5 problems with Ubuntu 12.04 part 1: Unity Dash usability issues
Ubuntu 12.04 has a number of challenges to overcome before we think it’s ready for the planned LTS release later this month. We kick off a irreverent list with a few gripes about Unity and the Dash…
Picture the scene. Wendy Windows is taking the plunge with Ubuntu 12.04. She boots the live CD, installs the operating system and arrives at the fresh, gleaming new Ubuntu desktop.
Being the ‘90’s throwback she is, Wendy promptly connects to the Internet with a view to configuring her email accounts for both home and office. The default email application can’t be found in the launcher, though, and there doesn’t appear to be a drop-down menu called ‘Applications’.
No matter… She does what any Windows user would and looks to the bottom left icon for ‘Start’. Instead she finds a trash can – not a problem. She looks to the top left – the Ubuntu logo…
What Wendy Windows sees next is an entirely blank window overlay with a search bar at the top.
And nothing else.
At first glance she doesn’t see the Lens icons at the bottom of the window at all, but even if she did would she recognise which represents applications? Should she take her chances she would eventually be met by a list of applications, but it needs to be expanded and cycled through before she’ll get the result she’s looking for.
All she wants to do is access the email client, so being the computer literate person she is she simply types ‘email’ into the search bar. Whether she likes it or not, this is the 21st century – how hard can it be?
Nul points.
Does Wendy persevere from this point or does she decide that the Windows tax she’s currently paying is a necessary evil? We can almost hear one of one Redmond’s richest residents rubbing his hands together with glee. At least that’s one interpretation…
It’s okay – we know – Wendy made a multitude of mistakes in the way she was using Ubuntu. Silly Wendy.
Firstly, Wendy neglected to realise the name of the email client as ‘Thunderbird’. Had she searched for that (or even ‘mail’ as it transpires) she would have scored a hit on her search of the Dash.
Wendy is now ‘doing it wrong’ in full Olympic 2012 style. Surely everybody knows what Mozilla Thunderbird is, but that’s Wendy for you – you really couldn’t make it up.
The more glaring mistake, though, is that she neglected to spot the small envelope on the top right of the screen, just next to the battery and network indicators. It’s a drop-down menu that would have got her moving in the right direction.
Why didn’t Wendy see it at first glance? In this instance we feel compelled to stand to her defence – the better question should probably be: “why would she see it at first glance?”
Ubuntu is one of the few operating system slash distro derivatives that treats email and messaging in this fashion. No big deal, but does that excuse the lack of a shortcut in the launcher?
Just about every operating system slash distro we can think of that features a dock or launcher has a full gamut of default applications in it, including the email client. Close your eyes and imagine a dock – the chances are you’re seeing File Management, Web Browser, Office, Email, Audio/Video and graphical editor. In, or around, that order.
Obviously there’s a very good reason there’s a shortcut to LibreOffice Impress in place of a shortcut to the default email client. In fact it’s probably such a good reason there’s no need to go into it now.
Join us next time as Wendy Windows (having successfully configured her email client) attempts to check the coming month’s meeting schedule using Ubuntu 12.04’s calendar integration.
We’ve already had a sneak preview and – we can assure you – it’s Wendy at her best…
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Wendy, rtfm. Just kidding. I think the solution could be, to make sure, you will see some docs before you use Ubuntu the first. Maybe a popu: “How to do common tasks”.
Maybe she should check out the “online tour first” http://www.ubuntu.com/tour the unity bashing is getting stupid. esp when gnome classic is AVAILABLE (on disk no extra downloads) for 12,04LTS.
…and how about silly Wilbert Windows LOL
@Michael that’s exactly the problem how the hell are the Wendys of the world supposed to know how to switch to a different DE that would have the mail client in a discoverable place i.e. on a menu
This post is spot on! Never mind Wendy … I’m a software engineer and have used linux exclusively on the desktop for 6 years, and part-time for many years before that. When I first 12.04 I had assumed it was a bug or a bad install because nothing seemed accessible except those cryptic icons (they couldn’t have provided a tool tip?) and that ugly button bar which you can’t make go away. Well, it turns out you can make it go away if you look hard enough.
And I actually like ubuntu and really would like for them to succeed. But IMO unity wasn’t very good to begin with, and it is now downright bizarre.
I’ve reverted back to gnome-shell, which is okay, and at least it’s obvious how to find stuff.
1. My 10 years experience as sys administrator in academic institution tells me that users very rarely read computer documentation. If they do, they must be ashamed of it and never admit it :). IMHO desktop users cannot be expected to read “help”, especially to start using new OS.
2. Wendys will likely to use a browser to read e-mail; not every one what know what firefox looks like :).
3. I think most Wendys will benefit from replacing an “ubuntu” buttom with a button of a magnifying glass looking + “ubuntu” symbol in the middle ( ake search ubuntu ).
The problem with not finding Thunderbird by entering ‘mail’ in the dash, is due to a bug because the search algorithm is not searching for partial matches. If you confirm this bug (by using the affect-link), this is probably solved in 12.04 already.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-lens-applications/+bug/921727
I haven’t used windows since XP, but if memory serves the email client was called Outlook Express, and was just as cryptic as Thunderbird Mail, if not more so.
Also, Wendy Windows, doesn’t configure an email client. She starts a Web Browser, or as she likes to call it “opens the Internet,” and logs onto her hotmail/gmail from there.
Anyone capable of configuring an email client, knows what Thunderbird is, and how to find it.
Anyone capable of configuring an email client, knows what Thunderbird is, and how to find it.
Or in other words – you know what to do and so cannot conceieve of anyone being less able than you.
Internet Sin Number 2 – expecting everyone else to be the same as yourself with regard to skills and observation and then criticising those who aren’t.
Here’s some advice for Wendy – dump Ubuntu and go for one of the (many) other and mostly all better set up, versions of Linux.
Hey, „Wendy Windows”? Can we have less of that casual sexist crap, please?
She can always come round here and sit on my knee while I demonstrate “how it all works”.
However, anyone as young as your model doesn’t use an email client, they use Facebook and Twitter for everything, usually on their Dumbfone or Bumbleslab.
In windows if you search for email or mail you won’t also find outlook. but I also agree that opening the dash and seeing app right away would be easier.
Ok, Ubuntu, here is my 2 cents. I wanted to jump to linux so bad years ago. I tried over time but learning curve hurt. Oh I am an engineer for HP- lots of technical experience for what that matters. Not a wendy here.
then came ubuntu 8 or 9 can’t remember. Loved it. I could actually do stuff all stuff I did on windows.
Then I was over due for ugrades so I let ubuntu do it. I went to far and got into the 11 unity crap.
Absolutely am frustrated with it. I have been wondering how to get back to my excitement with ubuntu and linux again. Gnome ????
I heard that Wendy Windows is a slut riddled with disease
Personal computing is and always will be a system under continual development. So to the user interface and the hardware we use to make it work.
For years Microsoft and Intel managed to halt the continual development model, forcing users to be content with their snail’s pace development by wrapping old hardware systems in new packaging, then along came Linux and changed the game back to the continual model.
Now we have Ubuntu trying to give us an interface that will work on modern computing devices called smartphones and tablets as well as the old desktops. And it’s not just Ubuntu although they were first to realise a change to the general user interface was required. We have Apple porting IOS backwards to their desktop and Microsoft trying to make Win8 do the same job on Desktops and phones. Then there’s Google who side stepped the old desktop interface with Android for smartphones and tablets with a useable oral interface as well as a touch screen GUI.
Having used and customised Unity on rooted tablets, netbooks and desktops, I recognise like the rest of Linux and it’s apps, it’s a system in development and give the developers full marks for a common useable GUI interface across all these platforms. Just add the oral interface functions like Android has, and the Wendys and Wilburs can be a unknowledgeable as they like. A true Model T computer experience.
By the way, in my experience, the young don’t use Facebook and Twitter. That’s for oldies. They use Skype and Gtalk for their social networking and the cloud for photo and video sharing.
This is the whole problem with Mark Shuttleworth and the way Ubuntu is heading.
They think they are big enough to redefine the way people use computers and how you “read” a UI.
All they are doing is alienating the new users, piss off the traditional users and manage to win over a few on their bandwagon.
Wendy should install Zorin – not Ubuntu. Problem solved.
Mike, try gnome classic, aka fallback mode, for the most legacy-looking de. Gnome-shell if you want the newer interface.
I think for oneiric you may need the gnome3 ppa, although if you’re this far along you should probably just step up to 12.04. That will also get you the 3.2 kernel, also available for oneiric in Francis brown’s kernels ppa.
In spite of understanding the point of view of the author, I have to say that for sure Wendy never started to work with Windows without any help in the first place, so it should be the same when changing to any other OS.
If Wendy installed the OS for herself, then she must had read something and capable to taught herself by discovering the OS. If someone installed for her, that person should help with the first steps. At least this is, in my opinion, how things work in the real world.
@ mike HP engineer:
With lots of techincal experience and you couldn’t figure out how to install another DE in Ubuntu? It is pretty easy. Don’t want to give the trouble of doing that, try another distro, there’s lots of them to enjoy.
Oh btw, I’m a HP customer, so I help to pay for your salary when I buy some of their products. Since I buy them, I should expect that it work correctly, right? Wrong! Yesterday I was trying to install a networked HP 2015, connected to a WinXP machine, on a Win7 64 bits and driver did not work properly. Therefore instead of criticizing someone that gives an OS away for free, criticize your own employer who treats customers as users. This in fact is a real shame.
Someone mentioned this online tour http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/en/ first time I’ve seen this, wouldn’t it be nice if this is included on the installation and pops up after your first login, kinda like the windows xp tour.
The problem with Unity and HUD is that it requires too much typing. Removing your fingers from the mouse to type takes time and is counter-productive. It should be one or the other. Mixing typing and mouse is a mistake. Add to that the fact that Unity is supposed to be for all devices, tablets, phones etc. Typing on a tablet to find something that should be as simple as touching, dragging and dropping is not going to work. The keyboard pops up and takes too much space and the keyboard is small and prone to errors.
The mouse and by extension touch interfaces are all click, drag and drop. Unity and HUD are a move away from this and it is not the way most users work. It may be fine for programmers and journalists, but not for regular people. Look at people typing on a smartphone or a non-programmer typing on akeyboard some time and you will get the idea. Give them a mouse and they are off to the races. GNOME shell is not much better and worse in many other ways.
The best desktop environment for me is KDE. It still allows the traditional interface, but has lots of innovative features such as Activities so you can work any way that you want. You are not forced to change your workflow and try to put square pegs in round holes.
The one who’s doing it wrong is some guy named Mark…
To those who mechanically denounce any criticism of their favorite distribution, desktop, application etc. as “bashing” … make your own point, if you have any, but stop attacking the critics. Criticism based on a sober assessment is not “bashing”.
I think what really needs to be done is the classic version shows up in the installation process as an option. That makes it easy for everyone to get what they want and people aren’t shocked to see unity at first boot. It isn’t entiely intuitive to install the classic then log out and then click the gear icon and choose classic.I alos hate whta ubuntu has done but want to stay with all the support it offers.
I agree. I thought this blank screen in the dash was dumb as well. First screen should be your installed applications.. PERIOD. It is what every computer user is expecting. Do you go to an Apple or Start menu and expect it to be blank? On a fresh install of Windows, is it so complex that other users on forums suggest you install Windows classic?
Hi… I am an IT guy… almost 20 years now and I have to say that finding that the Ubuntu logo button on the dock can show Applications making right-clic and choosing (daaahh) Applications was not intuitive. When you are on school learning how to develop software the teachers (at least mine did) tell you that you had to program and write code dumb-proof. That sounds ugly but it is the truth, you can not develop any software specially the OS and expect for all the people understand it and use it without any learning curve, but you can do your best in that direction.
I had dozens of PCs installed with Ubuntu 10.04 (yes, if you like Ubuntu and still love Gnome 2 you can download 10.04.4 and live with your beloved OS and Shell for other 3 years with support). I was waiting for try the 12.04 with Cinammon but I am doing right now the lab for Linux Mint with Cinnamon… why use the cinnamon adaptation to Ubuntu when it is originally developed for LinuxMint?
Why LinuxMint… well… it was originally based on Ubuntu but they respect the people so much that they want to give you choices, yes, in the next Update they announced you can choose between MATE, Cinnamon, etc.
In Ubuntu you have the option to choose Kubuntu or others, but it is not really available until you do the homework and Google it, to follow the instructions to install the new GUI or apt-get it… Or download the Kubuntu and burn the iso, after you did the same with the Unity version to burn the iso… and so on…
Again, not for the newbies that Ubuntu claim from the start to try to catch.
A final opinion, why everybody is trying to lost the menus, Microsoft Office, then Gnome 3 (the unholy mess said Linux), then Unity…. I love LibreOffice, their team still have menus taking advantage or years and years of learning curves of millions, and that’s why I have not work with Cinnamon yet but in youtube looks pretty well… with menus! and I had to say, my users love the menus.
Excellent, though I agree to some comments saying that Wendy would probably use a webmail.
My personal reason not to use unity: I use a monitor in portrait mode (vertical). 1200×1920. Who wants a huge unmovable vertical launcher in portrait mode?
I made the switch to CentOS, and I’m eager to see what happens with Linux Mint.
Wendy,
Don’t worry. Hang in there. You will be ready for metro in no time.
But then, if you actually want to use your computer, try Linux Mint. it trusts rather than ridicules you as a user.
Linux Mint and KDE
Mark let Unity go.
Linux Mint with Cinnamon is the best option. Mark shuttleworth is not listening to the community….His authoritarian attitude is killing an excellent product “Ubuntu”…Gnome Shell too is crap…Now they are creating extensions to patch the design mistakes (the greatest blunder in the history of linux)…
Too bad Ubuntu isn’t a monopoly that doesn’t get to indoctrinate users starting in grade school or before. For a youth this delima isn’t much diffrenent than switching one game console to another. If someone is used to Xbox and bought a Playstation I guess they should return it after they turn it on and see it’s different. I guess she’s never upgraded her smart phone loaded with a different OS than she’s used too. I mean, how dare different companies have slightly diffrent products than their competitors! My keyboard at home has different buttons in different places than my keyboard at work, The bastards! We got a new car from a different car company and everything is in a different place and now I’m mad.
Wendy could have tried just typing “mail” into the dash. Worked for me. Anyone who doesn’t glance/hover over all the icons on a new desktop or explore before getting flustered should stay away from technology all together. Facebook changed it’s interface multiple times. I have a feeling Wendy is still on Myspace.
I love comments that start with “I’m a computer professional with 20+ years experience…” and then launch into a rant about how they can’t use Linux as it’s too complicated!
Fact is that most IT techs use Windows and are used to the Windows way of doing stuff. Some battled hardened MCSE’s find OSX hard and go back to what they are familiar with, Windows!
Me, well I only have 15 years professional experience as an IT tech and I got into computers back in 80′s using the Sinclair ZX81, Commodore 64 and even the good old BBC B. It was in the 90′s that I actually bought an IBM clone PC and used MS DOS and then I got this thing called Windows 3.11. Now instead of typing a command, I had to find the picture of the application and use this darn thing called a mouse and double click it! Would you believe it, as soon as I got used to Windows 3.11, Windows 95 came out and I had to learn how to find things all over again. Microsoft stuck to that Windows 95 paradigm all the way to Windows 7, so yes the majority of users will find another OS confusing if it doesn’t follow the Windows 95 paradigm.
I have been using Linux since 1997 and I became a full time Ubuntu user back with Ubuntu 6.06 (not a typo, but there is actually a 6.06 they took 2 extra months to iron out stuff!) and I haven’t used anything else at home. Unity isn’t the best thing since sliced bread nor the worst thing in the world, but no OS is perfect. I fight with OSX often and yes it frustrates me, but I don’t go onto websites and say OSX sucks as it doesn’t allow me to xyz just like Windows or Ubuntu, its just a different way to achieve the same goal. If I used OSX daily, It would become second nature. Familiarity breeds contempt my friends and nobody likes change. But hey, everyday your life is different, not one day the same, even if you think it is!
