Comment 152 for bug 390508

Just installed the patched Notify OSD to get around the lack of options in the "official" build.

I'm very concerned about a noticeable trend in recent releases of Ubuntu. It seems highly impactful design decisions are being made that are contrary to the philosophies of open source software.

I have used Ubuntu for years and been extremely happy with it until recently. There were a number of occasions that made me consider switching away:

 - when I realised that the Volume and 'Me Menu' shared the same icon group and could not be removed independently;
 - when I realised how utterly useless the Me Menu actually was;
 - when I realised that bad design decisions were being made centrally against all consensus (the left-aligned window buttons);

The Notify OSD issue is another decision that has no design merit and only serves to distance experienced developers.

These are all starting to make me feel that the direction that Ubuntu is taking is no longer for me.

Design Guidelines should be just that - guidelines, not strict rules. Guidelines can be interpreted to ensure that developers can create exciting new software whilst sticking to the ethos of the guidelines. To actively deny the ability of developers and designers to interpret guidelines by removing functionality (that's what this is) is a Closed ethos.

Distrowatch, here I come.

Kevin