On 29 October 2011 10:24, Alan Pope <a...@popey.com> wrote:

> On 29 October 2011 00:58, Imran Chaudhry <ichaud...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I really
> > hope 12.04 maintains Gnome 2.x as 10.04. I did try Gnome 3 but discarded
> it
> > as it was not as "obvious" to use as the alternatives.
> >
>
> It won't. GNOME 2 will be disappearing from most distros over the next
> year or so. Have you tried GNOME 3 fallback mode? It looks and feels
> more like the old GNOME 2 2-panel environment than Unity or GNOME
> Shell.
>
> Al.
>
>
That affirms what I've read on the GNOME Wikipedia page and elsewhere -
looks like Gnome 2.32 will be the last release while all development effort
goes to GNOME3. I really hope someone does a "xbmc4xbox.org" and continues
to maintain the 2.x branch somewhere. GNOME3 will take a while to mature I
think.

Not sure which option "fallback" mode is or what the GNOME Shell relates to.
I tried every option that the cog gave me on the Ubuntu 11.10 login screen.

I invested quote a bit of time getting the Ubuntu install right so my post
was really a last resort. The turning point came when in "crunch time" I
really needed to switch between multiple ssh sessions and it was simply
inefficient with the way Unity does things. I got frustrated. Yesterday, in
the Ubuntu 11.10 install I also tried xfce4-desktop (lightweight, clean but
too simple and barebones for me) and Awesome (do not have time to learn it).
These days I simply do not have time to put up with some things, my
tolerance is lower for stuff like this.

I am going to do two things next:

   1. Try Arch Linux on this laptop as I like what I've read of their "keep
   it simple" philosophy and the rolling releases. If this does not work out
   then Debian Squeeze.
   2. Continue to use Windows 7 for working with multiple ssh sessions to
   Linux. I am using the ZOC Terminal app for that. It is currently the best,
   most efficient desktop OS for this laptop considering I use some proprietary
   apps (Skype, 3G dongle software) which are superior on Windows. I may even
   make this my primary OS on this laptop.

Well, I kind of did expect that my post would stimulate some opinion over
Unity. Can I give my 2p worth? Canonical are probably right to focus on
Unity. To fix bug#1 they need a really a good GUI that differentiates the
Ubuntu brand and reinforces "Linux for human beings". I like many things
about Unity even though it requires me to adjust eg. the way the app menu
bar melds into the top-panel like OSX, the animated dock icons if something
needs my attention, the app search box, the way the dock can be rearranged.
However, If ultimately it is not for me then fine, Ubuntu does not owe me
anything and I will look at the alternatives. I will continue to wear
proudly the large "Ubuntu: Linux for human beings" sticker on this laptop
lid - if it makes a someone curious and they ask me about it then I'll
recommend Ubuntu and talk positively about it. Maybe it will convert that
person and I would have repaid Ubuntu in a small way. I think my Ubuntu
desktop days will end with 10.04 (imho the best Ubuntu release so far) but
it has been a great ride and I wish them the very best.

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