And, it seems that the next iteration of Ubuntu will ship default with the Unity interface..even on the desktop!  As bad as Unity is on a Netbook, can you imagine it on a desktop?  Thank god for Linux and Choice!  I have loved Debian and it's apt-get package management nearly for ever.  I only use Ubuntu because it is includes Firefox..and I have tried to run Debian with Ubuntu sources and it was a nightmare!  I used to run Debian Testing on my Laptop...and I might just go back to doing that.

To be pedantic, "10.04 -> 10.10 isn't a "minor version upgrade", it's a major version upgrade.

I knew this awhile ago, but due to lack of use of this knowledge, I forgot that the 10 stands for the year, whereas the .04, .10, stands for the month...

So when seeing Ubuntu version numbers, while common sense would dictate the MAJOR.minor syntax we're used to, please ignore common sense for Ubuntu version numbers. ;-)

While I wondered about the jump from 4 to 10, I didn't make the connection to the year.month scheme. Makes sense.

I only like it because it's pretty. I hate it because it's nigh unusable. When will people learn: Pretty is Important, but not Enough.
btw, openbox ftw.

I switched my netbook over to Lubuntu (sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop) and haven't looked back. For the netbook interface they have a Moblin-type layout, but the thing runs so darn fast and well in a desktop session that there is no need for the netbook GUI.

Next unity will not use mutter anymore > faster :)

I just hope i can move the app launcher to the bottom.

So, in a nutshell, it's still slow and buggy? You think that either of those are intentionally put there? Really?

Basically, two things would vastly improve this for you:
1. The search interface is sped up dramatically;
2. The left panel has an auto-hide option/auto-hides by default.

Would it still suck if those two were fixed? I mean, really? Would it then suck less if system tray icons didn't disappear when you open a new window?

It doesn't matter what you use, young technology will be buggy. It just happens. If you're going to complain that this young technology is buggy, you're not telling us anything new. If you're going to say, "it sucks", ask yourself, "does it suck by design, or because it's buggy?". If it does suck by design, in your opinion, talk about *that*.

By the way, you don't *need* to use the scroll-wheel to scroll the left bar. You can click-'n'-drag up/down to drag the icons in that direction, or move your cursor away, let the top/bottom icons fold, then move your cursor back over the (folded) icon you want.

Yep, Ubuntu Unity Sucks and KDE4 in Debian rocks! XD

Aren't you glad there is Linux Mint as an alternative? I really hate Ubuntu, and have for sometime now. However, Linux Mint is everything Ubuntu _should_ be, but isn't.

These are zealots's attitude and behaviors like the_madman that legitimate not to use open source software and OS. NO !!! It is not normal that a DEFAULT interface was slow, buggy and stupidly design especially when Canonical navel-gazing communicate about its ergonomy and expert team.

I don't want to get into this discussion, mostly because I think it's good to try out stuff, somebody has to. It is still a linux and you can install whatever you damn like! If you liked the old programs on your netbook better, its usually not a problem to get it. And someone else has surely written a small howto in ubuntu-wik/forum/...

Oh, why I was writing in the first place: You updated your Ubuntu LTS into a non-LTS-version, which Ubuntu usually uses to test some new features and ideas. If you don't want that, you can wait for the next long term support release, which will be 12.04 and upgrade from 10.04 to 12.04...

But I'm no fanboy, Ubuntu sometimes rushes things too fast. But if I don't like it, I can always switch back to debian or others. :)

Damn, no way to get notified about new comments, probably won't see answers. :(

Thanks for "testing" UNR 10.10. Good that I was too lazy to upgrade.
Anyway, I'm sure someone will come up with an idea on how to improve Unity on netbooks. So I will just wait a while and subscibe to some of the mutter/unity bug reports on bugs.launchpad.net and see what happens.

There is a distinct pattern here that Ubuntu has started to follow for some time now.

Window controls move to the left, just like a certain other OS.

Now UI is going to be netbook/tablet based, just like another upcoming OS that roars.

Ubuntu, innovators of the Linux world, or merely Crapple copy cats? :)

Well, I seem to be  alone here.  I am loving Unity.  It speaks to me.  Yes, it is very Mac-like, and there is nothing wrong with that.  It is still a little buggy, but overall it is very easy to use once you get the hang of it.

John

I respect all your thoughts but at the same time I get the feeling that you guys feel 'stuck' into settings you don't like.  I often change up the visuals of my desktop in any and every way I see fit. My desktop doesn't look anything like what the stock install looks like.

I had installed Ubuntu Netbook 10.10 on my netbook as well. I actually liked the look of it, but it was dreadfully slow. I'm not sure whose idea it was to use 3d opengl as the main launcher on a netbook. It runs slow on a powerful desktop not to mention an underpowered netbook and it kills the battery quickly.

I quickly installed Lubuntu instead and I'm loving that on my netbook so far, very snappy and looks nice.

Just add 1.
Unity sucks on a Netbook.

O think it could be nice on a Desktop, not on a netbook.

Ronan

IMO, the Unity interface is a great idea for TABLETS and maybe smartphones,

On a netbook, tabbed interfaces in general suck sh*t through a straw. It appears the Ubuntu UI team have managed to confuse netbooks with tablets. A tablet is for media consumption, a netbook is for media consumption AND content creation, that's why it's got a freaking keyboard.


Don't know about stock Ubuntu, but when to my horror, a netbook I was upgrading in Kubuntu came up in Unity, some digging around in System Settings got me to a pulldown with a choice of UIs. Poof, no more Unity, and I've got 2 faster and more responsive computers.

People running Ubuntu stuck with Unity should go through your system settings, you can probably get Gnome back with a bit of digging... either through the configuration or through the docs.

We need to do some pushback at the dev team before the stupid idea of running a tablet UI on a desktop bites all of us in the ass.

I hated 10.10 on my netbook so I did a reinstall of 10.4.

I'm not a social internet user, but use it for work because it fits neatly into my bag when travelling.

One reason why I love Linux and have been a long time user is that I can control the OS to very large extent. This Unity edition does not allow you to manage the desktop to the way you want it to be. It is like Windows playing mother, telling you what is good for you. The panels cannot not be moved and altered or even added to, and the graphics are locked into mutter.

I *hope* that this will not be the same with the desktop version. One writer called 10.10 netbook the Vista of Ubuntu. I agree!

I installed 10.10 UNR as well and thought that Unity sucked. Guess the underlying idea is not bad, but it will need a lot of work to bring it up to par with the "usual" Ubuntu experience. On the bright side, when you enter your password at start-up, you can choose the standard GNOME interface. Did that, and order returned to the universe.

Personally I think the old netbook launcher sucked as well. The title bar embedded on the panel was a great idea that saved some space on screen, but the app launcher was very inconvenient. It might be great for touchscreen devices, but in the case of netbooks, where you have a tiny touchpad to move the mouse, moving on the screen to click an icon was tedious. Also, it used some kind of desktop composition that made the netbook go slow as hell. I switched to Lubuntu and it works great.

My advice: install Kupfer (or Gnome-Do), bind it to the Meta key (or leave it as it is on Ctrl+space), use it to open any app by typing a few letters, and get rid of any other launcher forever.

(Also, it would be nice to have a launcher like this http://img214.imageshack.us/im … ncher2.png in which you could click an icon _or_ tap a key, use Esc,F1-F12 to change tabs and search apps/files by pressing space. Touchscreen, mouse and keyboard friendly.)

i absolutely agree. unity ruins 10.10. it's horrible slow, the bar on the left sucks for netbook screens, some of the icons in that bar vanish in the dust for no reason.

Thanks for the article – your experience with Unity is very equal to mine.

I use Ubuntu for some years now and it evolves from “the great new Linux in town” with good ideas and the best user experience to some piece of hyped design garbage.

Every update adds just some small improvements but drops good working tools for new software in alpha status.

Grip is gone, now we have sound juicer which is virtually unconfigurable. If you want some non-default settings, you need to edit a configuration line which looks like this:
audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2 ! lame name=enc mode=1 quality=2 vbr=4 vbr-quality=2 ! xingmux ! id3v2mux

WTF?

