Comment 192 for bug 527458

On 06/06/2011 18:54, Patrik Floding wrote:
> I have read more comments and other views and have come to the conclusion
> that Ubuntu may not be for me.

I'm sorry to hear that. Have a good trip finding another Linux distribution.

> On the plus side the installation experience was fantastic, the initial
> impression from the way it looked was good. On the minus side an update of
> the system froze the GUI and required a hard power cycle, and it seems that
> the default desktop GUI is too functionality-stripped to suit my taste.

Unity is essentially Compiz with an extra plugin. And somehow, I fail to see how
Compiz, which has been criticized by GNOME for being too bloated (in terms of
configuration options) can now be criticized to be too "functionality-stripped".

> Getting rid of Unity didn't improve things much as the old style menus
> looked tired and developmentally orphaned. Unity would be nice if it wasn't
> so dumbed down (presumably for touch screen usage) and unconfigurable.

The global menu is provided by the package called indicator-appmenu. Just remove
it and voila, no more global menu, whether in Unity or in the classic interface.

As for being dumbed down, see above.

> Unfortunately Windows 7 (and even Vista) are more appealing and feel less
> straight-jacket like.

Then go back to Windows.

> I know I can hack Linux to anything, but most users can't -and the
> maintenance trouble of a totally personalised system is not something I wish
> to handle. I never liked the space wasting "global menu bar" (macintosh
> style) feature, and can't seem to get rid of it at all nowdays in Ubuntu.

Do yourself a favour, and count the number of pixels wasted by the global menu
bar, please. If you get a positive figure, count again.

> Window buttons on the left is a mac thing, and seems to screw up most
> existing themes. Weren't they always on the right on Linux systems?

Half the themes in gnome-look.org work well on both left and right side. Please
stop with the emotional false accusations.

> I use a Mac (mini) and an iPhone, and can just say that the Mac GUI is nice,
> but cannot be half-implemented. You either have it fully implemented, or it's
> no good. And not even Apple tries to make the touch screen interface the same
> as the real computer version. Linux has come a long way since the early
> days, but dumbing down the GUI universally cannot be the way forward,
> surely?

Mac is Mac. Windows is Windows, and Ubuntu is Ubuntu. Each have a distinct user
interface, with a distinct user experience. The Unity look-and-feel is not the
same as the Mac's look-and-feel, and neither is it meant to be. Unity is not
about dumbing down the GUI, but about progressing towards the ultimate user
interface, that sweet spot that satisfies everyone. If configurability is what
you want, then maybe you'll be happy with KDE instead.

Anyway, all this talk is off-topic here. This bug is closed. Please just let it
die in peace. Now, for the sake of my own sanity, and that of my inbox, I am
hereby unsubscribing myself from this bug, and will not reply any further.

  unsubscribe

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin