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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Out; Unity Gets a Second Chance
An anonymous reader writes with this enthusiastic review of the latest from Canonical: "So how does Ubuntu Precise Pangolin (12.04) fare? I will say exceptionally well. Unity is not the same ugly duckling it was made out to be. In Ubuntu 12.04, it has transformed into a beautiful swan. As Ubuntu 12.04 is a long term release, the Ubuntu team has pulled all stops to make sure the user experience is positive. Ubuntu 12.04 aka Precise Pangolin is definitely worthy of running on your machine."
Thanks for the review Mr. Shuttleworth!
I am disappointed they didn't opt for Platypus. Way more interesting than an anteater. Can a pangolin lay eggs? I think not. Can a pangolin inject venom through its ankle? I don't think so. Does a pangolin have 6 poorly-understood sex chromosomes? No to that as well.
Pangolin. Puh-leeze. So comparatively boring they might as well have opted for penguin.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Sorry, but cramming an unfinished product down my throat and expecting me to deal with a time consuming buggy interface is the kind of thing that turns me off of a product. After all that's kind of the reason I moved from Windows to Linux in the first place.
Ubuntu was dead to me since the moment they tried to force Unity down out throats. I'm sticking to Mint from now on.
When doing a web search with that combination you always get Ubuntu advice for that specific version.
Rod Taylor
Poster 1) Unity is and always will be an unholy mess.
Poster 2) Unity is a massive leap forward in modern functionality, and anyone that simply gives it an honest try will agree.
Poster 1) I have tried. I don't want to learn new things and shouldn't have to. I had to switch to xfce.
Poster 3) APPLE APPLE APPLE
Poster 4) Seriously, Windows 8? Really?
Poster 5) You all should really give gnome3 another chance, it's really almost acceptable to use now.
Poster 1) Ubuntu is dead to me.
Poster 6) Remember NeXT?
I've test-driven Unity in the past but despite being told "the ugly duckling has grown into a beautiful swan" TFA doesn't give any information about what, if anything, they did about those horrible hiding scroll bars, auto-showing side bar, 1-pixel wide window edge focus, so-called "smart" volume control that controls headphone volume on low settings and speaker volume on high settings (instead of allowing me to control them independently).
I couldn't care less about all the "touch screen friendly" features they've added. I'm not using one. Thus, my most important question still is (and remains unanswered by TFA): how can I *switch off* Unity in 12.04LTS?
Isn't there another OS that uses the platypus for a logo?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I was going to take issue with the "revolutionary" phrasing (though the whole sentence is odd), but at the same time, I'm not sure that "ripping off" OS X is such a bad thing. It's a nice feature. I'm never sure why UI improvements (and other aspects of technology) are always an example "damned if you do, damned if you don't": If somebody doesn't copy $FEATURE into their system, they are derided for being outdated; at the same time, if they do add $FEATURE, then they are derided for copying.
That said, the lack of a traditional menu bar might be a source for problems. I prefer the more hybrid approach of OS X.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
I tried it for the first time this week.
All I wanted was to make a "kiosk"-type computer that ran Opera and nothing else.
After 2 hours, I got bored of switching options and the fecking side-bar thing popping up and just put the system in place (its only for temporary usage anyway, to replace a "classic" Ubuntu machine running the last LTS release).
Seriously, I couldn't find any options that I went hunting for and all the tutorials on the Internet to get rid of the thing were basically "uninstall all that crap and install Gnome".
I can understand needing to hide functionality from dumb users but, seriously, I'd just installed, just in as my first and only user and I could not find any options to hide, say, the network connection information, the mail icon, the side-bar, nothing. I couldn't see any options for a screensaver at all (apparently, all that's "old hat" now but I also couldn't stop it blanking the monitor when it felt like it). Hell, it took me several minutes to realise the side-bar WAS the program launching menu too even though it looked more just a taskbar. It took me a good few minutes to even get near a terminal.