Then we have the good old Pidgin (aka Gaim) which was replaced by Evince. Well, it couldn’t connect to ICQ for *months* because of a missing configuration possibility … but hey! At least it’s a new easy tool!

Then they merged the messaging status into the logout menu. WTF?! Why?

They replaced the good looking networking icon (a plug) with an up-down-arrow. WTF?!

And finally they removed the working Netbook launcher with this alpha-state Unity which really, definitely and absolutely sucks! Right, the Netbook launcher had still some issues – but compared with Unity it was the most stable and feature-rich piece of software in the universe.

Ubuntu, what’s going on!?

Currently, I still run 10.10 on my netbook but switched to the standard Gnome desktop (it's funny, that the standard desktop is quicker than netbook GUI...), removed the bottom bar and configured the top bar to behave like the old Netbook Launcher.

If you think unity sucks and liked the old netbook interface from 10.04 better, you can just

sudo apt-get install netbook-launcher-efl ubuntu-netbook-efl-default-settings

Log out and when you log back in you'll have a choice to used the "2D" netbook environment, which is the old one.

It seems to be the same as before except the app icons are twice as big and jump at you (expand) when you mouse over them.

Installing the old ui seems to use very little additional disk space, and I think ubuntu should have included it as an option by default.

I can see why they made unity the default for netbooks because they want people to try it. But why not give people the old one as a fall back?

I agree with almost  every criticism of unity here except I wouldn't say it's terribly slow.  I think it's just a little slow.  I have a Dell 10v which is I think the minimum supported hardware.

I was so excited to see a new version of Ubuntu available for my netbook, and will be even more excited to get 10.04 reinstalled after trying out that abortion that is Unity. Did someone from Microsoft sneak over, mole-like, to sabotage Ubuntu?

If I wanted something slow, incomprehensible, and buggy on my computer, I would have installed Windows!

I also was going to install to the newest ubuntu version.

Luckily i check things out before.. After about half an hour of testing the live version, which also needed about that time to load(!!), it was very easy to decide that only a reboot could help me out of this mess!

I don't see any advantage of unity, compared to the old lucid netbook launcher, which is way faster and whats more important for me, wastes no space for this almost useless huge sidebar.

Unity is nowadays never ever an option for a netbook user, who wants to get the best out of that small displays, or at least want to work (surfing..) on them.

you might also see in the near future, that the move to unity was visionary! it will take some time to develop right, maybe it is to early to use it, BUT: when its mature in 1/2 years, modern laptops and also desktops will have touchscreen.

Geez. I used netbook edition briefly when I bought my netbook a little over a year ago, but soon removed maximus and other netbooky bits, and at 9.10 installed the desktop edition, and have been on desktop edition through 10.04, and now in 10.10 on my netbook (and laptop). So I'm going to check out lubuntu, but if in 11.04 if the installer defaults to Unity without an option to stay with Gnome, I think I'll be looking at alternatives as well. Even on a little screen I don't want to feel like I've got a cut down version - I want it all. What are they thinking???

Oh no! I installed Unity, now I am screwed! Horrible! Horrible! Horrible!

Downloading mint iso as I type this. :)

Well, saying that an interface "sucks" because you don't get used to it it's a bit nasty. Before gnome's 10.04 interface appeared there have been a lot of different interfaces and I guess there was always an adaptation time so it's kinda unfair to say this is a step in the wrong direction. Yes, the always-on-top sidebar can be a bad thing on a netbook but it's the only big drawback i found, but i would keep it and tighten the icons a little bit, since I don't like auto-hide bars that come in the way when we don't need them.
Well, I'm almost alone here but I hope that you guys open your minds a bit. Evolution is sometimes made of revolution and taking risks is a good thing even if the Ubuntu team has to take a step back and then take 2 steps forward.

PS: yes, Mint is getting greater and greater and i am also considering giving it a try... after all it's free!!! :)

You can switch back to the netbook 2d "clutter" desktop and launcher w/ maximus and the gnome panel - just log out and back in, selecting the 2d interface.  

the 2d interface is also updated, with a glossy splash, etc.

cant see what all the fuss is about .. it looks just as ugly as Gnome / Metacity does. its like completely over blown hyperbole .. if you dont like it, there are hundreds of other useable distro's and dozens of desktops and window managers .. open source = choice surely ?

I've been using Ubuntu Netbook (with Unity) for about a week and it's driving me up a wall - and as I type this I have a torrent with Mint 10 downloading so I can give that a try instead.
One of my main annoyances is that the app launcher bar can't be hidden - and I *HATE* these stupid app launcher docks - I think they're a huge waste of screen space, which is an even bigger deal than usual when that space is smaller than usual.
Of course, actually finding an icon for a program to launch it when it's not on the dock is a huge pain in the butt too.
I also hate that there doesn't appear to be any way to remove the Evolution notifier or the Gwibber (I think?) notifiers from the task bar, considering I don't use either program and have no intention of starting.
About the only thing I liked about the install was the Ubuntu sofware installer - though it does look like a version of this is packaged with Mint 10 as well.

Unity will be the ruin of ubuntu. I have a netbook and it was easy to improve it.
http://img109.imageshack.us/im … etelaq.png
I deleted the bottom bar and installed:
'Docky', 'maximus' and 'Window Applet'
also, in appearance, changed the font of applications for bitstream.

OK, tried Mint and wasn't thrilled with that either - it worked OK, but didn't recognize any of the special function keys my netbook has and I didn't feel like going through the headache of figuring out how to get them working, so I put Ubuntu Netbook back on again.
*BUT* I think I found a rather simple solution that I didn't know was there until tonight - the Netbook edition defaults to the crappy Unity interface, but it also has a Gnome interface you can select instead - when you put in your name to sign in, before entering your password down at the bottom there is a selection for the type of session you want, essentially either "Netbook" or "Desktop." Selecting Desktop gave me the less-stupid interface that I'm used to, and all my function keys and all that jazz still work right.

I also did not like Unity for the same reasons the article states, mostly it was not intuitive and it was painfully slow... however, I am grateful Canonical is developing Ubuntu and I think Unity definitely has a future after some kinks are worked out. I am actually looking forward to it in a release or two when it becomes fast and efficient (and customizable) like the rest of Ubuntu releases

The new interface is rather horrible... No need to "downgrade" tho... my fix was easy:

1. Log out and select "GNOME Desktop" as your session at the login screen :-)

2. (optional) For maximizing screen space - nuke the bottom panel, add the window picker (and other desired apps/launchers) to the top panel and set to autohide.. For additional flair, install the awn launcher/dock to the bottom and set to autohide. Use Chromium for your browser, as it tends to be faster and have less "Chrome" - heh... :-)

(Note: you may need to install compiz or enable compositing for the window manager)

My netbook runs great with "full-GNOME" and the Compiz eyecandy - and looks good doing it, too!

Bad! Bad! Bad Canonical! - makes me worry about the future of my favorite distro if they go around making boneheaded interfaces like this :-/

I can't solve the issue about Launcher... auto_hide does not work at all and there is no way to enable it.

I use Ubuntu Notebook 10.10

It's so silly for you to complain about this.
A. You obviously haven't tried how to figure out how to use unity
B. Unity is new. Of course it's buggy.
C. You should look into things before you complain about them... like all of the other things that are going to go into the next desktop version of Ubuntu that will have Ubuntu as the default desktop.
D. Honestly? I think someone should point out that you're being a bitchy fanboy.

I agree with post number 42. It took me a while to get used to it but now I use it on my desktop! I know it can get better and am only bothered when a the global menu (Did I say that right?) when I don't have a maximized window open.

Brilliant - I had exactly the same experience. Unity Sucks big time, but how do I get rid of it on my netbook (ASUS EEE), or at least make it configurable?

At least give us the ability to add new applications to the launcher and add Ubuntu One to the list of folders.
And where are administration and preferences?

It's great seeing a post that didn't have the misleading fanboi-ism.

Sadly, Unity seems to have been written by low-IQ'd Aspies.

"Let's see - Netbook - slow CPU, small screen. Let's cover 1/8 of the horizontal space, and have a search indexer running constantly."

