Comments on: Ubuntu 9.10: Better, Or Just Better-Looking?

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:44:49 +0000

I see both sides of the coin. The author is stating that stability is more important than looks. I agree. If you have a nice shimmering, shiny charismatic desktop background, and some noob gets a netbook that Ubuntu can’t interface with, whether it be the wireless card or graphics etc, they’re going to be put off anyway. A person starting with Linux usually goes to Ubuntu as a beginning steppingstone. I doubt they want to start the inevitable terminal work by trying to find a wireless driver, installing a .tar.bz2, using ifconfig, etc. They want compattibility. For another, screen reader access with Ubuntu is somewhat slow with Orca, until you get speech-dispatcher to interface with Orca instead of the gnome-speech system. I hear this is being worked on now, so I’m pretty excited. So in short, I’d rather use a minimalist interface and look than a overly bloated graphical fieldday, like Vista. But this is why opinions exist.
However, others are right in stating why Macs are so hot. They look great, they feel great, they are fast, sleek, and just awesome. So I believe a heavy dose of bug fixing combined with a not overly graphical desktop (but still professional looking) is in order. Either way, Linux is awesome.

By: samantha

samantha — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:51:40 +0000

Aesthetics is a big deal. Even to a fundamentally hacker type like myself. It is very painful to go from a Mac environment (day job) to Linux. It is getting significantly better especially with the latest KDE. But the crisp uniform text, graphics and GUI elements are much missed. To win the heart of consumers computing to Linux, fixing the aesthetics is very important. The other hugely important piece is breadth of apps and especially whether there is a good VM story for those Windows (and one hopes someday) Mac apps that there is no replacement for. The current offerings are brutal to many graphics apps, especially ones with heavy 3D like games, 3D design tool and so on.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:03:35 +0000

I think a new default theme is a great thing. Been studding Human Computer Interaction at UNI, lot of research says people find “prettier” systems are easier to use. Apparently we are more creative when we are happy, so find ways around problems quicker.

Personally I am more interested in the lower level stuff.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:42:15 +0000

I also don’t think that it is necessary to spend so much time on changing the Ubuntu look as it is very easy to change the look. If it was a difficult and expensive as changing the look on Windows, then yes.

Even though Ubuntu generally speaking, is very easy to use, it can become very challenging to keep a newbie that doesn’t have much computer experience from going back to Microsoft. Some people are just not interested in learning how to use the command line to install things or trouble shooting something.

By: Carl Snyder

Carl Snyder — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:15:19 +0000

I originally went with Ubuntu 7.10 because all of the more stable distributions did not have the drivers (kernel update) for my 2 year old system. Only Ubuntu and Knoppix would boot on the system. As a n00b, I did not have the expertise to find ways to get anything that did not (mostly) work out of the box. As it was, when I went from Live CD to installation, the display setting broke, and I spent several days (off-time) before I finally was able to make a custom xorg.conf setting file work. I still had several weeks before I got the sound to work properly.

I am presently working on 8.10, but I may go back to 8.04 or Debian Lenny, as both work on my hardware and software updates are not an ‘adventure.’

I sometimes like to try out a new distribution, but only if I have a working system to fall back on to do things like research how to fix the new distribution and check my e-mail.

I have turned off all of Compiz because it affected my operation noticeably. I do use Cairo dock on Gnome and have used Enlightenment. I find I like the looks of E17 better than Compiz, and it is not as much a drag on the system.

By: Rob Dunbar

Rob Dunbar — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:35:26 +0000

As someone who’s a noob to Ubuntu and still is learning how to change Intrepid’s look and feel, I’m in Shuttlesworth’s corner. I like the stability Ubuntu gives, love Synaptic, and appreciate its already-faster-than-Vista boot time. But, yeah, it does look. . . dull. Aikiwolfie is right (#10):

“Good looking tech sells because good looking tech says the company put a bit of thought and effort into the product.”

BTW, where are the best Compiz how-to tutorials, e-books, and help sites?

By: Gopal

Gopal — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:17:52 +0000

I absolutely agree with Chris Tozzi’s comment “Unless Ubuntu wants to squander the immense opportunities presented by the netbook market, it needs to make sure the netbook experience is seamless for everyone.”

I have been using Ubuntu for years. I have Ubuntu both on my desktop and laptop. Upgrading them both when a new version of Ubuntu is released is quick and painless. But getting Ubuntu working for my Asus netbook is a real hassle. If Android works straight off with netbooks, I’d switch to that like a shot.

By: guru

guru — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:26:19 +0000

I think Ubuntu shud release another distribution by the name Dubuntu(ubuntu for developers) where the traditional brown color cud be retained and all the developer friendly features be made a part off. Unnecessary hindrances like compiz and other heavy visual asthetics only add on to the boot time and dimnish performance.
As for the end-users, Ubuntu shud combine compiz and improve its theme and asethics in its releases. The current edition of ubuntu studio howver sucks big time..it needs a sea change and cud be marketed as a ubuntu for the non-linux geeks and common windows users…

By: manny

manny — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:23:58 +0000

just by looks alone, KDE4 could surpass Gnome usage this year alone.

what could that tell you? looks sell!

(K)armic (K)oala = (K)de

By: Hammy

Hammy — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:24:29 +0000

While I agree that it is important to get what’s under the hood working seamlessly, I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of Ubuntu looking good.

I know when a few of my friends see the desktop effects on Ubuntu they are immediately interested and start wondering if Linux has finally come along enough for them to give it a try. I even converted one friend!