Ubuntu
gnome-control-center package

  1. Bug #974573
  2. Comment #3

Comment 3 for bug 974573

Revision history for this message
Fabio Valentini (fafatheone-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

This is exactly the reason why I really start to dislike ubuntu ... it seems like "we want you to use overlay-scrollbars, and the Ambiance theme, otherwise you may get a broken desktop".

I want to have the choice, I want to choose which theme and which software I am using. But with each ubuntu release, the number of choices that _just work_ becomes smaller and smaller, as it seems to me.

I became very fond of ubuntu over the last few years. It provided the best user experience IMHO. Installation, package management and system administration was straightforward and I always had the choice to use the software and DE I wanted (GNOME Classic up to 2.32, GNOME-Shell from 3.0 on). But as soon as Unity, overlay-scrollbars and other "optimisations" came, more and more software was patched to work with these changes. Freedom of choice was left behind.

I understand why some of these choices were made. It was the aspiration to create a coherent DE and user experience.
But this is what happened: Using non-standard software became more and more difficult.

But I have to say I really appreciate the work that the GNOME packagers of ubuntu do, they do a great job; 3.4 was in the repositories hours after it was released. It's not their decision to stick with Totem 3.0, Evolution 3.2, ... They can't do anything about ubuntu-specific patches to GNOME packages. But they really affect my overall GNOME experience (which happened to be first-class when I came to ubuntu, -and I loved it- but things have changed. GNOME is now a second-class-citizen, no matter what people say about "Unity being based on GNOME").

So now I really am about to move to debian testing / Linux Mint Debian Edition, because they deliver a GNOME experience that is closer to as it was meant to be by the GNOME developers, not "crippled" by unity-specific patches.

And I am sorry if this comment seems unfriendly or emotional ... but I love GNOME, and I came to love ubuntu; there are things about it that really upset me, though.
Should I write to the ubuntu-desktop mailing list about this, maybe as a starting point for an open discussion about this issue?