way, it's full of bugs and when an app crashes the entire interface freezes, system settings are now under the power button, WTF? Search has never returned relevant results. Shortcut navigation is a contextual pain. Nothing is customisable. My system monitor applet in the taskbar is gone. I hate it. :)
@neuraxon77 I can't vouch for either Unity's stability or the usefulness of the search. To be fair, those are things that most certainly will improve in time. By "contextual window handling" you mean the global menubar? Yeah, it could be done better, but I don't really see the point myself. Gnome 3 also puts system settings under the power button, like in MacOS. I'd just put shutdown and system settings in the dash like Windows.
Nice review, very detailed. But i would like to point one issue - not everyone want to have their workspace and desktop 'optimized' , some ( lot of people actually ) prefer to have tons of garbage on their desktop , or love minimize feature. Unity, Gnome or any other desktop should not take away that freedom. While i can see Your point, i think that there should always be a choice, not just 'pro-like optimal aproach'. Desktop environment controling users work or fun, for them = bad idea.
@darmanda My argument about the desktop is that, if you want an easy to get at folder, just just pin a folder to the taskbar for easy access. As it stands, the desktop requires its own special rules and quick-access mechanisms, and it tempts users to minimize and move windows to get at their stuff rather than just switching to this folder like any other window. At some point designers have to put their foot down and change/remove existing features for design to move forward.
@briantwill I can see Your point, makes sense, but as it is now its option to do that one way or another, if designers force users to do it 'the right' way it will most likely cause annoyance and anger for some ( i think many ) people. It might be better solution, but better might not be good for some. You know how people are angry about gnome3 and ubuntu's unity changes.Many will move to distros like Mint, or some kde based. Maybe it should be switchable? (like ubuntu will be now i think)
I'm dropping Ubuntu it's way to buggy . I think I'll just use Debian Linux it's way more stable, or Fedora .
maw88ify 6 months ago
i wish it could have desktop thumbnails as icons in the dock -single click to get to a desktop, or support mousewheel/screen-corners for desktop navigation
walter0bz 6 months ago
This guys complains about how this OS does not work like windows. Maybe he should just use windows.
photochuckI 7 months ago
@photochuckI I agree I use Linux because it's not exactly like Windows. I hate Unity, because GNOME2, and 3 are way better.
maw88ify 6 months ago
ATENÇÃO:
FOI DESCOBERTO QUE OS CRIADORES E DEFENSORES DO UNITY SÃO NA VERDADE ESPIÕES DA MICROSOFT QUE QUEREM ACABAR COM O LINUX. POR TUDO DE MAIS SAGRADO, NÃO INSTALEM O UNITY, ELE VAI ACABAR COM SEU PC E TE MATAR DE RAIVA!
gameatodahora 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
lol my mom is goin to by us an abunta this week im so excited
heaheaheaa 9 months ago
Only maximised windows makes sense for us with 2 monitors where we can copy and paste easily between 2 active windows. For those with small screens the Windows 7 (might have been added in Vista) show windows side by side is really convenient. If that was an option (or there was a convenient system for doing this) then it might be OK to only have maximised windows. Oh yeah, the clipboard is not that convenient method - it is a horrendous system that maybe I correctly or not don't trust.
Cahuix 10 months ago
I liked your introduction and your thoughts on the launcher bar, my personal thoughts would be to make the 'start menu' in the style of Android like I have on my phone. This makes it all alphabetical and big and easy to find. Must admit that I'm not sure how I would group icons I want together.
I do disagree with your thoughts on maximisation, on a widescreen monitor it is nice to have two windows open side by side :)
RiamuYabu 10 months ago
@gobbo241 I agree that Desktop Environments should develop but I am really not sure if Unity is the right direction. I personally like GNOME 3 a lot more and I recommend to try it and compare it to unity. It would be really nice if you could select it easily in the new Ubuntu without installing weird ppa's. I think this is a real problem that makes people angry and they blame Unity although it's quite okay.
vrael22 10 months ago
Most of your suggestions point only in one dirction. You want to make the whole system more easy for inexpirenced users. But that means to give up functionality which makes the system really productive for experienced users and that is the wrong way. Maybe it will make your job easier but a good system has to find a good balance between advanced features and basic features for new users.
vrael22 10 months ago
@vrael22 Yes I think you hit the nail on the head there. In fact thinking this way its easy to suggest three modes, begginer, regular and advanced user. Still I think Unity is an awesome step for ubuntu and we are seeing huge experiments being taken with the user experience which is well overdue. This is still so very new for ubuntu, imagine the kinds of things that will happen after this first version of unity. :)
gobbo241 10 months ago
I'd love to know more about your idea of forcing to maximize everything, since I can think of several use cases where that wouldn't be useful and I'd like to know what you thought about it. Isthere a video or blog post where you talk about this stuff?
