5 Out of 11 Crashed Unity In Canonical's Study

dkd903 writes "Today the results of the Default Desktop User Testing for Ubuntu 11.04 was published by Canonical's Rick Spencer. The test was done using 11 participants from different backgrounds to test the new Unity interface that Ubuntu 11.04 will have." Though the Unity interface in the upcoming Ubuntu is a moving target, the bad news from this test is that about half of the testers managed to crash it.

Comments

Surprising

[hawguy]

That's pretty surprising, I only manged to use it for 10 minutes before I ditched it and moved to Kubuntu.

I like Ubuntu 11.04

[Mass Overkiller]

I have to admit that when I installed Ubuntu 11.04 beta with Unity, I felt the need to repartition my hard drive to make more room for linux and less room for windows. I like the desktop, I like the bar thingie on the left (whatever it's called). I like typing "System" and having it give me an application to click rather than wade through 3 submenus. There have been a few bugs like not being able to select that bar thingie on the left sometimes, and I still don't know what that Ubuntu icon is for or why it turns blue. Also, I'd like not to have to type my password in when I boot into linux - I thought that was why I selected "auto login" as an option. I truly enjoy this latest version and I'm thinking of keeping it. Just fix the bugs. I'll adjust myself to the layout quickly enough.

It's just bad UI

[cripkd]

The fact that it crashes is not the end of the world. Ubuntu 11.04 is still in beta.
What I don't understand is why Unity has made so many bad UI decisions.

1. the icons are on the left, to conserve vertical space. Ok, but I'm NOT on a netbook. Why not give me the option to move it at the top or at the bottom ?
2. The icons are on the left. Whenever you use content on a screen (in mostt western countries) you start scanning the screen with your eyes from the left to the right. Why do I have to see some brightly colored icons everytime I move to the next line? This never happens if the bar is at the bottom. The eyes focus on the content not on some list of eye-candy icons. Again, why no move it to the RIGHT at least?
3. The window title/window controls fiasco. I don't see why should I perform a specific action to either see the whole title of the window,l the window control buttons or the usual application "File" menu. The desktop is not yet an iPhone. The desktop is still another paradigm. The application menu should be visible at all times! We're not all just using firefox all day long (see Eclipse for exmple.)
4. Blurred windows menus. Why do I have to first focus the window and then hover or something to get it's menu?

PS. Speaking of usability, why does slashdot redirect to it's main page after logging in ??? I still hope unity will change a lot in the next 1-2 years,, otherwise it's just crap they put out to spite gnome.

Re:It's just bad UI

[Khazunga]

I installed 11.04 this week, and I totally disagree. I absolutely love top-level navigation taking over horizontal space instead of vertical space, as well as other vertical-space saving features, such as moving the menu onto the title bar. Naturally, I appreciate this more because my laptop has a 12" display. Were I on a 24" desktop LCD and I could spare space for the menus. However, if you are so inclined, this is just a gtk option. It's easy to move menus to their standard location, Unity does not bind you to that decision.

As for readability with icons on the left, just maximize your windows or move them to the left of the screen. It will push the icons away.

Sometimes, I think people criticize ANY change. I'm not involved with Unity and have not accompanied its development. The final result was a total surprise to me this week. I like it. There are corners to be polished, for sure, but it's an excellent first version.

Re:Not that surprising, actually

[greg1104]

Ubuntu rushes everything out before it's ready; it's impossible for a 6 month release cycle to do anything else. This whole Unity experiment is no surprise to anyone who was using in Ubuntu in 2008, when the at the time barely working PulseAudio was integrated into the "Long-Term Release" 8.04. And by LTS, they mean "supported until the developers are whipped to start working on their next 6 month deadline the week after shipping".

Re:Them new DE's, man

[smash]

Yes, agreed.

I'm waiting for the dust to be blown off windowmaker, and more people to realise that they can write cross platform stuff for GNUstep/OS X.

Windowmaker plus a decent file manager / dock would give Linux a powerful, usable desktop. Unfortunately the past few years I've seen of linux desktop "development" is madly rushing to re-implement whatever useless crap Microsoft has tacked onto the latest version of Windows, or trying to look like Aqua.

The Free NIX desktop used to be BETTER because of innovation that was happening in the free software world. Lately it's just playing catchup, and poorly.

Re:Them new DE's, man

[Billly Gates]

True with that.

