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GNOME Dev Schaller Assures Ubuntu Users the Move To Step Away From Unity Will Bring Consistency Across Linux Distros (gnome.org)

Earlier this week, Canonical announced that Ubuntu will be ditching Unity as the default user interface on desktops to go back to GNOME next year. The company also said that it will be ending development of Ubuntu software for phones and tablets, in what is a push to focus on cloud. In a blog post, Christian Schaller, a developer on Fedora and GNOME (and Senior Software Engineering Manager at Red Hat), offered some assurance to the community that this is the right move in the grand scheme of things. He writes on an official blog post: We look forward to keep working with great Canonical and Ubuntu people like Allison Lortie and Robert Ancell on projects of shared interest around GNOME, Wayland and hopefully Flatpak. It is worth mentioning that even as we [have] been competing with Unity and Ubuntu, we have also been collaborating with them, most recently on [the] integration of features they wanted from GNOME Software such as user reviews. Of course now sharing a bigger set of technologies collaboration will be even easier. I am personally happy to see this convergence of efforts happening because I have -- for a long time -- felt that the general level of investment in the Linux desktop has not been great enough to justify the plethora of Linux desktops out there. Now having reached a position where Canonical, Endless, Red Hat and Suse again share one desktop technology stack and along with consulting companies such as Centricular, CodeThink, Collabora and Igalia helping push parts of the stack forward, we are at least all pulling in the same direction. This change should also make life easier for ISV who now have a more clear target if they want to try to integrate their UI with the Linux desktop as 'the linux desktop' becomes a more meaningful term with this change.

104 comments

  1. Unity by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    Unity is ok, I'm not a big fan. Can't say I'm a big fan of modern gnome either. The whole full screen slide-out thing seems bloated, but I haven't had much chance to try to modify the functionality.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Unity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also wanted to use Ubuntu, but don't like Unity or Gnome... Eventually, after trying Mint (which was ok), I came across Elementary OS, and never looked back. It's quick and lightweight, and their launcher is a small inconspicuous quick-to-open, searchable popup in the top right. It's just clean and gets out of your way.

    2. Re:Unity by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      I used Elementary OS for a long time and loved it. But things got very nasty very quickly usability-wise as soon as they switched to the next version, and there is no in place upgrade option so I kind of got stuck. Mint I found very bloated and not as smooth as Elementary, and I was using MATE which is supposed to be lighter weight. Recently I settle for Debian or Ubuntu because I want to be able to roll forward the OS without reinstalling, though CentOS can do it now as well I don't think it works as well. If Elementary OS could in place update I might go back to it again.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    3. Re:Unity by BrianMarshall · · Score: 1

      I run the Xfce spin of Fedora. I like Xfce.

      --
      "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
    4. Re:Unity by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Not a fan of Mint here, but even though they offered no GUI app for upgrading you could always do it with apt-get full-upgrade and at worst some manual dpkg usage just like any Debian-based system

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    5. Re:Unity by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I didn't like Mint, didn't get that far, wouldn't go back. And no it's not just like any Debian-based system because Elementary OS is debian based and you can't do it there.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    6. Re:Unity by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Why can't you?

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    7. Re:Unity by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      The most recent post I could find on the matter indicated that there was no supported upgrade method. If they introduced one for Loki to whatever was next I would jump right on it.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    8. Re:Unity by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Thanks, but this is the same as I said about Mint: "even though they offered no GUI app for upgrading you could always do it with apt-get full-upgrade and at worst some manual dpkg usage just like any Debian-based system".

      And in the mean time I also googled and confirmed that it can be done the same as any Debian system: change the distribution in sources list; apt-get update; apt-get full-upgrade. The danger is just that if they do not test it, the dependencies may be a bit bumpy. This is what dpkg is for. You will want a second machine nearby for the worst case.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    9. Re:Unity by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      If it's not an officially supported solution I'm not doing it thanks. What havoc would that cause? Maybe not to find out until a month down the road. I'm long past the part of my life where I have time for that kind of nonsense.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    10. Re:Unity by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      That's fine, but it's different to "can't do it" and not different to what I described for Mint from the beginning.

      Supported or not, upgrades are not always problem free even in systems that offer a supported path like Ubuntu, which is why Mint and Elementary don't in the first place.

      Whenever you upgrade you should know what you are doing, but thanks to the dependency system it would be immediately obvious whether all dependencies are fulfilled, and you should get at prompt for each changed configuration file - regardless of whether upgrades are officially supported or not.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    11. Re:Unity by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Then technically you can in place upgrade with any linux distro because if you know how to copy the files manually from a fresh install and change a few config files it is possible! Where to do you draw the line? If it is not supported then it is not possible.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  2. KDE by Luthair · · Score: 0

    would have been the right move. GNOME is a lateral one.