All the things I've read basically say remove it. I can see why. If I installed that crap over my last big deployment of Ubuntu (on 50 netbooks for a school), then I'd be fired. It is literally that bad and unconfigurable.
Ironically, I now use Ubuntu LTS for a server and Slackware for desktops...
What??? No! (Oh, wait; yes.)
"a beautiful swan"... A beautiful swan as long as you don't mind it uncontrollably eating menu bars and crapping on your rug.
We do need more Australian animals. Ubuntu 19.04 : Dangerous Dropbear
Nah. Not going back. Unity is too painful a recent memory. I'm with Mint now.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Ubuntu's interface is shit. There, I said it.
I just bought my first ever smartphone last month. It's a Samsung Android phone. It works. I can use it. I can move shit around and find my way around it quite easily.
I'm not too old to try something new. I'm too old to have time to go through this shit every time someone has a bright idea when I was more productive than ever with the previous incarnation, and where every iteration I've ever tried makes me less productive.
I spent most of the time in Unity right-clicking on things hoping there were more options to turn shit off and put useful things on. I assumed it was all just hidden away somewhere and I could find it. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that that was *IT* in terms of interface.
Fuck typing the names of programs into a dialog box. That assumes I know what the bloody thing is called. I just want to categorise stuff and thus keep all related things visible without having to handle special interfaces to do so.
Ubuntu has become the thing that it was supposed to be an alternative too: Fucking stupid design ideas destroying existing productivity for the sake of something shiny.
When I read in the summary that Unity was now a "beautiful swan", I clicked on the link, hoping to get a review of why this is the case. Instead, I get a long summary of the biggest new features in the latest version. Not very convincing.
"Platypus" wouldn't communicate that it is full of bugs quite so effectively.
(just kidding - I'm actually a happy Ubuntu user)
I'm surprised that they still recommend 32-bit for desktop instead of 64.
Programs probably just not quite ready for LTS on 64, but disappointing nonetheless.
The version name is sufficiently rare that it will be precisely found.
On the other hand, numbers are frequent.
By typing 12.04, you could get information about Precise Pangoline. But also the chatper 12, section 04 of another documentation. Or a document dating back from 12th april (or december 2004). Or about an lm_sensors' motherboard probe reading 12.04 for the 12v channel, etc.
The keyword "12.04" has much higher probability to end up appearing on pages not related with this Ubuntu version, than random words such as "Zany Zebra".
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Unity is a hideous, three headed, monster baby. I can't really describe it in any better terms.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Looks more like NeXTSTEP to me.
Specifically, a mirror image of it!
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I've installed it for my Mom because she keeps "losing the Internet" I set up the menubar (Launcher) to have only Firefox and Writer. I deleted everything else. (This is easy to do... just right click on the icon and select "Unlock from Launcher" and it goes away.) If you need the programs back on the Launcher, you can just drag them from the Dash back onto the Launcher.
Your other problem is also easily solved. To keep the screen from blanking, go to Settings - Brightness and Lock. You can also set the Launcher to Auto-hide (the default is for it to be present all the time) by Settings - Appearance.
I had no problem figuring these things out even though I am a clueless newbie most of the time.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
You don't need to go to Mint just to leave Unity behind. All you really needed to do was sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop.
I've been using Unity on my netbook for a little more than a year now.
So how did you keep from mis-clicking when you'd reach for the back button in a maximized web browser and the auto-hidden launcher would pop up, especially after 11.10 which replaced touching the top left corner with touching anywhere on the left side at all?
I don't understand the hate. It's actually a very usable, very beautiful WM. I didn't use it before 12.04, but on the current Ubuntu it's easily the best desktop experience I've ever had on Linux.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Slashdotters applaud Microsoft for something? You must be new here.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Thank you for the stereotypical Linux user response to a new Linux user reaching out for help. Common generalized forum responses when asking for help:
"OMG, just learn Linux better or stop using it"
"Just do X" (where X is a series of dozens of commands requiring an intimate knowledge of the terminal and all commands in it).
