Ubuntu 11.04 Natty NutsedUp

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:07 pm

Really disappointed with this version.
The much vaunted use of the new Gnome 3.x engine and Unity is certainly not what I expected Sad

Sorry Ubuntu but you screwed the pooch this time. I want my top application/navigation toolbar back!
I don't want some silly, slim, pseudo-MacX OS/Vista/Notbook type vertical menu taking up screen real-estate down the left hand side of my screen.
I don't care how pretty the icons are, I don't care how great the sliding in and out animation is, I find it annoying and extremely distracting to have menu's pop out when my mouse gets near the left edge of the screen when I'm writing code.

I hate the fact my nice pretty, colorful folder/application icons that I used to see when browsing directories are now a washed out grey/silvery embossed excuse for an 'intuitive' indication of the folder contents.

And I really, REALLY hate the fact that somehow running applications seem to have their toolbar 'hidden' at the top of the screen as though they are completely seperate from the application that is running - what the heck is all that about?
Please guys, take more water with it and stay of the 'herbs'.

On the bright side, the new Banshee Media player is pretty decent (only tested it with audio) anf Firefox 4.x which I installed a few days ago is pretty nice though I'm still trying to work out why the visual appearance was better in my previous Ubuntu version Sad

At lest the "Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4" plug-in adds some much needed color and icons.

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 9:45 am

A correction to my previous post and a cautionary tale....
Gnome3 doesn't ship with 11.04 be default (it was hoped it would but it isn't stable enough so you'll have circa Gnome v 2.32
Strangely enough, even though Canonical dropped official support for Compiz, Natty ships with inter-dependencies with Gnome/Compiz/Unity so Compiz is installed by default (and of course Compiz requires 3d rendering).

You will notice if you go into the Compiz settings manager that there is a Unity plug-in enabled - whatever you do DO NOT deselect it!
If you do, you will be left with an unusable desktop with no menus, no click-able shortcuts or anything. Your PC will be rendered almost completely inoperable!

If you do break it, or already have (like me), you can fix it by opening the terminal CTRL + ALT + F2
sudo unity --reset
This will delete and then re-create the Unity configuration, including dependencies like the Compiz plug-in and it worked for me Smile

If like me you hate the new 'look' and I'm fairly adamant that on this occasion, innovation is not always for the better, then you can take some solace from the following..
When your PC boots up and the log-in screen appears, type your username (or in most cases, click the name already displayed). Then when you click the password field, you'll notice (if you look carefully) at the bottom of the screen there are the usual options to change/select different keyboard languages, timezones etc and also one for 'appearance' - if you select from this Ubuntu Classic you should have your 'normal' menu/navigation system once you log-in.

Unfortunately, from what I read on the Ubuntu forums, this option will be removed in later versions of Ubuntu so PLEASE take the time to complain about the new Unity package if you don't like it - before it's too late!

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 11:09 am

OK, so I have been playing with this for a while now and I still hate it Smile

There seems to be some inconsistencies with the behavious, which I'm told are not bugs Sad

With a default install, the Unity left hand dock is visible until you open an application. Once an application is open, lets use Firefox as an example, the Unity dock auto-hides when it detects the collision of the left hand edge of the open app.
OK, so that is pretty much expected behaviour but problems arise after that.
Say you now use the mail icon in the top right corner of the screen to open Evolution, Evolution opens and focus is transferred to Evolution and appears as running app on the desktop. Again, that would be expected behaviour.
A problem now arises; If you open an email and click a link in the email, the expected (and previous) behaviour is for Firefox to now have focus, so you can see the web page from the link you just clicked in the email but that doesn't happen.
If you want to give Firefox the focus, you have to physically minimise the Evolution window, which then causes the Unity dock to open again. From that you can select the FF icon to change the focus to FF and FF the becomes the app window filling the desktop.
Also, previously, you could just shoot your cursor up to the top of the screen and select from any of the running apps, you can no longer do this because that toolbar is now replaced with that of any app that has focus.
This all seems counter productive and counter intuitive to me. Of course if you are using keyboard shortcuts, the process is easier but I want to reserve my brain cells for 'work' not remembering a gazillion shortcuts.

I have found a work around that suits me though, even though it is far from ideal.
In the Compiz settings manager, click the Unity plug-in icon and change the default settings so that 'auto-hide Unity' is set to 'never'. This forces the Unity dock to be permanently visible. Next, change the icon size from (I think the default size was 56px) to 32, this way the dock doesn't seem to take up too much screan real estate (even though it is still annoying to see it there).