    1. Re:KDE by KiloByte · · Score: 2

      GNOME is a lateral one.

      Compared to... what? Even from Metro the direction is slightly slanted down.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    2. Re:KDE by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      KDE missed its chance, and it's never felt to me like the designers really had much of a vision which means it's always been more of a kludge than GNOME - albeit right now, that makes it better than GNOME 3. Meanwhile whether you're using Unity, GNOME 3, or Cinnamon, the same underlying libraries are powering everything, which makes sense.

      What I hope is that Canonical has noted that most of its users have been fleeing to Mint, and that if it adopts GNOME 3, it doesn't just adopt GNOME Shell and call it a day - we want desktops. Canonical might be able to make GNOME Classic/Flashback/whatever it's called today work - right now it's pretty horrible, at least in its default configuration, but Canonical could be the company to fix that, just as Ubuntu's flavor of GNOME 2 was always just a little nicer than the default configuration you'd get in, say, Fedora or Debian.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:KDE by Luthair · · Score: 1

      Uhh Unity? Pay attention to the topic at hand.

    4. Re:KDE by Luthair · · Score: 1

      In my estimation Gnome has adopted a lot of poor UX design and has a generally dumbed things down. KDE has made more appropriate choices but lacks polish whichhttps://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/04/07/1918225/gnome-dev-schaller-assures-ubuntu-users-the-move-to-step-away-from-unity-will-bring-consistency-across-linux-distros# could be solved by a large distro choosing it as their primary desktop.

    5. Re:KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      KDE never had a chance, it's been consistently sabotaged and undermined by various fanatics within Debian and Redhat since all the way back from the start. GNOME is all about ideology, and not being KDE. That's why it sucks, and that's why it's attracted the current breed of "my way or the highway" developers, which makes it suck even more.

    6. Re:KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you people going on about? It's Linux. Does not matter. Put whatever DE wherever. Call it Debian Ubuntu Mint, it matters not. Use something that isn't Debian, same difference.

    7. Re:KDE by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      KDE seemed to me to be the industrial choice and Gnome was the usability choice. While Gnome got some better more industrial features over time, KDE just stayed industrial.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    8. Re: KDE by ShawnX · · Score: 1

      You said it right, people who know me know I hate GNOME for that very reason "my way or the highway". Fedora only adopted GNOME because of the historical reasons mainly the core GNOME developers were from Red Hat. That said, there are some Red Hat KDE people, while KDE can block a Fedora release it's still a second class citizen within the bigger scale of things sadly.

      --
      Everyone wants a Tux in their life.
    9. Re: KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of like to spend the time figuring that out to go meet women instrad.

    10. Re: KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Women like men that have figured out how to form a cohesive sentence.

  3. Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unity sucked anyway, Gnome3 did everything Unity was trying to do but better.

  4. KDE! by s.petry · · Score: 0

    And just to make sure we over all the bases in flames, SH is better than CSH and VI is better than EMACS.

    BURN IT DOWN!

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re: KDE! by N!k0N · · Score: 1

      sysyemd is bett....

      Hahahaha, no can't do it.

    2. Re: KDE! by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Dang it, I always do something like that. How could I have left that one out! *mumbles something about a decimal point*

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    3. Re:KDE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Come on, bring that flame out from ancient history and into more recent time. SH -> BASH and VI -> VIM. And, for full flame retardant, CSH -> ZSH and EMACS -> XEMACS.

      IT BURNSSS

    4. Re:KDE! by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      Xemacs? You know Xemacs is pretty close to dead don't you?

      Also zsh descends from sh, not csh.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    5. Re:KDE! by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Also zsh descends from sh, not csh.

      Are you sure you don't mean ksh?

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  5. Oh FFS... by Ambient+Sheep · · Score: 0

    Just when I'd finally got used to the damn thing, after years of complaining about its early versions...

    1. Re:Oh FFS... by iris-n · · Score: 1

      I feel your pain. If there is something that I dislike more than a bad user interface, it is when it is changed to a different bad user interface.

      --
      entropy happens
  6. consistency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have learned that "bringing consistency across linux distros" means being integrated into systemd, nowadays. Say hello to systemgnomed.

    1. Re:consistency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Say hello to systemgnomed.

      I wish they called it that, forked everything, and never touched the original code ever again. Then hopefully intelligent people would come to take back maintainership in meaningful ways...

      Then again, it would be even better if they all went back to Windows, seeing how they love every single aspects of it so much...

      It's really all "embrace, extend, and extinguish"... Poettering, Red Hat, GNOME, Ubuntu, Firefox, Google...

      What will be left of the real GNU/Linux, in 10 or 20 years...?

