5 ms·

I am a longtime Ubuntu user and I turned off Unity as soon as I figured out how to do it. It is really really wrong IMO. Shuttleworth should realize that a des

by hristov 16y ago

I am a longtime Ubuntu user and I turned off Unity as soon as I figured out how to do it. It is really really wrong IMO. Shuttleworth should realize that a desktop computer with a mouse is very different from an iPad and things that are all the rage for tablets are not necessarily good for desktops. For example on a desktop you have a mouse which has very high precision and accuracy, whereas on an iPad you have your fingers which are not very accurate at all. Thus, tablets make sure they have few and large buttons, while this is not necessary for desktops. In desktops you are allowed to have more and smaller buttons. Also, tablets usually have limited real estate so that they make sure any program you use can take up the entire screen. Desktops on the other hand can have huge screens and thus should allow people to have several windows open and visible at the same time. Unity is cute for the first time but it is almost unusable if you have multiple windows open. I want to see which windows are open so that i can switch between them easily. Unity requires several button pushes to find a minimized window.

jimmyjazz14 16y ago
I kinda liked Unity at first but after a few days of using it I am really finding I am not as productive and am switching back to good old gnome. I think ultimately its failure is the difficulty of seeing what apps are open and switching between them quickly.
spiffworks 16y ago
On the contrary, I find that Unity is much more keyboard friendly than Gnome. Multitasking with the keyboard is very easy, just hold super and press the relevant number. I find that it is much more conducive to multitasking once I got used to it. Give it a fair shake. It's different, and I had some initial revulsion, but once you get over it, it can be one of the most pleasant desktop experiences you've ever had.
- freakwit 16y ago
  On the contrary, Unity broke all my keyboard shortcuts. I gave it a fair shake (used it during the beta, tried not to mark it down for bugginess) and am back to classic. For my settings, multitasking with the keyboard is very easy - just press super and the relevant workspace number - just press super and the relevant character to launch a particular application
  - spiffworks 16y ago
    Heh. Close to six months in Gnome and I never realised that those shortcuts existed. Apparently, I have severely underestimated the Gnome desktop for a long time.
    - windsurfer 16y ago
      Most people have...
- irahul 16y ago
  > Unity is much more keyboard friendly than Gnome. Multitasking with the keyboard is very easy, just hold super and press the relevant number. Do you touchtype? I find it extremely difficult to use super or arrow keys or any other keys which aren't touch type friendly. super + num is worse than using the mouse for me. alt+tab works better in my experience.
sciurus 16y ago
http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/unity-keyboard-mouse-shortcuts http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/unity-keyboard-mouse-sh...
- hristov 16y ago
  First, using keys to switch between windows makes Unity harder not easier to use. Second, the keys are not a good replacement for the bar that has all the minimized windows. With the keys you do not know what is already, you have to remember numbers of applications, etc.
makmanalp 16y ago
Actually, unity has that feature where if you drag a window towards the side of the monitor, it'll tile to one half instead of the full monitor. What really bugs me is the dumb launch menu. I think it's pretty much the same idea as the one on macs. Who the hell decided that it was a good idea to group applications together? Why is everyone (win7 also) following suit? It's dumb to extrapolate that just because two windows are from the same application that I'm using them for the same task and want them grouped together. It's also dumb that when I give one look at the bar I can't immediately tell what is open. I have to consciously scan all the way down. Finally, I hate the additional click it brings when I have to pick between two windows of the same app. Does anyone really know how anyone decided on this? I'll stop complaining when they let me disable it.
- hasenj 16y ago
  This is the first release. Consider it a glorified MVP. It's not that this is the greatest idea ever! It's more like, given the constraints and the available options, this option has enough goodness to out-weigh the badness. The grouping of multiple windows from the same application together is the only major problem I find with this setup, and even then it's not so major. It can probably be solved by providing a keyboard-shortcut to cycle current application windows. Overall I like the launcher very much. In fact, it's my dream dock-clone: vertical, and integrated with the panel and window manager, and makes the windows-style task-list obsolete.
  - warfangle 16y ago
    My only complaint about the launcher is it takes a variable amount of time to expand. I haven't nailed down what causes it, but sometimes it pops open right away - and sometimes it takes a couple seconds. It's also nearly impossible to right-click on an item - the panel disappears right before I'm able to click. I partially blame that on the shitty trackpad on my Cr48, though.
- AlisdairO 16y ago
  When I first started using macs, I hated the group-by-application idea too, but I've come to prefer it. Combined with application-specific expose, I find it scales so much better for when I have over 10 windows open on a non-huge screen - which I do most of the time. When I go back to a WM with a list of lots of windows open, I find myself hunting and pecking amongst all these tiny, almost indistinguishable icons, and it feels like it takes forever. edit: What I'd quite like is another expose mode which shows, say, the last 6 windows you've worked on. While I often have a lot of stuff i want to keep open, I often have a relatively smaller immediate working set.

