On 06/09/11 11:48, paul sutton wrote:
Hi
Is the classic interface using gnome 3? and is this going to remain an
option, i currently run 11.04 with classic will i still have this option
if i upgrade to 11.10?
Paul
Unity's not half as bad on 11.10 - even in alpha it worked better than
it did on 11.04. At the current beta stage, the communication deck
(under the envelope icon) is acting very, very weird but the rest of it
is working pretty well. I'm not getting the dock jamming or completely
disappearing, or the desktop freezing and requiring re-logging in etc
etc. Also the previously godawful alt+tab cycling now works properly -
unlike 11.04 where you couldn't see WTF was going on or tell the app
icons apart. The 'put' key combos work properly too. Integration of
Mozilla stuff still sux a bit but it doesn't seem to be crashing Unity
as badly as it did on 11.04. Nice job!
I'm still not crazy about the loss of widgets and it's crap lack of
customisation options in general (bloody 'ell, you can't even create a
custom launcher in 11.10 without editing a ruddy .desktop file manually
- that really is inconvenient! OK non-techies don't want to run scripts
but do you want to chase people who do away?) but at least it works
overall. Also, it's now very *pretty* - which makes me feel a lot better
about it and I can finally get proper transparency on the dock with
compiz manager.
I had to change my way of working on the desktop drastically but memory
of the pain is now fading.
Most of all, I did Fossbox' first workshop on 're-use with Ubuntu' with
11.04 a couple of months ago and all the non-techies really loved the
Unity interface. I thought they'd never work it out as it seems
ridiculously complicated to me but it turns out if you're not used to
GNOME classic, it's actually easier to learn because it's like a
smartphone with an app store. So s'pose that's the proof of the pudding.
People aren't expecting to be able to customise their desktop experience
so that's not bothering them either.
My worst problem on Oneiric is that, at the moment, I can't sync
anything - syncevolution not working properly (and logs not telling me
anything I can use) and funambol seem to have given up on Linux/TBird
(plugin for 6 seems to be 'in development' as a community sideline so
not holding my breath for TBird 7 funambol plugin). Hoping the promised
duplex integration with Ubuntu One contacts will be finished quick - but
that still leaves my calendars limping along on ical. Seems a bit
premature to make TBird default when it can't even sync with my memotoo
account any more? Why on earth Mozilla didn't use opensync in the first
place often puzzles me - ah, yes, Windows users . . . well, at least
we'll get some sort of a choice now - but why sync to Ubuntu One? I use
Ubuntu One for files, but not for syncing my PIM (cos it doesn't do it
right and I've no idea how that would work on my maemo phone and I'm not
faffing around on the cli when there's a perfectly good GUI syncml
client for it). Why not either make Ubuntu One sync my contacts, cals
and tasks *properly* like memotoo with GUI clients for main smartphone
OSs or let me have the choice to use opensync with memotoo which already
does the job fabulously. Opensync ain't broke so why fix it - when
contacts first synced with Ubuntu One it broke syncevolution - you now
get a choice about whether to install couchdb but if you've no choice
about sync protocols, it's pointless. It's the one thing Evolution does
perfectly - for everything else, Evolution is horrible. Nevertheless, I
tried to switch to Evolution so I can have sync - but even
syncevolution's not working with Evolution. What I want is TBird with
PROPER opensync. Please? I wouldn't even mind paying UbuntuOne for this
- given that I pay memotoo AND I pay UbuntuOne already for file sync -
but it has to really work as this is a crucial aspect of my working
life. The point of now-defunct scheduleworld and memotoo is that they
sync anything to anything without fuss. That's how it should be . . .
the setup with TBird default mail client syncing only to UbuntuOne is
perilously close to lock-in - and lock-in to something that doesn't
actually work as well. By all means compete with Memotoo/syncevolution,
but at least offer something comparable?
I also haven't yet tried setting up remote desktops - so here's hoping
Unity 2D works with neatx (assuming neatx will ever be maintained) or
x2go - will test this soon. NX goes to GNOME classic on 11.04, will it
go to 2D on Oneiric? Is that supported by NX? There was some talk about
getting x2go into Oneiric but I don't know if this happened - or if that
will work with 2D?
Anyway, if you're desperate for classic, apparently you can still
install the package gnome-session-fallback on Oneiric but I think might
as well either bite the Unity/Gnome 3 bullet and get it over with or
change to XFCE really. The only reason for fallback I can see would be
if NX doesn't work with 2D.
Paula
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