    2. Re:Consistency by erapert · · Score: 3, Informative

      sudo apt-get install kde cinnamon xfce i3 awesome fluxbox mate

      Try them all out then

      sudo apt-get remove $THE_ONES_YOU_DONT_WANT

      Nobody's forcing anything on you.

    3. Re:Consistency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, now. Systemd was original when Dan J. Bernstein actually *wrote* daemontools, which was its direct ancestor in all the init tool features which were systemd's original reason to exist.

      The mutating growth since then has been like the final boss in a Resident Evil game....

    4. Re:Consistency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except the fact that awesome will not work with wayland, so it's X only -- which is considered a dead end and no longer actively developed. Maintained, yes, but no longer considered a way forward.
      Fluxbox is a wm only as well -- I haven't used it for a long long time, so it's possibly the same for them as well. Same with i3.

    5. Re:Consistency by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I remember when distributions had personality and originality.

      Major distributions never had personality and originality beyond their package manager. They all converged on the same default formula very early on. Funny enough they were based around the largest and most feature rich packages available for the platform. About the only differences that survived were two package management schemes.

    6. Re:Consistency by kosmosik · · Score: 1

      You don't remembers shit. Honestly right now there is a lot of diversity in Linux distros. Take the classical ones like Debian and Red Hat - completely the same right? I bet you haven't even touched RHEL since you need to pay for it.... OK take Debian and CentOS. Quite similar - OK. Then take Gentoo and Arch Linux. Same yep? OK. Maybe try CoreOS? Alpine Linux maybe? Same shit eh?

  7. Ubuntu goes Wayland by mfilion · · Score: 1

    Another great blog post on the subject: https://slashdot.org/submissio...

    1. Re:Ubuntu goes Wayland by nonicknameavailable · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu removes support for proprietary graphiccard drivers

      --
      Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet
  8. Schaller the asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    LOL. Trust Schaller to be an asshole. Symptomatic he couldn't stop himself from lying about suse - which pretty much is a bastion of KDE, just to stroke his own ego.

  9. No thanks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Still not going back to Ubuntu after Unity. Gnome 3 isn't the right direction either for me. Maybe if they put their eggs in the Mate or Cinnamon basket I'd give them a whirl again but that isn't the case. Would have been really nice if they went with Mate instead, that'd draw me back.

    1. Re:No thanks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you tried Window Maker or Enlightenment? Old, yes, but still at it. I started out with Enlightenment in 1998 and then moved to Window Maker, which is still my favourite. Even FVWM can be made into a fantastic desktop experience with a little effort.

    2. Re:No thanks... by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      Linux MINT == Ubuntu minus the suck desktop plus your choice of MATE or Cinnamon

    3. Re:No thanks... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      Linux MINT == Ubuntu minus the suck desktop plus your choice of MATE or Cinnamon

      Or just use the Ubuntu MATE flavor.

      Note: I do like Mint, but don't like being yet another step removed from Debian (or Ubuntu ...).

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    4. Re:No thanks... by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      MINT teams listens to end users though for design; Ubuntu regularly tries to cram some random brainfart up the end user's ass

  10. Just what we need.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The influence of RH becomes way too big in my opinion and becomes a danger for the flexibility of Linux and these arrogant guys know it all too well.
    systemd, gnome, pulse,... all the same shit that they manage to export to other distros. Not sure how they do it but it should be stopped.

    Right now there is not an immediate problem yet but you see that apps start slowly to depend on this and drop the legacy platforms which is not a good thing in my opinion (see firefox relying purely on pulse). It will kill the free choice we have today and makes lInux such a great platform.

    1. Re:Just what we need.... by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not sure how they do it

      Size. Pretty much every mainstream distro is a respin of RH simply because they've got the most folks working on it and it would be an absolute buggerbastard of a job to untangle all Lennart's shit from it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:Just what we need.... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Pretty much every mainstream distro is a respin of RH

      Wow you got a +4 informative for that? Tell me, how is Debian which came out a year before RedHat a respin of RedHat? And while you're answering, Google the desktop market share of distros just for shits and giggles to see how few mainstream distributions, especially popular ones actually are based on RedHat.

    3. Re:Just what we need.... by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      You are correct, but so is the GGP's point ... it's RH's influence that's concerning. It's not that RH is "evil," it's that it's just so big. Being big in itself is no crime, but if major applications start relying on stuff that's standard on RHEL and its derivatives but might not be standard on other distros (let's say systemd, just for argument's sake), then those other distros are pretty much forced to follow RH's lead or start slipping into irrelevancy. Their only other choice would be to pony up the resources to maintain forks of those projects for their own distros, but that's asking a lot.

