6 ms·

This is interesting, but not compelling. I want: 1) Better video drivers. 2) An option to Dual-boot with another OS. 3) To remove the painful Unity interfac

by neya 14y ago

This is interesting, but not compelling. I want: 1) Better video drivers. 2) An option to Dual-boot with another OS. 3) To remove the painful Unity interface. 4) More titles to play. And then I would buy this without a second thought. With just Ubuntu, with very little games with mediocre Graphic card drivers and a painful interface like unity (try hiding/unhiding/switching between hidden windows for example) it's hard to convince myself to buy this..

Gabler 14y ago
I can see the value to your other points, but which desktop environment would you suggest over Unity? I always thought it was a pretty good fit for these type of things but my experience with other Linux desktop environments is pretty limited.
dbbolton 14y ago
1. I actually get comparable performance with the proprietary Nvidia driver in Windows and Linux. All of these systems seem to have Nvidia chipsets. If you can't even choose your driver (at the least with jockey), I wouldn't consider buying this. 2. What would stop you from installing your own OS pair? I'd think you could do it at the very least through a network boot, and probably USB. 3. As with 3, what would stop you? Even if you're stuck with Ubuntu, changing Xsessions shouldn't be a problem. The only way this should happen to be a problem is if there is no access to a shell with root privileges. And if it that's the case, almost no serious Linux user would consider buying such an un-free system. 4. With Steam an Humble now supporting Linux, there are quite a few more choices than there were just a couple of years ago, and I'm sure we'll see more in the years to come.
jiggy2011 14y ago
Unity is probably the most intuitive system for somebody switching from Win7. What else would you install by default? Gnome2/MATE/Xfce are showing their age. Gnome3 is even stranger. The only other plausible choice would be KDE. Unity is actually pretty good as an entertainment oriented interface. The ability to search games, apps, music and movies all from the main menu is very nice.
- kostya-kow 14y ago
  >The only other plausible choice would be KDE. Not the only one. There is also Cinnamon. And hopefully, Enlightenment will soon be stable enough, and even included in a popular distro.
- KerrickStaley 14y ago
  Gnome 3 is awesome; what are you talking about?
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    I'm not saying it isn't, but first time I booted it up it took me a good 20 mins to figure out how basic things worked and I'm used to using weird Linux DEs. I don't think it would leave a great first impression on your average ADHD alienware target customer.
    - KerrickStaley 14y ago
      You do need to learn a few keyboard shortcuts before you can work effectively with Gnome 3. I think these ones get you 80% of the way there, though (and they work the same as they do on Windows): 1. WinKey and type a name to open programs 2. WinKey + arrows to snap windows 3. Alt+Tab to switch between open windows
      - jiggy2011 14y ago
        I think having to know any keyboard shortcuts to do basic operations is a huge lose for an entertainment computer.
        TheLegace 14y ago
        It's really a shame, because it really takes almost no time to learn. And basically the point is that the desktop disappears and the only thing left is your work. Edit: Or entertainment ;). Point is application is whats important.
kayoone 14y ago
As this device is aimed at the living room, i think Unity makes alot more sense than on the normal desktop. Video drivers have improved recently and Dual-booting is probably easy todo as its just a PC in a nice looking HTPC enclosure. 25 titles arent many but then again my Xbox360 had like 5 games available when it was released.
rdtsc 14y ago
> 3) To remove the painful Unity interface. I find it quite pleasant. What is it that bothers you about Unity?
- notatoad 14y ago
  Lack of support for unix beards.
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    Such people (if they really exist) will be able to change the UI to match their workflow. I managed it and I'm just an end user. dwm/dmenu or similar, or xmonad for the adventurous. Sysadmin people might prefer icewm as it is tiny and can tile 12 terminal windows easily! Ubuntu with default Unity is aiming at a wide market here. Having i7 small form factor PCs available with hardware chosen to run a GNU/Linux is good!
- sigkill 14y ago
  I'm too used to the 'one icon per window' paradigm which is why even on windows I do not combine icons. To open a program that has multiple windows on unity, one needs to click the relevant icon, and then select the window you want, which is two mouse clicks (well, one mouse click, mouse move, then click again) as compared to a single mouse click. And I somehow prefer a horizontal longer taskbar as compared to a vertical one even though a horizontal taskbar would rob be of vertical space.
  - s_baby 14y ago
    You're using Unity wrong. Super+w will display all open windows to you.
    - sigkill 14y ago
      Okay. But as a newbie, I still think I shouldn't need to Win+W then click on the window I need when the previous option was just clicking on the relevant icon in the taskbar directly. This is backward UI (just like the Android Jellybean which takes two taps to select an app to run just once).
primitur 14y ago
You can remove the painful Unity interface with great ease, once you have the machine in front of you. There is no requirement to use Unity as an interface shell by anyone other than Canonical. If you don't like it, switch to another interface when you log in; its that simple. As for 'very little games', I have to say this: LOL! Linux has thousands and thousands of games, and this continues to grow day by day. Steam may not have everything (yet), but its only a matter of time before the floodgates open: on the other side of that "new thing called Steam on Liux" lays a massive horizon of gaming on Linux that is unrecognized, unseen, but will soon be utilized once the pipe is in place. Linux has thousands of great games ready for the consumers; the veil of the 'mainstream groupthink' is just preventing a lot of smart people from seeing this fact, but I would wager that Steam and Alienware are indicators that in fact, some very smart people are entirely aware of the potential of whats to come once these lines of communication are open. So this is nothing but positive. Even if you don't want to be an early-adopter for this line of communication, its the line of communication which has been deficient; not the lack of content. The content (Games for Linux) is well and truly out there, it is ripe for harvesting, and this is the beginning of that effort ..