Huh? So now Ubuntu is being criticized because it isn’t Windows? Or just like it? Well, Wendy is using a different OS, and should expect that things are different. Why didn’t her IT person help her get things set up and show her how to use the desktop? If she installed it herself at home – very unlikely considering her level of expertise or the fact that she seemed to think Ubuntu would be just the same as Wndows – she would surely expect differences and wouldn’t be bugged that things were in different places or that there were different programs.
Besides, this criticism would apply to any flavor of Linux. Guess what? Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian, Kubuntu, Mint, etc., are also different than Windows. Why on earth would ANYONE install a new OS and expect that there would not be a learning curve? Sheesh!
If you type MAIL instead of EMAIL in the DASH, you will get THUNDERBIRD MAIL.
That’s it.
@Ambleston Dack
“Unity isn’t the best thing since sliced bread nor the worst thing in the world”
Well put! I’m still a bit clumsy with Unity as it’s a new paradigm in my workflow. However, it works and I can see it’s benefits. I’m sure I’ll adapt just fine.
Wendy Windows must die. :o)
I am an ERP consultant and use Ubuntu – its a good alternative to Windows in a buisness world. I work with bookkeepers and accounting profesisonals, and I am still amazed at how many (Windows) users still can’t find a file after they have downloaded it to their workstations. Something like Unity would never be intuative enough for them to use. They will never read documentation and if they can’t find something after three clicks will call the software “garbage”. I have used Unity when I was on 11.04, liked it, but then when I went to 11.10, Unity seemed not the same, so I tried gnome shell – I love gnome shell it works for me, but would curl the hair of most people I have to deal with on a daily basis. Linix Minut with Cinnamon is nice, I have been trying to get a friend to try it, but he resists, even though he moans and groans about Windows and the pain he suffers (my pain too becasue I have to listen to him, lol). Change is hard, if not impossible, and that’s firmly where the average user stands. One must have an INTEREST in computing, and software, in order to experiemnt with new a new OS, distro, spin, etc. One must be born with a need to tweak stuff, take it apart, figure it out and make it different, unique. Otherwise if not? Then you are probably a Windows user, lol… :)
What’s WRONG with me??? I find Unity easy to use, and I absolutely love it. Could it be that I am just not enough of an ass to complain about something new, different and better?
Guys, vote with your usage. If you don’t like it don’t use. The Canonical guys will have to change if nobody is using their software.
I do agree that William Windows’s products must die.
It is unthinkable that Ubu’ made things more complex and less user friendly rather than the opposite. They’ve taken several steps backward in their zeal to make something appear new and shiny.
Unity stinks – period. It offers absolutely nothing with regard to ease of usability.
I tried it via live-CD for about 3-4 hours. That’s all it took for me to decide this was not the future of Linux desktops.
Ubuntu is the worst thing happen to linux and here is why..
They took advatage of the very good debian, made a lot of marketing and offered a lot of different desktops fully supported – just to take as much user they can get from other distros .. so far so good
so others distro communitys are thinning so are their support, development and so on… ok consolidation is needed no question..
but now ubuntu drops support of everything else than unity – a propitary idea to go on war with android – stupid idea because no matter what the shell is a desktop os can ever be that useable as an native tablet application and ubuntu cannt compete on the massmarket on phones and tablets btw
anyway
the result is now we have a lot of kubuntu and regular gnome users left in the dark with no more support
that will have an major impact on kde and could kill it even it is better
what ubuntu is up to we can already see – now they make mroe or less useable management tools for server you have to pay no more opensource – you cant even buy you have to rent
this maybe also the reason why ubuntu go with gtk and not the defently better qt
its a licensen thing – while qt is absolute fine as long you stick woith gpl in your own code you have to pay for commercial solutions so guess whats comming next
and no unity is doing no good – its not very though trough and not very productive no matter how many docs wndy is ready
dont get me wrong kde has its issues when it comes to bring new users to the desktop – but most bugs are minor things – at least its better struktured and has a commong settings interface which is easy to use for developers – all those things gtk and gnome dont have
at the bottom line – ife testet as every year all major distros in gnome and kde, with .deb and.rpm
at the end nothing is very satissfying and absolute not useable for roleouts in a company
not from the sysadmin standpoiitn (making default settings and stuff, installer, and so on
not from the users standpoint (useability, stability, documentation …)
whats also not understandable is the way ubuntu is packaging – i mean cmon if you chose a desktop you have to take xxxxxx uneded apps with it – and dont forget to deselecet recommendens or get you a giang assload of 700meg with it –
minimal isntallations ? no ubuntu dont want this anymore they even dropped support for easy repack your own version of an distro (you can do but not without pain)
ubuntu wants users to dictate who to use their desktops and what to use and how much to pay
and with already taken so much marketshare its hard for users to switch to an working alternative – yes there are ohter distros but all of them already gave too much blood to ubuntu leaving em a bit crippled and situation gets daily worse
if you dont wanna se another high pricy redhat like company taking all the good from others while not giving back shit its better to forget unity, for get ubuntu and support the distro of your choice
Wendy O… I need you so…
Well that’s sort of how the song went isn’t it?
Wendy’s not alone. to be perfectly frank…. Ubuntu sux. It does, and there’s no retracting that statement. It’s just another Redmond or Redhat waiting it’s proverbial turn in the profit churing software market for the naive.
Those of us who have been using and advocating the adoption of UNIX over the past twenty years (Okay, nineteen if you must) have come to realize that the best Linux distros are those which have endeared the techies. These so-called techies have made such inroads in the free software movement so as to displace Microsoft and their insidious licensing, and unfair trade practices.
Along the way, however, there has been numerous personalities that have strove to destroy the free software movement and the folks who rule ewboontoo by fiat are no exception. Even their own devout followers have been participating in a mass exodus by the millions as a result of *ONE MAN’S* decree that his Linux distro will adopt unitiy, which is almost a Windows 8 clone resembling that touch screen technology that has popularized tablet computing.
Installing any OS on a computer that resembles a palm-sized device on anything other than a palm-sized device is not a particularly smart move. But hey! it’s ewboontoo! Everyone will follow, and purchase tech support right?
Wrong.
Ubuntu is a wonderful Linux distro (bullhockey). But it has outlived it’s usefullness now that it has outlived the plug and pray syndrome which for so many years has held back the floodgates of the masses.
These users that have sampled Linux, a free, Open Source collection of software applications under the GNU moniker and others has matured to the point where most people are comfortable running Linux based distros – but that doesn’t mean they’re going to follow it into a tablet based, unintuitive menagerie of clusterbux.
What we see now, is a mass migration of former ubuntu users to the great grandfather distributions like Slackware, and Debian – distros that still deliver the promise of, “You can have it your way”. Distros that actually deliver that stability that ubuntu never ever ever ever ever delivered, but served to open the floodgates to those who hoped for a better way.
Nowadays, if you install Slackware or Debian GNU/Linux, you’ll find that most everything on your “latest and greatest laptop” just runs – out of the box. And the familiar look and feel of those Linux distros will astonish you as to how familiar they are to the way you are used to computing already!
Well, don’t take it from me. Simply download an ISO DVD image of Debian or Slackware Linux at, respectively, http://debian.org or http://Slackware.com and see for yourself.
Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too – but most of all, you can have it your way, on a much more stable operating system that ewboontoo.
I would love to hear any feedback that you have in this regard and feel free to publish it on our site at http://NorthTech.US
Kindest regards,
Bradley D. Thornton
Manager Network Services
http://NorthTech.US
TEL: +1.310.388.9469 (US)
TEL: +44.20.3318.2755 (UK)
TEL: +61.390.088.072 (AU)
TEL: +41.43.508.05.10 (CH)
P.S. Really, we would love to hear from you, and we even provide free community support for those who wish to switch from Microsoft solutions to Linux – even the lowly little Starbucks laptop user that Redmond Washington would like to ignore – yes, we’re serious about this and do this gratis, since we’re actually Linux advocates that believe you really should be able to “Have it your way!”.
.
I normally use gnome shell, today I’ve been using unity on ubuntu 12.04 beta. After 6 hours of using unity I am definitely going to be frustrated not being able to press Alt and search for the menu item I need.