I switched back to Windows. Before I get modded as a troll I have to say I still like Linux on the server and I am serious and not troll baiting. I love all the scripts, apis, and programs that Linux has.

I saw the writing on the wall with Fedora 15 after I left Ubuntu due to the lack of stability and quality software. I left Windows because of beta quality products that were terrible. Linux is less stable in my experience on the desktop with the exception of Gnome 2.8. I saw the writting on the wall again with hardware based html 5 of all the new browsers ... with the exception of a lack of Linux support.

My 3 year old laptop running Fedora 13 can not even handle some sites under Linux. Chrome is getting much better but most hardware rendering is still only available on Windows.

Gnome 3 and KDE 4 are terrible. Sun donated millions of dollars of R&D into Gnome and Opendesktop and it is stupid to throw it all away. Why? Menu's work. You may want to reduce the amount of mouse clicks to find things. For some reason Gnome decided to increase the mouse clicks for the same task?? Lets now look at the hassle to simply switch a workspace. Why is that hidden? Infact in Unity why do I have to keep clicking around to see all apps?? Ugh

Compiz with newer widgets with more functionality is where Gnome should have went.

I have virtualbox handy for Windows 7 and will look forward to using it to run Postgresql and some Lamp. For me I now use Windows and I feel like garbage for turning back 10 years of my life but I do not care what people think of as stable 10 years ago or cool. I want something that works. Seriously Firefox4, IE 9, and Chrome scream and you can run all the Unix apps with Virtualbox or a win32 version.

Lets hope gnome 3.2 fixes this and I may just come back but there is no shame of switching to MacOSX or Windows. Today's gui's remind me of poor Netscape's demise of 4.

Re:Them new DE's, man

[hairyfeet]

You call HIM a troll and then follow it up with a mountain of FUD? I fix Windows 6 days a week and haven't seen a non hardware BSOD in YEARS. Viruses? The users install over 90% of them so how can anyone blame Windows for that. Gonna set them up in a walled garden and take away their choices? Having choice means having the ability to be an idiot too you know.

Meanwhile you say they'll have "a thousand times better than Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows."? Can I have some of what you're smoking? It must be some good shit. I have 7 year old XP installs in the field, never needed squat as far as work. Have you had more than a single upgrade deathmarch (thank Canonical for that) where drivers didn't shit themselves? How much time did you spend in CLI in the past 6 months? Once a day? Weekly? If the answer is I used CLI at all you have failed because consumers ain't touching that 70s era term shit.

So keep spreading the FUD friend. BTW you DO know accounts are free right? I'm sure I'll get the usual Linux TMs from Linux TM repository, such as "WorksForMe(TM)" and "StableABINonsense(TM)" which BTW if you read the argument AGAINST ABIs? It is totally political, with the writer going so far as to call those that refuse to give 100% of the drivers to the devs "leeches".

When your head of kernel development says, "The Linux kernel isn't designed, it grows like a virus" You know you are in serious fucking trouble. yeah Linus it is called an STD and would get your ass FIRED anywhere else. Can you imagine going to YOUR BOSS on a million dollar project and saying "Plan? We don't need no steenkin plan, we gonna grow like a virus LOL!"? Hell even OS fricking 2 has a stable ABI for the love of Pete!

The part that pisses me off as a retailer is the community could change it if they would quit accepting the shit sandwiches and DEMAND better. DEMAND that Linus quit acting like a douche, pick a gameplan and STICK TO IT, DEMAND that the 6 month deathmarch be replaced with a solid plan for fixing bugs, DEMAND that developers quit rushing out one buggy release after another, in short do what others would do by voting with their dollars.

Because frankly if you don't the ONLY places Linux is gonna be successful is those where there simply isn't any real money to be made by the big boys. As it is a full 2/3rds of servers being sold right now are being sold with...dum dum dum...Windows, and no unlike desktop one does NOT buy a Windows server to put Linux on, the new mobile devices like pads are being dominated by...dum dum dum...Apple, which have gotten "it just works" and intuitiveness down to an art, seriously wake up man. it isn't 1997 anymore, 70s era term shit and spend time trawling forums for fixes has got to DIAF if you want to compete. This is said as someone who would love to have your product on my shelves if I could get the damned thing to run for longer than a single update without dropping to CLI and forums just to get the drivers fixed.