14 ms·

Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

74 points by BryanLunduke 14y ago

stock_toaster 14y ago
> The short version: Ubuntu 12.04 is the best release they’ve ever had and > absolutely blows the upcoming releases of Windows and MacOS X out of the > water in just about every way that matters. The second half of that statement may be a touch hyperbolic.
- feiern 14y ago
  It really seems to be a great release, but that second half clearly shows that kool aid comes in different flavors, not just apples :D
- demetris 14y ago
  It says more about the quality of the review than about the relative merits of the 3 systems. These things are simple: If Ubuntu were so much better, or just plain better, than other operating systems, more people would use it. Firefox is, and has been for a long time, much better than IE, and so people use it. OpenOffice/LibreOffice is not better than Microsoft Office, and so people don’t prefer it over Microsoft Office. Ubuntu is not better than Windows or OS X, and so very few people prefer it.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    > plain better, than other operating systems, more people would use it. Desktop Linux is not for everyone. It all depends on what you use your computer for - if you write software for Mac or Windows or if you rely on perfect Office compatibility, it's most definitely not for you. If you run heavy software that has no Linux counterpart, it's obviously not for you. If you develop software that'll run on Linux, it's a really good choice. If you browse the web for everything, it's a great choice.
  - bho 14y ago
    The cost of switching is a high barrier for many people. Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need. Changing from your browser -> Firefox = most websites will still work, no additional effort on anyone. Changing from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice forces you to ensure all the documents open correctly and others can open yours correctly. It's not always so black and white.
    - batista 14y ago
      >Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need. Yes, but that goes both ways. If Ubuntu lacks equivalents for all of the software you need, you cannot say that it's "better than the other OSs", i.e. software availability is a very important metric of "better" in an OS, even more important than the network stack being 5% faster, or the filesystem supporting more esoteric features etc. So, it would be like saying "Ubuntu is better than OS X/Win if we exclude things that also matter a lot".
    - chrisveto 14y ago
      I agree with batista, if OS has no quality software .. then why on earth would I use that OS? Also, til Ubuntu can't support .PSD files with GIMP natively, I will never .. ever use it. And no, I do not want to use Wine emulator or whatever the hell you gotta do to get stuff working under Ubuntu.
      - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
        > I do not want to use Wine emulator or whatever the hell you gotta do to get stuff working under Ubuntu Why don't you want to use it? Using Wine is as simple as double-clicking a Windows EXE and letting it install or run. It's no more difficult than using software on Windows (usually) And sorry to nitpick, but WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator", because it isn't :)
        ced 14y ago
        I'm a long-time Ubuntu user, and I use Wine only when I absolutely have to, because it most definitely does not "just work". Case in point, GP was talking about Photoshop. This is from Wine's page for CS3: First off: don't expect this to work well. Wine does not yet support Photoshop CS3. Only read these instructions if you feel like fiddling around, not if you expect to get a working Photoshop. The other versions look in better shape, but still. I am eternally grateful to the Humble Bundle folks for insisting on Linux support.
  - cturner 14y ago
    Firefox is an interesting example, because on little things it behaves differently in windows to linux. For example - double click the address bar in Windows - highlights a token. Do it in linux, highlights the whole link.
    - dhughes 14y ago
      That inconsistency bugs me. I believe on OS X it does the same thing as Windows.
    - ditoa 14y ago
      Yeah Fx is annoying with its inconsistent defaults between platforms. The one you mention is because browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll is set to true on Windows but False on Linux. Why I have no idea!
      - onli 14y ago
        I can't know for sure that it is intended because of this, but it is a good default for linux because of the way copy & paste works. Not to select the whole link enables you to copy something by selecting it, change the url, go to that page and insert the prior copied text with the middle mouse button. The windows-setting is wrong in that context, disabling that workflow, even though it's inconsistent between platforms. Sometimes that's a good thing.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - bigphishy 14y ago
    Firefox has also been out a long time. When FF was in beta versions it was already a better browser than IE, but nearly no one knew of it, therefore FF had a small number of users. As awareness of FF grew, so did its popularity. It is silly to judge the quality of a product or service by the number of people that use it.
  - frodowiz 14y ago
    sure and the fact microsoft ties you into a lifelong comittment with licenses(break one and you still owe money) has nothing to do with it. dude, ive been hearing bunk like this for years and in the meantime linux is growing like weeds. you need to be glad no real way of measuring linux growth numbers exists. it would be very painful im sure. ms is dying and must find another venue soon. in the mean time, let me know when you are ready to be free, ill direct you to ubuntu's website.
- cobychapple 14y ago
  When I read this article, I was open to hearing how this could be the case, but then I read: "Working with Ubuntu 12.04 is quite simple and elegant… until you want to sit down and see what applications are available on your system." Which sounds like it really doesn't blow anything out of the water. Then I also read: "click the “Ubuntu” button in the top left, then click the little white icon on the bottom center that is, I assume, representative of “a comb, a pencil and a building with pacman on it”. Then you expand the “Installed” section by clicking on the left/center of the screen. Then you click on “Filter Results” in the top right." WAT? That's the complete opposite of a well-thought-out experience for the user. So why is it that this GUI environment is superior again?
