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Ask HN: Who still misses Unity Desktop Environment? Anyone making a fork?

21 points by budhajeewa 8y ago

Is there a fork that is mainstream enough?

lsh 8y ago
oh - I gave you a mistaken upvote. I thought you meant Enlightenment: https://www.enlightenment.org/ https://www.enlightenment.org/
- budhajeewa 8y ago
  Thanks anyway. :)
neilsimp1 8y ago
You mean for Ubuntu 18.04? It still comes with Unity, and you can switch to it at the login screen, can't you?
- budhajeewa 8y ago
  It does come with Ubuntu, IIRC. But its a zombie product, as there isn't a team actively developing it. I am looking for an active fork.
- friesen 8y ago
  It does not come installed with Ubuntu 18.04. You can install it from the repo though.
- webgroot 8y ago
  Only if you upgrade from 16.04. If it's a fresh OS install, then you have to install unity separately.
Animats 8y ago
I don't particularly care which one, but Ubuntu ought to stay with something. Moving around the window control buttons is bikeshedding.
- baldfat 8y ago
  I seriously don't see that happening with Unity. The community justly or unjustly voiced their dismay with the project, I vote unjustly. I don't see where Unity fits in with a world of KDE, Gnome and hundreds of other DEs. Unity was made to unify people's experience with using it on a tablet, phone or desktop. It is pretty clear that the only thing left is desktop. I don't see what is unique that would compel a developer to continue another project when they create their own or join one of the bigger projects with an already established community. Personally I love KDE and i3. I never use anything else for years because I don't have a problem I am hoping to solve through another project. What does Unity offer for a person to switch? If you like to customize and have lots of options = KDE If you like things to have less options and "just works" = Gnome If you lie _____ and ____ = Unity
bryanlarsen 8y ago
The Ars Technica review stated "It's community supported and seems to be active so far."
hansjorg 8y ago
I miss it a bit, but the desktop environment scene is too fragmented. GNOME Shell is pretty good, and hopefully it can get even better with contributions from Canonical and the larger Ubuntu community.
- dgllghr 8y ago
  I actually like Gnome Shell, but as soon as my computer is under moderate load, everything becomes laggy, including my mouse. This is a known issue, but the devs are not planning on fixing it until Gnome 4 (years from now)? Granted, this only happens under Wayland, but I have a hidpi display on my laptop and Xorg doesn't support a different dpi for external monitors. So I'd much prefer to be able to use Wayland.
ghba66 8y ago
I tried the overlay for Gentoo and it didn’t work very well. I also loved Unity and I’m very sad to see it go, but gnome 3 with a few extensions is a worthy replacement.
meribold 8y ago
I do. It's my favorite of the mainstream DEs. It doesn't waste much space, it looks good out of the box (in my opinion), and it's more stable and responsive than GNOME in my experience.
ocfx 8y ago
I remember when Unity came out everyone hated it.
chasedehan 8y ago
I love Unity, but am still on 16.04 so haven't "missed it". I haven't found much love for any other DEs as they haven't been very polished.
newscracker 8y ago
I'm still on 16.04 with Unity. I switch between Unity and Xfce (mainly because the machine is old). I hope community support stays strong and addresses some shortcomings that have been around (I don't recall what they were, but there were some even in Ubuntu 16.04). I'm not a fan of the other interfaces being similar to Windows, and I like having a better experience right out-of-the-box. If there were a way to donate money to directly help continue Unity development and maintenance, I'd seriously consider it.

21 points by budhajeewa 8y ago

Is there a fork that is mainstream enough?

lsh 8y ago

oh - I gave you a mistaken upvote. I thought you meant Enlightenment: https://www.enlightenment.org/ https://www.enlightenment.org/

budhajeewa 8y ago
Thanks anyway. :)

neilsimp1 8y ago

You mean for Ubuntu 18.04? It still comes with Unity, and you can switch to it at the login screen, can't you?

budhajeewa 8y ago
It does come with Ubuntu, IIRC. But its a zombie product, as there isn't a team actively developing it. I am looking for an active fork.
friesen 8y ago
It does not come installed with Ubuntu 18.04. You can install it from the repo though.
webgroot 8y ago
Only if you upgrade from 16.04. If it's a fresh OS install, then you have to install unity separately.

Animats 8y ago

I don't particularly care which one, but Ubuntu ought to stay with something. Moving around the window control buttons is bikeshedding.

baldfat 8y ago
I seriously don't see that happening with Unity. The community justly or unjustly voiced their dismay with the project, I vote unjustly. I don't see where Unity fits in with a world of KDE, Gnome and hundreds of other DEs. Unity was made to unify people's experience with using it on a tablet, phone or desktop. It is pretty clear that the only thing left is desktop. I don't see what is unique that would compel a developer to continue another project when they create their own or join one of the bigger projects with an already established community. Personally I love KDE and i3. I never use anything else for years because I don't have a problem I am hoping to solve through another project. What does Unity offer for a person to switch? If you like to customize and have lots of options = KDE If you like things to have less options and "just works" = Gnome If you lie _____ and ____ = Unity

bryanlarsen 8y ago

The Ars Technica review stated "It's community supported and seems to be active so far."

hansjorg 8y ago

I miss it a bit, but the desktop environment scene is too fragmented. GNOME Shell is pretty good, and hopefully it can get even better with contributions from Canonical and the larger Ubuntu community.

dgllghr 8y ago
I actually like Gnome Shell, but as soon as my computer is under moderate load, everything becomes laggy, including my mouse. This is a known issue, but the devs are not planning on fixing it until Gnome 4 (years from now)? Granted, this only happens under Wayland, but I have a hidpi display on my laptop and Xorg doesn't support a different dpi for external monitors. So I'd much prefer to be able to use Wayland.

ghba66 8y ago

I tried the overlay for Gentoo and it didn’t work very well. I also loved Unity and I’m very sad to see it go, but gnome 3 with a few extensions is a worthy replacement.

meribold 8y ago

I do. It's my favorite of the mainstream DEs. It doesn't waste much space, it looks good out of the box (in my opinion), and it's more stable and responsive than GNOME in my experience.

ocfx 8y ago

I remember when Unity came out everyone hated it.

chasedehan 8y ago

I love Unity, but am still on 16.04 so haven't "missed it". I haven't found much love for any other DEs as they haven't been very polished.

newscracker 8y ago

I'm still on 16.04 with Unity. I switch between Unity and Xfce (mainly because the machine is old). I hope community support stays strong and addresses some shortcomings that have been around (I don't recall what they were, but there were some even in Ubuntu 16.04). I'm not a fan of the other interfaces being similar to Windows, and I like having a better experience right out-of-the-box. If there were a way to donate money to directly help continue Unity development and maintenance, I'd seriously consider it.