"You're must be doing it wrong" (when asking why something isn't working, when exactly copying/pasting commands into the terminal)
"" (ie: no response whatsoever. Thanks for the help, guys)
People like you are the reason Linux has so small a following, because after the above responses, a first-time Linux user's first action will be to format that shit and reinstall Windows.
I absolutely hated unity with the 11.X platform when I test drove it on an old desktop but as a power user running ubuntu on a laptop with multiple monitors I've always been extremely frustrated with the fact that some things just didn't work right. Last week after they dropped updates to my legacy ubuntu think it was a 9.x version I stumbled upon this Ubuntu multi-monitor design spec: http://bit.ly/IS7SKx read it and loved it. I decided to try out the 12.04 beta and have not looked back. Granted there are a couple of things I would like to change but some of the features are really cool and feel for the first time I have a 1st class linux OS working on my laptop.
Desktop? My home monitor is 24 inches; my work monitor is 32 inches... Unity makes no sense on large desktops; it makes great sense on netbooks and smaller laptops. The problem boils down to not having a choice(*).
(*) Yes, I know you have a choice, but not something built into the Ubuntu distribution that allows you to easily and freely choose.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
>> Task bar is a must.
The launcher on the left side of the screen shows running apps.
>> Moving tray items is a must.
Grab the items in the launcher, drag to the right, and re-insert them back into the launcher wherever you want.
>> Synaptic package manger [sic] is a must.
If you want that, use the much prettier Software Centre to install it with a simple click.
>> It's so complicated to make it look like my 10.10 desktop.
Then install your old desktop manager or don't upgrade.
As a long-time KDE user who couldn't stand working with Gnome for extended periods, I actually find Unity quite enjoyable. Of course, I customize it with things like cairo-dock and make it fit my own workflow - rather than just bitch that the default is too simple for me to use.
> Funny how slashdotters in general applaud Microsoft for completely throwing out the concept of menus
Since when? You sir are simply on crack.
We freely criticize Microsoft for the same kind of UI consistency shenanigans that we are currently eviscerating Ubuntu for. We did so even before Microsoft decided to release it's own Unity style atrocity.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Okay, go back and read the comments for yourself. Whenever the "Ribbon" comes up in a discussion, more than half here seem to think it's a dandy idea. It leaves me wondering if I clicked the wrong bookmark and I'm actually reading a Microsoft forum.
:wq
Multitasking is different under Unity. Here's a short video demoing one way to get things done.
Powerusers tend to be more keyboard than mouse centric simply because it's often the quickest way to accomplish something. Using Unity from the keyboard is actually a pretty good experience and once you develop the muscle memory, you start to miss the Unity features when using other desktops (and who doesn't have to use more than one desktop these days?).
Since this is slashdot and being pedantic is a requirement for membership:
Snow Leopard - endangered
Leopard - near threatened
Tiger - endangered
Panther - not even a species
Jaguar - near threatened
Puma - least concern
Cheetah - vulnerable
Pfft. You GTFO. I faked being a Mac user who hated on fake Mac users before it was cool to fake being a Mac user who hates on fake Mac users. You're just a poseur.
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
Actually, with 11.04, I tried it for several months before giving up. Around the same time I was trying to adjust to the Mac I got at work, too. They suffered (IMO) from the same problems - problems that are not easily fixed; the unified menu paradigm, for example, only works if you don't use sloppy focus (focus follows mouse). I like sloppy focus... sometimes I don't want to raise a whole window to block another one just to type a single command in it. Sloppy focus will NEVER work with a unified menu.... that's just the way it is.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
So, "sudo apt-get install whatever" is too complicated?
Actually, yes it is. That's the reason it never was the year of Linux right there. Sudo? apt-get? Linux is full of gobbledy-gook just like that.