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The post is mostly an opinion. And where it tries to bring analysis, it fails. According to the author, gnome3 and unity are flawed. Well, many people like uni

by jeswin 13y ago

The post is mostly an opinion. And where it tries to bring analysis, it fails. According to the author, gnome3 and unity are flawed. Well, many people like unity now. It's not that different from the other operating systems. And sure, there'll be people who won't like it too. But if these are examples of design dictators screwing up things, what about the interfaces that existed before unity? They had a ton of issues too. And while I may not have had issues with them, unity is certainly easier for the non-technical crowd. And the rest of us know how it needs to be tweaked to our liking. Nothing's wrong really.

PommeDeTerre 13y ago
When it comes to things like GNOME 3 and Ubuntu (i.e., Unity), I think you're neglecting to look at the big picture. Yes, there are a small number of people who like the changes that have taken place. But their numbers are indeed quite small compared to the much larger number of people who have been driven away completely by these changes. I don't think that you appreciate how many GNOME 2 users (including former developers and other contributors) are either still using GNOME 2, or have moved on to KDE, Xfce, or other non-GNOME desktops. The same goes for Ubuntu. With Unity and their other recent changes, many users have instead moved to Linux Mint, Debian, and other distributions. These are the worst users to lose, especially the contributors, because they're the ones who did do things correctly, leading to the initial success of the project. Once they start to leave, we end up with GNOME 3-style debacles where it's one bad design or decision after another.
- takluyver 13y ago
  Do you have any evidence to support either claim (that more people dislike it than like it, and that substantial proportions of users have been driven away)? Certainly there has been plenty of criticism, and some people leaving in a very public fashion, but whenever something changes, we know that the people who don't like the change are far more vocal about it than people who do. Witness the storm of outrage accompanying every Facebook UI change, after which everyone carries on using it. There's probably no good evidence available about how many people like Gnome 3 or Unity. For abandonment rates, have a look at the graph on popcon.ubuntu.com. Those numbers come with caveats, like the fact that not every installation sends data, but none of the lines have any discernible downturn.

by jeswin 13y ago

PommeDeTerre 13y ago

When it comes to things like GNOME 3 and Ubuntu (i.e., Unity), I think you're neglecting to look at the big picture. Yes, there are a small number of people who like the changes that have taken place. But their numbers are indeed quite small compared to the much larger number of people who have been driven away completely by these changes. I don't think that you appreciate how many GNOME 2 users (including former developers and other contributors) are either still using GNOME 2, or have moved on to KDE, Xfce, or other non-GNOME desktops. The same goes for Ubuntu. With Unity and their other recent changes, many users have instead moved to Linux Mint, Debian, and other distributions. These are the worst users to lose, especially the contributors, because they're the ones who did do things correctly, leading to the initial success of the project. Once they start to leave, we end up with GNOME 3-style debacles where it's one bad design or decision after another.

takluyver 13y ago
Do you have any evidence to support either claim (that more people dislike it than like it, and that substantial proportions of users have been driven away)? Certainly there has been plenty of criticism, and some people leaving in a very public fashion, but whenever something changes, we know that the people who don't like the change are far more vocal about it than people who do. Witness the storm of outrage accompanying every Facebook UI change, after which everyone carries on using it. There's probably no good evidence available about how many people like Gnome 3 or Unity. For abandonment rates, have a look at the graph on popcon.ubuntu.com. Those numbers come with caveats, like the fact that not every installation sends data, but none of the lines have any discernible downturn.