"Now - Linux User - technically literate, inclined to customise their desktop, keen to do things the quick way. Let's make the sidebar not respond to right-clicks, let's not let people adjust the items, and let's dumb down things as much as possible - after all, how would Ubuntu's target audience know that Firefox is a "web browser".

And for #42 "it's new so it's buggy?!?" It looks like there's been absolutely no time put into Unity. Absolutely no attention to detail. And it's not a beta release, it ain't going to get any better until maybe April. But I won't be DLing 11.4 if the current trend continues!

Thanks for your post, I totaly agree! Since I have to reinstall my netbook anyway, I guess I'll give mint a try.
CS

I like Ubuntu 10.10 and the Gnome desktop. So why will they not use Gnome 3.0 to the next version?
But if I want to use the KDE desktop I think the best avaible choice at the moment is Pardus 2009.2. "Works out of the box" with pre-installed mediacodes also.
And the new Pardus 2011 coming in 20 january to.

Unity should be replaced by Gnome 3.0, hopefully already next version of Ubuntu.

They're moving away from Gnome because they're tired of relying on other dev teams. Gnome 3 has been delayed again and Canonical wants to release their products on time. Not sure if that mentality is smart because some projects need more time to get ironed out. I tried 10.10 with Unity. None of the icons worked, probably because it runs on Open GL. My laptop's ATI vid card doesn't have proprietary drivers so I can't run Open GL. I was expecting the Netbook version to be more compatible with my gear. Guess I was wrong. Also, Ubuntu always overheats my CPU (since it has to emulate the video drivers). I've been very happy with Mint though, even though it will one day melt my computer, lol.

I checked out the efl port of the old netbook launcher in 10.10, and looked at screenshots of linux mint and lubuntu.  None compare to the old netbook launcher in 10.4.

I eventually settled on ratpoison under debian; I didn't see the ubuntu netbook launcher there either, though there is lxlauncher, which I haven't had time to play with...

Anyway, it's been a few months since 10.10 was released.  Any new recommendations for sane netbook UI's?

Same issues with me when I first tried unity for my netbook.  But Thankfully ubuntu 10.04 is a 3 year long term release and it has three more years to go.  So that means we have three years to stick with the 10.04 ubuntu remix.  By then i'm sure the versions they will release will get better and better by time we have no choice to update to unity, it should be improved a lot better and more netbook friendly.   Like a side bar option to stay in the back when a firefox window is open for one example or an option to hide the side bar.

I installed Unity to test today on my notebook. Personally I very like it's usability. All controls are concentrated on the left side. You have less to mutter on screen from left to right (start app - close app process). I like applications menu is moved on top panel - I have more working space. By the way on the Unity's left icons panel I have icons of applications I am working with. So no need for additional "text labels" as someone mentioned - I perfectly remember what I am using. I think this interface will be really perfect and clear when finished. Go Unity !

This is probably old news, but don't get too used to the "old" Gnome interface. Gnome 3.0 uses the "Gnome Shell", which is radically different than the current 2.x series Gnome desktop. I haven't used either Unity or Gnome Shell so I can't speak for them, but Unity looks to be a whole lot easier than Gnome Shell. I will miss the old Gnome since we share a birthday (not year) and I've been using it since it was about a year old (1998). Guess I'll have to give both a spin to be fair.

I think there is a problem when people are saying "It's new, so of course it's buggy" or "You should take time to get used to the interface."

That would be all fine and good if it were not so slow.  Why would they replace a working netbook interface with one that is currently too slow to use?  I have a dual core Atom "netbook" with an Nvidia Ion graphics chip, and Unity still brought it to a crawl.  Why should I have to wait for a file manager to appear when it comes up instantly in Xubuntu or Lubuntu?

I did the upgrade with my big box.  The graphic card was wrong. I went into /user/bin by clicking on a cdrom and moved up into the file system and found the nvidia setup.  Once I clicked on that, I could see my borders.  Next, I found xterm and typed in synaptic and removed all of the unity stuff.  And then I installed all of the gnome desktop stuff.  I crossed my fingers and rebooted and got evrything back.....thank god.

I want gnome3 I hate unity's interface

UI agree that Unity is a #@!!&%#@. And it get even worser. They want to vanish Gnome on the Desktop Ubuntu and use Unity instead........

Unity should come in the next release of Ubuntu aka 11.04. Who the hell thinks that Unity is usable?????

Sorry for the harsh words. Forgive me but I'm upset

I didn't use unity on my net-book and I certainly won't do so on my desktop.  This may well be the moment when Ubuntu screws up.  The flexibility of Ubuntu until now has allowed me to have a desktop set-up that I like. Why now continue to allow that flexibility, while providing improvements in the background?  Methinks that Canonial is afraid of what's coming in Chrome OS and is positioning itself accordingly.  They've got it wrong, I fear.

Why the hell do dumbniacs design the interface? This is bordering on imbecile level of design and is an huge embarrassment to the open source community.

You are supposed to come up with BETTER interfaces, not worse.

Think, "Why do I always have to open this app, but can never see 'X' or do 'Y' quickly when I want to? Hey here's an idea that would *improve* that."

Hey Andy

Don't worry, this is a perfectly normal Ubuntu behaviour. Introducing - without previous warning - massive changes that cannot be made undone, is, AFAIK, the only actual attribute that makes Ubuntu distinct from other distributions.

Back then, as I played around with Ubuntu (versions 6 to 8 or so) in search for a good operating system, it happened more than once that I had to dissolve dependency issues by hand because the last update removed an application without warning. Why? Because the Ubuntu project deemed it necessary to replace this application by another one, for example. Also it happened quite regularly that the system was unable to start at all after an update, because the update process messed up the whole system, deleted some libraries or replaced some configuration files with a wrong version.

Good thing I never tempted to use Ubuntu for actual work, and I still have some issues imagining people doing so.

BTW: I found your blog via a forum entry at heise.de/open.

Good luck.


Patrick

I tried Unity for something like 3 times, and absolutely hated. Confusing, restricting, makes you give up after a couple of frustrating clicks. I'm sorry but there won't be no Ubuntu for me anymore. I admired this distro until the dictator started to make more unilateral outrageous decisions to conceive something like this.

Who will live will see, Ubuntu is going to loose a fair amount of user base after next release.

Unity is made for retards.

Don't you folks click 'Upgrade' and not expect things to change?

This is FOSS, an ideology based on a changing landscape.

Don't be too critical about it. If you're a contributor Ubuntu, and your design ideas were not heard out, then yes, you may bitch and moan.

If not, why not join the mailing lists, jump on irc and get involved?
That's the beauty of a community driven OS!

Don't fall back to your "spoonfed by old-school industry bitch-and-moan" mode.

We are more empowered and can make changes ourselves - something about, if you want a job done properly... yeah, that.

I agree with comment #62..

Unity is horrendous, soo 1990s, soo mac like. What were they thinking.. I work on 2 monitors, this interface is going to screwup my work-flow too much. There is now way I'm going to work on that garbage.. Time to ditch ubuntu and have a debian with a mint!! :D

Remember, Unity is only the default desktop. You can use any desktop you desire, Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment... etc. The good thing about open source, is it is customizable and you can change it to cater to your needs. So for everyone that is in dislike of it, don't use it!

Canonical should follow a new strategy for the launch of Unity.
Below is a link to view the model of the idea.
Community participation and a greater period of development is important.

http://i.imgur.com/pce7m.jpg

I see a huge problem with this.. I'm using 11.04 now and for a new user I see this as a nightmare.

New users have no idea what Linux software is called. Gnome has a very nice menu layout.. but the search layout in Unity fails if you don't know what your looking for.

For example.. searching Unity for "paint" produces no image software at all nor anything useful when searching for "graphics" searching for "photo" finally allowed me to see The Gimp..

Unity ist ein Albtraum. Warum gibt es keine umschaltmöglichkeit zum altem Style.
Muss ich jetzt echt 7 runterladen???

I tried Ubuntu with Unity on a netbook about 1 month ago, and actually discovered this page googling 'unity sucks' after reading, it will ship with version 11 by default.

