The new desktop experience is awful. Like I swapped distros awful.
Then I had a bitch of a time getting my hardware working in #! on my new laptop, so I came crawling back and just changed the desktop environment from whatever atrocity it was to openbox.
seabass on
Run you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
I'm not hating Unity on my netbook.
But you must bear in mind that I have switched from the dog that is Windows 7 Starter which periodically freezes most frustratingly.
On the other hand, it took FOREVER to install. I am thinking that a move to Arch and awesome might be in order. But it is a huge improvement.
The flat out debian would be better. Sure building shit from source is great! But fuck that noise. When I want to install apache I don't want to wait 2 hours for it to build, with php, and mysql.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Chakra is really nice on my netbook, except Plasma seems to gain a memory leak of some sort after I leave the netbook running for a week+. I don't know if this is a deal breaker for anyone else though
The biggest things that bothered me about Unity were:
a) How sluggish the UI feels in general.
b) How the window menu isn't always showing. And how I can't maximize Chrome and get my tabs all up there.
c) Task switching, a little bit. I sort of feel like if I stuck with it a while I wouldn't care, but the other two things bother me too much.
TincheNo dog food for Victor tonight.Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
I don't know what you peeps used before Unity, but I used the classic Gnome 2 configuration with Docky on the left side, and Unity isn't more sluggish than that. In fact, I'd say it's way more responsive. Maybe it's a technical thing? Maybe I'm the only guy in the world for whom it works properly? Who knows. Also, there's a brand new version of Compiz underneath the UI, so that might have something to do with... Something, I guess.
Anyway, haters gonna hate. Fact of the matter is, the Gnome 2 environment was what it was (not very inspired, innovative or just plain good), and I have absolutely no problem with the Ubuntu guys taking the front-end of their distribution into their own hands, even if it means I get to deal with Ubuntu Vista for the next six months.
Tinche on
We're marooned on a small island, in an endless sea,
Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
But tonight, it's heavy stuff.
I don't know what you peeps used before Unity, but I used the classic Gnome 2 configuration with Docky on the left side, and Unity isn't more sluggish than that. In fact, I'd say it's way more responsive. Maybe it's a technical thing? Maybe I'm the only guy in the world for whom it works properly? Who knows. Also, there's a brand new version of Compiz underneath the UI, so that might have something to do with... Something, I guess.
Anyway, haters gonna hate. Fact of the matter is, the Gnome 2 environment was what it was (not very inspired, innovative or just plain good), and I have absolutely no problem with the Ubuntu guys taking the front-end of their distribution into their own hands, even if it means I get to deal with Ubuntu Vista for the next six months.
Ubuntu vista would be fine. What we got was Ubuntu ME.
My major beef was that, the last time I used it, getting multiple terminals to launch from the unity bar was an exercise in frustration. Rather than spawning a new process, it would snap you over to the currently running one. I often want multiple terminals open at a time, so that was sort of a deal breaker for me.
That and gnome ran on my netbook, where as the new unity interface crawled on it (despite having a way better layout for the netbook).
seabass on
Run you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!
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TincheNo dog food for Victor tonight.Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
You're supposed to middle click to launch a new instance of an application. I can relate to your troubles, since middle clicking a dock icon to start a new instance is hardly intuitive, and not really that discoverable, so this could be considered a design flaw. Personally I was expecting to find it in the right-click menu, but no go. (Except for Firefox, which has a custom "Open a new window" quick list item.) Now that I think about it, I guess there are precedents for this middle-click behaviour: if you middle click a link in Firefox, it'll open a the page in a new tab, if you middle click a folder in Nautilus, it'll open the folder in a new tab (if you middle click a file, it'll just open the file), if you middle click an email in Thunderbird, it'll open the email in a new tab, and so on. I kinda see the angle they were coming from: if you middle click an icon in the launcher, it'll open a new instance of that application.
I can live with things like that, once you get used to it it's fine (why would this approach be any less viable than the Windows 7 approach, which is to right click and go hunting for the "new instance" option in the menu that pops up?). What I really mind, for example, is the Application lens, which is just a train wreck. Also, they should probably do something with the settings "applets", not really sure the "System settings" item in the shut-down menu is the best place for it. On the other hand, I love that i can just summon the Dash and type in "star" and press enter to get to my "Startup applications" app.
Tinche on
We're marooned on a small island, in an endless sea,
Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
But tonight, it's heavy stuff.
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Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
edited May 2011
Actually, if the idea is to suck in Windows users then copying the middle-click -> new instance thing from W7 was a smart idea.
Or would have been if more than one in five W7 users knew about it in the first place, or used it at all.
Requiring a middle click to do anything useful in an environment developed largely for netbooks/laptops is a mistake. I had the same problem as seabass, and dropped Unity pretty quick in part because of it (though, also just because I'm just not 100% in love with it anyway).
