Hi, I'm not certain if I'm writing in the proper mailing list. If it's the case, kindly direct which one I should express the following concern.
I've been using Ubuntu since 5.04, so it's been a good 6 years now that I'm with Ubuntu at home and at work. I chose Ubuntu for my desktop computers because I'm a software developer and I like to have updated development tools every 6 months and also because of it's unsurpassed hardware support. I enjoyed small improvements in usability that happened over time, such as Compiz (which allowed me to zoom with the mouse wheel) and the excellent NetworkManager applet. As you can imagine, I like to keep my interface minimal and text-based (I don't recognize programs by their icons), so GNOME Panel was perfect for me because I could remove everything and only keep what I need. Yesterday, I upgraded to 11.04 and discovered Unity. At first, I was at a loss, but I sorted out pretty quickly how it works so you've done a great job at making it intuitive. However, I found out that it can't be customized, that is, I can't make it minimal and only keep what I need. But worst of all, I can't see which applications are currently running, nor can I switch between them without bringing the left-side-launcher (don't know what it's called) to view and then having to scan a big icon column that I don't recognize. At that point, I realized that Unity was meant for laptop users with small/touch screens and not for me. So I switched to using the "Ubuntu Classic" session and everything was fine. Then, I started reading about Unity on the web. I found out that in the next version of Ubuntu, the "Ubuntu Classic" session will be dropped, leaving me with a choice between Unity and GNOME 3. Not knowing what GNOME 3 was, I decided to try it that same day. To my dismay, I realized that GNOME 3 comes with GNOME Shell and it suffers from the same flaws as Unity (those listed above). Finally, I was shocked to learn that GNOME 3 will not include the GNOME Panel I like so much. I'm left with this dilemma. Neither Unity nor GNOME Shell fits my needs. What am I going to do in 6 months? Am I missing something or the interface and the workflow I've been using, and depending on, for the last 6 years is endangered? References: Mark Shuttleworth said: "we have the Classic desktop fallback in Natty, but will not in Oneiric" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/739812/comments/5 GNOME said: "the GNOME 3 experience will not include the panel as it was in GNOME 2" http://live.gnome.org/GNOME3Myths -- Francis Bolduc, B.Sc. -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
