@Adam

You make some strange arguments here.

FOSS philosophy has nothing to do with customization. It's about
providing access to the source code. The Unity project is 100% FOSS
(GPL/LGPLv3).

Ubuntu's goals might be different from yours. You might want to have a
desktop perfectly configured for your needs. The Ubuntu project is
trying to make a free operating system for the masses. Mark is clear
that in trying to achieve these goals he will 1) be taking bold risks,
and 2) he will not meet everybody's needs. Time will tell if he's on the
right path.

I personally have many doubts, because when I've introduced Ubuntu and
Unity to new people -- and I've done this a lot, in professional and
personal contexts -- I've heard a lot of frustrations about its
usability, configurability and stability. And so I've stopped
recommending the regular Ubuntu, and instead recommend Xubuntu, which is
*awesome*. But, maybe we got it all wrong and Mark got it right and
Unity will make people flock to Ubuntu. Adam, you make a comparison to
Apple: well, the Apple UI has proven itself very popular with the
masses. So, maybe Mark (and GNOME) is on to something in trying to
emulate their approach.

To the Ubuntu project's *great* credit, it offers support (in terms of
computing, bandwidth and other resources, if not personnel) to *several*
different flavors. While GNOME 3 seems to have the same general goals as
Unity, the others absolutely do not, and will likely better suit your
personal needs. Xubuntu is still Ubuntu, with the excellent
repositories, PPA, and the entire ecosystem. It is an excellent and free
operating system.

My problem, and it is central to this particular bug about making the
Launcher movable, is not Unity's philosophy but the fact that it's
essentially *broken* for certain setups, such as multimonitor and right-
to-left setups. Unity should not be the default desktop, or at least it
should have a big disclaimer up front that it is an experimental desktop
interface, with an easy path (one click!) to let users install and use
something that is proven to work.

Actually, there is a second problem: Mark has made me not want to help
the Unity project. He has alienated many long-time Ubuntu supporters by
his abrupt closure of bugs like this, with little or misleading
communication about the reasons. So, yeah, no way I will contribute my
programming skills to it. But I do love Xfce and will do my best to open
bugs, submit patches, and spread the love. :)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/668415

Title:
  Movement of Unity launcher

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