I have been debating writing about this since we are mainly a gaming news site (I should really setup another site for all the other Linux news I want to write about!), but Canonical switching back to GNOME on Ubuntu is very big news for everyone.
Question: Is there any interest in me doing a separate site to cover general Linux news?
Mark Shuttleworth, Founder of Ubuntu and Canonical wrote a rather shocking blog post announcing that Ubuntu 18.04 will officially drop the Unity desktop environment. If you didn't hear about it due to living under a large rock, let that sink in for a moment. Ubuntu is dropping a desktop environment they've worked on for years and poured tons of resources into building and rewriting for Unity 8.
I've had some time to let the news sink in now, after initially thinking it was a late April fools joke, when in reality it's very real and it makes perfect sense.
Unity was part of a long-term plan for Canonical with Ubuntu as part of their convergence strategy, which ultimately failed to gain any real traction. There's only so much time and money you can put into something when it's not giving you the results you wanted and it seems Canonical is in need of investors, as it turns out it has had to cut its workforce.
This now means there's going to be a little less fragmentation when it comes to the Linux desktop too. For all the good it does having lots of choice, having likely the biggest desktop-Linux distribution use a more standard desktop will help many things. For one thing, developers will no longer have to work around Unity/Compiz specific issues in games. It will also help the stability of GNOME Shell too, since they have even more people using it and working on it thanks to this.
This, in turn, makes Ubuntu go back to what made me originally love it. A polished GNOME desktop experience released every 6 months with the latest and greatest with a little extra love and polish thrown in for good measure. A good, solid desktop experience to introduce people new to Linux with. To me, it sounds fantastic again.
As expected, Unity 8 looks like it will be carried on by a few developers. Will be interesting to see if this actually gains any traction, or if it will fade away with little interest. Personally, I don't see any need to continue it, we have enough desktops already with GNOME Shell, KDE, Xfce, Budgie, LXQt, Cinnamon, MATE and the list goes on and on. Enough already I say, they all vary a lot in terms of features and time could be better spent on many others parts of the Linux desktop now.
Finally, I'm still very happy after switching from Ubuntu to Antergos. I've now settled with the GNOME Shell desktop with two extensions and it's glorious:
I couldn't imagine having to go back to PPAs again to get extra software, my love for the Arch AUR is never ending.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
metro2033fanboy Apr 8, 2017
#goVEGAN
Last edited by metro2033fanboy on 8 April 2017 at 1:03 am UTC
eldersnake Apr 8, 2017
If you can do it though and even have some other contributors on standby as well, as I imagine you probably do thanks to GOL, you can always have a go at a new one. All power to you I say.
Mblackwell Apr 8, 2017
Unfortunately with some of the changes in future releases to keep supporting old packages required by Unity it became difficult to keep GNOME 3 running until thankfully Ubuntu GNOME came around, which is what I currently run. I'm glad that the waste in resources will be gone and more users will be on GNOME and pushing it forward as they did in the past. Rather than Ubuntu being the red headed stepchild that everyone uses but switch the DE to something else after awhile it will line up with other distributions and it will mean things like games likely being more easily supported on other Linuxes.
Quoting: GrimfistBecause there is one thing that Unity 7 did absolutly right compared to ALL other Linux DE's out there, in times where 16:9 widescreens are the norm, vertical screen space is very precious compared to horizontal screen space. Having a monstrous launcher bar at the bottom is just bad UX design when you can have it at the left side of the screen, preserving precious vertical screen space and using the available but only 80% or so used horizontal screen space. And delivering such a good out of the box experience is what drives Ubuntu.
Really, ALL? So let's see, here I am using Mate, and I guess that thing on the right hand edge of my screen can't be a taskbar with a bunch of launchers on it because apparently ALL the Linux DEs other than Unity don't do that.
Quoting: EikeAgreed - I'm interested in the occasional general Linux news post, but no need to put it on a different side.QuoteQuestion: Is there any interest in me doing a separate site to cover general Linux news?
I wouldn't be interested, but I think this news is so important that it's rightfully on GoL.
About the news:
I'm sad that this puts the end to a possible alternative for mobile phones.
And about the phone: I hate smartphones, but am somewhat forced to use one. I was hoping an Ubuntu Phone might become a decent option, so far that I might actually buy one instead of using my dad's hand-me-down.
About Unity and convergence going the way of the Dodo: I never liked Unity. PC's have to look and act like PC's, phones/tablets have to look and act like mobile devices.
My $0.03 on the vertical/horizontal taskbar:
$0.01: Having little use of horizontal screen space is a mistake of applications/websites (thankfully not GOL). Although having applications open side by side can be very useful (or panels within games).
$0.02: Cinnamon's taskbar is very slim, due to not using huge icons, but small icons with a wee bit of text next to it instead. And I like having that bit of text.
$0.03: Adding text to a vertical taskbar (for instance the word 'Menu' or just a digital clock) makes it wider than I'm comfortable with. Unless you auto-collapse it, but I don't like that either. My main grope with a wide vertical taskbar? It distorts the symmetry of my applications/websites. The horizontal middle of my screen is no longer the horizontal middle of 'my' application/website.
Last edited by lvlark on 8 April 2017 at 10:15 am UTC
In one way I like this, because we may see fresh Unity 8 builds pop up in the AUR in the near future :)
But besides that, I'm glad Canonical are back using and working with GNOME. hopefully we get to see some special Ubuntu flair on GNOME now. I wouldn't mind seeing a full global menu in GNOME. Not sure if that'll happen but it could as an optional feature on Ubuntu or an Ubuntu patched build of GNOME shell.
But nevertheless, I hope everyone that lost jobs will be able to find new employment quickly.
Quoting: HamishQuoting: snizzoYes please. Just don't be like phoronix and turn this website into a kde, mesa, manjaro, amd etc. zealots center. It's so annoying just reading over 9000 news about the latest commit on amd mesa and all of the hate towards nvidia in general (given that's still the best vendor hardware/software for gaming on linux).So basically you are complaining that Phoronix covers topics that you hate? And then you turn around and complain about other people being haters?
I think you need to do a little introspection here.
Oh gosh. My message is so difficult to understand? I'm not complaining that phoronix covers some topics (that I don't hate). I'd prefer it to be a news site that gives the same space to everything and treat it objectively, like a journalist do and unlike a blogger do. I'm more and more thrilled to see how many people just don't get what's written in a small comment.
Quoting: lvlarkMy $0.03 on the vertical/horizontal taskbar:
$0.01: Having little use of horizontal screen space is a mistake of applications/websites (thankfully not GOL).
I wonder what you're referring to, here. For good reasons, lines are not printed too wide for at least centuries now - and so does GoL:
Last edited by Eike on 8 April 2017 at 12:32 pm UTC
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: GrimfistBecause there is one thing that Unity 7 did absolutly right compared to ALL other Linux DE's out there, in times where 16:9 widescreens are the norm, vertical screen space is very precious compared to horizontal screen space. Having a monstrous launcher bar at the bottom is just bad UX design when you can have it at the left side of the screen, preserving precious vertical screen space and using the available but only 80% or so used horizontal screen space. And delivering such a good out of the box experience is what drives Ubuntu.
Really, ALL? So let's see, here I am using Mate, and I guess that thing on the right hand edge of my screen can't be a taskbar with a bunch of launchers on it because apparently ALL the Linux DEs other than Unity don't do that.
Just clicked on the lower right hand of my KDE desktop and dragged the "Screen border" thingy to any side, and...
taskbar goes and stays there.
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