Don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty decent overall. Just... eh. At this stage, it sorta feels like change for change's sake.
Seeks on
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
I forgot how much I hate the GNOME file manager (Nautilus, right?)
How do you open an address rather than browsing like a scrub?
I'm not much of a power user so my short time with Unity probably ain't much to go on but I found it pretty ok. For instance the multiple window thing is something I probably would never have noticed since I prefer tabs and if I did want I new window I'd just use ctrl+n. It is still very much Gnome though and thus something I didn't feel like playing around with for too long.
Dritz on
There I was, 3DS: 2621-2671-9899 (Ekera), Wii U: LostCrescendo
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
The problem is it's basically the Windows 7 desktop but worse.
I mean, finally I can hit the super key and get a desktop menu which searches. Which is good! But then it opens sideways...I can't just go up and down with my arrow keys - I also have to go sideways for some reason.
Same problem with the launcher - I can't right click on things and exit programs that are running, or control their windows or anything like that.
electricitylikesme on
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Requiring a middle click to do anything useful in an environment developed largely for netbooks/laptops is a mistake.
Seriously. Anyway, my solution going forward has been to use the server distribution of ubuntu and just install my own X and window manager on top of that. That's working out pretty well for me. Also, openbox.
seabass on
Run you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
Question, when my laptop goes to sleep it won't wake up.
Is there some sort of kernel argument I need to add?
Apothe0sis on
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Monkey Ball WarriorA collection of mediocre hatsSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Question, when my laptop goes to sleep it won't wake up.
Is there some sort of kernel argument I need to add?
When this was happening to me it was a bug / nonexistant feature in the driver. Basically when 11.04 came out I was suddenly able to sleep and come back in linux.
...and then suddenly stopped using windows nearly as much. Funny how that works.
Basically if google doesn't help just hope that someone comfortable working on kernel drivers somewhere has the same model you do and the time to fix it. This is actually very likely to happen eventually.
Monkey Ball Warrior on
"I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
edited May 2011
It is alleged that adding acpi_sleep=nonvs to the grub cmdline linux.
Count me in on all the unity complaints. It's awful. And now it forces a bunch of graphical stuff on which causes issues with VNC by default(its like a compiz issue, fancy graphics cause VNC to not refresh properly). I only use my htpc with VNC for control, so I have the system automatically log in so I can carry it headless anywhere I want and just plug in a hdmi cord (and cat5 if wireless is passworded). So I can't really switch off of unity(log out disables vnc server), and theres no real settings anywhere to switch things.
Count me in on all the unity complaints. It's awful. And now it forces a bunch of graphical stuff on which causes issues with VNC by default(its like a compiz issue, fancy graphics cause VNC to not refresh properly). I only use my htpc with VNC for control, so I have the system automatically log in so I can carry it headless anywhere I want and just plug in a hdmi cord (and cat5 if wireless is passworded). So I can't really switch off of unity(log out disables vnc server), and theres no real settings anywhere to switch things.
You can disable Unity when logging on with GDM, so you should be able to disable it in a settings file somewhere and go back to Ubuntu Classic.
Would anyone recommend anything other than Ubuntu for someone who is primarily using it for web, email, SSH, Terminal, and a program like http://scribes.sourceforge.net/
Arch Linux. If you can DIY, it's quite good. It's minimal, and the AUR makes it really easy to get any Linux application running on it (even via a compile) without fiddling around with things.
If you like Unity but can't run it Unity 2D might be worth a shot. I ran it in Virtualbox for a couple of months and it worked surprisingly well.
I must be doing something wrong. It's not much snappier than normal Unity in my Virtualbox instance at work. The menus at the top of the screen lag in both of them.
It's so clunky and stick and... it was a nice try, but this is not ready for the big time. It's unclear to me what's wrong with just Gnome... they've done a good job with Gnome in making it pretty great.
Mint is still pretty good. I'm using it right now and have been for a while, and I can't find a reason to switch yet.
Honestly, damn near any popular distro should handle what you're looking for. I don't know what Scribes is, though, so like elliot said, you might try Fedora. It's a perfectly nifty distro.
If you go the mint route, try a program called Alien to convert or install (I forget which) RPMs on debian-based systems.
That Scribes program is pretty easy to compile using the instructions on the download page. Not much reason to worry about using a RPM centric distro. I installed it on Pardus (KDE distro) fairly painlessly.
Dritz on
There I was, 3DS: 2621-2671-9899 (Ekera), Wii U: LostCrescendo
You can still use the regular Gnome in Natty, just FYI. Just select "Ubuntu Classic" at the login screen instead of "Ubuntu". That's what I've done and everything's working nicely. Also removed those fucking overlayed scrollbars that I just can't find usable.