Dash is still not great, gnome-do still outshines it. Fuzzy search needs improving, they should try sublime-text 2.
I thought Unity might be a good system for my DVR, but in practice it was just excreble — felt like I was under Windows thumb again.
Before I was done Unity drove me from Ubuntu to Kubuntu (too buggy), Mint (Meh), then finally Debian.
Jonnan
I came here following a link related to a post from a longtime respected member of the Linux/FOSS community but it appears that his post has been censored in favor of the purveyors of ubunto.
You should be ahsamed of yourselves for censoring tallship’s post.
I guess you only get from the media what the media wants you to get!
Here’s the link to his post (which was deleted due to censorship):
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/opinion/5-problems-with-ubuntu-12-04-part-1-unity-dash-usability-issues/comment-page-1/#comment-83912
I hope you can sleep at night w/o palming valium.
-Tony-
.
Well it appears that my comment was censored. That figures. I guess the author never really intended to accept real peoples comments on the issue anyway, since that is the feedback I’m hearing from the several sites where my comment link was posted.
We know where you stand then don’t we?
Welcome to Redmond version 2.1
Just checked again. Yes your post was censored and deleted.
Here it is for everyone who believes in freedom – as in free beer and freedom to read the truth!
————- posted by tallship but deleted due to censorshop by the redmond folks at cannonical—–
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Wendy O… I need you so…
Well that’s sort of how the song went isn’t it?
Wendy’s not alone. to be perfectly frank…. Ubuntu sux. It does, and there’s no retracting that statement. It’s just another Redmond or Redhat waiting it’s proverbial turn in the profit churing software market for the naive.
Those of us who have been using and advocating the adoption of UNIX over the past twenty years (Okay, nineteen if you must) have come to realize that the best Linux distros are those which have endeared the techies. These so-called techies have made such inroads in the free software movement so as to displace Microsoft and their insidious licensing, and unfair trade practices.
Along the way, however, there has been numerous personalities that have strove to destroy the free software movement and the folks who rule ewboontoo by fiat are no exception. Even their own devout followers have been participating in a mass exodus by the millions as a result of *ONE MAN’S* decree that his Linux distro will adopt unitiy, which is almost a Windows 8 clone resembling that touch screen technology that has popularized tablet computing.
Installing any OS on a computer that resembles a palm-sized device on anything other than a palm-sized device is not a particularly smart move. But hey! it’s ewboontoo! Everyone will follow, and purchase tech support right?
Wrong.
Ubuntu is a wonderful Linux distro (bullhockey). But it has outlived it’s usefullness now that it has outlived the plug and pray syndrome which for so many years has held back the floodgates of the masses.
These users that have sampled Linux, a free, Open Source collection of software applications under the GNU moniker and others has matured to the point where most people are comfortable running Linux based distros – but that doesn’t mean they’re going to follow it into a tablet based, unintuitive menagerie of clusterbux.
What we see now, is a mass migration of former ubuntu users to the great grandfather distributions like Slackware, and Debian – distros that still deliver the promise of, “You can have it your way”. Distros that actually deliver that stability that ubuntu never ever ever ever ever delivered, but served to open the floodgates to those who hoped for a better way.
Nowadays, if you install Slackware or Debian GNU/Linux, you’ll find that most everything on your “latest and greatest laptop” just runs – out of the box. And the familiar look and feel of those Linux distros will astonish you as to how familiar they are to the way you are used to computing already!
Well, don’t take it from me. Simply download an ISO DVD image of Debian or Slackware Linux at, respectively, http://debian.org or http://Slackware.com and see for yourself.
Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too – but most of all, you can have it your way, on a much more stable operating system that ewboontoo.
I would love to hear any feedback that you have in this regard and feel free to publish it on our site at http://NorthTech.US
Kindest regards,
Just to clarify there’s no censoring of comments going on here – it was pulled to spam since it contains links and contact details. It has been re-instated.
Thanks!
Just caught the conspiracy theories and Valium jibes :)
Seriously guys – why on Earth would we censor this stuff anyway?!
It’s a fun post poking a few usability holes and is meant to encourage lively debate – let’s get back on topic and leave the tinfoil hats at the door.
PS. Wendy says ‘Hi’ and hopes you understand why she wont be emailing each of you back personally.
Big thumbs down on Unity.
I have to laugh. Years ago, when Windows 95 was being developed (I was a developer at Microsoft back then), the “great idea” was to advocate the use of the search bar in then nascent Start menu. That was the way of the future we thought! Until it went through significant user testing, and failed miserably.
After all–we thought in hindsight–who would want to type when they can click and drag instead? Silly Windows 95 team, what were we thinking!?
Fast forward 15+ years, and the illustrious UE team at Ubuntu have made the same short-sighted discovery: typing is the all-powerful way. Why point and click when you can blindly search your way to salvation? What absolute brilliance!
And then reality struck, and it was 1995 again…
Mr. Thronton,
I read your post and while it was not supportive of Ubuntu in general, I don’t think that is the reason you may have been censored. I’m guessing it might have had more to do with the solicitation for business.
I prefer my Debian install, lowly hobbyist that I am.
The other day, after reading a review of the windows phone, I was curious to seek out other interface choices for computers. I wasn’t too successful but this article comes the closest. At least it points me toward a distro that is attempting to improve the interaction of the user and his objectives (I am not saying this effort is any good or that MS is any good, just that it is an effort to improve the interaction).
I use an iphone and find that interface quite natural but perhaps it’s because of the amount of time I’ve invested in it. The same for xp. When vista came out I was POd. I hated the Word ribbon and I still do.
MS phone had used their desktop interface on their phones to their peril. Boy, you had to drill down the menu chain to do ANYTHING! Now it looks like a flip. The info is in your face. Now the interface is on the desktop. Interesting. I still prefer the xp interface and loathe how they hid everything in 7.
I probably agree that tyrants have an agenda. Imposing the new ubuntu interface fits in there somehow. All of these guys are already filthy rich so it must be a domination thing. Pretty lame really.
But if a developer actually produced an improved interface I would like that. And, as with most things worthwhile, it take some effort to learn new things (I never struggled one moment learning how to have sex).
A lot of good points made here so much that I think the author has missed the mark and chose to attack the platform for arguments sake. It’s not what he prefers.
Yes, please lose the sexest presentation (she is very pretty).
Hi all!
I think *Ubuntu is great as Linux is in all of his flavours (Mint, Slack, Debian, etc) If someone thinks that Unity is cryptic or hard or whatever, he/she can change to KDE, Gnome, Xfce, Lxde, Fluxbox, IceWM, etc. The important thing is the FREEDOM of choice.
I love the way that Linux do things (things like manage my hardware securely and efficiently) and I admit that with a tty I’m happy.
I MUST use Win7 at work (thanks msysgit!). For me, the “aero” GUI su***, I configured “win classic view” back, but the point is that I have ONLY TWO options, just “aero” or win95 gui (enjoy Metro GUI o.O? ).
Currently I’m giving a chance to Unity, if it doesn’t work, just “apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop” or “apt-get install your-preferred-WM” or just “Ubuntu Software Center” and play some minutes.
I think Unity will do a great job on TV or smartphones, I don’t know with desktops, at least if you aren’t a keyboard-addict like me ;) but I insist: you HAVE the FREEDOM. Try Unity, if you don’t like it, throw away and try other GUI that works for you!
Gabriel.
I have tested Unity, and being a long time Gnome user, I was not too pleased with it. To be fair, it may be just that I was acustomed to the old way of doing things, so my opinion may be biased. Nevertheless, I find that this article may suffer from a basic flaw. Although I agree that many operating systems now have a GUI shell (once an over again Unity/Gnome/KDE are not the operating system, just GUI shells) and also launchers to make easier find applications, the default set of applications in the launcher is not that important (I do think nevertheless, that he author was right in the point when he mentioned the application searching interface, it is way too confusing). In the case of an email client as it should or not be on the default launcher, lets analyze that. A desktop shell will be used in one of too places, a personal computer or a company one. If it is in a company one, it is very probable that the IT department has already setup everything so the employee knows where to find things, and if not, well, they have to use it anyways because it is not the user choice, but the company’s. Now, in the case of a personal computer, most people nowadays don’t use dedicated email clients, but their provider web based counterparts, reachable thru the browser, which, as a matter of fact, IS on Unity’s default launcher. Therefore, this analysis, in my humble opinion, should focus more on the usability of the interface as it is (how to reach what you’re looking for), than in the availability of this or that application, which at the end, can even be a personal choice in the part of the end user.
spinto said:
4 April 2012 at 10:04 am
In windows if you search for email or mail you won’t also find outlook. but I also agree that opening the
dash and seeing app right away would be easier.
