"Ubuntu 10.10, codenamed Maverick Meerkat, emerged from its burrow this month with some important changes. [...] One of the most significant changes in Ubuntu 10.10 is the introduction of Unity, a totally new netbook environment that has some promising design characteristics. Although Unity is an impressive offering, it has some kinks that need to be worked out before it will be ready for mainstream adoption. In this review, we will take a close look at 10.10's changes, with a focus on how these changes impact the Ubuntu user experience. Unity's scope and significance for Ubuntu make it an especially important part of this release, so we decided to devote a considerable portion of the review to exploring its features."
Post a Comment
Member since:
2005-09-27
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2008-07-10
Member since:
2008-08-19
Tried 10.10 on my netbook, but I'm not at all impressed by the Unity shell.
It looks pretty, and the workspace view is good, but that sidebar takes up *way* too much room on a small screen. Netbook screens are already the minimum width assumed by most web sites, so losing 60 or so pixels hurts a lot. The sidebar needs to disappear when it's not in use - e.g appear when the pointer hits the left edge, rather than being always there.
Member since:2006-06-12
it's for touch screen. But yea, it does not work well without one. After trying it (adding a 30$ touchscreen layer to my EEE), I think it worth it to have touchable buttons. The touchpad on those thing is tiny, using the screen directly solve that problem, even if you have to hold the netook with your other hand to prevent it to fall backward.
I am agree with Apple that it is not the final solution for laptop and it doe snot work as well as an horizontal tablet, but it still better than nothing at all.
Member since:2006-04-14
Member since:
2006-11-19
Member since:
2010-03-30
Member since:
2006-11-19
Just installed 10.10 on one of our Linux boxes, and running with Unity desktop.
I'm impressed, the taskbar/dock like item is NICE. Its functionally equivalent to the Apple dock, but its definitely a unique and native Gnome element. I've tried some of the dock clones for Gnome and they are really pathetic copies of the dock. The Unity bar does its own thing, so it does NOT feel like a cheap rip-off.
Would be nice if I could just drag an application icon to the bar, instead of launching an app and telling the bar to pin the icon. Unity still needs a bit of polish, but I think this is one of the biggest leaps the Linux desktop has seen.
Chrome does not seem to work very nicely with Unity, gets confused as to who should draw window frame. Would be real nice if they worked on Chrome integration. Same goes for Thunderbird and Firefox.
Unfortunately I have to use this abomination called matlab, which is completely beyond any hope of fitting into ANY desktop environment. Tough call to say if matlab sucks more on Mac or Linux. FYI, matlab is a desktop app written using some bizarre home-grown Java toolkit that is completely broken everywhere. Don't know why they don't just use a decent toolkit like SWT which is free and works almost flawlessly on every platform, and is maintained by someone else instead of wasting all their own developer recourses maintaining their home-grown rotting pile of crap toolkit.
Enough of the matlab rant, Unity rocks. Its really nice having a global toolbar. Saves on desktop real estate, and is much more logical and intuitive always looking in the same spot for a menu. App switching is nice.
If Canonical keeps this up, I might just have a Mac alternative sometime soon.