Problems & Headaches
One of the annoying things about the launcher is that it’s not very configurable right now. Beginners might not notice or even care about that, but more advanced users could find it very annoying. I hope that Canonical builds in some customization options for the launcher in the next release of Ubuntu.
My experience with Ubuntu 11.04 was quite good in terms of performance and problems. I didn’t run into any noticeable instability, slowdown or other burps while using it.
The only thing that slowed me down briefly was adding the Guest Additions to get Unity to run in VirtualBox. Beyond that, my experience was very positive. This isn’t surprising though, Ubuntu has usually run well for me so I didn’t expect to run into much in the way of headaches with this release. Your mileage may vary, however, so please take a moment to share any problems (and fixes) you might have encountered so that others can benefit from your experience.
Where To Get Help
Please take a moment to register for the DLR forum; everybody is welcome. Feel free to post a message in the forum and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction. The forum contains discussions about Linux, as well as other topics. Please stop by and say hello when you have a chance.
Drop by the forum to get help, talk about Linux or just hang out.
You might also want to check out the Ubuntu support page for documentation, answers, training courses and free community support.
Final Thoughts & Who Should Use It
Ubuntu 11.04 is probably best described as a “love it or leave it” type of distro. If you like Unity then chances are you will really love Ubuntu 11.04. However, if you are one of those who dislikes Unity then it might be time to leave Ubuntu and find another distribution for your desktop use.
I’m in the latter category as I find Unity to be suffocating and unnecessary. For me it adds little value and seems to be in the way most of the time; so I would definitely not use Ubuntu 11.04 as one of my regular distros. I tried to like it but I just couldn’t warm up to it. Some have called it very “Mac-like” but, oddly, Mac OS X’s interface doesn’t seem to annoy me as much as Unity’s. Say what you will about Apple (and there’s plenty to say, pro and con) but they don’t seem to have made Mac OS X into an annoying experience the way that Unity feels to me.
Perhaps I’m just a dinosaur? Maybe netbook type interfaces will be the wave of the future in all desktop operating systems. If so then I suspect I’ll be one of the luddites booting into “classic” interfaces or simply opting to use a distro with a slimmed down desktop environment instead. Eye candy and “coolness” can sometimes be more trouble than they are worth so if feeling that way makes me a fossil then so be it. If I wanted a netbook interface, I’d buy a netbook instead of using a desktop computer.
Your mileage may vary, however, so I urge you to keep an open mind and give Ubuntu 11.04 a shot and see if you like it. I did not penalize Ubuntu 11.04 for Unity in the scoring below. Despite my own dislike of it, I know that there are some folks out there who might really like it and more power to them if they do. It’s just not my cup of tea.
If you need an alternative then I’d consider Linux Mint, Bodhi or one of the many other Ubuntu derivatives that don’t use Unity as their desktop environment. Of course you could also stick with Ubuntu 11.04 and simply use the classic GNOME interface instead. You can choose that on the login screen if you like.
Ubuntu 11.04 is suitable for beginner, intermediate and advanced Linux users. Beginners should be aware that Unity is significantly different than previous Ubuntu desktops and should bear that in mind accordingly if they decide to try out Ubuntu 11.04.
What’s your take on this distro? Tell me in the comments below. Visit Eye On Linux for Linux opinion columns and distro quick looks; visit JimLynch.com for other technology coverage.
Summary Table:
| Product: | Ubuntu 11.04 |
| Web Site: | http://www.ubuntu.com/ |
| Price: | Free |
| Pros: | New Unity interface; user ratings and reviews in the Software Center; easy install routine that includes the ability to upgrade from the Live CD. |
| Cons: | Unity interface is a “love it or hate it” affair that will either bring people to Ubuntu or drive them away, the jury is still out on that and we won’t know for a while which way things will go. |
| Suitable For: | Beginner, intermediate and advanced Linux users. |
| Rating: | 4/5 |
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I realize that its easy to get so attached to something familiar that you tend miss the benefits of new ways of doing things. So I’m trying hard to keep an open mind with this thing. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things that I find troubling…
(i) The fact that the launcher conflates three *very* different system concepts – available programs, running programs and open windows – in a single navigational model does not seem like the kind of thing you would think to do if your objective was to make the interface more intuitive.
(ii) Related to this, the loss of the bottom panel is causing me a major headache. In 10.10 and earlier, I had an immediate visual indication of what windows I have open and immediate one-click access to any of them (and I typically have about a dozen open at a time, mostly browser windows). As far as I can tell, it now takes at least three mouse actions just to get to a new window. For me, this is a usability disaster.
I also have to disagree with your comment that “The desktop itself is totally uncluttered”. When the launcher is deployed I find it incredibly intrusive to the visual environment, largely because of the size of the icons, which are at least a couple of times larger that those in the top panel under 10.10. I feel like I’ve gone back to some very low res monitor setup. Binding the launcher to the left side of the screen also destroys the simple symmetry of just having screen-wide panels at the top and bottom.
A question I would really like to know the answer to is what kind of formal usability studies were done on this interface before it was released? I’ve read references to Canonical’s ‘designers’. Ok, designers are good people to have, but designers are not the same as usability experts. Do they have such people?
@ Mark Thomson:
To answer my own question, from http://zd.net/kKxHVK –
“We committed to test and iterate Unity’s design with real users, and evolve it based on those findings. We’ve documented the process we’re following in that regard, so that other free software projects can decide for themselves if they also want to bring professional design into their process. I very much hope that this will become standard practice across all of free software, because in my view the future of free software is no longer just about inner beauty (architecture, performance, efficiency) it’s also about usability and style.”