I too don't see how it's an improvement over the standard 'desktop'-metaphor we're all used to. On paper I liked the idea, since the netbook is my gf's, and it might be easier for her to understand with big fluffy buttons all over. Unfortunately it quickly proved slow, unintuitive and just downright pointless. All the points being made in the article are true, even after several updates since.

So why am I writing this?
Because I discovered JoliOS afterwards!
http://www.jolicloud.com/
JoliOS is basicly Chromium on top of Linux. It provides about the same UI-layout as Unity, only much faster and more intuitive. It's by no means perfect yet, but it's way ahead of Unity, and if you need a simple OS for your crappy netbook or old computer, I can seriously recommend it.

You can use the old interface on 11.04, just log out, and find the little scrollbox where it says "Ubuntu" in there by default, and select "Ubuntu Classic" instead.

In a way, Unity is good, and so is GNOME 3 and Mark Shuttleworth's BS Steve Jobs of the FOSS World schtick. They've forced me to go distro shopping and start doing Arch builds. Yeah, they suck that much.

Unity does exactly one thing right, and that's the global menu-bar. They finally made the launcher autohide after complaints. Maybe by the next LTS distro they'll let users choose where their dock--I mean, "Unity Launcher"--goes.

Unity Launcher essentially breaks the Fitt's law benefit of the launcher-button. Programs can now *only* be accessed from one location--top left. Compare with GNOME + AWN + synapse/gnome-do/kupfer. Apps can be accessed from multiple edges and via keystroke, as well as the desktop.

If I wanted my production machine to look like a MacTard's OSX-Elite Fischer-Price Desktop Environment ("Starting at only $3900!"), then I'd go into teaching preschool.

And if the GNOME team is reading this, it goes ***TRIPLE*** for GNOME 3. GNOME-Shell takes the **best** DE/GUI available and makes it AS BAD AS UNITY. I swear to god I'll learn C++ and QT and join one of those Slackware teams where everyone is older than my grandfather just to fork GNOME 2.X.

Drop ubuntu and use a real distro..

Archlinux (best IMHO), Debian, etc...

Ubuntu sucks because it's the windows of the Linux world in that all the n00bs use it, and serious users can't because of all the shitty daemons that eat up resources (like windows), and all the forced changes, etc...

Furthermore, look into other WM's. KDE4 kinda sucks (3 was good), but you should try XFCE and some others...you may like one of them.

I agree, both Unity and Gnome3 are epicly stupid pieces of software.

I'd have to dissagree with the KDE sucks comment. The eye candy is there if you want it. Personally I turn off Desktop effects and the system is just as snappy as gnome 2.

KDE 4.6 is awesome.
Set all your used apps in Favorites

Put the Taskbar to the left and raise it up a bit so you don't trigger it when you go to menu.

Put your most used folders right on the desktop in folder view.

And I can kill the annoying top bar while browsing the internet.

I'm scared, if feels like Mac menus at the top and something a child put together. How do I get out of this?

Horrible. The saddest thing is that they think they are innovating while they are just making an ugly copy of the MAC.
So, so sad.

I just installed Natty on my laptop, with 'unity'. After six hours of struggling with it, all I want to do desperately is GET IT OFF OF MY MACHINE. It's HORRIBLE. Dumber than Windows! By a long shot! If I wanted DUMB software I'd be using Windows. I DON'T WANT DUMB SOFTWARE.

HELP!!! How do I get rid of this POS???

Yep. I installed the suggested udpate to version 11. Found the Unity interface was a pile of trash. Attempted to install gnome3 which failed. attempted to ppa:purge gnome, failed. Lucky i use windows on the same machine. Fucking steaming pile of filth.

+1 Unity sucks.
+1 Canonical sucks.

Ok, I get that Unity is so cutting edge we should forgive its buggy behaviour and slowness.. but why have Canonical seen fit to make it the DEFAULT desktop manager?!! (Oh and while we're at it, why does everyone think making ubuntu increasingly mac-like is a good thing?)

At best this should be an option to try out and leave gnome in place until unity is ready for the daylight.

I had a perfectly working laptop with compiz etc working flawlessly. I upgraded to Narwhal, 5 hrs later Compiz is still broken. Format > ReInstall 10.10. This user won't be upgrading till Canonical realises that borking working systems by default isn't acceptable.

OMG. I can only open one instance of each app with launcher -- there's no genius in this desktop -- it's all stupidity.

Hey Andreas, Linux Mint is really worth keeping an eye on. I don't know it's attitude towards netbooks, but it works great on my laptop using good old <3 gnome!

Always try from LiveCD... yeah, but Unity doesn't work from LiveCD, you have to install it. :|

My main gripe is for those of us that are upgrading and have everything tweaked the way the like it. Pushing the new UI on a fresh install wouldn't be so bad. But I had to spend too much time reseting and fixing window managers, menus/panels and launchers. Oh and removing empathy/gwibber/ubuntuone for the umpteenth time.

I get the feeling that Ubuntu is spending more effort trying to switch people from windows and mac people and less on making the upgrades tolerable for existing users.

Final thoughts: Ubuntu will have a tough time taking over the desktop market when its UI is geared to a phone/tablet... thingy

Use LXDE instead.

Just add it in synaptic. then at boot, before password...at bottom, change session to LXDE. then login and rejoice.

Gnome 3 does not look or behave much better than Unity.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. The Unity interface brought nothing but trouble without adding any obvious improvement. I had a hard time using it to get the things that I used to do in a couple of clicks. What kind of morons came up with this interface? How did they test it and what kind of feed back did they get? Thanks God, after messing up my netbook trying to install Gnome3 to get rid of Unity, I finally found out that I could revert to the classic Ubuntu. I cost me a full re-installation of the system. Did Ubuntu catch AIDS from Windows Vista???

Terrible.

+1 Terrible. It's only useful for the newbiest of newbs, who don't multi-task. They 100% need to reconsider their power/normal users who multi-task. Just bringing back the taskbar would remedy a lot of hurt.

i will never be upgrading from 10.10 until metacity is returned
if unity becomes the only window manager
i will be forced to sell my soul to microsoft

I have tried unity for a few days, and switched back to 'ubuntu classic' by selecting that session before logging in. Now all is fine, back to normal.
(I remove the bottom bar, and put the window selector in the top bar.. I use AWN with window dodge for my dock bar - I remove the full ubuntu menu and replace with gnome menu to save horizontal space on top bar)

My issues with Unity:
1) It will not autohide the sidebar by default - but you can fix that with compiz settings
2) The icons in the side bar are way too big - again can fix in compiz settings with CCSM (just add it from ubuntu software centre)
3) Cannot move the bar anywhere else on the screen - very annoying..
4) Where's my gnome menu (or equivalent menu)? - impossible to find applications unless you know the name.. and many apps won't have names that make sense to people not used to Linux. I want a pull down menu for all applications ... the search too is just a nice extra feature in my opinion.
5) No more gnome bar applets! annoying - no nice world time/calendar, weather... no more sticky notes..etc..
6) Mac style menus on the bar at the top of the screen rather than in active window... very very very annoying, especially with large screens/multiple monitors..
7) Close window/minimise button on left.. can be fixed by tweaking theme. similar issue I dealt with in the previous releases of ubuntu.


The argument about saving vertical screen space for net-books seems weak to me - just use F11.. full-screen when you need to.

If Ubuntu can fix all those issues I mention unity might actually be ok... but I can see the current form of Unity is going to put off a lot of would-be/recent converts to Linux.

Same here , I downloaded and tried out ubuntu 11.04 and these idiots have made the GUI horribly confusing. What i think is that they tried to make it like the Mac OS and failed . I was totally suprised .. that some duck came up with this piece of idea and and the remaining bunch of idiots supported it , and still not happy they actually released it. Though i switched back to ubuntu classic but still the system is quite unstable. the clickpad doesn't work , no support for switchable graphics . Surely this time Ubuntu failed . I think i have to look out to some other distro.

I was curious and tried out Unity on my desktop. Horrible shit. I didn't understand a thing. Half an hour later I gave up and deinstalled it.
(Lxde is my favourite from now on.)