      The people that bitch about systemd wouldn't care so much if they weren't worried that Linux is becoming a monoculture where there's no real choice but to run things you don't want to run because other things won't run without them. It doesn't matter if competing distros aren't direct forks of the RHEL codebase if the components in those distros are the same as RHEL's because they have to be.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    4. Re:Just what we need.... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The people that bitch about systemd are often oblivious to the fact that it wasn't adopted in the Debian stream because of ties with RH but rather due to technical merits which were discussed by their core team publicly and in great detail.

      The people that bitch about monoculture are free to do something else. It's open source. Put your money where your mouth is, or put the mouth away. Based on what was happening on forums I was able to conclude that in 2016: The world would implode. RH and Debian would cease being major distributions. Minor distributions would rise. System admins world wide would switch to BSD.

      Precisely none of that has happened which is precisely why most of the concerns about systemd now get flat out ignored, for example the notion that any non-systemd component is dependent on it.

      WOLF WOLF WOLF.

      The scary part is the boy got eaten by the wolf in the end.

  11. Thanks, GNOME! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ultimately you were the push I needed to rediscover fvwm2

  12. Yes, of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Il will bring a *consistently* bad UI.

  13. Shocking. by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A developer of GNOME thinks that one of the largest Linux distros giving up on their own DE and going back to GNOME is a great thing.

    This is like that article a few days back where GE said that more robots in the factory was nothing to worry about.

    Dear Slashdot: I'd be far more interested in commentary by people who don't have a conflict of interest with the topic.

    1. Re:Shocking. by c · · Score: 1

      Dear Slashdot: I'd be far more interested in commentary by people who don't have a conflict of interest with the topic.

      That's kinda what the comments section is for, don't you think?

      I mean, we know that most tech articles on Slashdot are bullshit. The comments are where the bullshit gets composted.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
  14. Gnome 3 is Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Gnome 3 is just too different, no minimize/maximize buttons out of the box, I cant have a single taskbar with a list of open applications and the notification center. I dont understand how enterprise users would want such a jarring change, but I'm no UI developer.

    1. Re:Gnome 3 is Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fully agree. I try Gnome time to time, but I work with XFCE. From my point of view, it's the only productive desktop that remain usable on Linux.
      Sadly more and more application use the Gnome 3 UI, a big step back in term of usability. Split menu bar, impossible to brows the menu while keeping the button pushed, invisible submenu, reversed menu entries, etc... I can't understand how a project that claim to be open can impose so much crappy UI to all his users.
      Gnome critically need a fork under a more open team.

    2. Re:Gnome 3 is Terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look, what most people hate about GNOME 3 is the GNOME shell. I can't fucking stand it personally.

      However, I'm not dumb enough to make an obvious mistake: the software stack under the shell is a great piece of software engineering. Things like Cinnamon use the GNOME stack and replace the GNOME shell (it's a little more complicated than that, but I'm trying to keep this simple to make a point).

  15. Windowmaker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm quite happy with windowmaker, not too bloated (yet).

    1. Re:Windowmaker by Junta · · Score: 1

      I know this will go over badly, but I really wish WindowMaker had compositing support, for window scaling to help me find the windows I need. If it had that, it would be my window manager again in a heartbeat (full 'desktop environments' have been overrated).

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    2. Re:Windowmaker by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      I know this will go over badly, but I really wish WindowMaker had compositing support, for window scaling to help me find the windows I need. If it had that, it would be my window manager again in a heartbeat (full 'desktop environments' have been overrated).

      Coincidental that you say this - I've just cloned the compiz repo (and emerald decorator repo) because I want to use my build of WindowMaker with compiz.

      Nothing may come off it, but I already run a pretty customised WindowMaker (customised in the sources, that is), so perhaps I'll get WindowMaker built as a compiz-compatible decorator.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  16. To bad GNOME is only for linux now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To bad GNOME is only for linux and not other *nix's

  17. Re: Sig Heil! Mein Fuhrers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just want to say thank you for your insightful and constructive comment. Because as we all know optional software projects are directly comparable to the NAZIs

  18. Pretty sure the point being made here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that both of these projects goals seem to be to REDUCE choice and diversity in the open source ecosystem... rather similiarly to certain political bodies and their actions both in the past, present, and undoubtedly in the future as well.

    1. Re:Pretty sure the point being made here... by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

      Is that both of these projects goals seem to be to REDUCE choice and diversity in the open source ecosystem...

      There's no "seem to be" about it - it was pretty much explicitly stated by Schaller: "...I have -- for a long time -- felt that the general level of investment in the Linux desktop has not been great enough to justify the plethora of Linux desktops out there ... This change should also make life easier for ISV...". I would translate that as "All your desktop environments are belong to us, and WE will decide what DE's you are allowed to choose from, (if indeed we even allow you a choice), because we want to make life easier for independent software vendors, because business".

