Unity: 3 Rants And A Tip | Linux Journal

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A rebuttal:

1. The launcher auto-hides when you have windows maximized or over the launcher.
2. I find it so much easier to find things in the unity dashboard as opposed to menus.
3. The global menu is more consistant, but it’s probably the thing that took the most getting used to.

Overall?  I like Natty.  It’s gotten more stable since I installed the beta several weeks ago.

I’ll be doing a longer write-up about other features and whatnot over the next couple of days, but I wanted to share this video and my thoughts with everyone.

Updates, Fixes, and a Re-Install

… Or, how I fixed my issues by shutting up and reinstalling.

Yes, you heard right.

I reinstalled Ubuntu the other day (not bad; I was back on my feet in less than 3 hours, updates and everything included).

I have figured out what is causing my sudo GLib error: my fingerprint reader software.  It’s interfering with the way sudo works in the terminal.  Or something.  I’m not sure how to fix this, but it might be fixed in the next update from the Fingerprint GUI folks.  For awhile, sudo worked, but it wasn’t til I added the Fingerpring GUI PPA and installed it that my issues started.

My graphics card is still kind of acting up, but I think that’s a problem with the drivers, and not anything related to my setup.  I’ve installed and enabled the nouveau drivers, so that’s a temperary fix right now.

I do an audit of the software I’m running/using every time I reinstall, and I usually find that I don’t need half of it.  It’s something that should be done every couple of months.  It’s nice to get rid of programs that I’m not using, as well as PPAs.

Anyway, it’s working much better now.

I’m not sure why things always work better with a fresh install (even using the same /home, which is what I do), but they do.  I guess for every upgrade, I should do a fresh install.

So, I recommend you download the .iso, burn a CD or make a bootable USB drive, and give this a spin if you haven’t upgraded or installed yet.  See how it works, try out Unity, and find out of you like Uinty or not.  Me?  I’ve established that I like it.  It’s different, and I think I like that.  I used a dock/launcher anyway, so it wasn’t that hard for me to get used to the new way of doing things.

I still would like some more flexability to change the theme and move the launcher around, but that might be coming in the next version of Unity.

Unity environment in good shape, on track for Ubuntu 11.04

via arstechnica.com

 

Please read the full article on Ars (linked under the picture).

I do think Unity is a neat way to work with the desktop, and most of the bugs I dealt with upon installation have been fixed. I will continue to report bugs when things crash. That’s one of the reasons I run the beta.

This is shaping up to be the most ambitious release yet. I hope it brings in some new users and impresses the old users. It’s impressed me with the way it’s changed since I installed it a couple weeks ago. And I’m seriously impressed in the changes since Maverick Netbook Edition.

Kudos!

Natty Beta: Xorg using excessive CPU? Try this.

For some reason, I was having massive spikes of my CPU which rendered my computer almost completely unusable.

Well, I filed Bug #751477 on Launchpad, and got a response that I didn’t like; basically saying that it wasn’t Xorg’s problem.  I fumed and grumbled for a few minutes, then decided to actually investigate the problem.

I went to their wiki, which wasn’t much help, but then I decided to look into my nVidia card.  Well, it turns out that using the binary drivers can cause the exact same problem.  So, I installed the nouveau drivers (after accidentally uninstalling the nVidia ones, and some other issues), enabled them, and rebooted.

Well, that actually took care of the problem.

Steps:

1. Install Nouveau drivers (through Synaptic or Software Center)
2. Open the “Additional Drivers” dialogue
3. Enable the “Experimental 3D support for NVIDIA cards” option (see picture below)
4. Reboot.

Additional Drivers dialogue.

It’s now working; hopefully the binary drivers will be working when Natty releases.

More Thoughts on the Natty Beta

I just read this article from The Register.

The author brings up some important points about Unity, but he has to realize that this is a beta.  If it was full release, then harsh criticism would be warrented, but I don’t think it is right now.

I’ve run into some bugs.  Specifically; xorg seems to (randomly) take up 20 to 60 percent of my CPU, compiz likes to crash, and Empathy likes to crash (though it hasn’t today, knock on wood).  I’m not sure if these crashes are caused by issues with the actual programs, or if they are issues relating to the way the OS is working with those programs.

No, Unity is not completely polished, but I can hardly compare it to the KDE4 debacle.  KDE4 was beta software released as stable.  I tried it, and was wholly unimpressed, partly because Plasma crashed.  All the time.  I can actually use Unity; I could not use KDE4 when it came out.

I haven’t completely tested all of my software yet, but from what I’ve seen, things seem to work really well.  I like having everything from each workspace accessible from the launcher; I can click on that program and go right to it.

I wasn’t sure how I’d deal with searching for programs I want, but I’ve found that it’s faster than going to a menu and looking for something.  For instance, gpodder is in the “media” category in the menu system, but I tend to search for it in the “web” category, because it makes sense for me there.  I got tired of this, so I added gpodder to web, so it appears in both categories, but the user shouldn’t have to do that.  With Unity, I just search for “gpodder”, click on it, and I’ve launched the program.  Much faster than clicking on the menu, going to the right category, and then moving the mouse to where the program is that I want, then clicking.

This idea could also help with tech support.  Linux, by nature, allows you to customize your desktop.  This can make it difficult for someone to give tech support.  It’s easier to tell someone to “click on the Ubuntu logo in the left corner of your screen, then click in the search box and search for ‘x’”.

