lol so decided to give Unity a second try

Red Squirrel · 02-22-2013, 10:47 PM

Been trying out different distros as I plan to do a clean install and figured I may as well look at what my other options are. Started with Fedora Core 18 with Gnome. (default) Did not realize they went the Unity route too but thought I'd give it a chance. It REALLY is TERRIBLE. OMG lol, it's just so unusable. It's pretty much like Windows 8, if worse. I want to try to give it a chance, but it's just so unusable. The classic concept of a desktop with icons and a start menu simply works. I don't know why everybody tries to change it.

Definitely not going to use this. Going to have to try the KDE one. I really hope OS software devs stop messing around with critical UI elements like this. Leave the desktop and start menu alone, it works!

Demo24 · 02-23-2013, 08:02 AM

That's not unity, gnome3 is called something else and yes it is horrible to use. Unity is what canonical has done with ubuntus default design. This I actually like and use on a regular basis at work, in fact gotten so use to it I attempted to convert fedora to use it, no luck and went back Ubuntu. At first I disliked unity, but with 12.04 and up I've enjoyed it.

Jodell88 · 02-23-2013, 09:00 AM

I really don't know why people dislike Gnome Shell so much. I find it a joy to use. To each their own I guess.

black0ut · 02-23-2013, 06:22 PM

Why not try out the huge list of other DEs other than gnome and kde? Lightweight window managers like icewm, fluxbox, or full DEs like lxde or xfce. I have ALWAYS preferred those to gnome and kde.

Red Squirrel · 02-23-2013, 06:23 PM

Did not realize that was actually gnome itself. Is Unity that much different then?

Gnome (at least classic) was good, but this crap is just unusable. Nothing is at my finger tips, I have to work hard to get to anything. I managed to open a web browser, but I have no clue what I did. Traditional desktop and start menu is the way to go. Everybody including Microsoft keeps trying to reinvent the GUI interface. Stop it! it works the way it is.

I'd say the only nice thing is the search, but if you don't know what you're searching for. (ex: want to open a command, or file manager, what if you have no clue what those apps are called)

Red Squirrel · 02-23-2013, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by black0ut

Why not try out the huge list of other DEs other than gnome and kde? Lightweight window managers like icewm, fluxbox, or full DEs like lxde or xfce. I have ALWAYS preferred those to gnome and kde.

Yeah trying different ones now. I'm actually using XFCE now, I like it, but just wanted to see what else is out there as well so that was the first thing I tried since it's the Fedora default. I'm going to be trying Linux Mint next. I got it installed in a VM but it's not the same, but it looks good in the VM so I will probably install it on another drive to play with more deeply. I forget the name of the GUI it uses but think it's based on KDE.

I know I can install a DE in any distro, but I'm dealing with enough computer problems so not going to start making changes that arn't "standard" as it's only going to add another variable.

TSDible · 02-23-2013, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Squirrel

Yeah trying different ones now. I'm actually using XFCE now, I like it, but just wanted to see what else is out there as well so that was the first thing I tried since it's the Fedora default. I'm going to be trying Linux Mint next. I got it installed in a VM but it's not the same, but it looks good in the VM so I will probably install it on another drive to play with more deeply. I forget the name of the GUI it uses but think it's based on KDE.

I know I can install a DE in any distro, but I'm dealing with enough computer problems so not going to start making changes that arn't "standard" as it's only going to add another variable.

You can get Mint with several different DE.

The default is MATE or Cinnamon. I'm using Cinnamon myself right now... I like it. I still may go back to XFCE though.

KlokWyze · 02-24-2013, 01:48 PM

Mint XFCE is nice! Just put on my laptop as a VM after reading this thread.

Shadowknight · 02-26-2013, 05:00 AM

I'm using Mate myself. The only thing I'm missing is compiz (which they're eventually adding compatibility) and a couple of keyboard shortcuts, which I suspect may be due to Xubuntu using Thunar instead of Nautilus.

Stone Rain · 02-26-2013, 08:12 AM

Strange, I love Unity.

VinDSL · 02-27-2013, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodell88

I really don't know why people dislike Gnome Shell so much. I find it a joy to use. To each their own I guess.

Just gotta tease it, a little...

Red Squirrel · 02-27-2013, 10:56 PM

That actually looks better than what I thought was unity, which turns out it's just regular gnome 3. I actually see an Application menu and overall more stuff to get to places, which I was not seeing in the default FC18 install. I might have to try it out actually. I wrongly bashed it as I thought what I saw was Unity.

VinDSL · 02-28-2013, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Squirrel

That actually looks better than what I thought[...]

I might have to try it out actually. I wrongly bashed it as I thought what I saw was Unity.

Yeah, I'm running a dev version -- "Gnome 3 Staging", so called -- currently @ Gnome 3.7.90

Gnome 3 is getting better all the time! I used to hate it, too. Only reason I used Gnome 3 (in the past) was for tweaking my Unity config files (Unity is built on top of Gnome 3), e.g. I used Gnome 3 as a Unity development tool.

Gnome is like a blank canvas. As you said, with the default settings, it's practically unusable.

To be fair, that applies to a lot of Linux DEs -- Openbox comes to mind.

The Applications & Places menu buttons, in the top left corner, are Extensions. The Dropbox & Desktop Number Indicator, on the right corner are also Extensions. I'm also running many other Extensions that you cannot see.

Extensions are available here: https://extensions.gnome.org/

They are stupid simple to install -- just point n' click.

The "dock" on the left side (you can place it anywhere you want) is an app called "Plank" (a Docky fork). Many, many more docks are available, but I prefer Plank because it's very easy to config, and doesn't get in the way. And, of course, that's Conky on the right side (widgets).

Anyway, give it a week or two -- play around with it -- and, you might find Gnome 3 more palatable.

Gnome is in heavy development, right now.

It's one of those distros that grows on you, once you get it config'ed to YOUR liking.