In OpenSUSE with KDE if you search for e-mail or mail you will find KMail. :-) It’s also easily findable because OpenSUSE ships KDE with the default of listing programs by description rather than name. Thus, if you use the menu you go to the Applications tab, select Internet, scroll down and see “Email Client” next to the appropriate icon. Placing the cursor over it reveals “Email (KMail)” on a second line.
For Windows users moving to Linux, they really shouldn’t be using anything other than KDE. KDE employs a traditional application menu and mechanisms they’re familiar with. Honestly, I’m not sure why Unity or Gnome 3 would be used on a traditional desktop at all, but that’s another story.
Wendy can now search for email and will find thunderbid. The same applies to firefox as well..you just need to search for internet or www etc…to find firefox. This update should now land in a few days time well before the final release.
Interesting, Unity is kind of confusing for those who have migrated from windows. Alternatively she can use other Desktop environmental similar to windows. Ofcourse Linux has wide variety of choice. But its human nature they try to compare things. While switching from on thing to others I guess it will take time.
Funny article. Can’t wait for the next installment.
An os usually evolves to make the experience for the user better somehow. Ubunu’s switch to unity, and windows switch to windows 8, is driven by the desire to make it better for the company. Both want a single os to use on phones, laptops, tablets and desktops. That’s why they suck. They don’t enhance the users non touch screen experience, though they’re trying hard to convince you it does.
I also am no fan of unity, but like many here have pointed out, things change and one OS is not like the other and that’s fine. My only con is what one other commenter said; You should never mix menu selections with Mouse and Keyboards, pick one or the other, their is only one exception and that is Shortcut Keys.
I firmly believe one thing as many other have pointed out, simply give us options during install which DE we prefer, this is like going to the car dealer and the sales rep selling you what he want’ and not what you want.
This guy
“Maybe she should check out the “online tour first” http://www.ubuntu.com/tour the unity bashing is getting stupid. esp when gnome classic is AVAILABLE (on disk no extra downloads) for 12,04LTS.”
is typical of the ubuntu ignorance. Wendy stumbles at the first hurdle, unity dash, and this guys expects that she can install gnome.
Ubuntu was the first Linux distro that was worth using. It was refined enough for the average user, not just for geeks. The biggest problem with Ubuntu now is that Unity is ugly. The icons look like they came out of the 90s. I hate to sound shallow, but look and feel are important for a lot of people. Ubuntu had so much going for it. Instead of going for a whole new look they should have perfected something that was already damned good.
I’ve been a regular Linux Desktop user for 14 years, Ubuntu for a solid two to three years… until Unity. I lasted about 6 months and although I found the frustration level with the desktop decreasing over that time, it never decreased enough to make it worthwhile for me. I’m back to Fedora as my primary Desktop, as are most of the Linux users in my IT environment.
Offline email is mainly a business thing, more and more people are just signing into googlemail in their web browser.
If you really think google has the money to employ people to read all your dull mail, then please don’t respond, as i’ll probably struggle to understand you.
Another nice attempt to save Ubuntu and Linux buy telling people how much unity sux. RIP Ubuntu. I don’t know if it is really a conspiracy to destroy Linux but it could be. If you were sitting in redmont and wanted to strike – GUI would be a good choice. It was something that brought a lot of people to Ubuntu and Linux and bad GUI now makes people abandon ubuntu and possibly Linux. Though I think most probably it is M.S. wants to be the next St.J. except that he’s not and canonical isn’t aapl with billions of $$$. Anyway it is what it is. No metro or unity for me. I’ll be following the path suggested here and looing at debian again. Also the comparison with win is very valid since it’s 90 percent of desktops out there. Would be also interesting to compare with iOS and android users. Honestly I don’t use desktop as much anymore. I did have iPad2 but traded it in for transformer prime. Most of my friends use only there phones for personal use and the see desktops and laptops only at work. I don’t know how long that will last either as it’s more convenient to use a tablet or a phone at work. I see many companies going away from desktops in a couple of short years to mobile devices .
saugat adhikari said:
6 April 2012 at 3:46 am
“Interesting, Unity is kind of confusing for those who have migrated from windows. Alternatively she can use other Desktop environmental similar to windows.”
Can you suggest the desktop environment that woudl most closely resemble Windows in XP and 7 flavors ? i.e.:
1: simpler united taskbar with an equivalent of “Start” button that can be positioned alongside any edge of the screen and desktop where icons for most frequently used applications can be placed
2: more colorful united taskbar with more advanced effects (display of minimized applications, option to pin programs etc.) that can be positioned alongside any edge of the screen and desktop where icons for most frequently used applications can be placed
I’;m guessing KDE for the former but I’d appreciate any advice you may have (as I’m sure will others who stumble upon this discussion).
@Lewis Goddard:
Google doesn’t have to read “all your dull mail”. They just so happen to be in possession of some pretty good search engine algorithms and automated translation service (which its users keep improving pro bono). Those accounts are also linked to their other services (videos, social crap etc.), easing the search.
Why waste time reading everything when you can just look up things of interest, conveniently stored on their servers ?
I raised a bug report on launchpad and this is almost fixed. ;)
Ordidary Wendy don’t mind all these legacy things. As long as she can open up the browser fast. Incase she needs something she uses Google search.
Now she just may be very happy with searching with dash. Does not need to remember everything anymore to be able to use a computer.
If you are not ready to change, you are ready to leave as world is changing.
Russell Barnes,
Wendy has no brain to use an OS.
Is that clear ?
After all Russell Barnes is not any SJVN to pinpoint
FSCK you.
If you put a search box in it needs to search. Programs default metadata needs to be enhance to at least included the details in the soft ware center. It 2012 after all
This article is spot on! I’ve been using linux for a long time and was on Ubuntu since Edgy. Even with all that experience using Unity feels like it’s my first time using a computer.
Unity is dumb.
When I click on the Dash button the second row of icons includes “Check Email.” Screenshot available on request.
I am so disappointed by all the linux distro that are coming up these days. I love Linux, the good old days Linux, but everything I try now (I have VBOX and keep dowloading new distros all and try, in the hope to find something I can just stay on and use). I have trash can full of burned CD’s of linux distro.
Linux is in such a disarray these days. I have been following and using linux since 1996. All these new distros are worst than each others. unity and ununtu is trash. Installed fedora and new GNOME, can’t stand it either. All the desktops feel so terrible. They can’t even get the cursor to work right.
If I want eye candy with no functionality, I use windows. I do not need linux. At least windows desktop looks and works better.
I currently use mint LXDE, as I found it the least full of junk desktop that I do not need and can just open a terminal and do some real work.
Linux will never make it in the desktop, ever. Since I see the Linux desktop getting worst with each new release, not better.
Keep things simple, keep them functional. Being windows emulator, and a terrible one at it, is not what Linux was all about.
For the most part I agree that the bashing is getting old. Let’s take a person who knows nothing about Linux, has no reason for needing the switch over from M$, give them no support with the product and also use this experience as a relevant point for all users. If she could make the choice (on her own or forced) to go Ubuntu, why not just go back to what she knows and leave the OS to people who know how to use it? If you were interested to try something new not knowing anything or not doing at least a bit of research then it’s you own fault and not the products fault. Anyone can find any “glaringly” obvious faults if they want to with anything. Might have just as well given a XBox fanboy a PS3 to review or give a monkey a loaded shotgun. Even linux users have problems with other linux distro’s.
If Wendy was smart enough to figure out how to have set up the email client in Windows, seek out, download and burn the CD ISO image of this obscure Operating System, then decides that she will attempt to install this OS, succeeds in doing so. To think that she has made it this far only to be utterly confounded in her attempt to locate a similar e mail client for her new Ubuntu OS.