  - bostonvaulter2 14y ago
    Yeah, it is really weird for him to open a positive review with that.
  - SkyMarshal 14y ago
    He's not the best writer. The point he meant to get across is that that's a nitpick, not a huge problem, but he spends several paragraphs explaining the problem and only a few sentences explaining that it's just a minor nitpick and overall the experience is good. Totally out of proportion, leading readers to weight the bad more than he intended. Key phrases: > In short: It’s fast. Stable. And generally a pleasure to use. > In fact, this is my only big gripe with the Unity interface. And it’s not a big one. I’m nit-picking here.
  - viraptor 14y ago
    Criticism takes more space and attention than good things. When you like something, you just do. Maybe there are a couple of things that you really really like and you can write about them. On the other hand things that don't work as you expect have some story to it - why don't you like them, what else did you expect, who does it properly, how is it affecting your workflow, how much you dislike that problem. I expect things like that to affect most reviews...
pan69 14y ago
I've tried the beta of 12.04 the past few weeks. Unity is still a pile of ----. Gnome Shell (3) isn't much better and fall back mode (Gnome Classic) is riddled with bugs that basically makes it unusable as a desktop to work on. The Linux desktop has finally officially failed.
- waterhouse 14y ago
  As an effort to make this conversation productive for all involved: could you name a couple of these bugs in Gnome Classic?
  - SkyMarshal 14y ago
    Don't feed the trolls, just downvote and move on. If it was his intent to make the conversation productive, he would have. It's not hard.
  - downx3 14y ago
    I'm running Gnome Classic as I don't fancy Gnome Shell at the moment. And it's nearly there for me. My quit applet hangs my machine, my cpu applet has redraw issues. And nautilus and gedit are giving me some agro, but that's going off topic. It's taken me a week to theme the thing (Gnome 2 at least had a helper app - where I could make my own changes - though it was still problematic - I run a dark theme.) My keyboard switching applet sometimes doesn't respond to clicking. And I'm lost when it comes to audio configuration. I think that's where the pain lies, when you run into a wall it hurts. I guess these are teething issues. I'd like to know what GTK3 does bring to the table? I get video flicker in games under Gnome Shell, and I've had flickering issues with video under Unity (11.10) on an Intel GM45 and Nvidia 6200 respectively. I crashed Unity in about an hour and made my desktop inaccessible the last time I used it. Unity 2D wasn't that bad, but some elements of the UI didn't gel well together at all - dialog boxes that are out of place etc. The sad thing for me, is that I remember seeing Compiz for the first time. And there were elements and plugins that I really liked about it, and it felt like the desktop was moving forward. I was hoping that Gnome Shell would take the best bits of Compiz - but really get to the point where it would manage my desktop for me . But I can't say it brings me anything. The negativity is just a case of sour grapes. We'd prefer to see the free desktops outdoing their commercial cousins. OSX10.4 Tiger is a pretty good benchmark to beat. And that's a 2007 OS. It would be nice to see a Desktop OS competing with Android, W8 and the iPhone though.
jiri 14y ago
I've also tried beta 12.04, seems ok, but article is a really bit hyperbolic. IMO this ubuntu has similar progress from previous version as other versions in the past. Big surprise for me: I've upgraded 4 years old laptop with new SSD disk and 12.04beta and its really lightning fast compared to windows 7 (altough I have to switch to Unity 2D because of too hot gpu). It really feels like new machine.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  How long do you have to wait for the Dash to appear when you tap the Super button or click the Ubuntu icon? Unity has dynamic search &c and I find it takes a little time to build the Dash home lens. Because the Gnome Shell 'Activities' overlay is not building a dynamic list, it seems to appear almost instantly.
  - jiri 14y ago
    Yes, this is not instantenous, but ok fast, few hundreds of ms for me. Also using Unity 2D instead of std Unity bothers me a bit. Anyway I am really suprised by overall performance, apps start very fast and laptop has 4 sec suspend/3 sec wake up. (altough it often takes additional timea for wifi to reconnect again).
    - keithpeter 14y ago
      Thanks, I'll take that as something like a fifth to a quarter of a second! I'm seeing nearer half a second, which is above my annoyance threshold. The Dash home lens is actually providing a lot of context by listing the recently used apps/modified files/and even the played music. I sometimes wonder how many people use that context! The times for the app loading and suspend/resume is down to your hardware which is obviously fast with the ssd.
    - downx3 14y ago
      I find network-manager takes more time than anything else getting a foot hold onto my wireless network. Other than that Debian Wheezy, with Gnome Classic is pretty good for me on an ancient SATA 1.0 spinner.
Joeboy 14y ago
As a non-Unity user I honestly don't think I've noticed any difference whatsoever since upgrading to 12.04. Which is mostly a good thing - it was fine before and it's fine now.
- argarg 14y ago
  If you're running it on a laptop I believe there's been a lot of work in the latest kernel in ubuntu 12.04 to help with the power management and battery life.
jamesu 14y ago
When i tried out the 12.04 beta on my HP Microserver, installation went smoothly. However when booting up the installed system, all i'd get is a blank screen. Turns out for some odd reason it doesn't set the textmode display correctly, so you need to add a cryptic line to the boot options to see anything. Upon doing this, i found it was throwing a fit at a degraded raid array on a disk i happened to have plugged in at the time, and so wouldn't continue booting until i entered the emergency console and typed exit. Certainly not the distro i'm looking for.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  You regularly boot with degraded RAID arrays plugged in? I'd want my system to drop everything on possibility of data loss - would seem to make sense.
  - jamesu 14y ago
    In this case i was using the machine as network storage, with the RAID1 array being part of a backup. The main system was on a separate disk, so the RAID was in no way required for booting up. In fact, i never explicitly set it up during installation. Not only could i not see what was going on, i couldn't even access the machine from the network. All for no good reason.