Have to point some things here. I first got into Linux because I saw the difference between it and Windows (then XP SP2)...

There was a *major* learning curve but I had a Linux Mentor so I logged on and started to install Arch Wombat.

I hated it. Took me ages to learn simple things like the different Bootloaders. I couldn't Dir anything, couldn't quit Man pages, had to learn about different shells, the 'niz architecture. I mean archetecture*S* but that's another story. The list went on but after a couple of weeks becoming able to ls -al or ps aux | grep myprog and I listening to him piss himself laughing. Command history? WTF is THAT? I'd ask.

So I built a GUI from scratch but could never run CS:S on Wine or anything else. I had a 4xGPU Nvidia system that cost a fortune and still had to dual-boot for gaming.

Moving on a few years and Ubu really went mainstream. I learnt to love Gnome, manually installed Compiz... It was painful but well worth it.

As things progressed installing Ubu because a matter of throwing a CD at a machine and making a cup of coffee.

I finally had it all. Stability, speed, eye-candy, usability and every software tool you could (not?) imagine.

The problem is that Unity has been "rushed to market". It be a Free product, but it's still not really worthy of a Production Version.

it's supposed to be a GUI to the machine. OK, so I Windows install. In Gnome you...

Open the computer, right click the 'blows partition and search it.

In Unity you have to work out how to manually start Nautilus. Then fart about for hours doing a task that used to take under 10 seconds.

That's just a small example of the hell these problems are causing users.

People use Ubu for productivity. I get paid by the hour to do a job. If I don't get it done and done well, I not only lose the job, but also the customer. And any repeat business I might have got. I also get my reputation damaged when he tells his associates I can't Deliver.

So let's get into the obligatory fanboy territory all the rant lead to.

* It's "Community-Lead"
Ans: No it bloody is NOT! Mark Shuttlworth and many other senior Devs have all gone on record to say decisions are made by The Management. You're free to go elsewhere it you don't like it. Hence the reason there's no official method to vote for new features, etc on the wiki or official forums.

* It's new, it's gonna be buggy.
Ans: You use M$ a LOT don't you? I shouldn't have to wait 6 months to lose MORE productivity screwing about with Service Packs.

* Gnome 3? Gnome's been late before that's why they took Unity in-house!
Ans: yeah Gnome HAS. Precisely because the Dev team would NOT inflict a flawed product on the world. See also: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows Vista, Ubuntu's Unity.

* It's FREE!
Ans: If I lose my income because I can't perform basic tasks or software like Gimp, Blender Audacity, oO, etc because of the interface it's costing me money. So I AM paying for it.

* It's stable!
Ans: Right now it can take bloody AGES to boot (*IF* it boots), is STILL dogged by the "old" hibernation problems, and now even just freezes out (and by Freeze I mean you can't even to shell out to a CLI freeze. Oh and try to slap a SD card in it. back up your files first though, since there is HIGH likelyhood they will be corrupted. And don't blame card OR reader. The last release needed a card in at boottime but after that it was fine. And all the tested still work fine on other machines with the previous Release.

So I'm now in the position I'm booting back to Windows and installing software JUST TO GET THINGS DONE.

And I'm sorry, I just don't have time to waste RTFM. Most are seriously crap anyway, many are just plain outdated and wrong - and searching the net just leads to millions of pages like this.

If Ubuntu wants to be a player as a fully fledged GUI OS and get in the ring with M$ and Apple (which it was maturing into nicely) then it's seriously out of the game now. The Bright Young Blade who *was* a Contender For The crown has fallen into a life of the wrong crowd, probably drugs and turned into a Petulant Teenager who refuses to even clean his room let alone be nice and polite to guests. Basically, it's embarrassing. It needs some time in detox to work out when it all started going wrong.

All in all this is a MAJOR blunder by Canonical. Those of us with the resilience and prior knowledge will probably work out to dump Unity and get our "old" GUIs and WM's installed.

In the meantime Ubu has become an OS I would never recommend to even an advance user of another OS. And I'm certain I'm not alone. And THAT will end up cost Canonical both custom and reputation.

I've even heard the phrase a few times now "they're becoming the new M$". I think that alone speaks for itself. So I've decided to follow my M$-Theology. Let 'em see other people's ideas, try and fail to copy them as they Rush To Market to be THE FIRST... and then wait at least six months later for them to iron out the bugs, close (some) of the holes and actually "finish" what I'd call a Version 1 before even touching it with a bargepole.

Now I'm a real Ubu Fan. Ask anyone who knows me. So it's with a heavy heart I'll have my say and let the Flamers call me a n00b and tell me what a moron I am for daring to live in the real world and say it like is.

Hello,
Just to say i've tried Unity and i didn't like it very much. it was slow to react on my computer and still very buggy.
So i installed Gnome-shell and it works like a charm, better integration and less buggy. Canonical says that Gnome3 is not ready, but unity neither. So i'll stay with Gnome-shell even if it s not perfect (it is far less rubbish than the actual unity) it s the future of gnome in my opinion.
But even if i was a little dissapointed by Ubuntu they made quality distro until now, so wait and see what unity can be...

Try Linux Mint, simply a great distro based on ubuntu, but a lot nicer.   Personally don't care much for Ubuntu at all.   Atleast go with Xubuntu if you're on a netbook.    Unit looks like something Apple would cough up, and yikes..who wants that.

What a bunch of fags, what is wrong with unity,
it seems like you are anti-progress activist.
Dude, unnity is awsome, sure it have some bugs but dude,DUDE did you ever use windows??

I cant believe how much unity sucks! Mint linux here I come.

hello andreas

i got to this article after a google search for "ubuntu unity bottom"

i'm trying to find a way to move the launcher to the bottom of the screen

unity does suck enormously

Unity,cannot remove or hide the top panel, what the FXXX? Mark SXXx,You think you are GOD, and can decide it for us, idiot!!!

I upgraded to unity interface as part of ubuntu 11.04 and my first impression was not good. Its little fancy but hard to use and customizable interface. I hated the global menu bar where I have to select the app first to see its menu. I am going back to gnome. Unity sucks

It does suck. Dropping ubuntu for fedora.

I know lots of people are expressing their dislike of the new Unity desktop on 11.04.  I made myself use it for a week and really started to like it.  It was abysmally slow however - an issue I tracked down to something that happened to my Nvidia drivers when I upgraded.  After reinstalling nvidia-common, rebooted, Unity runs like a "dream" (and not a bad dream).  And for those that still have problems with speed, there's always Unity 2D (sudo aptitude install unity-2d).

Still, it takes some getting used to, I personally have always felt out of sorts on Mac because of the global menu, and for me this is a nice compromise that will help me look like less of an idiot when working on one of my client's Macs.  To me, its a welcome addition to my desktop.

I know not everyone is going to like it - so to each his own.

Happy computing!

Understandably, there are always going to be those that like a given thing and those that don't.  I mean no offense to those that do like unity, (for whatever completely non-understandable reason). ;-) There I JEST only...well kinda...

None the less, Ok fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion.  As for mine?  UNITY needs to be put back into the devil's toilet where it was born.  I seriously HATE it and try as I might I can find NOTHING I like about it.  Not only is it NOT pretty, it is completely non-intuitive, and for the love of pete, WTF is that sidebar about???

I too upgraded my well loved ubu-box only to reboot into this "Unity", which is I must say...TOTALLY WORTHLESS.  How horribly, horribly sad, for Ubuntu.  Which, (despite many many ridiculous irritations), was my favorite simply because so much worked "out of the box".  Now I have to find a new favorite.  I will never install another ubuntu distro again that includes this wretched, flaming pile of dog crap.

All in all I really can't think of words strong enough to describe how horrid it is and what a mistake I consider it for Ubuntu to have chosen it.  For crap sakes Ubuntu Mates, at least you could have embraced KDE, Xfce or for that matter nearly ANYTHING else!

Gnome was great, KDE livable, but UNITY??? AWEFUL!

Yes it sucks and I uninstalled it (on two machines so far).

I f..ing hate unity! Everything was really nice and slick in 10.10. I mean, I always expect serious changes in features, but Unity turned out to be useless.

