7 ms·

Ubuntu 16.04 – Online searches in the dash to be off by default

114 points by reddotX 11y ago

Theodores 11y ago
I have been using Ubuntu since before Unity (when this 'dash' thing arrived) and I don't think I have ever used the dash. If I need to find a file or something on the internets I am more likely to think 'I must use Gopher for this!!!' than I am ever to think of using 'Ubuntu dash'. It is one of those helpful creations like the F1 key that is a great idea in theory but not used in practice. In some way they have managed 'brand awareness' with the dash debacle, inevitably it was always going to fall by the wayside though. Command line tools like 'find' and 'grep' are always going to be vastly superior to these WysiWyg contraptions.
- mhall119 11y ago
  'find' and 'grep' don't work on your Google Drive docs though
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
    They do if you export it through a synthetic file system interface.
  - marssaxman 11y ago
    Sounds like yet another reason to use real files instead of giving all your data to Google (and thereby the NSA).
- pmontra 11y ago
  I have a backup laptop which spends almost all of its time in a closet. It's got Ubuntu 15.04 and the default stuff, dash included, because I didn't want to spend time to customize it. I use the dash it as I use Alt-F2 on my main laptop (a gnome flashback install): I type the first characters of the program to run and that's it. I do it maybe once or twice per day, usually the few desktop applications I need are open all the time, included a fair number of terminals. It didn't seem to be particularly good at finding files but maybe it needs time to scan the disk and I gave it very little of it (time). locate seems to work better and it's more convenient as it can be grepped and parsed.
- tombrossman 11y ago
  Give the recoll package (and Unity scope) a try and your opinion might change. I use this all the time and it's pretty amazing to just type a string of text into the dash and see whichever document contains that text string appear in my search results. If I already have a terminal window open I'll do grep -R "text-string" /dir/ or if not I hit the super key and type the text string for recoll, both are equally fast.
feintruled 11y ago
Not before time! I would occasionally use it in the Windows style "start typing the app name" use case and it was annoying enough that it seemed to prioritize the online searches making you wait for a couple of seconds before it showed the local results, but it would also often bring up weird matches for adult content too!
- Fuxy 11y ago
  I switched to linux mint a while back and i have to say I'm very satisfied of how stable and easy to use it is. It's basically Ubuntu LTS without all the buggy slow crap like unity.
  - Afforess 11y ago
    Call me crazy, but I really like Unity. Back on windows, I always kept by taskbar on the left side anyway, and I prefer the dash search to anything else I've seen.
    - 3princip 11y ago
      Me too, I prefer unity + auto-hide taskbar. At first there were some reservations until it got familiar, now anything else doesn't cut it. I hope they don't abandon it or change it drastically as is so often the way these things go. Re Ubuntu, it helps that it works exceptionally well on anything remotely modern (6 year old PC here with SSD, won't be upgrading until it dies), and it is getting incrementally better with each release.
    - yAnonymous 11y ago
      Same. It looks slick, is very fast (thanks to well defined and configurable keyboard shortcuts) and easy to use. Whatever the haters have against it, in the end I get stuff done faster and spend less time configuring my DE.
      - bufordsharkley 11y ago
        The keyboard shortcuts for snapping are so key. I really struggle to manage windows on any computer that isn't running Unity.
creeble 11y ago
Yay! I often wondered if anyone used all those janky Canonical features they keep trying to stuff into Ubuntu. I guess it's hard to not try and become like MSFT, even if most of your customers use your product because it's NOT from MSFT...
- kunai 11y ago
  At this point in time, even MSFT is really trying hard to not be MSFT.
rpgmaker 11y ago
They might as well remove it altogether... Btw, when it's Canonical going to announce that they will stop developing Ubuntu Phone? The writing has been in the wall for months and with Mozilla's recent announcement I believe it's just a matter of time. I think the vast majority of the mobile OS market has just moved on and is pretty ok with the two most popular OS options. I kind of feel sorry for Ubuntu[1] and Linux[2] in general, they never had a firm foot in the desktop (market share-wise) and then this tectonic shift happens where everything goes mobile, a market where they aren't even a player, and to add insult to injury people stop caring enough about the desktop to even consider changing their OS to Linux in the first place. 1. I say this as a long time Linux user. 2. I know android is a modified version of Linux but here I use it as it has been traditionally understood in the desktop space.
- popey 11y ago
  I've seen a few comments over the last few days speculating about us halting development on Ubuntu phone. Nothing could be further from the truth. The software development continues apace, and more devices and more ports to existing devices on the way next year.
  - eip 11y ago
    Good to hear. Waiting for a useable version on a good phone in the US. Preferably a OnePlus.
    - popey 11y ago
      OnePlus devices are indeed on the roadmap for community ports. If people are interested in helping with that effort, I'm sure the people working on it would appreciate it.
- mhall119 11y ago
  Why would having fewer competitors make someone want to drop out of the race?
- quadrangle 11y ago
nerdy 11y ago
Stallman wins again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8CNp-vksc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8CNp-vksc
mverwijs 11y ago
Meanwhile, Apple 'innovated' a very similar feature earlier this year in iOS9: http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/15/06/16/apples-siri-spotlight-extend-google-like-search-inside-ios-9-apps-without-tracking-users http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/15/06/16/apples-siri...