dlsym 14y ago
Unity and gnome-shell might be OK on a netbook. Or a notebook. Or maybe on a single monitor desktop. For a triplehead setup this concept is just not bearable. I think this really bad design-decision goes back to the days when there was this "Linux the great netbook / eee-PC OS hype". The good thing is: Nobody is forced to use this . There is Mate (http://mate-desktop.org/ http://mate-desktop.org/), or KDE, or XFCE, or ... The only thing that I find a bit pity, is that so many resources are spent on Gnome3 and Unity :-/
- rbanffy 14y ago
  20+ people on my team are using Unity on dual-head setups and it works very well. There was some pain in the transition from Gnome 2 to Unity, but, in general, people are happy and productive. Most have split their desktops into 9 spaces and run all apps full-screen, usually with a terminal on the notebook screen and something else (Eclipse, Emacs) on the larger LCD.
  - BenoitEssiambre 14y ago
    How is the multiple spaces experience? This is my biggest fear. If this isn't very streamlined my productivity is going to go down. It is my biggest gripe with OSX that the "Spaces" functionality requires multiple clicks with lengthy animations in between to navigate the spaces. I could setup keyboard shortcuts but, damn it, a one click panel or dock widget is what I am used to and what I like. This has been included in unix type IDEs since the early 1990s (except Apple who managed to break it) the lack of it is a deal breaker for me. Do we get one in unity.
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      Multiple desktops work as expected under Unity - you move between them and both heads follow. It's a very easy way to organize your stuff when you are a spatial thinker. This makes it natural to keep working contexts on separate spaces (editor + terminal, editor + browser, browser + terminal, email + IRC + IM) and easily switch between. On the Mac, I like the Lion way to deal with it, despite it being unidimensional. The only thing is that you'll need to get rid of the mouse and buy a trackpad (assuming you are on a desktop or with the notebook docked). I find it confusing when both heads move independently between their own spaces.
keithpeter 14y ago
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8403291/1204-poster-4.pdf http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8403291/1204-poster-4.pdf I did this poster aimed at end users going from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04, just in case it helps anyone who is supporting end users. The best way to explore Unity is to click around of course.
- SpaceDragon 14y ago
  Beautiful Keith. This should help me transition back to Ubuntu. Thanks!
keithpeter 14y ago
Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? Examples of reviews that changed the way you think about the GUI would be very welcome. We are going to get a rash of articles like this one, which make some valid points, but do not really compare Unity in its 12.04 guise with any kind of model of interaction or external standard. It would be nice to try to produce something better. Canonical design have done a lot of testing and have documented some of their work. I think they deserve a critical essay rather than the kool-aid type response, or the instant dismissal that seems quite common.
- batista 14y ago
  >Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? I would suggest you check out John Siracussa's reviews for OS X releases on Ars Technica.
  - simonw 14y ago
    Absolutely. I'd love to see a Siracussa-style review of the new Ubuntu release.
    - keithpeter 14y ago
      Challenge: can anyone out there do the bits about the change in the libraries, the indicators, the way Unity ties in with Gnome 3 (remember Gnome Shell and Unity are both Gnome 3 shells)? I'll risk the slings and arrows and have a go at the surface/UI bit. That'll be next weekend. I'm no Siracussa but everyone has to start somewhere. PS: 12.04.1 is when you install on a production machine, that's around June
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    The 10.6 review seems Comprehensive and quite technical. Thanks.
- pasbesoin 14y ago
  If you have a Windows machine or image handy, take a look at the Ditto clipboard manager. The way the clipboard should be done -- or closer to it. (BTW, it's free/donation-ware, last I checked. And it has the rather occasional hiccup, but the idea is solid and the hiccups don't lose data, e.g. sometimes the window repositions or it misses a keystroke momentarily while it is loading a large dataset.) Yes, this is just one small part of the picture. But that's a primary way in which things get done: Someone focuses on one part and "fixes" it really well. Other people eventually add up these fixes and integrate them. There are also "grand visions" and "productive discovery", but that level of ability seems to be somewhat less common and not always observed/adopted, no matter how deserving. From my experience, being able to use the clipboard as an indexed data store, or "memory", is very convenient. Control-C, and I know the item will be a 1 - 3 second search away, for the next few weeks.
swah 14y ago
My yearly "lets see if Ubuntu is good enough now" a few days ago: installed the beta, froze when I connected the external monitor. Then the same happened with 11. And with Xubuntu. And I went back to Windows 7.
- scribu 14y ago
  That's not really fair. Why not wait for the final release before trying it out?
- sharms 14y ago
  Let me offset that with a different view: I have bought 4[1] different laptops over the past month, running Ubuntu 12.04 on them. One of my key tests was plugging in my external HDMI monitor, in which it worked for all of them. In all seriousness, if this is happening to you send me a private message and we can look over your specs and dig into what could be causing it. [1] HP Envy 15 3033, Acer S3, Asus TimelineX, Macbook Pro
  - SkyMarshal 14y ago
    How is Ubuntu on Macbook Pro? I'll be in the market for a new laptop soon, and MBP is a consideration, but I'd like to dual boot Ubuntu (using Basecamp?). Seems there was some issue with BIOS and bootstrapping, is that solved now?
    - moonhead 14y ago
      i'm dual booting 12.04 and lion on my late 2011 macbook air. very simple. install refit in OSX. you may have to reboot several times or do a complete shutdown before the refit bootloader will show up. then it will be a very familiar install from there. you can use the mac disk utility to partition your drive beforehand. i haven't tried bootcamp, so i can't comment about that.