by hristov 16y ago

jimmyjazz14 16y ago

I kinda liked Unity at first but after a few days of using it I am really finding I am not as productive and am switching back to good old gnome. I think ultimately its failure is the difficulty of seeing what apps are open and switching between them quickly.

spiffworks 16y ago

On the contrary, I find that Unity is much more keyboard friendly than Gnome. Multitasking with the keyboard is very easy, just hold super and press the relevant number. I find that it is much more conducive to multitasking once I got used to it. Give it a fair shake. It's different, and I had some initial revulsion, but once you get over it, it can be one of the most pleasant desktop experiences you've ever had.

freakwit 16y ago
On the contrary, Unity broke all my keyboard shortcuts. I gave it a fair shake (used it during the beta, tried not to mark it down for bugginess) and am back to classic. For my settings, multitasking with the keyboard is very easy - just press super and the relevant workspace number - just press super and the relevant character to launch a particular application
- spiffworks 16y ago
  Heh. Close to six months in Gnome and I never realised that those shortcuts existed. Apparently, I have severely underestimated the Gnome desktop for a long time.
  - windsurfer 16y ago
    Most people have...
irahul 16y ago
> Unity is much more keyboard friendly than Gnome. Multitasking with the keyboard is very easy, just hold super and press the relevant number. Do you touchtype? I find it extremely difficult to use super or arrow keys or any other keys which aren't touch type friendly. super + num is worse than using the mouse for me. alt+tab works better in my experience.

sciurus 16y ago

http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/unity-keyboard-mouse-shortcuts http://askubuntu.com/questions/28086/unity-keyboard-mouse-sh...

hristov 16y ago
First, using keys to switch between windows makes Unity harder not easier to use. Second, the keys are not a good replacement for the bar that has all the minimized windows. With the keys you do not know what is already, you have to remember numbers of applications, etc.

makmanalp 16y ago

Actually, unity has that feature where if you drag a window towards the side of the monitor, it'll tile to one half instead of the full monitor. What really bugs me is the dumb launch menu. I think it's pretty much the same idea as the one on macs. Who the hell decided that it was a good idea to group applications together? Why is everyone (win7 also) following suit? It's dumb to extrapolate that just because two windows are from the same application that I'm using them for the same task and want them grouped together. It's also dumb that when I give one look at the bar I can't immediately tell what is open. I have to consciously scan all the way down. Finally, I hate the additional click it brings when I have to pick between two windows of the same app. Does anyone really know how anyone decided on this? I'll stop complaining when they let me disable it.

hasenj 16y ago
This is the first release. Consider it a glorified MVP. It's not that this is the greatest idea ever! It's more like, given the constraints and the available options, this option has enough goodness to out-weigh the badness. The grouping of multiple windows from the same application together is the only major problem I find with this setup, and even then it's not so major. It can probably be solved by providing a keyboard-shortcut to cycle current application windows. Overall I like the launcher very much. In fact, it's my dream dock-clone: vertical, and integrated with the panel and window manager, and makes the windows-style task-list obsolete.
- warfangle 16y ago
  My only complaint about the launcher is it takes a variable amount of time to expand. I haven't nailed down what causes it, but sometimes it pops open right away - and sometimes it takes a couple seconds. It's also nearly impossible to right-click on an item - the panel disappears right before I'm able to click. I partially blame that on the shitty trackpad on my Cr48, though.
AlisdairO 16y ago
When I first started using macs, I hated the group-by-application idea too, but I've come to prefer it. Combined with application-specific expose, I find it scales so much better for when I have over 10 windows open on a non-huge screen - which I do most of the time. When I go back to a WM with a list of lots of windows open, I find myself hunting and pecking amongst all these tiny, almost indistinguishable icons, and it feels like it takes forever. edit: What I'd quite like is another expose mode which shows, say, the last 6 windows you've worked on. While I often have a lot of stuff i want to keep open, I often have a relatively smaller immediate working set.