Realistically I think we can assume that anyone who knows of , and likewise has decided to use UBuntu is also aware that the distro employs a set of core applications different from those of Micrsoft Windows; Further to the point, it stands to reason that they are actually familiar with the open source essentials like mozilla, libre office, gimp, vlc, and even thunderbir
Wendy needs to be spanked like a bad, bad donkey!
There are two moments in Mark Shuttleworth’s relationhip with Linux: the one until Maverick Meerkat, and then later, when he probably was talked by someone into believing he’s the new Steve Jobs. In his first moment he had a linux desktop reach a peak of usability and sober beauty with his marvellous Ambiance theme on Gnome 2.30 (enhanced with Nautilus Elementary). Now he’s up to revealing to us Ubuntu users how bitterly we missed the Unity mess without us knowing it, by pushing a stripped and uncomfortable interface down our throats in the name of a “unified user experience” across devices. I better stop ranting and make some predictions instead: In due time, our aspiring Steve Jobs will realize that he wound up being a vice Steve Ballmer, who will be remembered as the one who unleashed the worst GUI crisis in the linux world so far. By the year 2014, there will be hardly any ubuntu phones or tablets to feed the Ubuntu Cloud business. So by then Shuttleworth will try to regain all those old Ubuntu’s pc users who switched to Debian, Mint, or simply dropped Linux, just pissed off by Unity and Gnome Shell. Then he will include an improved version of Mate in Ubuntu 14.x. And I bet that Ubunt will still be plagued by those same bugs reported on Ubuntu 10.4 and later, and stubbornly neglected in favour of Shuttleworth’s interface adventures. By then he hopefully will learn why beauty and a flawless user experience were the same as important to the late Steve Jobs.
Part of the fun of a new OS is getting in there and exploring all the new/different aspects of it. There are very few trouble spots that you can not find the answer to simply by using Google. If there is something you find you can not live with or without, there are a seemingly endless number of Linux systems out there to choose from, all of which are …free. Love linux! :) A fantastic learning opportunity…
How long would it take Wendy to spot the envelope in this example? Thirty seconds? Fifteen? Not bad. Pretty intuitive if you ask me.
Why would they include a Thunderbird icon if email’s handled through the envelope indicator? Superfluous.
Personally I think Wendy should stop messing about with computers and get back in the kitchen – it’s obviously all too much for her.
Good lord almighty!
For all the incredibly intelligent people posting on here ( and this is not sarcastic – I’m sure you are all quite intelligent ), nearly every person has completely missed the entire point of the article.
The point is….. wait for it……
IT’S NOT INTUITIVE!!!! IT’S NOT OBVIOUS!!!!!
“oh if she typed “mail” instead of “email” she would have found it” ……. Why the %$&%@$ should she be typing anything at all to find the @&#$&@#& email client??!?!?!?!
The whole point of the UI is for a person who has never seen it before to take a look at it…. maybe look at it for 5-10 seconds and think to themselves….
“ok, clearly I need to press this link to get myself started ….. click! …. ok – what do we have here? ah! all kinds of other links to applications, programs etc…. ok! …. maybe I’ll click applications …. AH HA! … now we’re getting somewhere….”
And this is EXACTLY what’s impossible with unity!…. unless you know the first five steps, you’ve got no hope in hell of figuring it out by yourself in anything under 10 minutes.
Even if you don’t know exactly what to do, there should be a somewhat clear way of PROGRESSING to start eliminating options…. After five minutes, Wendy had tried a few things, gotten absolutely nowhere and was ALREADY frustrated with the system….
and here’s the whole point where the argument fundamentally goes in two separate paths… there are two kinds of people talking here.
type 1 – Well that’s WENDY’S fault for not knowing more about computers/unity/ubuntu
type 2 – Well that’s the developer’s fault for not designing a more intuitive, learn-on-the-go UI
FWIW, I am FIRMLY a type 2 person
I think there are several reasons for Type 1 thinking.
1/ Absolves developers of responsibility… “she’s an idiot – our system is fine – it’s her problem and she needs to fix it”
2/ Ubuntu isn’t for everyone…. Only hardcore coders and system developers should be using it! … we don’t apologise for anything…. read a manual, use the command line or just goodle the answer and then try again in five hours
Which – as you can probably tell – I think is 1/ complete nonsense and 2/ lame ass computer nerd talk
YOU’VE BEEN TOLD!!!!
I’m a user who is lazy. I don’t want to put my hands on the keyboard for task switching. Unity totally gets in my way when I simply want to switch to another application fast. No matter how ‘outdated’ the old taskbar paradigm is — it works! That’s why it’s called TASK bar. Unity however, only provides a ‘launcher’. It’s completely useless for managing or switching tasks easily.
Canonical made the biggest mistake in forcing the combinated usage of keyboard and mouse onto the users. That’s why KDE is the best desktop at the moment. Because KDE offers both. You can use it via keyboard, via mouse, or both. Unity brings more disadvantages than advantages. It slows down your workflow for the simplest tasks.
On top of that, customization in Ubuntu 12.04 is a joke. You need tweaks and hacks for every little basic thing. And who said Ubuntu is ‘polished’ and ‘shiny’? Just have a look at those old 1999 icons style. And why the heck to they still use Nautilus that offers little to none possibilities for the user? There’s Merlin and others. Compare Nautilus to KDE’s dolphin and then you’ll get the picture why Nautilus feels like Windows 3.11.
And nobody seems to have even considered users who cant spell!
Not uncommon nowadays (I work in schools)
I cannot even download and install a flash player the foss one o adobe. Software centre say failed check you connection. You guessed it connection is fine I am writing this so connection is fine.
I still use Win XP Home/Pro, can’t afford to upgrade my PCs to 7 and 8 is going to be an all-device OS, or so I read. Hope that a group can maintain Win XP after Microsoft stops support for it, but not likely, so now I am trying out various Linux/BSD distros in anticipation of losing my favorite OS. I have so much FREE and open source software installed on it, that I never could have had during the mid-00s when XP was at its popular peak…sigh..oh, well.
BTW I am not a complete noob when it comes to Linux/BSD, although I do have difficulty remembering commands and options in terminals, but will continue to learn the best I can, there were no computer science classes being taught yet when I was of school age.
I have been struggling with Vista on my old Dell laptop for years now. Even my kids were giving me earache for how long it took to start up and shutdown. so I took the plunge and parttioned 12.04 onto the hard disk. I had never, ever used Linux before so all this talk about Unity vs Gnome is over my head. What I will say is this……start up 2.5 times quicker, shutdown 20 times quicker (less than 10 seconds!!!). As for the desktop, I enjoyed the experience and found it quite pleasantly uncluttered to be honest. My 10 year old is getting on fine with it, even without any instruction and I just think a lot of it just makes sense. I can even open my files from the other OS without any trouble…what more can you need? Well done Canonical from a new fan!
Did Wendy have a look at the very nice, intuitive and easy to find MAIL icon on the top bar, next to the clock??
Ubuntu does not have to be a windows replacement, and no doubt it is much better.
Go tell a Mac user that their MAC is not intuitive because you can’t find things in the same place or way you do it in Windows. I don’t think the people at Apple are wrong at designing their OS (though I don’t like it).
SHUT UP AND GO BACK TO YOU WINDOWS WORLD WENDY!
Using Unity tired
Lol i typed email in and it gave me a result; Thunderbird :)
I use Mint 12 with Gnome 3 as my main Linux system and have converted over from Gnome 2 with no problems. I found that once I got over the initial shock of leaving Gnome 2 I adjusted fairly quickly. People just do not like change as it requires them to throw away old familiar ways of doing things and learn a whole lot of new ways of doing the same things. While I would not be an advocate of change for change sake, it must be said that Gnome 2 was very dated in it’s approach, look and feel, very Windows 95/98 like.
I am also using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with Unity since it’s beta release on another computer with no problems there either. I do not see that there is a whole lot of difference between Unity and Gnome 3 and cannot understand why Canonical felt it necessary to go it’s own way and put so much time, money and effort into something which to all intents and purposes is virtually the same as that which it replaces.
