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I really admire Shuttleworth and the rest of the Ubuntu design team for being courageous about making basic changes to the desktop UI. Open source tends to prod

I really admire Shuttleworth and the rest of the Ubuntu design team for being courageous about making basic changes to the desktop UI. Open source tends to produce a lot of design-by-committee or completely undesigned software, so having somebody making big decisions and experimenting is really valuable. Nobody else big is really doing this. There are plenty of alternative window managers for Linux or whatever, but few organizations besides Ubuntu have the inclination and resources to actually make the required changes to the relevant applications such that the desktop feels in some way consistent. And I know ubuntu isn't quite there yet, but it feels like it's making really rapid progress, and it's very encouraging.

div 17y ago
Agreed. It's good to see him take this benevolent dictator approach and have the ambition of outdoing OSX in the user experience department. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Shuttleworth-Make-Desktop-Linux-Better-than-Apple/ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Shuttleworth-...
- Zev 17y ago
  ... and have the ambition of outdoing OSX in the user experience department. Is it really "outdoing OSX" if the UI is being done for a market that Apple isn't and doesn't seem to have an inclination of targeting? At least, for what the UI discussed in the initial link for this topic is about.
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    Sure it is - it may not be competing directly with OSX hardware-wise, but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs.
    - Zev 17y ago
      but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs. The physical form of an 8" netbook isn't designed for the same type of use as a 15" — or even 13" — macbook pro is. Why should the UI be?
      - litewulf 17y ago
        Perhaps I don't want to learn two interfaces, so it is sometimes better to choose consistency over some sort of pure ideal.
      - div 17y ago
        While this specific article may be focused on a UI change for the netbook, Shuttleworth's focus extends to the ubuntu UI in general. In fact, it may be wise choice to distinguish between pure desktop and netbook, time will tell.
xtho 17y ago
I personally wish they would go and buy a Mac and leave the desktop as it is.
- tuxychandru 17y ago
  Care to elaborate? Apple's products and Ubuntu are entirely different in how they are managed. While Apple's is an almost entirely closed ecosystem, Ubuntu's is almost entirely open. What's wrong with someone trying to innovate in the PC desktop space?
  - xtho 17y ago
    I don't consider copying a single menu bar as it is used on Macs since 1984 as an innovation. I detested the single menu bar on my Mac classic and I always thought the Windows way were preferable -- back then I was a Mac user. And I always found the arguments that Mac zealots put forwards in favour of the single menu bar, were ridiculous. And this post reminds me much to much of the justifications of back then. Those arguments were ridiculous in the 1990s and they still are in the 2010s. If they thought the menu bar takes too much space, they whould work on minimizing it while it's not in use. But they shouldn't dislocate it from the window to which it belongs.
    - rimantas 17y ago
      There's nothing ridiculous in Fitts' law.
      - xtho 17y ago
        It is for notebook (incl. netbook) users who hardly ever use the mouse/trackpad.
        maggit 17y ago
        Just for reference, so we can all agree on what consitutes Fitts's law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts_law ---- "Fitts's law is used to model the act of pointing", which means it might be less relevant for netbooks, but it still doesn't make it ridiculous. In other news, Fitts's law is totally irrelevant to the point Shuttleworth is making. The problem he is trying to address is that of screen real estate.

div 17y ago

Agreed. It's good to see him take this benevolent dictator approach and have the ambition of outdoing OSX in the user experience department. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Shuttleworth-Make-Desktop-Linux-Better-than-Apple/ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Shuttleworth-...

Zev 17y ago
... and have the ambition of outdoing OSX in the user experience department. Is it really "outdoing OSX" if the UI is being done for a market that Apple isn't and doesn't seem to have an inclination of targeting? At least, for what the UI discussed in the initial link for this topic is about.
- potatolicious 17y ago
  Sure it is - it may not be competing directly with OSX hardware-wise, but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs.
  - Zev 17y ago
    but at the end of the day they are all desktop/laptop UIs. The physical form of an 8" netbook isn't designed for the same type of use as a 15" — or even 13" — macbook pro is. Why should the UI be?
    - litewulf 17y ago
      Perhaps I don't want to learn two interfaces, so it is sometimes better to choose consistency over some sort of pure ideal.
    - div 17y ago
      While this specific article may be focused on a UI change for the netbook, Shuttleworth's focus extends to the ubuntu UI in general. In fact, it may be wise choice to distinguish between pure desktop and netbook, time will tell.

xtho 17y ago

I personally wish they would go and buy a Mac and leave the desktop as it is.

tuxychandru 17y ago
Care to elaborate? Apple's products and Ubuntu are entirely different in how they are managed. While Apple's is an almost entirely closed ecosystem, Ubuntu's is almost entirely open. What's wrong with someone trying to innovate in the PC desktop space?
- xtho 17y ago
  I don't consider copying a single menu bar as it is used on Macs since 1984 as an innovation. I detested the single menu bar on my Mac classic and I always thought the Windows way were preferable -- back then I was a Mac user. And I always found the arguments that Mac zealots put forwards in favour of the single menu bar, were ridiculous. And this post reminds me much to much of the justifications of back then. Those arguments were ridiculous in the 1990s and they still are in the 2010s. If they thought the menu bar takes too much space, they whould work on minimizing it while it's not in use. But they shouldn't dislocate it from the window to which it belongs.
  - rimantas 17y ago
    There's nothing ridiculous in Fitts' law.
    - xtho 17y ago
      It is for notebook (incl. netbook) users who hardly ever use the mouse/trackpad.
      - maggit 17y ago
        Just for reference, so we can all agree on what consitutes Fitts's law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts_law ---- "Fitts's law is used to model the act of pointing", which means it might be less relevant for netbooks, but it still doesn't make it ridiculous. In other news, Fitts's law is totally irrelevant to the point Shuttleworth is making. The problem he is trying to address is that of screen real estate.