cobychapple 14y ago
The author says that doing something simple: "takes several clicks on parts of the screen that are nowhere near each other and are not immediately obvious the first time you see them". ... and that this process requires the user to: "click the “Ubuntu” button in the top left, then click the little white icon on the bottom center that is, I assume, representative of “a comb, a pencil and a building with pacman on it”. Then you expand the “Installed” section by clicking on the left/center of the screen. Then you click on “Filter Results” in the top right." Doesn't like like a great thing to use at all to me.
- bostonvaulter2 14y ago
  You need to read further. The next sentence says: "Remember when I said “quick and easy”? I lied."
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  > In fact, this is my only big gripe with the Unity interface. And it’s not a big one. I’m nit-picking here. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3875361 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3875361
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
pooriaazimi 14y ago
What's with Ubuntu's versioning? 8.04, 8.04.4, 10.04, 10.04.4, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04? I don't understand it. Anyone knows? http://releases.ubuntu.com/ http://releases.ubuntu.com/
- dmit 14y ago
  <year>.<month>
- glesica 14y ago
  .04 gets released in April (4th month) and .10 gets released in October (10th month) * is then the last two digits of the year of release So the version lets you know the year and month of release. Edit: Ubuntu is on a 6 month regular release cycle, which is why they are all .04 and .10.
- pimeys 14y ago
  The first number is the release year (8 == 2008) and the second is the release month (04 == April, 10 == October). I really don't know what the third number stands for. At least they're not using it anymore.
  - ward 14y ago
    For the LTS versions, there are "service packs" of sorts. Indicated by the last number. eg later this year you will see 12.04.1
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  Also, the x.04 versions are LTS releases, every two years. 10.04 and 12.04 are both LTS. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS
knewter 14y ago
Multi-monitor support in 12.04/gnome3 is unbelievably good. There are tons of horror stories, that I've lived and that I've read, regarding multi-monitor breaking jut when it's most needed (presentation at conferences, etc). This has happened to me in the past. Now, my system keeps track of my preferences per-configuration, so plugging in the monitor that I mirror display on automatically does mirroring, and plugging in the monitor I use as a secondary monitor automatically does that. Also, just plug and go for multi-monitor. It's fantastically better than ever before. Anyone else noticed this?
- tumblen 14y ago
  This is great news, thanks for mentioning it!
- downx3 14y ago
  Is that Ubuntu specific? I'm running Debian Wheezy with an Intel GM45, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that hot plugging of my monitor worked. I'd read in the past, that that was Intel specific. Either way it's very welcome. I'd imagined I'd be stuck with Windows because of poor multi-monitor support - on my laptop. Multiple monitors need a good window manager. I sacked off my second monitor out of frustration in the past, I wanted shortcuts to move apps to the other screen, the ability to turn off one screen when not needed - I inevitably had to turn it back on, when I'd loose a window or dialogue somewhere. Full screen apps chose the wrong monitor, some windows sat between monitors etc. It was just a bind, and a distraction in the end. Virtual desktops were a better fit for me because of the inadequacies.
adamtaylor 14y ago
Anyone who recommends Wine as a solution for running all your Windows applications loses a lot of credibility with me. In my experience, Wine just doesn't work all that well---certainly not well enough for doing real work. Obviously some applications work better than others, but every time I've tried Wine, at least one of the applications I use a lot has had serious problems. In my opinion, VirtualBox is a much, much better way to run Windows application on Linux.
adamtaylor 14y ago
The current obsession with tablets is maddening. Tablets are great for many things, but I still spend much of my life sitting at a workstation: a computer with a keyboard, a mouse, and (lucky me) a big-ass monitor. So, for me, it's just sad that everyone is now rushing to optimize their OSes for tablets, often at the expense of usabilty in a workstation-like configuration.
- j_baker 14y ago
  Indeed. I think the thought going through most of these peoples' heads is "Workstations are going away. Everyone's switching to tablets. I'd better make my OS work on tablets, or else it will go away eventually too."
- tbatterii 14y ago
  my thoughts exactly. Lucky for linux/ubuntu users, there's lots of choices for your desktop environment.
- downx3 14y ago
  I think that there is middle ground to be had, with some sensible defaults, and sensible configuration options. Make it good for the mouse, good for touch and good for keyboard! And let me mix it up a bit. And good for small and large screens alike. The last time I tried Ubuntu, probably 11.10 - I could not use it without a mouse, just because of some wretched dialogues that I couldn't get keyboard focus on!
zackattack 14y ago
Can I put it on my iPad?
SkyMarshal 14y ago
I just upgraded 11.10 to 12.04 final beta yesterday, and so far I can confirm what he says about performance and stability - 11.10 was ok, but 12.04 is noticeably better. Two problems 12.04 solved: 1. On 11.10 I was getting frequent kernel panics when watching flash in a browser (Youtube in Chrome, Chromium, Firefox), and when watching video in Movie Player. That's all gone. 2. In 11.10, Ubuntu Software Center was sluggish as hell, so much so that I never used it. It's much faster now, just a smidge away from being downright snappy, and hence useable finally. I like how the upgrade (via sudo do-release-upgrade -d) resulted in what seems to be a really clean installation, and that I didn't have to do a fresh install to get that (still scarred from my Windows days). I hear battery life is improved as well but haven't tested that yet. Hope that's true. This is on an hp dm1-4050us, Intel i3-2367, HD3000, 8GB RAM, 5400rpm hdd.
mariuolo 14y ago
Pass the crackpipe. Unity is horrible and complicates every single operation. I think it will be the end of Ubuntu.