As someone completely new to Linux I thought I’d drop in my 2 cents. Like most people, I’ve been using computers for ever, but mostly Windows at work.
Anyone who _wants_ to use Linux will find a way. They will get used to Unity, or they will use Gnome Shell instead etc. They may complain, but they will probably find a way.
New users without this overwhelming desire for Linux need to be given a reason to stay. Or at least not be given an excuse to go. A list of applications, organised by function is not simply ‘old fashioned’. It is actually a great way for humans to find stuff. It allows us to quickly narrow down our search. Like the Contents page in a book. The Index is also useful – I would say both approaches are essential. In Unity, the ability to access this contents view, sucks. Whether you are someone thinking ‘how can I do x’, or just “what can this OS do” this is a frustration. I think Gnome shell does a better job than unity here.
The Dash is a different issue. I heard someone gushing about how great it is to be able to perform commands without taking your hands off the keyboard. I 100% agree. But the old paradigm of a menu bar, with shortcut keys already actually works bloody well for that… alt-F-S will always be quicker than a search function and selection from a list of results. And both are redundant to people who really need speed and who will memorise the shortcuts. If the search works well, I can see it as a useful addition, but not a replacement. In the mean time it takes focus away from other areas that could benefit from polish.
I will keep using Ubuntu and Unity, cos I am one of those people that like the idea of using Ubuntu LTS and I can learn. But for those experimenting casually, I don’t think Unity will be the selling point. And people shouldn’t confuse a sensible way of categorising information with a Windows (and therefore bad) way of doing it.
Unity is excellent and getting better.I hardly ever need to use that windows mouse thing.I can open and close and find applications with combinations of 3 or 4 keystrokes.I can even shut down the system via the keyboard.I have no applications in the launcher and only use it to show running apps,having it auto-hide untill I call it with the super key.
Brilliant and not at all like those other primitive DE’s.
P.S. the whiners are never the majority of any population.
On a netbook the old “Netbook Remix” was a delight to use. The user experience of Ubuntu 12 on a netbook (Acer AspireOne 110A) is horrible. I’ve been using Ubuntu for many years, and praised it to the heavens, but 12 is awful, just awful. Bye bye Canonical… I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the Ununtu servers at work but apparently I’m going to have to find something else. Damn shame because the company relies on Firestarter and MySQL running on 10.04 boxes and they have been flawless.
But on the netbook, no worries, Android X86 (Ice Cream Sandwich) runs smooth as butter on the AspireOne (actually runs better than my tablet) and is much more intuitive than Unity. Android is moving in the right direction with the ability to easily create desktop folders that allow you to organize all your apps right at your fingertips (as opposed to having to hunt for them in Unity)
Android is actually much easier to use than Ubuntu 12 on a netbook, which speaks volumes…
To be honest, this is a complex issue. In forming an opinion, we all must accept that different users have “different tastes” and “different levels of experience”. Nonetheless, I believe certain aspects of the issue are simply facts that are worth considering.
The problem being discussed inherently has no solution that is fully satisfactory, since many people are now habituated (if not addicted) to bad-to-horrific but extremely common user-interface practices. To solve these problems would necessarily induce hassle-to-panic for a great many people. Nonetheless…
It is a FACT that many aspects of comuting REQUIRE entering text. The notion that we can do everything with a mouse is absurd — unless you propose clicking the mouse cursor on a virtual keyboard on the screen (a horrible solution), or you propose entering text by voice (an excellent solution if you can make it reliable and every aspect intuitive and convenient, including editing errors). Therefore, the notion that the user-interface must be entirely mouse-or-touchscreen-centric is unrealistic.
Personally, I wish the development of GUIs had been primarily if not entirely keyboard based. However, the facts of history made all of us habituate moving our paws back and forth between keyboard and mouse-or-touchscreen. And we’ve all had to accept the inherent risk of pressing a keyboard key at the instant some dialog appears, thereby causing something (who knows what, sometimes) to happen that we did not intend, and could not prevent or forsee. Sometimes I wonder if this is how WW3 or WW4 will begin. Nonetheless, at this point in history, it would be supremely difficult and commercially risky to attempt a keyboard-only GUI system.
I’m a software developer with decades of computer experience, but little experience with the many electronic gadgets so many people buy today. Nonetheless, it seems sensible to attempt to unify the user-interfaces of computers and electronic gadgets to the extent possible without limiting the utility or efficiency of desktop and notebook computers. So the general concept makes sense to me, even though I have no skin in this game.
What seems completely clear to me is the following, even though I personally can certainly figure out how to operate ubuntu 12.04 with some futzing around. ALL common applications should be instantly visible when the computer of device powers-up and the desktop appears. There is simply no justification to make people stare at a nearly blank desktop devoid of common applications. Zip, zero, nada, none. I haven’t futzed around with 12.04 enough yet to know whether the desktop can be configured to satisfy this requirement, but without a doubt the post-install experience should display all common applications in some obvious, intuitive way-shape-or-form — as in “icons” of some sort.
The real problem of the unity interface is that it REPLACES a more obvious, visible, intuitive paradigm. There’s nothing major wrong with the features and operation of the unity interface. What is wrong is omitting the more visible, intuitive, expected way to run common applications. Fix that or suffer a great many complaints and a substantial loss of potential fans.
Linux has a small but dedicated following on pc’s.
Trouble is pc’s are old hat. Apple has shown the way with great hardware and brilliant user interface.
Everyone, including ubuntu folk want a piece of the action into the future.
The linux core is tight, stable, secure and fast and open source. Contrast Microsoft. So linux is in with a chance.
BUT why break a perfectly fine user experience on a linux pc by forcing unity, when all we really want on the pc is continued refinement of what we know? Leave the new fangled stuff for the new fangled hardware. Feel free to make unity interface an (experimental) option on the pc.
Tablets etc are fantastic at many things and are all many people need, but not a substitute for pc/keyboard/mouse for many tasks.
As a 30-year user of computers I could not, after six hours, sus out Unity. It just felt wrong/dumb/stupid. Fancy needing to know the name of something to even find it. That’s reverse logic! On the other hand it took me about five minutes to appreciate the joy of using an iPhone and iPad.
If the problem is that Unity is not quite a finished work then again I say make it an option not the main game.
It took some years to completely wean off MS. Sadly it appears 11.10 may have to be the last Ubuntu for me. The search starts over.
I find Unity much better on Ubuntu 12.04, but if you need an interface like Gnome Panels or Windows XP, then you need the Xfce interface.
How to steps:
1 – install xfce4 and xfce4-goodies packages.
2 – at Ubuntu logon screen, select the Xfce session.
3 – you will have a Windows XP like interface with all the apps from a standard Ubuntu install and no doubles.
It works like on Windows 8 where you can choose the Metro interface or the Classic Windows XP interface.
1. Ubuntu is forcing their users to be beta testers. Every update bring a full pack of bugs which makes me remember how ‘buggy’ was Windows 95.
2. Unity is not designed to be intuitive. An intuitive GUI should allow a user without any previous knowledge to take full advantage of the system. Unity is designed towards high technical level end users. Users who have previous knowledge of the applications available in Ubuntu.
3. Unity goes around the philosophy that users should get used to it.
4. If the users doesn’t like it, too bad! There is no undo. There is no going back. Just go an suffer.
5. Ubuntu doesn’t respect previous settings, it just override them as they please. If the user had fixed a previous problem by changing the settings, those changes are going to be undo in the next update and the problem will show up again.
6. The most common hardware problems when updating Ubuntu go around the wireless, keyboard, and touch-pad.
In the 35 years I’ve worked as an IT proffessional, how many have been wasted searching through menus for that function I know is there, but can’t remember where?
With Unity all I have to do is type 3 or 4 keys and I’m there.
Brilliant
I wonder if some people are trying to work out how they attach the horses to their new Mercedes…
I have 20 Yrs experience with Dell/Windows/frustration. I dumped vista on a Dell D610 + loaded up; having already found an easy solution to get wireless working. in 12.04 Win 7 / 8 are too bloated and resoucre hogs for my tastes, my first thrid party app was always a tweaking tool.