And also this –
“Is Unity too simple for power users? Yes, it is. But, as Shuttleworth tells us that’s by design. If you don’t like simple, consumer-oriented desktops, you’ll want to look at another Linux distribution because that’s exactly where Ubuntu is now and will continue to go.”
So far, I like it. It is quick and clean. You are correct that a lot more configurability is needed.
I’ll also say it is – by a LOT – the buggiest Ubuntu I’ve tried in a few years. For starters, the live CD would not load with Unity on my machine (the graphics card is a Quadro FX580, so it isn’t due to lack of 3D), there was a lockup when searching on the Ubuntu software site, several quick disappearances of Chrome off the screen and a couple of those same surprises while in Nautilus. It failed to list Terminal as a loaded accessory program – nothing devastating, just annoyances on that level.
The biggest annoyance to me is inability to put a weather app on the top bar so the current outdoor temp is always visible. Might not matter in California, but it does to me.
Not for me thanks. This extra layer of complexity in the guise of user friendliness is the main thing that drove me away from Windows and OS X.
It’s a retrograde step and I fear Mint 11 with Gnome 3 may not be much better.
:(
If you are a power user, stop complaining. You have the ability to install other desktop environments in place of unity. For example:
cd ~
curl -O http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell/plain/tools/build/gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
/bin/bash gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
sudo find /usr/lib*/ -name “*.la” -delete
jhbuild build
cd ~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell/src
./gnome-shell –replace
those 7 commands (and about 3 hours of your time spent waiting for compiling) will give you gnome-shell in place of unity.
ln -s ~/gnome-shell/install/share/applications/gnome-shell.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/gnome-shell.desktop
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager “gnome-shell” -t string
will make it permanent. Don’t let defaults stifle your environment. You’re a linux user and you can change things at your whim. That’s what linux is about, freedom to do what you want with your computer.
If you want to know what Windows are open you can glance at the Unity panel for at the little white markers on the side. I’m a power user and Unity is a great. Nothing stopping me from dropping to the terminal. Keyboarding is empowered. Linux needs Unity for greater uptake on the desktop.
@ Matthew:
Gnome Shell, yes, choose between pestilence and cholera, or rather between a mobile phone GUI ( Gnome shell) and a Tablet PC GUI (Unity).
2011 will get known as the year in which one of the best working desktop environments for Linux (Gnome2) was killed by MAC OS Fanboys (Shuttleworth) and Mobile Phone useability nazis who think all their users are dumb (Gnome.org themselves).
Off to XCFE after 5 very statisfied years with Gnome 2.
Jeannie
A very good review of Unity.
Here is a Swedish one to:
http://translate.google.se/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpavel.frimix.se%2F2011%2F04%2F28%2Fnatty-natty-ubuntu%2F&act=url
I used google translate for that.
Nothing inspiring about Unity! It seems to me just another arbitrary change for the sake of change. A bit like moving the window buttons to the left side.
As I understand it, Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop is the most successful Linux distro ever. It has enabled many users of other OSes to make the shift to Linux. So why change a winning formula? Ubuntu with a Gnome desktop has delivered, so why change horses in mid-stream?
Unity may be useful on a netbook (though I would disagree), but it has nothing to offer as a desktop environment.
The recommended requirements should be taken with a pinch of salt. I have an Athlon64 XP 3200+ with 1G RAM and unity is slow, whereas gnome classic runs fine. On Nautilus I tried several times to right-click on a folder to copy it, but nothing was happenning (only select, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V worked). During installation, the partitioner won’t let you define any custom mount points, like “/mnt/data”, so you have to edit manually the /etc/fstab afterwards. That’s a basic feature just taken away for no reason, it’s a step back. The global menu is ok if you have a small screen (like my macbook) but on my 24″ screen it is very annoying and requires a lot of mouse-travel. Apple keeps it because it’s there since 1980something, Ubuntu decided to adopt it in 2011 :-) The new scrollbars are all good, as long as there is an option to turn them off. Considering that the Unity shell is too heavy for my pc, the gnome-classic fallback mode will eventually disappear and the fact that it will take quite a while to develop unity 2-D and get it to a mature, usable state, I can’t see myself using ubuntu any time soon. The are great alternatives out there, thank God.
Just select Ubuntu Classic in the login screen and you have no issue anymore with Unity …. it’s that simple and no need to go for some other distro.
@ Hassle:
The classic option is not going to be available from 11.10 on.
You do your testing with VB right Jim? So you were able to get Unity to run inside VirtualBox? I wasn’t able to :P I shall try again :)
@ LS:
“If you want to know what Windows are open you can glance at the Unity panel for at the little white markers on the side.”
This is not a solution –
(i) it requires me to move my mouse to the left side of the screen and wait half a second before the launcher appears
(ii) the “little white markers” do not tell me what windows I have open – they just tell me that there are windows open – and at most there are only three markers shown. The bottom panel in 10.10 shows me (in a very unobtrusive way and without taking any action at all) the app icon and name of each open window. Then it’s just one click to get to any of them.
While I found Unity mildly interesting, it was no problem to switch back to “classic”. Choices are a GOOD thing. People who threaten to go to another distribution over “too many choices” are being illogical.