> An always visible sidebar?

It's a bug. It shouldn't be always visible.

Author! Kill yourself fast! Unity is useful and comfortable thing. And it is good to use it. And everything Mark makes is good!

I agree, Unity Sucks.  It's a damn mess, totally unintuitive.  I'd like a menu not a friggin search box.

I've been using linux on the desktop long before ubuntu ever came along. But even at that I found ubuntu to be the best desktop experience I had experienced up until Unity and 11.04. This is truly the work of the devil. I wasn't shouting "Satan get thee behind me." I was shouting "Unity, your a piece of total shit."

I went into a huge rant after finding that the only way to have even a minimal, usable machine after installing this was to login under the old way of doing things. Yet, the classic wasn't much better and didn't work correctly. After much emotional turmoil, I decided to lay hands on my machine and provide an exorcism to throw out the evil one whom took over that which he had no business to do.

After a few spiritual moments had passed, I found the machine still booted to the lame Unity 11.04 installation. Time was failing me fast and something had to remove the devil from my box.

A few moments of prayer was helping, and the answer came.

rm -fr /

It worked. The devil was gone. However, the box that I had worked so hard to de-devil, had now died in the process.

Soon after, a miracle happened. I was enlightened and had found the answers I had been seeking. It may have not been satan the devil, But rather a company called Cononical playing head games with me to see how I would react under enormous amounts of stress and tension.

After re-evaluating my relationship I had with what I had believed to be the devil in my box, I found answers to questions I didn't know I had.

My box again lives as a new entity. Under the guise of what it had been prior. And the revelation came to me saying... "Seek not Unity with those that worship themselves and their own ways."

Case closed. Unity when describing it in terms of Ubuntu indeed sucks.

I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a blank hard drive to check it out.  I have to agree that Unity truly sucks.  I did not find it slow or buggy, (once I installed the latest nVidia drivers, which is an adventure).  I tried it out for a week to give it a fair chance.  My experience with it is very similar to those posted above.  (Excellent posts by the way.)  

So, now that the horse is dead, let's whip it some more shall we.

1.  Don't like the Single menu bar at the top.  I've used all Windows, Macs, and Linux, for many, many, many years, and I find the Mac-like menu the most painful.  I have large, hi-res, multi-screen displays with many apps open at the same time, and it is simply too painful to use.  If your application, with all its buttons, is at the bottom of the screen, and your menu is at the top... What a pain.  It's Insane!  It's like using global variables in a C++ app.  It's a throwback to 1984.

2.  I don't like the sidebar.  When I click on one of the sidebar buttons, I get a window full of junk.  For those of us that have been using Ubuntu, or any other distro for many years, we are lost.  They've removed all the complicated and advanced stuff so that newbies don't accidentally click on it.  The problem is that if you have to do something advanced, (and since it's linux, you will), it's now more difficult to find.  So now it's harder for advanced users to navigate, and even harder for a newbie to poke around and figure out.  This is why I hated every new release of Windows and switched to Linux.  Just when you figured out how to navigate to the button which activates some essential, but arcane aspect of the system, they move it.  It's not better, it's only different, and harder to find.

3.  Rather than switch to Unity by default, they should have made it an option or released it separately.  If people wanted to switch to it in droves, they would do so without being forced.  Perhaps they think the Unity interface is somewhat trendy, but so is the Wii controller.  I'm sure replacing your mouse with a Wii controller would be cool and fun for about the first 30 minutes.  After a couple of days you might even get the hang of it, but you would still ditch it for a mouse.  (Same goes for touchscreen+windex interface).  I think that's the way most users feel about Unity.

4.  I've been using cairo-dock (GLX-dock) for a couple of years.  (I switched from awn, you should too.)  It is awesome.  Not that Gnome Panel was bad, I just found it a bit pedestrian, and booring.  Straight out of the box it's cool, intuitive, and useful.  It has a familiar Gnome menu applet if that's what you prefer.  It has a fairly simple gui interface with context sensitive help which allows you to trick out the eye-candy enough to make everyone's jaw drop.  I use compiz to complete the eye-candy for switching between apps, or desktop special effects.  This combination blows everything else out of the water.  The main thing is that I do not sacrifice functionality for all this eye-candy.  I would love to have this combination on my HTC Incredible Droid.  It would make the device live up to its name.

So, after a week of Unity, I un-installed it from 11.04 and installed glx-dock + compiz.  There was talk that Canonical was thinking about going this same route.  I strongly encourage them, (and you), to do the same regardless of what they do.  If they make it so that I can't use this combination, I will be moving to a different distro, (I've used, SUSE, Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, and settled on Ubuntu).  Ubuntu was getting better and better until this train wreck 11.04 occurred.  Truly a "Jump the Shark" moment in Linux history.

Horrible user interface. They should warn us about major changes. Ubuntu is becoming evil.

Just when things are going well....someone from
Microsoft sneaks in and wrecks everything..as least
it looks that way to me. I started out with 9.04,
then 9.10, then the "super-os" version of 9.10
which I LOVED due to not having to set up flash,
Java, etc. Recently upgraded to 10.04 LTS, but
when support runs out in 2013 it sounds like I should
go to another distro....as I have tried 11.04 and
its just trash....too "Microsofty" for me. No thanks!
My original attraction to Linux was it was DOS-LIKE,
which I grew up with in the 80's. I like the
low-level terminal commands and what you can do
with them. Not to mention the increased security.
But having said that, 10.04 will allow me to
mount the Windows-side of my HDD with NO password,
unlike 9.10, which required one.

Then there is the "office" change....why abandon
OpenOffice ???  In my neck of the woods, "you
dance with who brung you"....and if it works don't
fix it. I hope the Ubuntu developers are listening...

The problem with the Unity interface is that apparently Ubuntu dont consider that we like how it looks and works with gnome, we do not need something new flashy fancy shit that does not work satisfactory.

I managed to discover something called MINT XFCE which will someday probably replace my ubuntu, which is running 11.04 in gnome mode minus effects (via login menu options).

I hope the ubuntu team comes to grip with themselves and backtrack on their stupid unity idea. If anything they should have improved on the gnome interface, not made a graphically inferior load of hogwash.

Thank god for the option to use ubuntu classic minus effects in login screen, - that is the only reason why I still run ubuntu and have not gone through the complete reformat reinstall procedure thingy.

And Ubuntu team, give people a choice, dont just change everything for the sake of changing things. Apparently their philosophy is warped.

- The dork.

Unity is slow and laggs on my i7 gaming desktop with 4 gb ram and an saphire readon hd 5770 1gb gpu. It should have run smothly with that setup...

I've a great idea.  Let's offer an interface that is slower, has less flexibility, and offers no improvements.  We will call it Sucks.

No, that is a terrible name.  Call it Unity.

Fuck You! Unity is awsome!

Please don't use  rm -fr /  as it will wipe your entire hard disk drive!

I'm also of the opinion that Ubuntu Unity is absolutely painful to use and look at. It beats the purpose of ease of use.

Okay... so I haven't read anyone put a solution up for this crappy unity problem.

11.04 ubuntu ships with classic gnome. Just access it in system settings. type in the filter login screen and you can select gnome classic (or classic ubuntu).  You'll be good to go after that.

I personally just did this and am very glad that I did.

I think Unity sucks too. They're trying to make it look like a MAC which I loathe.

They're trying to make it look like an "Eye Candy" OS like Vista. We all know how that went.

Who does think Unity is good? It's rubbish. Unity is a simple interface for a mobile phone.
Linux is not just for a mobile.
Desktop environments are different.
But Ubuntu Unity doesn't reflect this difference.
I want old gnome desktop environments until UBUNTU 10.04 LTS on next generation UBUNTUs

Just upgraded one of my Ubuntu installations... Can't find or do anything anymore. Everything looks like the OS detected that I suffered from severe myopia ...and/or that I wasn't using more than 6 applications. Where are all the nice widgets? How do we get rid of that crap? It's all good for an iPad kind of thing for the very low end user, but on a PC... REALLY? It's getting so Mac-ish... The HUGE launcher bar, the useless top bar which, sometimes, becomes the application menu... Makes me sick.