All tweaks I made were minimal – Install Synaptic, remove software center, a few Desktop shortcuts, disable java, detail view for all folder views, etc
Biggest frustation is temps soaring near 70 C when playing flash video and the lack of fan control (I always set mine to full speed with IK8fangui in Vista and temps were 45 C or less) . So I do not play flash videos!
I need simplicity and found it here. I used to get frequent lockups with FF open and opening Dash or HUD, and was about to move to another distro but found a work around (kernel roll back) that has me totally lockup free for 2 weeks. As stated above size 16 fo launcher icons would be GR8.
Not my first time trying Ubuntu, 12.04 is definitely my last.
Loaded and was using it along side Windows for couple of days, sorted problems, downloaded some apps, only 50% of which seemed to work.
Computer will now not boot, yet again, enough !.
I dont need a Rubiks Cube PC, just one that starts and works.
This is an excellent article, and I’m glad someone took the time to really analyze Unity this closely from a new user’s point of view.
The problem with Canonical’s “User Testing” is that Canonical already decided what the desktop should look like before they did any “User Testing.” So then after Canonical recieves some well deserved backlash, they decide to pay people to tell them what is wrong with it (rather than listen to what users think is wrong with it, advice which they would get for free).
That’s not really what user testing should be used for, to help you go around and fix your mistakes. Probably asking new users what they would like to see different in Windows 7 or Mac OS would be a good start to building a great Desktop Environment, not thrusting crap upon people and paying them to help figure out what’s wrong with it.
I posted this for another article, but I think I need to post it here also:
One very interesting point I want to add is that using the old Gnome 2x Desktop, you could pin applications to the panels for easy launching. You could pin tons of applications to the panels, as many as you’d ever pin to the launcher in Unity. So what is the benefit of the launcher? The fact that it sits on the left side of the screen and that it’s fatter? Any panel in Gnome 2x could be enlarged and placed along the left side of the screen as well. So what is the benefit of the Unity Launcher?
Then there is the Dash compared to the old Applications and Places menus. Is the Dash really easier to navigate than the Applications and Places menus? I certainly have not found the Dash to be simpler, in fact I find it much more difficult to get where I want to go. I suppose that if I found typing easier and more enjoyable then clicking, the Dash might be useful. But I prefer to use my mouse to do the work. But then I I guess preferring to use my mouse makes me old-fashioned…
Logically speaking, and logically comparing, I just don’t see any significant advantages in Unity to make it more useable than Gnome 2x. In fact, I find the opposite to be true. XFCE does a much better job using a Launcher than Unity does. Move the Launcher in XFCE to the left side of the screen and you’ve got a Unity clone that just works better.
I can not believe I run into this post :) I did exactly the same when I first installed Ubuntu 12.04. I used to be an Ubuntu user when I was in my 20′s … Ubuntu 6.10(edgy) as I remeber. But as I growed up I got tired of going online for an hour to solve every little issue I had and I wanted to see if things had changed. Now I am happy of paying WIndows what they deserve to make a OS easy (and intiutive) to use. If Ubuntu is the most user-friendly OS the free-software comunity can offer, Linux will never be able to charm the regular computer-user.
Good stuff, thank you for this. As a contractor this really helps keep me fresh…. Thanks Again…
I’ve been creating software since 1969, and I’m with Wendy. If I can’t figure out simple things in a reasonable amount of time, I will use something else. I say that, not because I’m a snob or a nasty person, but just because I have a limited daily quantity of personal energy, all of which I want to apply to the difficult parts of the project I am working on.
Many of these startup problems, like the email example, could be alleviated with a relatively small set of desktop shortcuts. After all these years, why hasn’t someone put in such a set of starter icons? The lack of such guideposts shows disrespect toward the user.
And please don’t bash Wendy Windows. She is probably a nice person with a lot on her mind.
I used Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my laptop for about 3 years. One day the HD died and it time to install the OS again. The current version of Ubuntu had the Unity desktop. I spent better than 15 minutes trying to find the command line. After doing sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get installing most of the apps I needed, I could not find them either.
Then when I closed the terminal window and realized I needed it again, I could not recall how I got it.
I had work to do and could not afford to take all day figuring out the simplest things. I threw my hands up and downloaded Linux Mint, and was back to being productive in under an hour.
Later on I went through LMDE, Debian, Elive, and finally Bodhi Linux. I did have to invest a little time learning the ins and outs of the Enlightenment desktop, but I think it was worth it.
This year I got hold of an extra couple computers and had a few hours to kill, so I installed Ubuntu 12.04 to see if maybe I was just in too much of a rush the first time. Same result. I could not find the command line in the first ten minutes, and it seemed to take more than a few clicks to find whatever I needed. And now, compared to the performance of Bodhi, to which I am accustomed, Ubuntu seems intolerably slow. I won’t be going back.
Unity seems to be designed for tablets and touchscreens. When I want one of those, I’ll look at Unity.
Here’s my two cents. I moved to Ubuntu from Windows three years ago. Frankly, I did not want to delve into the esoteric command structure. I just wanted a graphic OS that made intuitive sense, and ease of use, that would replace Windows. I was sick of anti-virus updates, security bugs, bloated system requirements. 9.04 served my uses, although as a first time Linux user, I would have appreciated some tutorials. I no sooner got a little bit familiar with the OS, and GRUB broke with an update. It took another 6 months to get running again. I’m not stupid. I had a Linux expert assist me, and even he couldn’t figure it out. So anyway, I barely got up and running, and I kept getting messages to upgrade. Finally, with UNITY everything was broken. Where are my drive partitions.? Where are my DVD drives? Where are my thumb drives? Where is the terminal? Where are all the administrative tools? Where are the Apps? Not a nice way to treat new people.
Now people in the new think this is all foolish. Apparently, I should know how to launch a browser, when there are no icons on the screen. Finally I figured out by moving my mouse cursor HARD left (and I mean HARD left) a bar with icons would pop out. Half of them were unresponsive!! The “DASH” icon goes dead all the time. I can click on it over and over and it never responds. I keep hearing about some “magnifying lens”. Where the heck is it?
Supposedly I can dump the Unity interface and get the old interface back. But I’ll be damned if I can figure out how. I’ve read that it is NOT an easy propoosition.
my 2c worth.
Just installed the desktop on a server so my client can use a gui virt machine manager.
can start a thing.
i have 32 years computer experience, have been using linux since caldera debian 0.6 rc, have used everything from dos to win8, and apple euro ii os through to latest lion. I can tablet in android, windows and ios but I cannot get this stupid PITA to find mail or the installed virtual manager app. I cannot create desktop icons, I cannot find the linux version of the contorl panel, I cannot create desktop short cuts, I am inundated with f’ing adds for books (advertising on linux? come on what the hell has the world come to?/??!!!??)
This fails.
Uninituative, a million clicks to do something simple, the F button short cut to the bash shell is gone, not even a log off button for crying out loud.
I totally agree with this article – what idiout thought removing functionality would be a good idea? How the hell do I launch aps tyhat are installed (yes i typed their name into the stupid box)
this is a large step backwards.
MS OS has gone way down the track of maing you take 5 clicks where one or two used to do, so has the office suites. Please pleaser please dont do this to linux.
sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop
I would say that for me, figuring things out on my own – or using the internet is very much part of the fun of Linux, and ubuntu in particular. I was a Windows user since 3.11. I have paid and paid and paid. I decided, (suprisingly so, given the fact I just got a touch screen pc, which would (work) for Windows8), to move to ubuntu.
certainly not no fuss, and sometime aggravationg. I had been dual booting for years, but frankly was lazy and always ran Windows. I decided to revive an old Windows Me laptop, and the os was Puppy Linux. Thay in itself opened my eyes as to how powerful Linux can be, even on more than modest hardware specs. The notebook dies, so I bought a newer (not new!), Mac. I got used to using the Powerbook, and found it simpler to use and much faster than my Windows 7 box. So, the week Windows 8 came out , I went down to teh store and quite frankly was under impressed. Within days I ditched Windows 7 and moved to ubuntu 12.04 (with full Unity)
I love it and its fast and ts really quite beautiful, I am a tinkerer and am always amazed at all the customoization, choices etc there is with Linux and in my case ubuntu.
Wendy Windows is a slut
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