74 points by BryanLunduke 14y ago

> The short version: Ubuntu 12.04 is the best release they’ve ever had and > absolutely blows the upcoming releases of Windows and MacOS X out of the > water in just about every way that matters. The second half of that statement may be a touch hyperbolic.

feiern 14y ago
It really seems to be a great release, but that second half clearly shows that kool aid comes in different flavors, not just apples :D
demetris 14y ago
It says more about the quality of the review than about the relative merits of the 3 systems. These things are simple: If Ubuntu were so much better, or just plain better, than other operating systems, more people would use it. Firefox is, and has been for a long time, much better than IE, and so people use it. OpenOffice/LibreOffice is not better than Microsoft Office, and so people don’t prefer it over Microsoft Office. Ubuntu is not better than Windows or OS X, and so very few people prefer it.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  > plain better, than other operating systems, more people would use it. Desktop Linux is not for everyone. It all depends on what you use your computer for - if you write software for Mac or Windows or if you rely on perfect Office compatibility, it's most definitely not for you. If you run heavy software that has no Linux counterpart, it's obviously not for you. If you develop software that'll run on Linux, it's a really good choice. If you browse the web for everything, it's a great choice.
- bho 14y ago
  The cost of switching is a high barrier for many people. Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need. Changing from your browser -> Firefox = most websites will still work, no additional effort on anyone. Changing from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice forces you to ensure all the documents open correctly and others can open yours correctly. It's not always so black and white.
  - batista 14y ago
    >Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need. Yes, but that goes both ways. If Ubuntu lacks equivalents for all of the software you need, you cannot say that it's "better than the other OSs", i.e. software availability is a very important metric of "better" in an OS, even more important than the network stack being 5% faster, or the filesystem supporting more esoteric features etc. So, it would be like saying "Ubuntu is better than OS X/Win if we exclude things that also matter a lot".
  - chrisveto 14y ago
    I agree with batista, if OS has no quality software .. then why on earth would I use that OS? Also, til Ubuntu can't support .PSD files with GIMP natively, I will never .. ever use it. And no, I do not want to use Wine emulator or whatever the hell you gotta do to get stuff working under Ubuntu.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
      > I do not want to use Wine emulator or whatever the hell you gotta do to get stuff working under Ubuntu Why don't you want to use it? Using Wine is as simple as double-clicking a Windows EXE and letting it install or run. It's no more difficult than using software on Windows (usually) And sorry to nitpick, but WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator", because it isn't :)
      - ced 14y ago
        I'm a long-time Ubuntu user, and I use Wine only when I absolutely have to, because it most definitely does not "just work". Case in point, GP was talking about Photoshop. This is from Wine's page for CS3: First off: don't expect this to work well. Wine does not yet support Photoshop CS3. Only read these instructions if you feel like fiddling around, not if you expect to get a working Photoshop. The other versions look in better shape, but still. I am eternally grateful to the Humble Bundle folks for insisting on Linux support.
- cturner 14y ago
  Firefox is an interesting example, because on little things it behaves differently in windows to linux. For example - double click the address bar in Windows - highlights a token. Do it in linux, highlights the whole link.
  - dhughes 14y ago
    That inconsistency bugs me. I believe on OS X it does the same thing as Windows.
  - ditoa 14y ago
    Yeah Fx is annoying with its inconsistent defaults between platforms. The one you mention is because browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll is set to true on Windows but False on Linux. Why I have no idea!
    - onli 14y ago
      I can't know for sure that it is intended because of this, but it is a good default for linux because of the way copy & paste works. Not to select the whole link enables you to copy something by selecting it, change the url, go to that page and insert the prior copied text with the middle mouse button. The windows-setting is wrong in that context, disabling that workflow, even though it's inconsistent between platforms. Sometimes that's a good thing.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- bigphishy 14y ago
  Firefox has also been out a long time. When FF was in beta versions it was already a better browser than IE, but nearly no one knew of it, therefore FF had a small number of users. As awareness of FF grew, so did its popularity. It is silly to judge the quality of a product or service by the number of people that use it.
- frodowiz 14y ago
  sure and the fact microsoft ties you into a lifelong comittment with licenses(break one and you still owe money) has nothing to do with it. dude, ive been hearing bunk like this for years and in the meantime linux is growing like weeds. you need to be glad no real way of measuring linux growth numbers exists. it would be very painful im sure. ms is dying and must find another venue soon. in the mean time, let me know when you are ready to be free, ill direct you to ubuntu's website.
cobychapple 14y ago
When I read this article, I was open to hearing how this could be the case, but then I read: "Working with Ubuntu 12.04 is quite simple and elegant… until you want to sit down and see what applications are available on your system." Which sounds like it really doesn't blow anything out of the water. Then I also read: "click the “Ubuntu” button in the top left, then click the little white icon on the bottom center that is, I assume, representative of “a comb, a pencil and a building with pacman on it”. Then you expand the “Installed” section by clicking on the left/center of the screen. Then you click on “Filter Results” in the top right." WAT? That's the complete opposite of a well-thought-out experience for the user. So why is it that this GUI environment is superior again?
- bostonvaulter2 14y ago
  Yeah, it is really weird for him to open a positive review with that.
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  He's not the best writer. The point he meant to get across is that that's a nitpick, not a huge problem, but he spends several paragraphs explaining the problem and only a few sentences explaining that it's just a minor nitpick and overall the experience is good. Totally out of proportion, leading readers to weight the bad more than he intended. Key phrases: > In short: It’s fast. Stable. And generally a pleasure to use. > In fact, this is my only big gripe with the Unity interface. And it’s not a big one. I’m nit-picking here.
- viraptor 14y ago
  Criticism takes more space and attention than good things. When you like something, you just do. Maybe there are a couple of things that you really really like and you can write about them. On the other hand things that don't work as you expect have some story to it - why don't you like them, what else did you expect, who does it properly, how is it affecting your workflow, how much you dislike that problem. I expect things like that to affect most reviews...