I know I'm being extremely picky and many people have said they love the way Unity works for them but I'm an old dog; I CAN learn new tricks, I'm just not sure I want to or that I should be "forced" to.

Once / IF they ever fix the 'experimental' features (found under the Unity plug-in in Compiz) to allow the dock to move to ANY screen edge, I might be more comfortable with it. After all, if I could move it to the top edge, that would make it far more similar to what we had before.

With eleventeen billion interweb users worldwide, people 'expect' toolbars/menu's to be at the TOP and TABS (be it web pages or running apps) at the bottom - that is what we have been trained to expect over the last few decades, ergo, it is the most intuitive way for people to work. Any deviation from that should be at the users discretion (that is why we have such great software like Cairo Dock).
Still not convinced? Look at the difference in navigation behaviour between MS Office XP and MS Office 2007 and the confusion, wasted productiveness that created.

Newbie Joined: Mar 29, 2009 Posts: 14

I just installed the latest update and it seemed to fix some of the "bugs". I am starting to get used to the Unity desktop. You can switch to Gnome by selecting Ubuntu Classic Desktop when logging in.

Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 4:05 am

I prefer Ubuntu Classic but they say that option won't be available in the next major release so I'm trying to get used to it.

I found another problem today while I was using LibreOffice Writer. I was trying to bring my CV up to date, I don't actually need a CV being semi-retired but since I have lost my old one, I opened up my wifes CV to use the formatting she has and some other documents I needed to copy/paste some information from and found it extremely difficult switching from one document to the other.
The only way to get at any of the documents is by clicking the icon on the Unity bar and then all that does is show you all your open documents in a thumb nail type view. I found it very hard to select the document I needed because I couldn't tell which document was which Sad

Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 12:10 pm

OK, so far, the latest has indeed fixed most issues. I had to run
unity --reset
just to make sure I had all the default settings. I have reduced the icon size and when pushing the mouse over to the left edge the Unity menu does now slide out on top of the active window/application.
That is much better behaviour and I suspect the intended behaviour.

I still don't like the fact I have to trawl through millions of icons; for example you have to click the + applications icon on the Unity dock, then when the overlay appears, find the group 'Installed', click the 'Show xx more items', then scroll through the list until you find the app you were looking for.
In fairness, Unity is supposed to (and does) list the most frequently used programs first BUT it limits them to the last 6 items and if it isn't there, you have to click yet another link to show the others.
Compare with Ubuntu Classic menu, this seems slower and less productive for me personally - especially when I have around 10 apps that I use most frequently.

I'm certainly going to investigate adding app icons to the Unity Dock and if I find once the dock is filled that you can hover over the top or bottom of the dock to shift the list of icons up/down that would be acceptable, especially if I can organise the icons in the order I want.

I still don't understand why they added Unity when you can install apps like Cairo Dock which are much more configurable, much more appealing in both appearance and behaviour and some of the Unity behaviour conflicts with other settings available in Compiz Fusion.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 06, 2006 Posts: 311

From my understanding, the Ubuntu "owner" was tired of fighting with the Gnome folks to get some of the things he thought should be there and/or fixed done. They refused him too many times... he decided to cut his losses and move on with Unity (that they were already using in the netbook version).

Can't remember where I read it, but it was public.

I have tried and tried and tried to get Natty (with Unity) running properly under Virtualbox and have finally given up. I won't upgrade my main PC until I can be confident the blasted thing won't break my productivity as I really don't have much time to "thrash"... I am now wishing that I had just stuck with the 10.04LTS as I am now going to be bumping up against a much shorter support cycle. Sad

Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:06 pm

I think I may have read something similar and I think that is where my initial confusion arose with regard to Natty using Gnome 3.x (which it doesn't).

I read the link from your Tweet regarding VB/Unity - I'm assuming that didn't work for you.
I have XP and Win7 installed under VB but I don't think I have actually used them since I initially tested them after they were installed. If I have need of them I might see if using Ubuntu Classic log-in helps or switching to the Unity 2D settings but I don't honestly see that being any time soon.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 06, 2006 Posts: 311

Guardian wrote:

I read the link from your Tweet regarding VB/Unity - I'm assuming that didn't work for you.