Flackon 10 months ago
@Flackon I'm working on that. First though I was going to repost this in a (hopefully) shorter form with actual video.
briantwill 10 months ago
I agree with the desktop issue, explaining how folder structures work to someone and then explaining where those structures are located is hard enough. Give it a few days and they just keep putting all their important shit on the desktop again and forget everything. As for Global menus its a bunch of mouse traveling to do I have never had to do before, I would move to keyboard shortcuts if its on default.
gobbo241 10 months ago
@gobbo241 New users either don't like keyboard shortcuts or don't know they exist.
isantop 10 months ago
@isantop of course, I said "I would" move to keyboard shortcuts if global menus were forced on me, its annoying have to travel to the top of the screen for a small window when multitasking.
gobbo241 10 months ago
@isantop of course, I said "I would" move to keyboard shortcuts if global menus were forced on me, its annoying have to travel to the top of the screen for a small window when multitasking. I already have my mouse on full speed that anyone who uses my computer freaks out how fast it is.
gobbo241 10 months ago
Never used Windows 7 so I don't get it. Seriously, if you like Windows 7 so much, then stick to Windows 7.
knkillname 10 months ago
I second that!
whomma2 10 months ago
ok interesting nice video, hope u gonna do one on gnome3 as soon as a sable version is using it
gonzo191 11 months ago
all windows maximised all the time?
Seems like a massive step backward from the fact Windows has just implemented the Aero Snap feature which makes using a single screen infinitely easier (web browser one half/word processor another)
9point6 11 months ago
If you want it to behave like Windows 7, ask them to provide options so you can make that so, or even better, just use Windows 7. Hell to the no for taking away the auto hide functionality.
paiwanhan 11 months ago
Many excellent points. What I dont agree with is workspaces is useless. Workspaces are super, I have keyboard shortcut (Super + left/right) to toggle between my workspaces.
Also I dont really agree about the mounting, mounted drives such as usb drives or memory card should definitely show up in launcher.
And, next time, make a video.
kolibanat 11 months ago
Thanks for the very interesting review. I'd really like to see what you have to say about Gnome 3!
Karo1205 11 months ago
perhaps an actual video rather than static images would help.
orsumincc 11 months ago 2
And this was the worst review I've watched in a long time. You are using a WIP product that is outdated and you haven't checked to see if your complaints can be configured the way you want.
natewiebe 11 months ago
About 80% of your problems can be fixed with either ccsm and dconf-editor.
natewiebe 11 months ago
I like your video. As a linux user for some years I agree with most of your statements. I think that Unity isn't ready for default use in 11.04.
adem1on 11 months ago 2
Against workspaces... that's terrible. That's one of the things I really like about Linux that Windows doesn't have. Also, what's with that 'get rid of the desktop' idea? A place to dump your files to sort them later, or just have them at hand's reach. Don't fix what ain't broken! No minimize? What are you, an alien?
Some criticisms were good and constructive; but others just seem the product of many days without sleep. :\
Nyah420 11 months ago
lold super hard when you basically equated work-spaces to a mind-fuck, the desktop is this weird twisted mobius strip
jth005 11 months ago
lold super hard when you basically equated work-spaces to a mind-fuck
jth005 11 months ago
As for your problem with workspaces, I enjoy workspaces a lot, and would not have thought I needed that feature if I was not exposed to it. I would explain it thusly: You have pages in a book, books on a shelf, and shelves in a bookshelf. This corresponds to tabs in a browser, programs in a workspace, and workspaces in a overall group.
To me this makes a lot of sense, as it allows me to have boxes within boxes to keep things organized.
RavensKrag 11 months ago
I would be very interested to see a GNOME Shell review from you also.
ridiculeisback 11 months ago 2
I do believe they have changed the problems you listed with the dock, namely the dock edge exposure and the icon rearranging. You can now reveal by simply going to the left edge of the screen, and you can simply click and drag icons on the dock to resort, without having to drag off first.