pan69 14y ago

I've tried the beta of 12.04 the past few weeks. Unity is still a pile of ----. Gnome Shell (3) isn't much better and fall back mode (Gnome Classic) is riddled with bugs that basically makes it unusable as a desktop to work on. The Linux desktop has finally officially failed.

waterhouse 14y ago
As an effort to make this conversation productive for all involved: could you name a couple of these bugs in Gnome Classic?
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  Don't feed the trolls, just downvote and move on. If it was his intent to make the conversation productive, he would have. It's not hard.
- downx3 14y ago
  I'm running Gnome Classic as I don't fancy Gnome Shell at the moment. And it's nearly there for me. My quit applet hangs my machine, my cpu applet has redraw issues. And nautilus and gedit are giving me some agro, but that's going off topic. It's taken me a week to theme the thing (Gnome 2 at least had a helper app - where I could make my own changes - though it was still problematic - I run a dark theme.) My keyboard switching applet sometimes doesn't respond to clicking. And I'm lost when it comes to audio configuration. I think that's where the pain lies, when you run into a wall it hurts. I guess these are teething issues. I'd like to know what GTK3 does bring to the table? I get video flicker in games under Gnome Shell, and I've had flickering issues with video under Unity (11.10) on an Intel GM45 and Nvidia 6200 respectively. I crashed Unity in about an hour and made my desktop inaccessible the last time I used it. Unity 2D wasn't that bad, but some elements of the UI didn't gel well together at all - dialog boxes that are out of place etc. The sad thing for me, is that I remember seeing Compiz for the first time. And there were elements and plugins that I really liked about it, and it felt like the desktop was moving forward. I was hoping that Gnome Shell would take the best bits of Compiz - but really get to the point where it would manage my desktop for me . But I can't say it brings me anything. The negativity is just a case of sour grapes. We'd prefer to see the free desktops outdoing their commercial cousins. OSX10.4 Tiger is a pretty good benchmark to beat. And that's a 2007 OS. It would be nice to see a Desktop OS competing with Android, W8 and the iPhone though.

jiri 14y ago

I've also tried beta 12.04, seems ok, but article is a really bit hyperbolic. IMO this ubuntu has similar progress from previous version as other versions in the past. Big surprise for me: I've upgraded 4 years old laptop with new SSD disk and 12.04beta and its really lightning fast compared to windows 7 (altough I have to switch to Unity 2D because of too hot gpu). It really feels like new machine.

keithpeter 14y ago
How long do you have to wait for the Dash to appear when you tap the Super button or click the Ubuntu icon? Unity has dynamic search &c and I find it takes a little time to build the Dash home lens. Because the Gnome Shell 'Activities' overlay is not building a dynamic list, it seems to appear almost instantly.
- jiri 14y ago
  Yes, this is not instantenous, but ok fast, few hundreds of ms for me. Also using Unity 2D instead of std Unity bothers me a bit. Anyway I am really suprised by overall performance, apps start very fast and laptop has 4 sec suspend/3 sec wake up. (altough it often takes additional timea for wifi to reconnect again).
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    Thanks, I'll take that as something like a fifth to a quarter of a second! I'm seeing nearer half a second, which is above my annoyance threshold. The Dash home lens is actually providing a lot of context by listing the recently used apps/modified files/and even the played music. I sometimes wonder how many people use that context! The times for the app loading and suspend/resume is down to your hardware which is obviously fast with the ssd.
  - downx3 14y ago
    I find network-manager takes more time than anything else getting a foot hold onto my wireless network. Other than that Debian Wheezy, with Gnome Classic is pretty good for me on an ancient SATA 1.0 spinner.

Joeboy 14y ago

As a non-Unity user I honestly don't think I've noticed any difference whatsoever since upgrading to 12.04. Which is mostly a good thing - it was fine before and it's fine now.

argarg 14y ago
If you're running it on a laptop I believe there's been a lot of work in the latest kernel in ubuntu 12.04 to help with the power management and battery life.

jamesu 14y ago

When i tried out the 12.04 beta on my HP Microserver, installation went smoothly. However when booting up the installed system, all i'd get is a blank screen. Turns out for some odd reason it doesn't set the textmode display correctly, so you need to add a cryptic line to the boot options to see anything. Upon doing this, i found it was throwing a fit at a degraded raid array on a disk i happened to have plugged in at the time, and so wouldn't continue booting until i entered the emergency console and typed exit. Certainly not the distro i'm looking for.

