On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 14:06, turbolad <email address hidden> wrote:
> Have the Ubuntu team considered trialling the newest Unity interface
> with newbies who have never used or seen Ubuntu before?

I am tired of the focus winning the dummy users. The reality is:
Nobody is giving Ubuntu (or other Linux distro) any chance or any try
if there are not peole in the near (in most cases physical
neighbourhood required) who can help out. And in most cases it's the
people around that push others to try it.

As far as I can see at least in Austria and Germany the very major
Ubuntu/Linux user base is in IT business and those are the multiplying
factor and an important base of the community (as they are doing the
mostly free support). Loose them (the IT folks and such power users)
and you loose all! - This should be my major message at this point!

Unfortunately a big portion of IT and such power users are not
satisfied with Unity. I personally do prefer Unity over Gnome 3 and I
understand Mark's decision going a different direction. On the other
hand there are many other environments - e.g. XFCE - why not
contribute there instead of starting over at zero? - I need to do a
lot of testing and I assume that I have to expect problems (e.g.
NXClient and Server which even non-power-users use - of course I
installed and configured it for them) as the client does not offer
unity as choice when connecting to the server).


> If Unity can be
> worked on, made faster and stop it conflicting with Wine (Unity makes
> Wine run *very* slow, GNOME does not), I think Ubuntu will have a better
> chance of succeeding.

Personally I use Wine in the one and only case of TeamViewer (because
the Linux version ships with it's own version of it). I do not have
any further use of Wine. For Windows crap that I need to use I have a
VirtualBox running. From my point of view, those who want to game
should either use the Linux games available or should buy an X-Box
(which I consider quite similar to any other Windows version ;-) ). I
never installed a dual boot so far as for me it does not make any
sense.

Thanks for mentioning possible issues - so I have to test that as well
in an intensive manner (puhh - a lot of work waiting).


> Also consider that Ubuntu is generally used as a second operating
> system, with Microsoft Windows kept for things that don't run in Ubuntu
> e.g. Nokia Ovi Suite.

Who nowadays cares about the Nokia suite? - Switch to an Android phone!

While you consider Ubuntu as second OS, I use it as my primary OS
since 2009 even at work under several conditions everywhere having
Windows around me.
I need a stable and reliable OS that operates well everywhere. With a
very few exceptions everything works well. However, after 9.04, 9.10
and 10.04 I have seen reduced stability and hence I am still on 10.04.
I really need a stable 12.04 - and I hope it will be!


> This is why Unity needs to be faster, because
> Ubuntu is usually installed on older computers when people buy newer
> ones with Windows 7.

Unity needs to be at least faster than Windows 7/8 on _recent_
machines because otherwise I get laughed by the Windows users sitting
next to me. On older machines I install Xubuntu or Lubuntu anyway
because they are much more lightweight. On my primary machine I don't
need just speed, I also need features - where e.g. Lubuntu falls too
short for me (YMMV).

Best regards, Martin.
-- 
Martin Wildam

http://sites.google.com/site/mwildam/