      Also, take note of those flavour-of-the-month management phrases: "sharing a bigger set of technologies", "convergence of efforts", "share one desktop technology stack", "all pulling in the same direction", and "more clear target". With all that PHB-speak, Christian Schaller is starting to sound like Satya Nadella.

      Now I feel all warm 'n' fuzzy inside, because the operating system I adopted when I got sick of Windows, seems poised to become the next Windows. Yay.

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  19. I'll probably never understand the issues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1) I give zero fucks about consistency across distros, especially when it comes to relatively trivial things like the desktop environment. The upstart/systemd flamewar is about a billion times more important and relevant, not that I'm particularly passionate about that one, either.

    2) I never thought of Unity as particularly relevant to Ubuntu, because you don't have to install that part of Ubuntu..

    2a) ..and I didn't. I use Ubuntu! From the XUbuntu installer.

    2b) I've only seen one other person who did use Unity. It seemed a bit difficult and weird, but not impossible to use or anything like that. I don't think it was very popular with anyone.

    3) GNOME?! Are you serious? Ok, whatever. I tried that a long time ago. It was fine, just not as good as .. pretty much everything else. Did it ever get as good as KDE? I'll admit I'm abotu a decade out of date. But like Unity, it seemed sufficiently usable. I wouldn't die if I had to use GNOME..

    3a) .. but you don't have to, even if you run Ubuntu. The other desktop environments will still be there. Whatever you want, it's in the Ubuntu repos.

    4) This happens everywhere. Windows was always weird and funny too, and I think there have been some new versions since XP that are even more controversial. And every fucking Mac OS X upgrade is a step forward and somewhere between .5 to 2 steps back. (I won't even recommend Mac OS X to laypeople anymore, and I really did used to!) Even GNOME can keep up with the other platforms in the race to suck the least. There's nothing to worry about.

  20. Cinnamon is a much Better Desktop by BrendaEM · · Score: 2

    Gnome still sufferers from the same stupidity that Unity did, that people don't need to do useful things with their computers.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
    1. Re:Cinnamon is a much Better Desktop by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      and also there is MATE for for those that liked GNOME before it went off on a weird tangent of being mental masturbation for developers rather than doing what users wanted or needed.

  21. i3 and tiling window managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember trying Gnome3 back in 2012 and hating it so much I tried a bunch of tiling window managers. Awesome, xmonad .. I eventually settled on i3 and have never looked back. Tiling window managers are amazing.

    1. Re:i3 and tiling window managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did the same thing...but landed on CLI with tmux. Fuck it...I was wasting too much time in the browser anyway.

    2. Re:i3 and tiling window managers by xvan · · Score: 1

      Same here. At the moment I remember the change from gnome2 to unity after upgrading. It was horrible so I tried gnome3, it was worse and there was no easy way to go back to gnome2 (no mate at the moment). So I went to awesome WM. I've some complains but the WM just stays out of your way, it's awesome.

  22. Linux Desktop & Distribu Consolidation Has Sta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With this move by Ubuntu I think we can expect to see the homogeneity of the Linux desktops and distributions to gain momentum.

    First there was SystemD(eath) to replace "upstart" (another Ubuntu invention) and SysVIPC, and I did not complain loud enough.

    Next came the demise of pure IA32 code in Linux in favor of x86_64 code, and I did not complain loud enough.

    Now comes the demise of another innovative Ubuntu design, and I am not complaining loud enough.

    So when do they come for me?

  23. Consistency all right by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    The only thing consistent about the Linux desktop is that it will remain a roundoff error for the foreseeable future, thanks to those who insist in pushing Gnome. Not such a bad thing though - people will remain on Windows, and crooks will carry on attacking Windows mostly. In the meantime, my Linux desktop (sans Gnome) does all that I need and want. So, thank you very much, Canonical, Red Hat and others. Keep up you good work to make sure that Linux on the desktop will never take off.

  24. GNOME 3 S u c k s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ubuntu should have gone with MATE or Cinnamon. Gnome 3 sucks as badly as Unity does.

    The so-called classic desktop in GNOME 3 is very minimal lacking lots of technology. So, it is lame.

    But in the end, it does not really matter since I switched to Debian anyways.

  25. Re:Sig Heil! Mein Fuhrers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think it should have been smth. like "meinen Fuehrer".

  26. Consistency by Lirodon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Systemd. GNOME. Absolutely no originality besides mid-tier under the hood differences. I remember when distributions had personality and originality. Now it's just the same junk with a different default wallpaper.

  27. and there it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    every one has their preference. but as a face or the first thing a new user see's the default/s is important but so is understanding there are others and you have a choice. i still hope they will work on unity though it did give some uniqueness and still had some good ideas though in good ol OS fashion if at least one person cares they will pick up the project.