You assume correctly! Smile

Haven't gotten back to it, and like you, it is not going to be anytime soon either.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 06, 2006 Posts: 311

BTW, the latest VBox 4.0.8 seems to have fixed my Natty guest issues. Smile

Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 6:31 pm

Thanks for letting me know, I'll try ad update that next week if it doesn't update automatically - I cannot remember whether I used the package manager or not.

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 11:05 pm

I have had enough of Unity!
I am just so tired of having to use the 'search' facility in the Unity dock to find my frequently used programs because the so called 'Frequently Used' category never actually seems to show the programs I want, even though there are only probably 5 or 6 programs I use all day long.

I'll admit that Unity has improved a little but it still lacks the customizability I need to make using the menu productive and it still seems much slower to use than the original, pre-Unity menu system.

I gave it my best shot and coupled with the fact that Canonical are still adamant the 'Classic' will be removed in the next major release, I have taken the plunge and switched to KDE Plasma Desktop.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/kde

A couple of point to mention; One step 3 the author mentions

Quote:

you'll have to click on Show __ technical items

- that had me stumped for a few seconds, it is actually a text link at the bottom of the window.
Secondly, his images show one with an orange highlight for the package you need. There is another package further down title FULL Kubuntu Plasma Desktop/Notebook - you do not want that one!!

It only took a few minutes to download and setup!

Now I guess your wondering....
Is it any good? Is it beneficial?
Oh yes! Lots of easy to access customising options including configuring the menu's, what is in the menu's, where they are located etc and most importantly, it's quick, it's VERY quick!
All my normal programs are working as expected, including those programs that are not in the Repo's like Beyond Compare.
Oh what a joy to have a proper drill down menu system again. Oh what a joy to be able to move application icons to different categories again and add them to my favourites.

By default you just get the one bottom toolbar menu ala Windows style but you can enable the top one with 2 mouse clicks Smile

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:03 pm

Just a quick update regarding using the KDE 4.0 desktop on Ubuntu..
Although Evolution mail client works without any issues, it does use the GTK rendering engine by default so it's appearance isn't as pretty (if you could call it pretty to start with) as it used to be under GTK but the KDE equivalent (KMail) is much prettier than Evolution ever was and there are hand dandy features to import/export from both mail clients, so I'll be doing that later today.

Strangely, some flash powered websites like channel4.com that utilised flash for loading video content work perfectly now whereas it was a bit hit and miss before. I cannot figure out WHY it would be different now but I'm not going to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Overall, I'm impressed with the KDE desktop rendering engine and more importantly, I'm productive again and not having to either hunt down programs I want to use or navigate my way through a slow, un-intuitive menu system. I can put menu's where I want them, I can put launch icons where I want them, I can put widgets where I want them and pretty much everything can be configured for behaviour, size, color etc.
Unless Canonical either remove Unity or it improves significantly, I honestly do not think there is any chance of me reverting to using Gnome/Unity.
Everything is running as sweet as a nut right now and everything is where I want it, when I want it - that's pretty much perfection right there!

I have also noticed a few extra things that were not apparent under Gnome which I'm really liking. One example is KDE's 'Wallet' that securely stores passwords and other stuff. I fired up Netbeans and was using it for a remote project so any changes I make locally are automatically transferred to the remote site via FTP. Wallet asked me if I wanted to store some information regarding this and I accepted. When the next FTP transfer was made, I was prompted to enter my 'wallet' password before the FTP transfer could be done (only has to be done once per user session) but it did make me stop and wonder...
If someone stole my PC, they could easily fire up Netbeans and literally wipe all my remote projects without any effort at all, since Netbeans stores my FTP connection data. With Wallet active, the user is prompted for the Wallet password before that outgoing connection is allowed - that's a nice warm fuzzy feeling right there Smile

Newbie Joined: Mar 29, 2009 Posts: 14

I have just given up on Ubuntu and made the switch to Linux Mint. That dang Unity makes it a PITA to work on multiple files in multiple folders with several programs open. It may work fine on a tablet if you only want to surf the web, but it is not an upgrade from gnome2.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 06, 2006 Posts: 311

Question on Mint. Does it have a good "Software Center" type interface to grabbing additional software and good updater system? (Sorry, don't know anything about it.) If so, I might be tempted as well... while I can do command line, I'd like not too as much as possible. Smile