You can still use the regular Gnome in Natty, just FYI. Just select "Ubuntu Classic" at the login screen instead of "Ubuntu". That's what I've done and everything's working nicely. Also removed those fucking overlayed scrollbars that I just can't find usable.
Oh - how do you get rid of those? I still have them in Ubuntu Classic and they can fuck right off.
electricitylikesme on
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
edited May 2011
Thanks to the magic of Apt Pinning I now have pretty much exactly the crunchbang system I was looking for.
august on
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Posts
You might enjoy reading this.
Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
But tonight, it's heavy stuff.
The new desktop experience is awful. Like I swapped distros awful.
Then I had a bitch of a time getting my hardware working in #! on my new laptop, so I came crawling back and just changed the desktop environment from whatever atrocity it was to openbox.
But you must bear in mind that I have switched from the dog that is Windows 7 Starter which periodically freezes most frustratingly.
On the other hand, it took FOREVER to install. I am thinking that a move to Arch and awesome might be in order. But it is a huge improvement.
a) How sluggish the UI feels in general.
b) How the window menu isn't always showing. And how I can't maximize Chrome and get my tabs all up there.
c) Task switching, a little bit. I sort of feel like if I stuck with it a while I wouldn't care, but the other two things bother me too much.
There's definitely potential here.
Look kinda pretty, I guess, kinda?
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Anyway, haters gonna hate. Fact of the matter is, the Gnome 2 environment was what it was (not very inspired, innovative or just plain good), and I have absolutely no problem with the Ubuntu guys taking the front-end of their distribution into their own hands, even if it means I get to deal with Ubuntu Vista for the next six months.
Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
But tonight, it's heavy stuff.
Ubuntu vista would be fine. What we got was Ubuntu ME.
My major beef was that, the last time I used it, getting multiple terminals to launch from the unity bar was an exercise in frustration. Rather than spawning a new process, it would snap you over to the currently running one. I often want multiple terminals open at a time, so that was sort of a deal breaker for me.
That and gnome ran on my netbook, where as the new unity interface crawled on it (despite having a way better layout for the netbook).
I can live with things like that, once you get used to it it's fine (why would this approach be any less viable than the Windows 7 approach, which is to right click and go hunting for the "new instance" option in the menu that pops up?). What I really mind, for example, is the Application lens, which is just a train wreck. Also, they should probably do something with the settings "applets", not really sure the "System settings" item in the shut-down menu is the best place for it. On the other hand, I love that i can just summon the Dash and type in "star" and press enter to get to my "Startup applications" app.
Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
But tonight, it's heavy stuff.
Or would have been if more than one in five W7 users knew about it in the first place, or used it at all.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty decent overall. Just... eh. At this stage, it sorta feels like change for change's sake.
How do you open an address rather than browsing like a scrub?
Alternatively, Ctrl+L should do it.
I've tried right-clicking the breadcrumbs. Maybe I am retardo.
Ctrl+L might make it semi-bearable until I get something better happening.
The problem is it's basically the Windows 7 desktop but worse.
I mean, finally I can hit the super key and get a desktop menu which searches. Which is good! But then it opens sideways...I can't just go up and down with my arrow keys - I also have to go sideways for some reason.
Same problem with the launcher - I can't right click on things and exit programs that are running, or control their windows or anything like that.
Still god awful.
Seriously. Anyway, my solution going forward has been to use the server distribution of ubuntu and just install my own X and window manager on top of that. That's working out pretty well for me. Also, openbox.
Is there some sort of kernel argument I need to add?
When this was happening to me it was a bug / nonexistant feature in the driver. Basically when 11.04 came out I was suddenly able to sleep and come back in linux.
...and then suddenly stopped using windows nearly as much. Funny how that works.
Basically if google doesn't help just hope that someone comfortable working on kernel drivers somewhere has the same model you do and the time to fix it. This is actually very likely to happen eventually.
But I haven't had a chance to test it yet.
Wait really?
Because I've had a consistent problem with my XBMC system where after being asleep for a little while it doesn't resume properly.
You can disable Unity when logging on with GDM, so you should be able to disable it in a settings file somewhere and go back to Ubuntu Classic.
???
I must be doing something wrong. It's not much snappier than normal Unity in my Virtualbox instance at work. The menus at the top of the screen lag in both of them.
It's so clunky and stick and... it was a nice try, but this is not ready for the big time. It's unclear to me what's wrong with just Gnome... they've done a good job with Gnome in making it pretty great.
Honestly, damn near any popular distro should handle what you're looking for. I don't know what Scribes is, though, so like elliot said, you might try Fedora. It's a perfectly nifty distro.
If you go the mint route, try a program called Alien to convert or install (I forget which) RPMs on debian-based systems.
Oh - how do you get rid of those? I still have them in Ubuntu Classic and they can fuck right off.
So, this didn't work for me on my laptop but it is reported to have worked on a whole mess of systems. This is a huge pain.