The author brings up adding programs to the launcher as difficult; if you’re using the program anyway, you can easily add the program with a right click.  I usually don’t add a bunch of stuff to the launcher without running it first anyway, but that’s just my use case.  

Regarding applets; I love them, so I’m not particularly unbiased.  I think I get more information from them, and there’s a lot of drive to make new ones that fit the new way the panel works.  Please see OMG!Ubuntu for evidence of this.

I was skeptical when I saw what Maverick offered as Unity, but I can safely say that the Maverick and Natty experiences are completely different.  I still would like to be able to move the launcher to the bottom and keep it’s auto-hiding goodness.

 

Ubuntu Natty, First Impressions

This release of Ubuntu is probably the most ambitious release of Ubuntu.  Ever.  This release represents the roll-out of Unity to the regular desktop user.  It also is the merging of the Netbook and Desktop environments, so there’s only one distribution of Ubuntu.

I installed beta 1 last night and was unable to actually use it until this morning.  There are bad and good things about it, and most of these problems will be fixed by the full release.  This is the first beta, and is not really fit for standard consumption.

That said, here are the issues I have:

• Compiz crashes.  About 3 times, mostly when doing alt-tab or trying to deal with windows.
• Gwibber crashed twice.  Not sure if this is related to me running Natty or running the daily build of gwibber.
• Empathy crashes.  Seems to crash mostly when I’m trying to interact with the program via the indicator-applet.  It’s segfaulting for some odd reason.
• No clock.  I think this was a problem with the install, as I had to install indicator-datetime after the upgrade.
• No weather applet.  I installed weather-indicator and I’m good.  It crashed once.
• Having a second monitor makes it wonky to work with the launcher.  It’s hard to explain, but I run the second monitor to the left of my main laptop, and the launcher is on the left of the screen.  I have to try to hit a certain spot on the main monitor to get the launcher to show.  This is because of the way I use my monitors, I’m sure.

I’ve filed three bug reports already, and that’s the reason I’m running the beta.  They need all the help they can use to get this working properly.  I’d rather have a couple of issues (which DID NOT bring down my machine, by the way) and help make Natty an awesome release.

Note that two of my issues were taken care of after installing two packages.

Now, the totally awesome things:

• Clean.  This desktop is devoid of any clutter.  I like having an auto-hide launcher.  I should have done this with Docky.
• Speedy.  They’ve improved Unity enormously from Maverick netbook.  I really really really see the speed improvements.  Some are from using Compiz, I’m sure, but some are from squashing bugs.
• Indicators.  I love them.  ’Nuff said.
• LibreOffice.  Finally.  I’ve turned so many people onto this software package, it’s insane.  They’re all like “it’s free?!?” and I’m like, “yes!!”  Then we install it and it opens almost everything under the sun.  It’s awesome.
• I really love the way you switch desktops.  It’s a little bit different from what I’m used to, but, it’s very slick.  It looks really cool.
• I love the auto-hiding of the launcher.  Oh, I mentioned this already?  I really love it.
• I’m loving the global menu.  Yeah, I might be crazy, but I do like it.  I didn’t think I would like it.
• The blue envelope icon for new messages is different, and I think I like it.
• Compiz settings.  There’s a default setting that allows for the window snapping like you get with Windows Aero.  Now, I’m sure Ubuntu will be accused of copying, but hot damn, that’s one of the most awesome things from Windows 7, and I’m quite pleased that it’s default in Ubuntu now.
• Firefox 4.  It. Is. Awesome.  (Though I’m still using Chromium; I go back and forth.)
• Network Manager Applet has gotten a revamp and it looks great.

How about a screenshot?  Yes, I think that’s a good idea.

This is the whole screen including both of my monitors.  Notice the launcher in the middle.  It’s actually on the left on my laptop screen, but I have my second monitor off to the left.  This is a clean desktop.  I’m using the Radiance theme with the standard icons.  The art team has done an awesome job with the look of the main themes (Radiance and Ambience).  I love them both, and I go back and forth between them depending on what wallpaper I have.  The wallpaper is from SimpleDesktops.  I’m running the aforementioned weather-indicator, empathy, and gwibber.  I’m also running Tomboy Notes (which I cannot live without), as well as Chromium, gpodder, the movie player (I’m listening to podcasts), BOINC, and Xchat.  My panel has been extended across both of my monitors.  Not sure if I quite like that, but it makes it easy to deal with windows on each monitor.

Oh, I almost forgot.  The system settings have all been added to a “program” where you can get at everything.  See here:

Control Center.

Overall?  This release of Ubuntu is pretty exciting and different.  I would not advise using the beta right now, unless you’re interested in filing bugs.  If you want to upgrade, either go get an iso here or hit alt-F2 and type:

upgrade-manager -d

and let it run through the updates.

BE WARNED: I got an error after I upgraded to Natty when I ran:

sudo apt-get update

The error is:

GLib-GIO:ERROR:/build/buildd/glib2.0-2.28.4/./gio/gdbusconnection.c:2279:initable_init: assertion failed: (connection->initialization_error == NULL)

 

 

You’ll have to use the Software Center OR Synaptic to do updates.  I don’t know what this error means, but it’s documented here.  So, just be forewarned about that.

Go out and upgrade if you’re game.  Enjoy this release, and report some bugs!