Karunamon 14y ago
You regularly boot with degraded RAID arrays plugged in? I'd want my system to drop everything on possibility of data loss - would seem to make sense.
- jamesu 14y ago
  In this case i was using the machine as network storage, with the RAID1 array being part of a backup. The main system was on a separate disk, so the RAID was in no way required for booting up. In fact, i never explicitly set it up during installation. Not only could i not see what was going on, i couldn't even access the machine from the network. All for no good reason.

dlsym 14y ago

Unity and gnome-shell might be OK on a netbook. Or a notebook. Or maybe on a single monitor desktop. For a triplehead setup this concept is just not bearable. I think this really bad design-decision goes back to the days when there was this "Linux the great netbook / eee-PC OS hype". The good thing is: Nobody is forced to use this . There is Mate (http://mate-desktop.org/ http://mate-desktop.org/), or KDE, or XFCE, or ... The only thing that I find a bit pity, is that so many resources are spent on Gnome3 and Unity :-/

rbanffy 14y ago
20+ people on my team are using Unity on dual-head setups and it works very well. There was some pain in the transition from Gnome 2 to Unity, but, in general, people are happy and productive. Most have split their desktops into 9 spaces and run all apps full-screen, usually with a terminal on the notebook screen and something else (Eclipse, Emacs) on the larger LCD.
- BenoitEssiambre 14y ago
  How is the multiple spaces experience? This is my biggest fear. If this isn't very streamlined my productivity is going to go down. It is my biggest gripe with OSX that the "Spaces" functionality requires multiple clicks with lengthy animations in between to navigate the spaces. I could setup keyboard shortcuts but, damn it, a one click panel or dock widget is what I am used to and what I like. This has been included in unix type IDEs since the early 1990s (except Apple who managed to break it) the lack of it is a deal breaker for me. Do we get one in unity.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    Multiple desktops work as expected under Unity - you move between them and both heads follow. It's a very easy way to organize your stuff when you are a spatial thinker. This makes it natural to keep working contexts on separate spaces (editor + terminal, editor + browser, browser + terminal, email + IRC + IM) and easily switch between. On the Mac, I like the Lion way to deal with it, despite it being unidimensional. The only thing is that you'll need to get rid of the mouse and buy a trackpad (assuming you are on a desktop or with the notebook docked). I find it confusing when both heads move independently between their own spaces.

keithpeter 14y ago

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8403291/1204-poster-4.pdf http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8403291/1204-poster-4.pdf I did this poster aimed at end users going from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04, just in case it helps anyone who is supporting end users. The best way to explore Unity is to click around of course.

SpaceDragon 14y ago
Beautiful Keith. This should help me transition back to Ubuntu. Thanks!

keithpeter 14y ago

Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? Examples of reviews that changed the way you think about the GUI would be very welcome. We are going to get a rash of articles like this one, which make some valid points, but do not really compare Unity in its 12.04 guise with any kind of model of interaction or external standard. It would be nice to try to produce something better. Canonical design have done a lot of testing and have documented some of their work. I think they deserve a critical essay rather than the kool-aid type response, or the instant dismissal that seems quite common.

batista 14y ago
>Does anyone have examples of good quality criticism of GUIs? I would suggest you check out John Siracussa's reviews for OS X releases on Ars Technica.
- simonw 14y ago
  Absolutely. I'd love to see a Siracussa-style review of the new Ubuntu release.
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    Challenge: can anyone out there do the bits about the change in the libraries, the indicators, the way Unity ties in with Gnome 3 (remember Gnome Shell and Unity are both Gnome 3 shells)? I'll risk the slings and arrows and have a go at the surface/UI bit. That'll be next weekend. I'm no Siracussa but everyone has to start somewhere. PS: 12.04.1 is when you install on a production machine, that's around June
- keithpeter 14y ago
  The 10.6 review seems Comprehensive and quite technical. Thanks.
pasbesoin 14y ago
If you have a Windows machine or image handy, take a look at the Ditto clipboard manager. The way the clipboard should be done -- or closer to it. (BTW, it's free/donation-ware, last I checked. And it has the rather occasional hiccup, but the idea is solid and the hiccups don't lose data, e.g. sometimes the window repositions or it misses a keystroke momentarily while it is loading a large dataset.) Yes, this is just one small part of the picture. But that's a primary way in which things get done: Someone focuses on one part and "fixes" it really well. Other people eventually add up these fixes and integrate them. There are also "grand visions" and "productive discovery", but that level of ability seems to be somewhat less common and not always observed/adopted, no matter how deserving. From my experience, being able to use the clipboard as an indexed data store, or "memory", is very convenient. Control-C, and I know the item will be a 1 - 3 second search away, for the next few weeks.

swah 14y ago

My yearly "lets see if Ubuntu is good enough now" a few days ago: installed the beta, froze when I connected the external monitor. Then the same happened with 11. And with Xubuntu. And I went back to Windows 7.

scribu 14y ago
That's not really fair. Why not wait for the final release before trying it out?
sharms 14y ago
Let me offset that with a different view: I have bought 4[1] different laptops over the past month, running Ubuntu 12.04 on them. One of my key tests was plugging in my external HDMI monitor, in which it worked for all of them. In all seriousness, if this is happening to you send me a private message and we can look over your specs and dig into what could be causing it. [1] HP Envy 15 3033, Acer S3, Asus TimelineX, Macbook Pro
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  How is Ubuntu on Macbook Pro? I'll be in the market for a new laptop soon, and MBP is a consideration, but I'd like to dual boot Ubuntu (using Basecamp?). Seems there was some issue with BIOS and bootstrapping, is that solved now?
  - moonhead 14y ago
    i'm dual booting 12.04 and lion on my late 2011 macbook air. very simple. install refit in OSX. you may have to reboot several times or do a complete shutdown before the refit bootloader will show up. then it will be a very familiar install from there. you can use the mac disk utility to partition your drive beforehand. i haven't tried bootcamp, so i can't comment about that.