by neya 14y ago

Gabler 14y ago

I can see the value to your other points, but which desktop environment would you suggest over Unity? I always thought it was a pretty good fit for these type of things but my experience with other Linux desktop environments is pretty limited.

dbbolton 14y ago

1. I actually get comparable performance with the proprietary Nvidia driver in Windows and Linux. All of these systems seem to have Nvidia chipsets. If you can't even choose your driver (at the least with jockey), I wouldn't consider buying this. 2. What would stop you from installing your own OS pair? I'd think you could do it at the very least through a network boot, and probably USB. 3. As with 3, what would stop you? Even if you're stuck with Ubuntu, changing Xsessions shouldn't be a problem. The only way this should happen to be a problem is if there is no access to a shell with root privileges. And if it that's the case, almost no serious Linux user would consider buying such an un-free system. 4. With Steam an Humble now supporting Linux, there are quite a few more choices than there were just a couple of years ago, and I'm sure we'll see more in the years to come.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Unity is probably the most intuitive system for somebody switching from Win7. What else would you install by default? Gnome2/MATE/Xfce are showing their age. Gnome3 is even stranger. The only other plausible choice would be KDE. Unity is actually pretty good as an entertainment oriented interface. The ability to search games, apps, music and movies all from the main menu is very nice.

kostya-kow 14y ago
>The only other plausible choice would be KDE. Not the only one. There is also Cinnamon. And hopefully, Enlightenment will soon be stable enough, and even included in a popular distro.
KerrickStaley 14y ago
Gnome 3 is awesome; what are you talking about?
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  I'm not saying it isn't, but first time I booted it up it took me a good 20 mins to figure out how basic things worked and I'm used to using weird Linux DEs. I don't think it would leave a great first impression on your average ADHD alienware target customer.
  - KerrickStaley 14y ago
    You do need to learn a few keyboard shortcuts before you can work effectively with Gnome 3. I think these ones get you 80% of the way there, though (and they work the same as they do on Windows): 1. WinKey and type a name to open programs 2. WinKey + arrows to snap windows 3. Alt+Tab to switch between open windows
    - jiggy2011 14y ago
      I think having to know any keyboard shortcuts to do basic operations is a huge lose for an entertainment computer.
      - TheLegace 14y ago
        It's really a shame, because it really takes almost no time to learn. And basically the point is that the desktop disappears and the only thing left is your work. Edit: Or entertainment ;). Point is application is whats important.

kayoone 14y ago

As this device is aimed at the living room, i think Unity makes alot more sense than on the normal desktop. Video drivers have improved recently and Dual-booting is probably easy todo as its just a PC in a nice looking HTPC enclosure. 25 titles arent many but then again my Xbox360 had like 5 games available when it was released.

rdtsc 14y ago

> 3) To remove the painful Unity interface. I find it quite pleasant. What is it that bothers you about Unity?

notatoad 14y ago
Lack of support for unix beards.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  Such people (if they really exist) will be able to change the UI to match their workflow. I managed it and I'm just an end user. dwm/dmenu or similar, or xmonad for the adventurous. Sysadmin people might prefer icewm as it is tiny and can tile 12 terminal windows easily! Ubuntu with default Unity is aiming at a wide market here. Having i7 small form factor PCs available with hardware chosen to run a GNU/Linux is good!
sigkill 14y ago
I'm too used to the 'one icon per window' paradigm which is why even on windows I do not combine icons. To open a program that has multiple windows on unity, one needs to click the relevant icon, and then select the window you want, which is two mouse clicks (well, one mouse click, mouse move, then click again) as compared to a single mouse click. And I somehow prefer a horizontal longer taskbar as compared to a vertical one even though a horizontal taskbar would rob be of vertical space.
- s_baby 14y ago
  You're using Unity wrong. Super+w will display all open windows to you.
  - sigkill 14y ago
    Okay. But as a newbie, I still think I shouldn't need to Win+W then click on the window I need when the previous option was just clicking on the relevant icon in the taskbar directly. This is backward UI (just like the Android Jellybean which takes two taps to select an app to run just once).

primitur 14y ago

You can remove the painful Unity interface with great ease, once you have the machine in front of you. There is no requirement to use Unity as an interface shell by anyone other than Canonical. If you don't like it, switch to another interface when you log in; its that simple. As for 'very little games', I have to say this: LOL! Linux has thousands and thousands of games, and this continues to grow day by day. Steam may not have everything (yet), but its only a matter of time before the floodgates open: on the other side of that "new thing called Steam on Liux" lays a massive horizon of gaming on Linux that is unrecognized, unseen, but will soon be utilized once the pipe is in place. Linux has thousands of great games ready for the consumers; the veil of the 'mainstream groupthink' is just preventing a lot of smart people from seeing this fact, but I would wager that Steam and Alienware are indicators that in fact, some very smart people are entirely aware of the potential of whats to come once these lines of communication are open. So this is nothing but positive. Even if you don't want to be an early-adopter for this line of communication, its the line of communication which has been deficient; not the lack of content. The content (Games for Linux) is well and truly out there, it is ripe for harvesting, and this is the beginning of that effort ..