I decided to upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10. I know it’s going to cause me trouble with the weird Unity UI. But, I’m an adaptable person and I don’t need a lot of UI customization. 11.04 Unity sucked but it was half usable, so I can go gnome 2 (classic) free. Word is that unity on 11.10 doesn’t have a sucky workplace manager. If I start to whine, remind me that I chose this path.
It’s got screen menubar that all the apps share, Mac like. OK. I used to be happy with that and whined about it when I switched from OSX. I could learn to be happy about that again. Sadly, you have to move the mouse to the top over your App Name to get the menus displayed. There’s probably a setting for that but I deal with that when the 11.10 upgrade is done (I’m still writing in 11.04 while the upgrade proceeds).
The 11.04 Unity Workplace is useless but I’m told it gets better.
—–2 hours later of download and virtualbox in and out configuring and one reboot —
Oh My! No I’m not going to whine (much) and I can’t go back. Alt-Tab is your new best friend. I can learn that.
Thank god I did the scrollbar-overlay trick long ago. It really doesn’t suck that much. Yes, the Workplace thingy needs a whole lotta help and the icons on the left hand side are too large and should be on the bottom and smaller. I know there are tweaks for that, should I care that much. I might but 12.04 is just around the corner so I’d rather not put in a lot attention. 11.10 Unity works. The Apps I want work. It doesn’t fit my memory patterns, but you know what? I can learn.
There are reasons to like the new interface. I like the font Ubuntu selected for me. Actually, now that I’ve used Unity with some knowledge, I kind of like it. I wish the row of app icons was on the bottom. Maybe there is a setting for that.
– a Day or two later –
I’ve run into all the whines about Unity. Some are very well deserved complaints. Install the Gnome-tweak app and you can almost get things better. Somehow, that added a new login option, Gnome Classic and Praise Jesus, It’s almost like home again. Workplaces work. Menus go back to what they used to be. There is no panel to put your launch icons so it’s not the same but its better.