  28. Consistency.. by Junta · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Consistency should not be the one and only goal. If that's all we wanted, we could have just rolled with whatever Microsoft felt like handing down.

    I'm unhappy that pretty much all the major linux distros are the same nowadays, with RedHat pretty much calling the shots for everyone. Particularly since I disagree with them on much of their recent vision. Nowadays whether I choose Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Fedora, or OpenSuSE, it's all substantially the same thing: whatever RedHat thinks it should be. Sure there's this big divide in deb versus rpm, but that's far less relevant day to day than the software stack that gets installed.

    Of course, Mir and Unity weren't exactly the things I really would have favored.

    Gnome is interesting, in that I think in terms of relaibilty/quality, it does quite well. However UI wise it's frustrating and a bit too high and mighty. Customize your desktop? Only if you are a programmer, otherwise you are stuck with what they give you. They think a tray is 'evil' and endeavor to punish apps trying to do tray things by making them massively annoying by default (requiring 'topicons plus' for remotely sane behavior). They finally have some semblance of window search, but the UI is atrocious, making their expose rip off of limited utility.

    KDE tends to have a more compatibile UI vision with me, but too many glitchy behaviors crop up every time I go to use it, and not-quite fully executed concepts.

    I'm encouraged by MATE's recent porting to GTK3, though the time it took was a worrying sign of how well they will do at keeping currency moving forward.

    What really disappoints me is that GNUstep/Windowmaker has not gotten more care and feeding. I still enjoy the experience, but without compositing and particularly scaling windows with some sort of search, I just can't bring myself to use it.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Consistency.. by erko · · Score: 1

      Interesting you mention you like GNUstep/Windowmaker. I used it years ago, and ever since have made my desktop act like it where possible.

      I use a minimal interface such as gnome 2 - (gnome-session-flashback on ubuntu these days).
      Bind alt-1 through alt-9 to go to desktops 1 through 9
      Bind alt-m to minimize window

      Maybe I'm missing more parts of GNUstep/windowmaker, but it's quick enough to switch between workspaces that all other desktops have bothered me since using it.

    2. Re:Consistency.. by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Consistency should not be the one and only goal. If that's all we wanted, we could have just rolled with whatever Microsoft felt like handing down.

      I agree with the point but not with the example.
      Using a few things in "Control Panel" shows how inconsistent the MS bucket of assorted GUIs is. Not even Microsoft stick to whatever Microsoft felt like handing down.

    3. Re:Consistency.. by Junta · · Score: 1

      The robust support for managing applications versus application windows (e.g. alt-h would quickly mask all windows of an application). Interestingly, Gnome shell at least has alt-tab, alt-above tab to facilitate switching between applications versus windows, it's one of the things they actually do right for me (though it's jarring for those who just do windows alt-tab). The shared menubar would have been preferable to the general gnome approach of generally ditching menubars alltogether.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    4. Re:Consistency.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny thing about consistency is that Windows may well be the least consistent desktop OS out there.

      What has kept it in first place though is that you could run software from Windows 1.0 on Something as recent as Windows 10 (if you install the 32-bit version).

      et you can't upgrade a minor DE related lib (be it KDE or Gnome) and expect things to work. the only place where you see Windows-like commitment to backwards compatibility is with the kernel itself, and Torvalds gets a whole lot of shit thrown at him from those that tried to break said compatibility and got rightly scolded for it.

      Linux user space is rotten to the core. And a large part is perhaps related to the biggest corporate player involved, Red Hat. Keep in mind that RH do not survive on selling copies, but on support contracts. And frequent incompatibilities and breakages means their clients need that support contract...

  29. Re:Sig Heil! Mein Fuhrers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    s/nen/ne/

  30. Cinnamon is a Better Desktop thank Gnome by BrendaEM · · Score: 2

    Cinnamon is so much a better desktop experience than Gnome 3.

    I have called for the removal of the Gnome leaders, for abandoning people who need to get work done.

    Activities menu? You have to be kidding me!

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
  31. If for the last 20 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone defaulted to KDE windows would not even exist, and power uses could gnome.

  32. Gnome and consistency? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the same sentence? Isn't that kind of like systemd and stability?

  33. Learning the same lesson over and over by dbIII · · Score: 1

    There was a Common Desktop Environment for *nix years ago (CDE) but mostly just the company pushing it (Sun Microsytems) liked it and nearly everyone else used something else. Even Sun gave up on it.
    I can't see the current version of Gnome as being a better choice than Unity or even the previous (deliberately incompatible to the point of breakage if it's on the same system) version of Gnome.
    Trying to converge everyone to that is IMHO doomed to failure even if RedHat push it as hard as they have pushed trying to get everyone onto SystemD.