114 points by reddotX 11y ago

I have been using Ubuntu since before Unity (when this 'dash' thing arrived) and I don't think I have ever used the dash. If I need to find a file or something on the internets I am more likely to think 'I must use Gopher for this!!!' than I am ever to think of using 'Ubuntu dash'. It is one of those helpful creations like the F1 key that is a great idea in theory but not used in practice. In some way they have managed 'brand awareness' with the dash debacle, inevitably it was always going to fall by the wayside though. Command line tools like 'find' and 'grep' are always going to be vastly superior to these WysiWyg contraptions.

mhall119 11y ago
'find' and 'grep' don't work on your Google Drive docs though
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  They do if you export it through a synthetic file system interface.
- marssaxman 11y ago
  Sounds like yet another reason to use real files instead of giving all your data to Google (and thereby the NSA).
pmontra 11y ago
I have a backup laptop which spends almost all of its time in a closet. It's got Ubuntu 15.04 and the default stuff, dash included, because I didn't want to spend time to customize it. I use the dash it as I use Alt-F2 on my main laptop (a gnome flashback install): I type the first characters of the program to run and that's it. I do it maybe once or twice per day, usually the few desktop applications I need are open all the time, included a fair number of terminals. It didn't seem to be particularly good at finding files but maybe it needs time to scan the disk and I gave it very little of it (time). locate seems to work better and it's more convenient as it can be grepped and parsed.
tombrossman 11y ago
Give the recoll package (and Unity scope) a try and your opinion might change. I use this all the time and it's pretty amazing to just type a string of text into the dash and see whichever document contains that text string appear in my search results. If I already have a terminal window open I'll do grep -R "text-string" /dir/ or if not I hit the super key and type the text string for recoll, both are equally fast.

feintruled 11y ago

Not before time! I would occasionally use it in the Windows style "start typing the app name" use case and it was annoying enough that it seemed to prioritize the online searches making you wait for a couple of seconds before it showed the local results, but it would also often bring up weird matches for adult content too!

Fuxy 11y ago
I switched to linux mint a while back and i have to say I'm very satisfied of how stable and easy to use it is. It's basically Ubuntu LTS without all the buggy slow crap like unity.
- Afforess 11y ago
  Call me crazy, but I really like Unity. Back on windows, I always kept by taskbar on the left side anyway, and I prefer the dash search to anything else I've seen.
  - 3princip 11y ago
    Me too, I prefer unity + auto-hide taskbar. At first there were some reservations until it got familiar, now anything else doesn't cut it. I hope they don't abandon it or change it drastically as is so often the way these things go. Re Ubuntu, it helps that it works exceptionally well on anything remotely modern (6 year old PC here with SSD, won't be upgrading until it dies), and it is getting incrementally better with each release.
  - yAnonymous 11y ago
    Same. It looks slick, is very fast (thanks to well defined and configurable keyboard shortcuts) and easy to use. Whatever the haters have against it, in the end I get stuff done faster and spend less time configuring my DE.
    - bufordsharkley 11y ago
      The keyboard shortcuts for snapping are so key. I really struggle to manage windows on any computer that isn't running Unity.

creeble 11y ago

Yay! I often wondered if anyone used all those janky Canonical features they keep trying to stuff into Ubuntu. I guess it's hard to not try and become like MSFT, even if most of your customers use your product because it's NOT from MSFT...

kunai 11y ago
At this point in time, even MSFT is really trying hard to not be MSFT.

rpgmaker 11y ago

They might as well remove it altogether... Btw, when it's Canonical going to announce that they will stop developing Ubuntu Phone? The writing has been in the wall for months and with Mozilla's recent announcement I believe it's just a matter of time. I think the vast majority of the mobile OS market has just moved on and is pretty ok with the two most popular OS options. I kind of feel sorry for Ubuntu[1] and Linux[2] in general, they never had a firm foot in the desktop (market share-wise) and then this tectonic shift happens where everything goes mobile, a market where they aren't even a player, and to add insult to injury people stop caring enough about the desktop to even consider changing their OS to Linux in the first place. 1. I say this as a long time Linux user. 2. I know android is a modified version of Linux but here I use it as it has been traditionally understood in the desktop space.

popey 11y ago
I've seen a few comments over the last few days speculating about us halting development on Ubuntu phone. Nothing could be further from the truth. The software development continues apace, and more devices and more ports to existing devices on the way next year.
- eip 11y ago
  Good to hear. Waiting for a useable version on a good phone in the US. Preferably a OnePlus.
  - popey 11y ago
    OnePlus devices are indeed on the roadmap for community ports. If people are interested in helping with that effort, I'm sure the people working on it would appreciate it.
mhall119 11y ago
Why would having fewer competitors make someone want to drop out of the race?
quadrangle 11y ago

nerdy 11y ago

Stallman wins again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8CNp-vksc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8CNp-vksc

mverwijs 11y ago

Meanwhile, Apple 'innovated' a very similar feature earlier this year in iOS9: http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/15/06/16/apples-siri-spotlight-extend-google-like-search-inside-ios-9-apps-without-tracking-users http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/15/06/16/apples-siri...