Preview of Ubuntu's Unity Interface 382
itwbennett writes "In late October we learned that starting with the next release (11.04), Ubuntu would use Unity instead of GNOME as its default desktop interface. Now we know a bit more about what that will (and won't) mean for users. The move to Unity doesn't mean that Ubuntu is abandoning GNOME. It also doesn't mean that users will be forced to use Unity; they'll still be able to revert to the old GNOME interface. What it does mean, mainly, is that users will be presented with a simple interface — probably too simple for nuts and bolts types. The more 'radical shift' will be switching Ubuntu's base graphics system from the X Window System to Wayland. There users can expect that it will take some time before things are in working order. 'In other words,' says Steven Vaughan-Nichols who reviewed Unity for ITworld, 'Wayland will be an option, and one that only people who don't mind having their desktops blow up on a regular basis should fool with, in Ubuntu 11.04. By Ubuntu 11.10, it will be workable, and come the spring release two years from now, Ubuntu 12.04, we should, if all goes well, see a stable Wayland-based Unity desktop.'"
Re:This is why Ubuntu has stability problems (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem with PulseAudio is not that it wasn't finished or well tested, the problem is the implementation sucks (ie. bad programmers wrote it).
I have never understood why they didn't just go back to OSS. OSS has made extensive improvements in the latest versions and can do everything ALSA/PulseAudio/whatever can do plus a lot more. On top of that everything works with OSS because it's the original Linux sound API.
Re:This is why Ubuntu has stability problems (Score:2, Interesting)
The problem with PulseAudio is not that it wasn't finished or well tested, the problem is the implementation sucks (ie. bad programmers wrote it).
I can see why you didn't log in to post that.
Pulseaudio works fine in Ubuntu if you follow the Pulseaudio PerfectSetup guide. What I find particularly confusing is why the Ubuntu maintainers didn't seem to be capable of doing this. It's gotten closer to PerfectSetup since they started using Pulseaudio but it's still not there.
On top of that everything works with OSS because it's the original Linux sound API.
Unless, of course, it's been developed since ALSA gained dominance, in which case the OSS support might be poor or nonexistent.
Please log in so modding you down can become meaningful.
Re:I'm glad I went back to Fedora earlier this yea (Score:5, Interesting)
Is it completely impossible to get something similar into Wayland?
Every time I've seen someone ask the Wayland devs how they plan to support remote rendering, their response seems to be 'we don't. go away'.
Ubuntu, where's my 10 second boot? (Score:3, Interesting)
Unity Namespace Collision! (Score:5, Interesting)
The Unity namespace is already occupied by http://www.unity3d.com/ [unity3d.com] a great game engine for iOS and android and support multitouch and so on. Canonical is just going to make it a PITA for one or both sets of developers searching for "unity opengl" "unity GUI" "unity multitouch" "unity android."
It's the Apps stupid. (Score:4, Interesting)
Are there any Wayland native apps yet? Without those, all you have is a pretty interface and nothing to do with it. Sure, you can provide backwards compatibility by running an X server on top of Wayland, but then what was the point of dumping X.org?
The X11R6 protocol has been around for a long time, because it's good at what it does. By dumping the X protocol along with the X.org server they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Re:No screenshots? (Score:4, Interesting)
Search Google Images for Ubuntu Unity. Behold - screenshots.
That said, for shits n giggles I grabbed Unity on my 10.10 desktop to play around with it. I wasn't impressed. Maybe it'll get better by the time they make it standard, but for me, Docky was FAR more stable and polished. I'll probably just continue to use it.
Re:Ubuntu, where's my 10 second boot? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well that is rather hardware specific. On a laptop with an SSD harddrive and core i7 quad PLUS 8gig RAM (A very expensive sony 13" one we bought for the boss) we came close.
On my house PC with a 7200RPM disk I get 15seconds for 10.04 up to the login screen, on my laptop with a 5400RPM hdd I get about 25secs for 10.10
What I do notice with every Ubuntu install where Win7 is Dual booted is that there is often not much to choose between the two in the beginning, but that during their lifetimes Win7 tends to take longer and Ubuntu tends to stay close to fresh install speeds.
Re:If you want Ubuntu without unity...Linux Mint (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe the point is, Ubuntu has abandoned "works out of the box" -- not that that ever happened. Most of us who want to use Ubuntu really want to use Windows 7, when it works, or Mac OS, when it works. It's a pity to trade on the reputation of Torvald's kernel, when we'll have to skip 11.04 and 11.10 on the recommendation of Canonical, and 12.04 on the principle that it's probably just another beta. Is that two years before Ubuntu is Ubuntu Again? I pity the support community, who is growing up and has to get on with its careers.