    1. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      If something better comes along (like, systemd for desktop environments), then yes, GNOME might get pushed sideways, however, GNOME is already the default on Feodra, Debian and SuSE. Add Ubuntu to that and only Mint and Arch Linux are left. Are there any reasonably good recent statistics on install base on desktops for these distributions. Mint an Arch are getting a lot of noise in /. comments, but are they actually widely used?

    2. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you look at distrowatch, Mint has the most interest right now. http://distrowatch.com/

    3. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DistroWatch isn't a perfect metric, but it's one of the few we've got. According to DistroWatch, Mint is on top, with almost twice as many hits per day as Ubuntu. That same list used to be topped by Ubuntu until Unity happened.

      I can throw in a little anecdote as well. As a PhD student, I'm surrounded by a lot of techies, and a lot of them have at least one Linux machine (many e.g. dual-boot Windows for games and Linux for programming). I myself have been a Linux user since junior high school, ~13 years now. I remember that when I started university, Ubuntu was known as the distro to go for if you wanted something that "just worked". Most of the Linux-people I knew migrated to Ubuntu during a couple of years because of its low maintenance, and we even got a few Windows users to setup a dual-boot, and most of them kept using it. But then Unity happened. After that, all the techies I know left Ubuntu immediately, and the less-techie Linux users switched after a year or so as well. Fast-forward to today, and all of the Linux users I know are either on Mint, Manjaro, or Arch. Including me, that runs Manjaro on one computer and Mint on the other.

    4. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by dbIII · · Score: 1

      If something better comes along (like, systemd for desktop environments)

      Are you being serious or is that some sort of attempt at a trolling suggestion about continued systemd creep into yet another area?
      Gnome is the desktop that RedHat is paying developers to work on so it effectively IS the desktop environment equivalent of systemd (it's just far better administered so there are far less complaints than there are about systemd).

    5. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      Gnome is the desktop that RedHat is paying developers to work on so it effectively IS the desktop environment equivalent of systemd (it's just far better administered so there are far less complaints than there are about systemd).

      I mean that systemd essentially took linux distribution world by storm, and not because RH was behind it. Init system had flaws and while other init systems did try to fix those problems, systemd swept away both the competition and the SystemV because distribution maintainers preferred it. We might argue about what makes software objectively good, but as far as adoption is concerned, if there will pop up a desktop environment that will be far superior than GNOME, it will be adopted and GNOME will be pushed sideways. RedHat is not known for NIH mentality and I'm sure they will drop systemd and GNOME if something better comes along.

    6. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by dbIII · · Score: 1

      and not because RH was behind it.

      I think you will find that is the sole reason. Nobody else was paying for as many developers so all the other distros are repackaging RedHat's work.
      Lennart's traveling roadshow trying to push systemd hard what must be nearly a decade ago didn't get any takers so it's almost a 100% RedHat product, others didn't want to work on it.
      The only problem it is a solution to is that the init system (and all the other bits the octopus got into) was not under the control of Lennart.

      I'm sure they will drop systemd ... if something better comes along

      Software projects start from humble beginnings (even if they are hyped a massive amount before they even start) so there was something better at the time when systemd was included in Fedora and many would argue that the earlier init system is still better in many ways than systemd now some years later. There are still a lot of workstations on RHEL6 (instead of 7) out there due to continued teething problems with systemd and commercial software for example. It's still very difficult to troubleshoot machines with systemd that get hung on start up. There's still a design of binary logging, and not much of it, with a race condition that would earn a fail in a school project. There's been a stupid move to disable background tasks when a user logs off. It's come a long way but it needs a bit more work before it can be used in production in some systems.

    7. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      Nobody else was paying for as many developers so all the other distros are repackaging RedHat's work.

      I agree that RedHat investment helped to develop systemd and that RedHat can force systemd on RHEL and Fedora, leaving it's forks with little choice. But I don't believe that Debian, or Arch or openSUSE adopted it just because Red Hat did. If it was the case, rpm based package management would be on all Linux distributions.

      There's still a design of binary logging, and not much of it, with a race condition that would earn a fail in a school project. There's been a stupid move to disable background tasks when a user logs off.

      Let me guess, you have read countless discussions on slashdot and elsewhere about how binary logging is awful, then someone points out that plain-text logging is still there live and well. But the only thing you remember from the conversation is “binary logging”.

      As for killing user background processes, it's a change of default option. You can change this default with compile flag or in /etc/systemd/logind.conf. In other words, it's up to the distributions to do what they feel is right (and for example, Fedora 25 does not kill by default), and if admin feels that distribution made the wrong choice, they can change one flag. I guess that after a month the only thing you will remember about background processes is that systemd kills them.

      As for race conditions, I just don't know. Software as such is prone to such bugs, especially ones written in C, but given that your other examples of shortcomings of systemd where not that accurate, I'm not sure even this is not just some urban legend.

