I have been a gnome/fluxbox user for a really long time and had concerns about the whole move to Unity. I really did like the new interface and will be comfortable recommending it to family and friends, even though it is not right for me.<div>
<br></div><div><div><u>Pro's</u></div><div><ul><li>The layout was intuitive</li><li>The quick launch Win+# key works great</li><li>The Icon dots representing multiple opens and current focused window</li><li>Integrated Scale/expose functions</li>
<li>Clicking the Icon with multiple windows will do a quick scale of all window types</li><li>Windows 7 Style Maximize / Minimize</li></ul></div><div><u>Cons's</u></div><div><ul><li>Unable to add scripted launchers</li>
<li>Unity win key doesn't play nice with gnome-do</li><li>The top bar is a bunch of wasted space. On today's widescreen monitors, vertical pixel counts are limited enough.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>I did like what I saw for the first two weeks of using it, but had to go back to gnome, with Avant Window Navigator and Gnome-do. </div>
<div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>Brian</div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 8:25 PM, Dave Ostroske <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eksortso@gmail.com">eksortso@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><p>On May 21, 2011 6:36 PM, "L. A. Weber" <<a href="mailto:laweber@verizon.net" target="_blank">laweber@verizon.net</a>> wrote:</p>
<p>> By the way, what are the member's opinion of Unity?</p>
<p>Here's my two cents.</p>
<p>I installed Natty Narwhal (Ubuntu 11.04), upgrading from 10.10, a few days after its release. I have an older laptop, so I wasn't ready to upgrade until I was sure that it wouldn't make my machine sluggish. A review from ZD convinced me to go ahead with it.</p>
<p>So far, I'm impressed. After a flawless net upgrade and some arrangement of the launcher buttons, it's been a joy to work with. I tend to use the keyboard a lot, and will avoid using the mouse if possible, but Unity has still been a net gain in my user experience.</p>
<p>The launcher buttons present themselves with their own positional keyboard shortcuts. (You can define your own shortcuts but I haven't delved too far into how to do that.) I like the top-pane menus, though I don't love the Mac experience much. The menus are slightly inconsistent, though. Most apps (freedesktop.org-inspired apps primarily) use the top pane for the menu, but apps like LibreOffice and Chromium (which I both love) don't yet, and a recent add-in for LibreOffice menus is not yet up to snuff. That may be resolved sooner than later, though.</p>
<p>The app indicators have completely replaced the system tray, which is a grand improvement. I have indicators for both Ubuntu One and for DropBox. A decent system stats indicator would be nice to have. There's one out now which is text-based, but I'd much prefer a more graphical approach.</p>
<p>There are links online for tweaking Unity's interface, and I used a special desktop wallpaper to learn all the keyboard shortcuts for the first few weeks.<br>
<a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/things-to-tweak-fix-after-installing.html" target="_blank">http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/things-to-tweak-fix-after-installing.html</a></p>
<p>Try a few of the tweaks, installing them one at a time. If a tweak doesn't work for you, remove it.</p>
<p>One final note: Unity doesn't replace GNOME. On the contrary, it enhances it. This is GNOME 2 that I'm referring to, by the way. I don't know if GNOME 3 will underlie the system in future releases, but it seems like they'd make a good fit.</p>
<p>I'd like to know what other Ubuntu users think. I'm not expecting a mass exodus to Debian or Mint quite yet, tempting as it may be to some folks. For now, I'll stick with Ubuntu. </p>
<p>-- Dave Ostroske</p>
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