[ale] ranting about new Ubuntu UI

[Ron Frazier]

Hi guys.  I've been away from the list for a while, so I don't know if 
this has been already discussed.  I also apologize to anyone I offend 
who may totally disagree with me.  No offense is intended.

I decided to do some digital house keeping and download and make CD's of 
the most recent Ubuntu ISO's.  After burning the CD's, I wanted to 
verify that each CD was burned correctly.  I looked up the appropriate 
MD5sum command and saved it in a text file on the hard drive.  Then, I 
booted up the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop CD and clicked Try Ubuntu to get it 
started.  WOW!  I was freaked out because the UI was totally different 
from 10.04 which I'm used to.  From the podcasts, I knew this was 
happening, but hadn't seen it.  Now, I'll admit I'm biased toward what I 
know.  And, I'll admit that I only spent 20-30 minutes looking at it.  
However, my basic first impression is ... hate it, hate it, hate it, 
hate it, hate it, hate it.  It seems everyone is trying to redesign 
their operating system to operate from the point of view of a tablet 
based touch screen.  However, they seem to be throwing mouse based, 
large screen devices under the bus.  I think that's incredibly stupid.  
To do the CD integrity check that I wanted to do, I had to start the 
text editor, copy the command I'd saved, start a terminal window, and 
paste the command into that.  What the @#$%$#$ is wrong with a stinking 
menu?!  It took me 10 minutes just to find out how to start the text 
editor and the terminal with the new system.  Instead of menu, 
accessories, text editor; it's now menu, more applications, see all 75 
apps, scroll scroll scroll all the huge icons down the screen to find 
the "T" section, then click text editor.  Now that I know how to do it, 
it's not THAT hard.  But what's the point.  It definitely takes more 
clicks and mouse movements than it did before.  From the podcasts I 
listen to, It looks like Windows 8 will be doing something similar with 
the UI.  If so, I think it's stupid on their part too.  Why can't the 
designers just realize that desktop / laptop computers and tablets / 
smart phones need different UI's.  I wouldn't try to put all the 
controls from a motorcycle on a car, and I wouldn't try to put all the 
controls from a car on a motorcycle.

Here are some other things I hate at first glance.

* There is a huge bar of icons on the left.  It seems to be a quick 
launch bar and a task bar combined.  I'm OK with that concept.  I've 
been keeping my task bar vertical anyway.  What I hate is that the icons 
are enormous.  They take up a huge amount of vertical space.  Therefore, 
if you have 5 quick launch icons open and 5 apps open, then the task bar 
is full.  I don't know what happens after that.  It may be possible to 
customize it, but there is no obvious way, like right clicking it.  The 
other thing I don't like is that it's not obvious what are quick launch 
icons and what are running applications.  The system seems to put a 
small arrow next to applications, but I don't think it's very effective.

* The traditional Gnome "panels" seem to be gone.  Or, if they're there, 
there's not obvious way to access or customize them, including the top 
panel that appears by default.

* The APPLICATION menu bar (for the text editor, for example) appears in 
the top of the screen panel OF THE OS when you roll your mouse up there 
and disappears when you roll your mouse away.  It does not appear in the 
window for the application.  Why the @$$%%$$# do the designers think 
that I want my APPLICATION MENU to be married to the OS DISPLAY?!  And, 
even if I did, why the $%#$$##$ do the designers think I want it 
vanishing every time I move away from it?!  Stupid.  Stupid.  Stupid.

* Finally, there is no scroll bar on long display items and no up and 
down arrows.  If you roll your mouse over where those features should 
be, a scroll device which can be dragged or clicked magically appears.  
Stupid.  Stupid.  Stupid.

Again, no offense intended.  Others may love these features just as 
passionately as I hate them.  Anyway, I'm definitely NOT installing 
Ubuntu 11.04 or Windows 8 (when it's available) unless I extensively 
test in a VM first.  Probably, I'll just stick with Ubuntu 10.04 and 
Windows Vista or Windows 7 until they stop patching them.  That should 
be about 2 more years for Ubuntu and 7 more years for Windows.

Sincerely,

Ron


-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com