Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

[cysquatch]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I wound up back in KDE out of curiosity I guess. The last time I gave KDE a serious go was with Slackware 9 so...KDE 3.5 I guess?

Unity and Gnome 3 aren't terrible. If I had a touch-screen device I'd be a little more enthusiastic about them but since everything here runs from my laptop these says I couldn't find any actual progress in the designs of these new UI's. Added mouse clicks for the same tasks I always do is different, but not better.

It's been great rediscovering KDE again. I'm still a layman but the documentation is very accessible and the KDE forums are very helpful. I don't even need Google! Couldn't ever say that about Gnome or XFCE.

So pushing me away? Nah. Unity works great on my daughters netbook and it's all horses for courses. In my case KDE wound up working better for me. I just hope that the Kubuntu devs realize just how much of a good thing they have going right now. It's no neglected red-headed stepchild that some naysayers make it out to be.

[charles052]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I have Ubuntu 11.10 installed for several weeks now and i love it...including Unity
After reading lots of hate stuff in the ubuntu forums and other places about it, i didn't think i'd like it but once i gave myself a chance
to get use to something a bit different, i really began to appreciate it...

Also, Ubuntu 11.10 is very smooth running, and has a very polished look with beautiful theming, fonts, etc....it's one of the nicest looking gnome systems i have seen...almost a nice as kde...and that really surprised me

A bit more customization would be nice....but i am sure that will come in time...it is very young after all...but i had checked it out in 11.04 and it's much better in 11.10...they have really smoothed it out quite a bit...

Well, I didn't have the enjoyable experience you did, but I'm glad you liked it. I support Unity because it's something different and many times, different is good.

I hope the Unity grows and becomes a huge success. I'll probably give it another try later on.

[craig10x]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I didn't think i'd like it either (especially after reading many negative comments about it) but it kind of grew on me
Also, before getting involved in Linux, i was on MAC for awhile and liked the interface, so maybe for me that is why the unity dock
wasn't as big a "shock"

In fact, i switched to the "lighter theme" in the appearance setting, which gives it a much more "metal like" look so that with the dock (even though it is on the side) made me feel almost like i was back on my IMAC again...

Have you tried unity on 11.10? Because it runs a lot more smoothly and stable then it did in 11.04...I had tried it at that time, and didn't like it at all...but in 11.10 it runs much better....and you're right, i think some don't like it because it is simply different then what they are accustomed to...

Wasn't there a big fuss when kde went from kde3 to kde4...a lot of people were freaking out then also...now most love it, true?

[charles052]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I didn't think i'd like it either (especially after reading many negative comments about it) but it kind of grew on me
Also, before getting involved in Linux, i was on MAC for awhile and liked the interface, so maybe for me that is why the unity dock
wasn't as big a "shock"

In fact, i switched to the "lighter theme" in the appearance setting, which gives it a much more "metal like" look so that with the dock (even though it is on the side) made me feel almost like i was back on my IMAC again...

Have you tried unity on 11.10? Because it runs a lot more smoothly and stable then it did in 11.04...I had tried it at that time, and didn't like it at all...but in 11.10 it runs much better....

11.10 is the one I tried. Unity worked great right from the disk. Had very few problems with it, which I am sure would gone away if I installed it. But Kubuntu is more my cup of tea. If that ever changes, I'll check out Unity 1st thing. Until then, I'll give 12.04 a shot just because I like to try different stuff.

[kapil]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

Have you tried unity on 11.10? Because it runs a lot more smoothly and stable then it did in 11.04...I had tried it at that time, and didn't like it at all...but in 11.10 it runs much better....and you're right, i think some don't like it because it is simply different then what they are accustomed to...

i have both ubuntu and kubuntu installed on my laptop. kubuntu being primary OS till ubuntu 11.04 came. i liked unity so made ubuntu 11.04 my primary os...but with not so good changes in ubuntu 11.10 i came back home to kubuntu. i was not able to change the default application to clementine in ubuntu. if i did the hardware control refuse to work. anyhoo.. the best thing about kubuntu is, "it just works" if only they reduce the shutdown time, i will never look for new OS . in ubuntu it takes only 3 seconds to shutdown completely.. and kubuntu takes 13 seconds.
anyways.. even i will be trying out ubuntu 12.4. kubuntu will always be there.. as i find it BEST kde distro!

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I have Ubuntu 11.10 installed for several weeks now and i love it...including Unity
After reading lots of hate stuff in the ubuntu forums and other places about it, i didn't think i'd like it but once i gave myself a chance
to get use to something a bit different, i really began to appreciate it...

Also, Ubuntu 11.10 is very smooth running, and has a very polished look with beautiful theming, fonts, etc....it's one of the nicest looking gnome systems i have seen...almost a nice as kde...and that really surprised me

A bit more customization would be nice....but i am sure that will come in time...it is very young after all...but i had checked it out in 11.04 and it's much better in 11.10...they have really smoothed it out quite a bit...

I tried it not too long ago and I'll agree that only come customization would be nice, otherwise It's looking good.