RavensKrag 11 months ago
hate all those big icons cuz i got no touch screen monitor - and my eyes are perfectly good :)
JinjaDK 11 months ago
@JinjaDK I don'tlike it either, however, you can resize them. On his video, I bet all was default so they're 48px. But you can resize them to as little as 32px I believe. And of course, this being Linux, just wait a few days and hacks to make it even smaller will pop-up ;)
MrSkjebne 11 months ago
Are you able to multitask ?
If you "had your way" you'd get rid of minimizing (& obviously maximising) and workspaces. Then what would you get ?
Workspaces are actually one of the greatest features Ubuntu/Linux has. And the new "worspace" integration within firefox 4 (tab candy or however they're calling it today) is really useful and awesome.
To achieve a good workflow, you'll NEED to multitask, and I just can't see it happening with what your "perfect desktop" as you see it. Anymore.
MrSkjebne 11 months ago
My favorite solution for the title bar thing is to just keep it consistent. When maximized, close/restore buttons, title, and menus would appear in the top bar that the window was docked to. When floating and not maximised, those things should appear in the window decoration on top of the window that its docked to. In this manner, there is never any disconnect between what you're closing or using the menu of. Yes, its harder to code :)
Vektacle 11 months ago
Don't listen to the folks complaining. You did a great job in picking out problems, especially those that may crop up to new users, and supplied constructive criticisms, and even suggested some ways to fix them. Which is more than most of the complaining commenters on youtube are doing.
Vektacle 11 months ago
@Vektacle I've introduced Unity to many "New Users", from various backgrounds (Ubuntu/Gnome 2, Windows, and Mac OS X), and while there is a few minutes to get used to it, they generally get it within half an hour and enjoy it.
isantop 10 months ago
@isantop I don't get how your point relates to my comment. It seems like you just want to post general support for unity. That is not helpful. Please point out problems and ways to correct them so the software can be improved. Unless you already believe its perfect, in which case why are you posting?
Vektacle 10 months ago
@Vektacle UI design is all subjective anyway, so one person's issues are another's features. IMO, there really aren't very many problems with the Unity interface. They ought to show the menus instead of the active window title, but other than that, it's fine.
The issue here is that the uploader hasn't mentioned any problems, he only says things he doesn't like about the interface. That's subjective opinion, since his preferences don't reflect the majority of users out there, new or not.
isantop 10 months ago
Comments like "pretty weird", "confuses me", "bugs be"... they're unprofessional and personal opinions. This shouldn't be consider a "review". And btw just because unity confuses you, doesn't mean it's not well designed, and I think it's hard for you just because you're used to windows 7.
clodoveo13 11 months ago
sudo apt-get install recordmydesktop
clodoveo13 11 months ago 2
The current iteration of the Unity dash looks as though it was designed by committee, a disjointed amalgamation of competing interests. Instead of making something easy to use, and that makes sense for the vast majority of non-technical users, the UI developers seem to have focussed on what they deemed useful and easy to use, and then came up with a comprise solution they could all live with. The resulting dash design is anything but unified, and it shows...... That’s really too bad,
djtorca1 11 months ago
I also have to disagree with workspaces. Workspace management in Ubuntu was really the reason i quit being a Windows user. I don't find that novice users have trouble with the concept or idea, personally.
tylersontag 11 months ago
You always compared Unity with Windows 7. I don't want to be rude, but Windows 7 is NOT the perfect example of an operating system/user interface. It is NOT the standard and other operating systems are NOT MADE to look LIKE Windows. Each operating systems has its up and downs. I think Unity is a big up and that it's going to be a really good desktop environment when its done. That's just my opinion.
ACPCalin 11 months ago
Can‘t they just ditch stupid Unity and stupid Gnome 3 and GTK prehistoric toolkit and ship Ubuntu with KDE 4? It will make Ubuntu much more advanced and user-friendly.
ensignjoe 11 months ago
the man's got a point, and I agree that global menu is not really useful nor pretty. I'd make menu bar combined with title bar and close button within each window, and then get rid of top bar. it'll look the same as the maximized one looks now, but the menu bar would still be along title bar even when the window is unmaximized. does that make sense to you?
zabralimilogin 11 months ago
Very bad video. Consider that Unity is not designed to "imitate" Windows 7. Obviously you love Windows 7. So, use it, and don't worry about Ubuntu. I also think that Unity needs improvement in several areas, but comparing the interface to an "ideal Windows 7 interface" is so bad... Also, what you said about workspaces... That is for me and lots of Linux users one of the reasons for using Linux and not Windows.
gandreoliva 11 months ago
@9:40 aprx your comments on the home icon.. you may want to check out lenses (used to be called "places") I think the idea behind this is that you can install additional lenses for this section for additional sources you can search in. The two I currently have (and afaik the only available) are "ask ubuntu" and gwibber, so by searching in that top section I not only search my applications and files, I also search everything in my gwibber and the ubuntu help forums.