cobychapple 14y ago

The author says that doing something simple: "takes several clicks on parts of the screen that are nowhere near each other and are not immediately obvious the first time you see them". ... and that this process requires the user to: "click the “Ubuntu” button in the top left, then click the little white icon on the bottom center that is, I assume, representative of “a comb, a pencil and a building with pacman on it”. Then you expand the “Installed” section by clicking on the left/center of the screen. Then you click on “Filter Results” in the top right." Doesn't like like a great thing to use at all to me.

bostonvaulter2 14y ago
You need to read further. The next sentence says: "Remember when I said “quick and easy”? I lied."
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
SkyMarshal 14y ago
> In fact, this is my only big gripe with the Unity interface. And it’s not a big one. I’m nit-picking here. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3875361 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3875361
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

pooriaazimi 14y ago

What's with Ubuntu's versioning? 8.04, 8.04.4, 10.04, 10.04.4, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04? I don't understand it. Anyone knows? http://releases.ubuntu.com/ http://releases.ubuntu.com/

dmit 14y ago
<year>.<month>
glesica 14y ago
.04 gets released in April (4th month) and .10 gets released in October (10th month) * is then the last two digits of the year of release So the version lets you know the year and month of release. Edit: Ubuntu is on a 6 month regular release cycle, which is why they are all .04 and .10.
pimeys 14y ago
The first number is the release year (8 == 2008) and the second is the release month (04 == April, 10 == October). I really don't know what the third number stands for. At least they're not using it anymore.
- ward 14y ago
  For the LTS versions, there are "service packs" of sorts. Indicated by the last number. eg later this year you will see 12.04.1
SkyMarshal 14y ago
Also, the x.04 versions are LTS releases, every two years. 10.04 and 12.04 are both LTS. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS

knewter 14y ago

Multi-monitor support in 12.04/gnome3 is unbelievably good. There are tons of horror stories, that I've lived and that I've read, regarding multi-monitor breaking jut when it's most needed (presentation at conferences, etc). This has happened to me in the past. Now, my system keeps track of my preferences per-configuration, so plugging in the monitor that I mirror display on automatically does mirroring, and plugging in the monitor I use as a secondary monitor automatically does that. Also, just plug and go for multi-monitor. It's fantastically better than ever before. Anyone else noticed this?

tumblen 14y ago
This is great news, thanks for mentioning it!
downx3 14y ago
Is that Ubuntu specific? I'm running Debian Wheezy with an Intel GM45, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that hot plugging of my monitor worked. I'd read in the past, that that was Intel specific. Either way it's very welcome. I'd imagined I'd be stuck with Windows because of poor multi-monitor support - on my laptop. Multiple monitors need a good window manager. I sacked off my second monitor out of frustration in the past, I wanted shortcuts to move apps to the other screen, the ability to turn off one screen when not needed - I inevitably had to turn it back on, when I'd loose a window or dialogue somewhere. Full screen apps chose the wrong monitor, some windows sat between monitors etc. It was just a bind, and a distraction in the end. Virtual desktops were a better fit for me because of the inadequacies.

adamtaylor 14y ago

Anyone who recommends Wine as a solution for running all your Windows applications loses a lot of credibility with me. In my experience, Wine just doesn't work all that well---certainly not well enough for doing real work. Obviously some applications work better than others, but every time I've tried Wine, at least one of the applications I use a lot has had serious problems. In my opinion, VirtualBox is a much, much better way to run Windows application on Linux.

adamtaylor 14y ago

The current obsession with tablets is maddening. Tablets are great for many things, but I still spend much of my life sitting at a workstation: a computer with a keyboard, a mouse, and (lucky me) a big-ass monitor. So, for me, it's just sad that everyone is now rushing to optimize their OSes for tablets, often at the expense of usabilty in a workstation-like configuration.

j_baker 14y ago
Indeed. I think the thought going through most of these peoples' heads is "Workstations are going away. Everyone's switching to tablets. I'd better make my OS work on tablets, or else it will go away eventually too."
tbatterii 14y ago
my thoughts exactly. Lucky for linux/ubuntu users, there's lots of choices for your desktop environment.
downx3 14y ago
I think that there is middle ground to be had, with some sensible defaults, and sensible configuration options. Make it good for the mouse, good for touch and good for keyboard! And let me mix it up a bit. And good for small and large screens alike. The last time I tried Ubuntu, probably 11.10 - I could not use it without a mouse, just because of some wretched dialogues that I couldn't get keyboard focus on!

zackattack 14y ago

Can I put it on my iPad?

SkyMarshal 14y ago

I just upgraded 11.10 to 12.04 final beta yesterday, and so far I can confirm what he says about performance and stability - 11.10 was ok, but 12.04 is noticeably better. Two problems 12.04 solved: 1. On 11.10 I was getting frequent kernel panics when watching flash in a browser (Youtube in Chrome, Chromium, Firefox), and when watching video in Movie Player. That's all gone. 2. In 11.10, Ubuntu Software Center was sluggish as hell, so much so that I never used it. It's much faster now, just a smidge away from being downright snappy, and hence useable finally. I like how the upgrade (via sudo do-release-upgrade -d) resulted in what seems to be a really clean installation, and that I didn't have to do a fresh install to get that (still scarred from my Windows days). I hear battery life is improved as well but haven't tested that yet. Hope that's true. This is on an hp dm1-4050us, Intel i3-2367, HD3000, 8GB RAM, 5400rpm hdd.

mariuolo 14y ago

Pass the crackpipe. Unity is horrible and complicates every single operation. I think it will be the end of Ubuntu.