I made a comment over at DWW expressing my opinion on the whole GNOME Shell/Unity and Fedora; saying that the developers of GS and Mark Shuttleworth, in trying to create an interface for multiple devices, seem to have forgotten about Desktop PC's (Desktop-replacement laptops included. Not only that, but that power users want to bend the DE(be it KDE,GNOME, eic.) to their will, not the other way around.(I got an "100% agree" from tdockery over there.)

[woodsmoke]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

Hi bsn

your comment on Shuttleworth et. al forgetting the tower.

At first I thought that, but then also thought that maybe they are thinking "let Kubuntu or Mint or whatever run with the desktop and we will concentrate on vertical presentation of the OS from phone to desktop(for those who want it)."

So, don't know as to the why but it is a pleasant muse while drinking a cuppa joe.

woodsmoke

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

Maybe. We'll see come the next version(s) of Mint first (sometime soon with 12), then the LTS releases of the *buntus in April 2012 which way things will go in terms of desktop use of the next-generation GNOME UI's.

[craig10x]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

Clem had done a really nice job in making gnome 3 shell "minty"...i can see that from running the RC....the final release of Linux Mint 12 should be very nice indeed

It might even tempt me back there from my current ubuntu 11.10 with unity set-up...I've been using it with just the top panel and the mint menu and windows list default to it automatically when you remove the bottom panel in the tweak program they include...

I'd say ubuntu 11.10 is a bit prettier and has more "eye candy" ( a la kde style...lol) but mint 12 is a very competent rendition of gnome 3 without unity for those who prefer a more "conventional desktop feel"...

[oshunluvr]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I put Mint KDE on my wife's laptop and for the most part it's been a good experience. Has all the customization of KDE available with a few nice Mint/Gnome tools thrown in. I think I'll upgrade it if they release a 12.04 KDE version.

Personally, I can see Unity being very successful (eventually) on a portable touch platform. I suppose Mark sees the consumer market heading that direction and doesn't want to be left behind. However, I think we're still a long way from losing the desktop computer, especially in the enterprise market.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I put Mint KDE on my wife's laptop and for the most part it's been a good experience. Has all the customization of KDE available with a few nice Mint/Gnome tools thrown in. I think I'll upgrade it if they release a 12.04 KDE version......

I ran Linux Mint KDE 9.0 as a guest OS and was pleasantly surprised. It was well polished. Being a spin-off of Ubuntu it is (was), by necessity, behind Ubuntu by several weeks to a month or two. However, it looks like they are not very concerned about KDE on their latest release. I've been looking for it and it has yet to appear, even though someone said it was supposed to be out a week or two ago.

[craig10x]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

GreyGeek...as far as Linux Mint's kde edition, Clem has made several posts explaining that once work is done on getting at Linux Mint 12 MGSE (the new gnome3 edition of mint) which should be shortly (the RC has been out for a while) and the final isos are being tested now...he will then go about deciding what they will do with the kde edition...it may go lmde (debian testing) or it may remain on ubuntu, he will be deciding that when he starts working on it in early December...

You have to keep in mind that gnome has always been the main used linux mint distro....the breakdown is 75% main edition gnome 10% LMDE (which is also gnome of course) and 10% on KDE...the other 5% are on their other lightweight versions...

Also, there was a major upheaval in switching from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 for this release and that further delayed matters concerning the kde edition (also it is uncertain whether "Boo" who does the kde version will be continuing with it, thus likely leaving it for Clem to do)...

[matuskap]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

I put Mint KDE on my wife's laptop and for the most part it's been a good experience. Has all the customization of KDE available with a few nice Mint/Gnome tools thrown in. I think I'll upgrade it if they release a 12.04 KDE version.

Personally, I can see Unity being very successful (eventually) on a portable touch platform. I suppose Mark sees the consumer market heading that direction and doesn't want to be left behind. However, I think we're still a long way from losing the desktop computer, especially in the enterprise market.

In that case they should have created a new desktop enviroment, not destroy the one most ppl were used to.

I have converted to KDE recently because of gnome3/unity. I just hate what they did with it. But after i tried out this KDE 4 i must admit i regret staying with gnome for so long. First week i was mad angry while working on KDE mostly because i was used to do thing one way and now i had to change that and i hate nothing more than if something on my computer doesnt work 100% like i want it to. And since KDE does a lot of stuff by default, but not the way i want, i spent almost week just adjusting it to the final form. But it was worth it.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

....
But it was worth it.

Indeed, which is why I stayed with it since Sept of 1998.

[craig10x]

Re: Is Unity driving its Ubuntu users towards kubuntu?

Currently, i am using Linux Mint 12....i was using MGSE (gnome 3 shell with minty extensions to make it more like the conventional desktop)...however now i've installed Cinnamon (which is in Alpha but very stable already)....it's bare bones as far as configuring right now but this is just the foundation for it, and new versions that Clem will send down through the update manager, will have fixes and added features...I like it already enough to use as my main desktop session on mint and look forward to the changes that will be coming down for it...

I believe the goal is to have it as the default on Mint 13...What Clem is doing is, instead of using "extensions" it is actual writing into the shell itself (or whatever the technical term is called) which is much like ubuntu did in creating unity interface...except instead we get a conventional desktop with just 1 panel on bottom and mint slab menu with it...no side docky or dash...