Now on, when something really bad happens, we can say "OMG, that's the worst thing since Ubuntu Unity!! Oh wait, it's not THAT bad.."

maybe they will fix bugs in Ubuntu Unity.
me also facing many bugs in Ubuntu 11.04

Ubuntu unity is very very horrible. I really hope that they do not continue this and absolutely remove it.

My biggest fear is that they will get rid of the 'classic' and MAKE us use this crappy interface.

Hi.

I'm 41 yo, I use computers since 1982 (Sinclair ZX81).
I own a very small (but prosperous) IT and electronics shop. I sell, repair, maintain and assist computers and other electronic devices.
I'm a programmer (PC and micro-controllers ), web designer, web master, web hosting provider and an IT teacher.
I had the misfortune to be born in Portugal, that's why I have to do all that just to make a living.
I'm making sure that my kids learn proper English so they can escape this financial and economic hell hole.

Oh, yes... the English language. I'm really sorry for the crappy English, but I learn English by myself, studying at home and watching documentaries and some TV series. Nonetheless I presume it will be all understandable.
Hey... If you prefer I can write in Portuguese :)

unity... unity.
Well... I just hate unity. I don't have soft dislikes, I have major f***ing hatreds.

Linux started it's life in the bottom, as an "ultra-geek", almost unusable, OS. You had to be a third degree geek just to install it and a rocket scientist to change a configuration.
DE's like unity and gnome 3 are making Linux hit the bottom on the other side: Now is a toy OS for stupid cattle.

Let me take a moment to clarify what I mean by "stupid cattle":
Those sorry, shallow and marginally educated people that compose most of the human race.
That kind of low IQ people that use their overpriced crappy phones and netbooks bought on credit (to impress the rest of the cattle) just to check if someone like them left another moronic, badly written comment on their pathetic facebook pictures.
Hey... Don't complain! I've warned you: I have major f***ing hatreds!

So... unity hit the DE bottom. Which, paradoxically... is good!
Because nowadays 90% (if not more) of all computer users are stupid cattle who can barely read each others comments on "Face5" and "HiBook".
A fully graphic oriented OS is an added value for people like this. Letters are way too complicated and confusing for them, let alone easy access to configuration settings. Wow... That would be a major liability! Someone might accidentally change the colour of a "little picture" and have to throw the "ubuntu computer" away.

On the other hand this philosophy to make everything easy and "learn free" is a major contribution to make the cattle even more stupid. Which is possible, although difficult to believe.

Like I've said I'm an IT teacher in a public university. I don't know how are the students in other countries, but you cannot possibly imagine how stupid, dumb, ignorant, uneducated, unrespectful and, at the same time, arrogant is the average student here.
There are of course some rare bright sparks, but the rest is just as dark as a coal mine, as dumb as sac of potatoes. Just a bunch of cells walking around on a pair of shoes.

Let's face it: That appalling piece of software (unity) is exactly what the cattle need to run the only three "applications" they will ever use in their void and meaningless lives: facebook, messenger and "the internet".
The most "enlightened computer experts" will use a fourth application to make lame and pathetic "power points" about some kind of god or some fake kid with a disease that will cause very deep and primary emotions to the rest of the cattle.

Yeah... That's it Canonic, just go ahead with that moronic DE. That's what the majority of the users need to be able to use a computer and be entertained with bright colours and sparkling pictures.
But be aware: Ubuntu will loose it's reason to exist (as an alternative) by trying to be like the mainstream OS'es (Windows and MacOS). If I wanted to use a cr*p OS I'll use an original one, not a copy!

Personally I'll stick with GNOME 2.3x for a long time.

Yes, I am very disappointed with the path of humanity and miss the times when Darwin laws kept our species evolving.
If you feel offended by my statements: (Hold on to your hat) You are part of the cattle and I'm not interested in your comments!

Best Regards.

I agree 100%. No more will I blindly upgrade with Ubuntu. I am a veteran of the OS, having been a user since v6.

Oh- and be CAREFUL with 11.04. It crashed my external hdd. which I will now load with Ubuntu 8.04

BTW- for someone who hasn't ever studied English- yours is great. Eu intendu que Ingles nao e facil de aprender.Sorry for the lack of Portuguese accents, that's something else that stinks in 10.10, locating the keyboard language switching controls.

Unity sucks sooooooo bad.  Gnome 3 is actually worse.

I hate unity sooo fuckin` much...damn it

Install gnome-session-fallback and you'll be fine. Also you may want to know that Gnome is NOT the only DE, install LXDE, KDE or XFCE and you will also be fine.

If you like move-focus instead of click-focus, as I do, then Unity is a clusterfuck.  I'm trying to roll with it, but it's very difficult.  One of the reasons I didn't get a Mac was....I didn't want a Mac.  Oh, well, I have one now.

Oh yeah, and if you have a terminal open, just try to open a new terminal from the dock.  I dare you.  Yeah, I know, I can use shift-ctrl-T or shift-ctrl-N but before I could just click the icon I had at the top of the screen.

And try, just try, to use the desktop switcher if you have more than four desktops.  Ugh.

Writing this from my DROID.  I finally got tired of my dell mini getting slower and slower after this unity update and got around to trying to edit the desktop settings.  Although my sidebar would auto-hide I just did not like the launcher's limited capabilities (or lack thereof).  I tried to change some desktop settings via the launcher and searched for "system".  To make a long story short, from within the "help" function I managed to change some settings and closed out the desktop settings and voila... the help screen is open with no launcher or taskbars to undo any changes.  Now after a reboot, I have a very annoying black screen with a blinking cursor.  I will have to yank the hard drive and replace it with another because I will have to find time to recover any pictures and files on the drive....meanwhile, I will never be an ubuntu user again.  I have added ubuntu as a dual option to add to their windows machines and already have complaints rolling in.  Looks like I have a lot of work to do.  Thanks to the developers for the royal f@@king I have received.

Don't know what happened there in the last sentences... I added ubuntu as a dual boot option to around 35 customer machines and after this update it looks like I have some work to do.  Those who I have added ubuntu dual boot are severely dissatisfied and some are even angry to the point that I am right now.  Where did the concern of the users become a disregarded element in the decision making process for the developers?  Ubuntu is history in my book.  I have a few other distributions that were like the old ububtu 9 versions.  I enjoyed the desktop cube and other flashy options that made ubuntu great...multiple desktops seems to be gone....or at least the switcher is gone from the toolbar.... this was a huge step back for ubuntu unless, of course, the developers are working with Microsoft.

Well..after the flashing cursor sat there for 15 minutes, it finally booted to a blank desktop...one icon for downloads and that's it.  I can right click and create a new launcher but have no idea what command will bring me back to a functioning operating system.  Anybody know a command that will allow me to get back to the desktop settings?

I found the unity interface in 11.04 tolerable, but upon upgrading to 11.10 they changed it once again leaving no access to the regular menu. I understand that this is a logical step towards capabilities for touch screen users, but you can't leave regular desktop folks behind. I've ditched Ubuntu completely and have gone back to Debian. Mint is probably the best option for less savvy linux users.

Well, I'm a new Linux user (started to get fed up with Windows) and from a new guy who only had magic box (pt: caixa magica) linux based OS which created a terrible impression on me, Ubuntu really got me spiked and I'm now using it more than Windows (still need office and im trying to figure out Wine).

bye bye ubuntu.
11.10=unusable for me.
tried install gnome-panel, fail.
unity = mac-wannabe, slow, ugly, annoying.

now what? debian or opensuse?

I just installed 11.10 and noticed that there is no "classic" session, only unity crap.
I stayed with Ubuntu since version 9, but forcing this shitty Unity will cause my migration to other Linux distro.
It is so inflexible that I cannot understand they released it for ALL flavours of Ubuntu.

Unity may be great for tablets, but in a desktop environment it sucks big time. They should have added it as an option only.

I switched out of Ubuntu Desktop after they launched Unity. I am now using Kubuntu and I am extremely satisfied. My kids are even using Kubuntu on their laptops. Bye Ubuntu Desktop. :)

Unity - Dumbed-down Linux for Dumbed-down users!