TimothyCoxon 11 months ago
Dude you are douchebag!
catred33 11 months ago
What's the point of a video if you don't visually show any examples of what you are talking about?
Flackon 11 months ago 3
Can you make a video with you saying:
"In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories."
? Your voice sounds just like that narrator.
DarkRubySage 11 months ago 10
@DarkRubySage I can do a good "previously on Lost"
briantwill 11 months ago 10
Regarding the Dash: Canonical UI design team please explain the rationale behind not having an Office, Games, and Accessories group icons available. Taking up Dash space with shortcuts to your Browser, Check Email, and Music player, seems a tad redundant when you have these same shortcuts on your launch bar. Why not include the same Dash configuration as comes with the Unity Netbook Edition?
You do want to make this desktop easy and enjoyable for non-technical folks to use, yes??
djtorca1 11 months ago
@djtorca1 Good point, they're redundant with the default launcher pinned apps.
briantwill 11 months ago
about always maximized windows... i relay often need to see 2 windows in same time.... so always maximized is no go... for me... but realy interesting review...
alauzhajkungs 11 months ago
@alauzhajkungs Actually that's my one exception: the only time I want more than one window on one screen--even on my 27 inch screen--is when I want two windows side-by-side. There's also situations where you want to horizontally squish a web page, and the way we do that currently is by resizing the window. So (without going into details) those are use cases I account for.
briantwill 11 months ago
@alauzhajkungs I think that what he meant that 1 maximized window, 2 miximized windows could coexist side by side... or a 2x2 grid, and so on. No need to see a floating one over few others.
That would make sense to me. But I do hate small apps, like a calculator having to be maximized on a 27 inch display or a webpage that is not well formated like Wikipedia where the lines can be like a mile long.
AndzBrazil 11 months ago
"No use for workspaces", really? You sir clearly are not a 'Linux User'.
There's a reason why experienced users sometimes use tiling window managers.
Also, users are continuously getting smart. Users nowadays don't just get confused and annoyed by features, they get fascinated by them, mostly thanks to smartphone UIs.
swook7 11 months ago 7
@swook7 You're thinking about a different class of users. I've taught computer literacy professionally, so I can say on authority that many people need a stripped-down environment to at least learn on, and many of them will never want anything more complicated.
All I'm saying is that workspaces should be turned off by default: no launcher button, no keyboard shortcuts until enabled.
briantwill 11 months ago
@briantwill
"All I'm saying is that workspaces should be turned off by default: no launcher button, no keyboard shortcuts until enabled."
Linuxpeople continually underestimate "the average user". The average user will find multiple workspaces to be just as good of an idea as tabs on a browser and therefore it should be turned on and on display. It's not as if the concept is hard to wrap your head around.
HerrKnitler 11 months ago
your solution to make the menus in the title bar more like Firefox's button is actually in KDE. I'm actually trying KDE on my netbook right now (thanks to OSGUIShow's videos) and it had an option to have an option to put the those menus in a button. It's not a default option though, at least it isn't for my liveusb version of KDE....
SuperTakemori 11 months ago
Unfortunately, a lot of the "bugs" that you assume will get fixed (launcher peeking out, global menu covering half the application name in top bar) are actually design decisions. Really odd design decisions.
taroko12345 11 months ago
I just hope you’ll not get your way. You’re dangerous. Here’s to hoping your next computer just doesn’t run Linux and you’ll go back to Windows.
[some of your points were spot on, but you’re dangerous nonetheless]
voltageclamp2001 11 months ago 3
I actually hate the beavior of the windows7 task bar in every single way.
There's a good reason the launcher in Unity is never gonna be on the bottom of the screen: vertical screen space.
I like how the top bar is merged with the title bar and menu bar for maximized windows, that saves a lot of vertical screen space. I just don't like how the menu is invisible unless you hover the top bar. Instead I think it might be better to slowly fade the menu in as the mouse approaches the top area.
hasenj 11 months ago 2
i suggest submitting to ayatana mail list for review and/or open individual bugs.
nothing is written in stone and new interfaces usually take up to 1 year to mature, specially if enough people ask for something or contribute
madjunir 11 months ago
This entire video can be summed up like this:
"I want to use Windows 7".
