On 04/07/2012 23:34, Leszek Kobiernicki 1 wrote:
On 04/07/12 10:19, Alan Pope wrote:
Mark Shuttleworth:
It was tough to lead ( snip ) We had done very well just shipping the
best of FLOSS, but it clearly wasn't enough. ( snip ) we found
industry politics blocked us ( snip )
So, now we know why Unity -- it's hardware-driven -- greed to capture
the i-Pad, & similar devices + Android, etc. internet phones.
The software house isn't in the driving seat, after all. " Follow the
money " ..
I think you already knew that ;->
Mark Shuttleworth:
( snip) Unity ( snip) was in large part designed to make the tablet /
desktop convergence
Just as I thought ..
Just before the Unity/GUI-wars threads I posted about my fears that "the
tail was starting to wag the dog" and Unity was _exactly_ what I had in
mind when I wrote that.
Not so long ago the login screen had an 'desktop chooser' option on it,
so if you preferred a different WM than the 'standard', you just chose
it there. I was disappointed that that had gone (I'm sure I could find
how to restore it, but didn't .. life's too short), so went with the
flow and used Gnome.
I first met Unity when trying to get an urgent job done. I debated
10.04-LTS or the latest version (11.10, maybe?) and decided on the latter.
I logged in and say a desktop that was totally, _Totally_, different
from the previous one. I spent a little while trying to make sense of
what was where and how to add & configure the stuff I needed, but just
couldn't find them. With now only about an hour and a half to deadline,
I dumped it an started over with 10.04.LTS and _just_ configured the
machine in time (I mean 10 minutes before before serious ouef sur la
visage).
I wasn't so much that change; it was such a radical change that for me
at least came right out of the blue.
OK, mea culpa for not playing safer and sticking with exactly what is
familiar, but I simply didn't expect quite such a radical change and no
obvious quick-and-easy revert to familiar.
Just one reason why that was a bad move is that it means I am now _very_
wary of making that change. I can't afford to lose hours, days, or
possibly longer learning everything again. It may be fine for Linux IT
support people, it may be fine for newbies and office workers who want
web, mail, wordprocessor and a couple of other things. I'm an
Electronics Engineer working electronics hardware, mechanical hardware,
embedded software and Linux+Windows software, occasionally Mac. I use a
huge number of tools, some of which are very complex, some of which are
only on Windows. If I were not careful and pragmatic, I could spend all
my time learning new tools and none of my time designing products and
earning a living. Change and change management is with me every hour of
every working day. But I can only cope with so much change at any one time!
I _will_ admit to being a GOM...
The first thing I do on any OS I install is turn off as many special
effects, sounds, blinks, flashes, wallpapers, 'glass' and other
distractions as I can. For me they are all time-wasters and obfuscators
that I need not. I abhor waiting for fancy sliding menus, zooming
bubbles, sliding windows and all the other bling.
As I said in my tail & dog post, a smartphone/tablet oriented interface
is possibly not ideal for a large multiscreen desktop workstation.
Gordon.
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