Ubuntu Unity – The Last Straw!

The whole point about Linux, surely, is that it gives freedom back to the user.

So what’s with Ubuntu? I got used to the buttons suddenly going on the other side of the window bar in 10.04, but this whole Unity thing now has just pushed me a bit too far.

Again, I know that you can log in using “Ubuntu Classic” but soon Gnome 2.x will be gone and where are my options then?

I tried to like Unity, but (a) it’s buggy and (b) it’s virtually unconfigurable.  The menu at the top left of the screen, when you’re running at 1920 resolution and your window is in the bottom right of the screen is just madness. And those “hidden” scroll bars are driving me crazy.

Unity is clearly designed as a touch interface and for beginners. It just doesn’t work for power users. It’s a shame that Ubuntu feel they need to force it on their users instead of offering it as an option.

I was thinking about going for Linux Mint, which still has Gnome 2.x as their main desktop, but with Gnome 3.x coming how long before they make the leap? Besides, I’m too busy to re-install my machine from scratch again.

So finally I decided to run the following:

sudo apt-get install xfce4

I logged out, logged in again selecting XFCE as the desktop, and it’s made my day. Everything is configurable again, and opening a window feels really snappy. I’ve used XFCE before and am happy to see it’s always improving.

Still got those weird scrollbars, but I disabled those by running

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.1-0

and logging out and in again.

I’m happy.

5 Replies to “Ubuntu Unity – The Last Straw!”

  1. So linux mint will soon or later move to GS !

    I consider my self as power user and unity is more polish and productive than any other alternative even Gnome 2 :)

    http://vimeo.com/24309066

    have you learn most of unity tricks for power user ?
    http://www.quicklycode.com/wallpapers/unity-cheat-sheet-wallpaper

  2. Agreed, Linux Mint probably will move to Gnome 3. Which is why I decided not to move to Mint.

    Thanks for the shortcuts – I actually knew all these. I guess my main problem is not having a choice, not being able to configure. Now with XFCE I do :)

  3. Thanks for the tips! Using Unity is kind of like relearning all of the last 20 years over.
    Xfce is better but I suggest giving Mint 11 a try. After taking the Conical suggestion of doing an Upgrade to 11.04 I ended up with an unusable system and made the full migration a week or so ago.
    Luckily I had been advised to create separate swap, root, and home partitions. I simply used the install CD and chose to format root and leave home intact. Everything came over fine, including my Thunderbird and Firefox files, settings and add-ons.

    BTW: this is now a triple boot system…
    Windows7, Ubuntu10.04, Mint11.

    Unity SUCKS! I doubt Mint will be going that way unless/until it is mature enough to be usable for the common person.

  4. I thought it was just me. I cannot get used to unity at all. I will try out XFCE as I really do not want to install a new OS.

  5. I’d bet my bottom dollar someone will make a PPA with packages for Gnome 3.

    You probably want to also consider a shift to debian, there are some differences (rolling release, installer and others), but they’re not major the main differences are philosophical.

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