Well, use Windows 7.
Now I agree there are things about Unity that needs improvement but yeah... really... this isn't Windows. It's not trying to be.
TheDesertDragon 11 months ago 32
@TheDesertDragon My point was that Unity is really really close to Windows 7 with a bit of Macisms thrown in. If they're going to get that close but with small differences like a taskbar with weird auto-hiding behavior, then those differences require justification.
I also said I wish Unity would take a few queues from gnome-shell: no minimizing, maximize only by dragging/double-clicking, getting rid of all desktop icons.
briantwill 11 months ago 2
@briantwill The window buttons are to the right to allow the top-window merge and it makes sense. The global menu... well it seems aimed at netbooks, but Ubuntu usually gets installed on these.
I agree with getting rid of desktop icons. No so with your thoughts on autohide - but they did, so there. I also like min/max because I am no particular fan of workspaces. I also like global menus.
Different tastes. Unity needs more polish, but some of the changes you suggest are very fundamental.
TheDesertDragon 10 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Unity sucks. Compiz crashes all the time, leaving you with nothing. They should of went with gnome 3 and gnome shell. They need to get with the times, Compiz is a thing of the past. I am moving on to Arch Linux.
josephseven 11 months ago
I've been using Unity for two weeks and I can not think of a single feature over the customised GNOME I was using, that I like. Contextual window handling is painful, the launcher gets in my way, it's full of bugs and when an app crashes the entire interface freezes, system settings are now under the power button, WTF? Search has never returned relevant results. Shortcut navigation is a contextual pain. Nothing is customisable. My system monitor applet in the taskbar is gone. I hate it. :)
neuraxon77 11 months ago
@neuraxon77 I can't vouch for either Unity's stability or the usefulness of the search. To be fair, those are things that most certainly will improve in time. By "contextual window handling" you mean the global menubar? Yeah, it could be done better, but I don't really see the point myself. Gnome 3 also puts system settings under the power button, like in MacOS. I'd just put shutdown and system settings in the dash like Windows.
briantwill 11 months ago
FYI, the behavior of the sidebar peaking out pixel by pixel its a feature. I kid you not. You can read it at OMGUbuntu, it's called Fade and Slide.
Go figure why they thought that would be a feature lol
itxaka 11 months ago
a screen capture would of been better , instead of pictures
and /or examples? (visuals)
briant do your own distro, i would use it!
frvfilms 11 months ago
@frvfilms Yeah, but I'm lazy.
briantwill 11 months ago
@briantwill
i had a teacher that always said that mathematicians/scientist were all lazy thats why we invent symbols , shortcuts.
frvfilms 11 months ago
system settings in gnome3 or mac are much better,
Unity should do this.
i only watched up to 14.46 doing a video
novelldesktop 11 months ago
Unity Gnome Windows Mac
Ubuntu 10 is good. Good vid
novelldesktop 11 months ago
Nice review, very detailed. But i would like to point one issue - not everyone want to have their workspace and desktop 'optimized' , some ( lot of people actually ) prefer to have tons of garbage on their desktop , or love minimize feature. Unity, Gnome or any other desktop should not take away that freedom. While i can see Your point, i think that there should always be a choice, not just 'pro-like optimal aproach'. Desktop environment controling users work or fun, for them = bad idea.
darmanda 11 months ago
@darmanda My argument about the desktop is that, if you want an easy to get at folder, just just pin a folder to the taskbar for easy access. As it stands, the desktop requires its own special rules and quick-access mechanisms, and it tempts users to minimize and move windows to get at their stuff rather than just switching to this folder like any other window. At some point designers have to put their foot down and change/remove existing features for design to move forward.
briantwill 11 months ago
@briantwill I can see Your point, makes sense, but as it is now its option to do that one way or another, if designers force users to do it 'the right' way it will most likely cause annoyance and anger for some ( i think many ) people. It might be better solution, but better might not be good for some. You know how people are angry about gnome3 and ubuntu's unity changes.Many will move to distros like Mint, or some kde based. Maybe it should be switchable? (like ubuntu will be now i think)
darmanda 11 months ago
Thanks for your detailed analysis, I've passed along this video to the Unity team,
whiprush69 11 months ago