    8. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by dbIII · · Score: 1
      Fair enough, but instead of a shallow interpretation perhaps you should look at Lennert's blog to get an idea of what I'm writing about. He's trying a very different approach to the earlier init systems and it shows. My only real gripe is that like early PulseAudio it's being pushed on us while it's still in rapid development with stability and documentation as an afterthought.

      Software as such is prone to such bugs

      An init system should not be, especially one developed with an aim to run some parts in parallel (obviously not all since it still hangs in some situations where the earlier init (correclty) gave up, reported an error and let the next task run).

      As for killing user background processes, it's a change of default option

      It's yet another sign of not understanding the platform and what people do with it. It is quite frankly a newbie mistake. He knows MS Windows and his development environment as distinct from a *nix production environment.

    9. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      He's trying a very different approach to the earlier init systems and it shows

      Indeed it is true. Lennert sees chaos and systemd as a cure. You might see a beautiful diversity and modularity, which the systemd stomps on with the one true way. And both of these views have merit, and both have tradeoffs. Take Linux kernel. It is a monolith and you can't easily swap one subsystem for another and be sure that next version won't brake it. It sucks for some, but the community thinks it is better for Linux. I don't know which is the right call here.

      An init system should not be, especially one developed with an aim to run some parts in parallel (obviously not all since it still hangs in some situations where the earlier init (correclty) gave up, reported an error and let the next task run).

      At least in theory systemd should kill hung process (of course, if it was crucial for system, then boot will fail). The parallelism is not like “all processes at once”, but dependency based. If you call process P that requires Q and R, systemd will start Q and R in parallel (if they are not dependent among themselves). If the configuration is faulty and Q and R are interdependent, then bug is in the configuration. This can happen in classical init, where by wrong configuration startup sequences will fail (like starting DHCP client before networking).

      He knows MS Windows and his development environment as distinct from a *nix production environment.

      Not sure about this one. IIRC systemd was inspired by launchd on MacOS. In any case, I don't believe that all *nix idioms are always the right solution. They do hold up pretty well, but when a new solution is proposed that breaks *nix conventions, it's not automatically bad just because it's not *nix way.

    10. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Lennert sees chaos and systemd as a cure.

      Ummmm no.
      Why are you taking this simpering symcophanitic line that is wildly divergent from reality? The guy is no genius and hasn't even been coding for as long as this site has been up. While that would not normally be a problem he's not learning from what has come before so keeps repeating the mistakes others made (and worked around) long ago.

      At least in theory systemd should kill hung process

      No, and it doesn't. It has a few design flaws that will probably be cleaned up someday but it was rushed out early and we are stuck with it.

      systemd stomps on with the one true way

      Are you trying some sort of joke here?


      Seriously, read his blog. Don't just make assumptions or take my word for anything (and there's no point wasting your time trying to convince me of something until you've got the background).

    11. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      Why are you taking this simpering symcophanitic line that is wildly divergent from reality?

      It seems that we are in a misunderstanding. I am not trying to suck up to you. I have no idea who you are and I'm sure this relation is mutual. And I'm pretty sure Lennart isn't reading any of this either.

      The guy is no genius and hasn't even been coding for as long as this site has been up.

      I never said he is genius or that he is any good at what he does. But apparently he does not share the same vision as you or the loudest /. community members. Please note that having “vision” is not a sign of any kind intellect either.

      Seriously, read his blog.

      I did read his blog when systemd was the new kid in town. But I don't see how it has to do with my speculations about how people here on /. perceive systemd.

    12. Re:Learning the same lesson over and over by dbIII · · Score: 1

      It seems that we are in a misunderstanding

      Please stop wasting your time and just go read Lennart's blog so that you can get on the ground floor on this issue.

      I am not trying to suck up to you

      No, you are bestowing virtual sainthood on a software developer having trouble (much of it his own making) with a difficult project.

      But I don't see how it has to do with my speculations about how people here on /. perceive systemd.

      That's very "meta" of you but ultimately pointless because the perception comes from real issues. How about less speculation and something actually to do with the topic? Please stop bothering me and just read his blog and use your own understand of software to see where he is right, where he is wrong and what his actual goals are.

  34. Gnome developers are fucking cunts !!!!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck you Gnome cunts. fuck you arseholes you fucking poofs and cunts. Im going to kill the fucking lot of you fucking arsehats and cunts.
    Fuck gnome 3 or whatever the fuck that pile of steaming shit if called. fuck all you red hat cunt fucking cunts. fuck you cunts the cunty cunty cunts

  35. Wayland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No proprietary drivers from AMD and Nvidia for wayland and the open source drivers are slow and useless and Gnome 3 still sucks