And maybe the new Ubuntu slogan should be "UBUNTU:  Linux for Human Beings (with an IQ of about 12)"

It makes my computer look like a Fisher-Price toy (and about as useful)

Gooooooodbye Ubuntu. UNITY SUCKS!

Going back to Suse.

hi all
i would post questions and explain why you feel the way you so to this url.

://askubuntu.com/questions/ask?tags=unity

my feeling is they should continue with gnome 2.3 and modify it to the 11.10 server as a fork they can keep unity but give us a choice

I installed Gnome 3.2 on Ubuntu 11.10, and realize that Gnome 3.2 is going toward Unity!
What a nightmare!
Than I was thinking of Windows, and saw Windows 8 promo video... WTF? They are infected with "Unitysm" (same stupid USELESS interface)..
So, it looks like Insanity & Stupidity rulz this world :-(

Haha, I agree with you 100%.

I am a software developer myself and I hate to say someone's work "sucks". But Unity is just WAYYYYY to new to be thrusted down everyone's throats.

C'mon guys, it's still pre-alpha. Why force everyone to use without even offering a gnome 2 fallback. AND NO, Gnome 3 is still bad compared to gnome 2 and customizability, but it's better than Unity.

I tried Unity for weeks, it was just horribly impossible to get work done.

I'm now trying: sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

I still run ubuntu 10.04. My friends have upgraded to 10.10 but i'm glad they upgraded before me. 11.10 is probably the ugliest thing i've seen and I hate the interface. I wish they would rollback. Until then i'll stick with 10.04 until I really need to upgrade.

I apparently can't run Ubuntu Unity - not enough video card juice. I guess Ubuntu has decided to go with a special group of hardware - just like Apple and Microsoft is designed for the latest $1000 in your pocket.

Though I've long suspected it, Unity is proof that every employee in the UI department at Canonical should be fired.
This is quite frankly, one of the ugliest and most headache-inducing backward designs I've ever seen, and looks like it was designed by a child with no clue as to use of color and clean design.
Is it THAT hard to hire a few decent artists vs more engineers who have no clue as to what they are doing in terms of making an attractive UI? Let the artists decide the layout, the engineers code it to make it happen.

And before people think I just hate Ubuntu...uh, no. This is coming from someone who used Ubuntu regularly, simply because it had a well-rounded set of features baked in when it first came around [not so unique anymore].

Can I just suggest that the only rational explanation for how horrible Unity and Gnome 3 are is that Microsoft or other terrified proprietary competitors have planted moles on the dev team to destroy this once awesome interface and cause the slow death and abandonment of Ubuntu.  Nothing less could explain this unspeakably horrible trainwreck of an "upgrade" to such a previously awesome system.

Unity sux so much – let Canonical know! Sign this petition (futile or not, just let them know) – http://www.petitionbuzz.com/pe … ons/ubuntu – and share it!

Not only is Unity a terrible user interface that makes Ubuntu unusable, but they are being openly hostile towards the vast majority of existing users, who hate Unity.

Ubuntu has jumped the shark.  Since most of us are switching to Xfce or KDE there seems to be no good reason to continue using Ubuntu at all.  By the time Shuttleworth realizes that Unity was one huge mistake, it will probably be too late to save Ubuntu.

It's been a great five years with Ubuntu, but I have now switched to Debian.

I thought first that once I'll get used to this Unity thing, then I'll be Ok with it. However the more I use it, the more I am irritated with it. This UNITY just sucks big...

Alright, everyone. Let's stick it to Cannonical for disfiguring a good Linux distro & send them a popular petition...

Attach this link to every forum you go to:

http://img13.imageshack.us/img … ubuntu.png

Use it as a signature on every forum you sign up in, post it in every image board you go to, share it across the web & even post it on Ubuntu's support forum! Let's show them that many users are NOT happy with the abrupt change & that we AT LEAST want an option to bring back the old desktop.

I had Ubuntu U.E. 2.8 based on 10.04. I upgraded (and I should know better) to 11.04. I saw the change and I also don't like Unity. What was worse is that I updated to 11.11 or the newest version. Yet a bigger change to Unity. My monitor settings got overlay-ed on 25 % of my desktop screen within a white backdrop that I could not get rid of. Next time I will use auto for my Nvidia settings. I would recommend to all NEVER upgrade. Do a fresh install. I did just that and am now using U.E. 2.9 which is 10.10 ubuntu  and back to good old GNOME.

I extremely hate this new gui of Ubuntu called Unity. I'm going to install windows again or trying another Linux distro.

After two years of being a fan of Ubuntu,  I just removed Ubuntu 11.1 due the hatred I grew toward Unity and installed Windows 7. Good bye Ubuntu...

I'm confused.  Unity isn't in 10.10.  It was first in 11.04 then 11.10, but not in 10.10.  So, starting off by complaining about Unity in 10.10 sort of diminishes your credentials as an experienced user.  If you're going to complain make sure you know what you're complaining about.  Unity is new, and I think it's awesome that it's caused an exodus of such rainy-day fans.  This is what happens when the envelope is pushed in environment of entitled people who do little to contribute but do a lot to judge.  I'm sure Gnome took a while to get where it is.  People prolly ditched it a lot too.  I never used it.  Instead, I always used cairo-dock.  That's the beauty of Ubuntu - you can change it if you don't like it.  Disable Unity, install a dock.  I bet it would take less time and effort than you spend blogging complaints.

wow... @jwdinkc you are right! the cairo-dock is great! and the installation is super easy:
https://help.ubuntu.com/commun … /CairoDock


but how to disable Unity?

I have been with Ubuntu from the very beginning  but I am uninstalling this version 11 10...I will install Mint ...I cannot believe this piece of rotten filth that goes by the name of UNITY....whoever created this and whoever allowed this PIECE OF FU#%IN@ CRAP to foist itself on our computers needs a severe talking too..And thats being kind....GARBAGE

I really loved the old gnome desktop. With Unity, they've taken something so simple and made it user-unfriendly like Windows 7. The application menu (dash) is no longer organized for easy location because everything is all lumped together where you have to scroll through every application. Who the Hell thought this would be friggin' nifty? the stupid ap launcher is tolerable compared to the rest of it. It takes me minutes to do what I used to be able to do in seconds. It's like a jumbled unorganized filing cabinet. I can't even do something as simple as clearing my recently viewed documents without jumping through a bunch of flaming hoops. In addition, too many of the left mouse functions are non-existent. True, some feature seem to be an improvement, but the over all user-unfriendliness created greatly outweighs its advances.

I'm a professional scientist and did most of my work on Ubuntu until now.

I agree totally with the above. Ubuntu WAS pretty good. A nice alternative to Windows (that I only use for things like Photoshop). I installed the latest Ubuntu with the Unity desktop and then uninstalled it immediately. WHAT THE HELL HAVE THEY DONE?! Looks like windows FOR CHILDREN!
...and what was I supposed to do with all the childish buttons anyway?

I have now installed an earlier version with a normal desktop. I then selected "autohide" for the sidebar and it disappeared FOREVER.

Will now be looking for alternatives to Ubuntu.

They are clearly trying to make if "FOR EVERYONE". I used because it wasn't for everyone.

Marcel.

You're not wrong. I only just got around to upgrading and now I can see what you all were raging about.

A friend of mine blogged a set of tips which go some way towards alleviating the horribleness: http://digitalraven.dreamwidth … 85438.html

I tried 11.10 then re-installed 11.04. 11.10 is a toy and I use my machine for work. Boo Ubuntu!

I really am peed off with this new gnome desktop, I need to use my machine to get on with work, and its  like somebody came into my office and re-organized it while I was away,and who ever did it was more interested it how my desk looked than getting any work done. Sadly even fedora seems to have done something similarly stupid, and that is not giving you any option to stick with the old setup.
This is all being driven by tablet wars, but there must be thousands if not millions of us for whom this finger poking joke is almost enough to drive us back to Windows.  For now Im staying on 10.04LTS but I am really sore that I have no choice. I hope somebody sees sense and gives us at least an option to revert.