[ale] ranting about new Ubuntu UI

[Pat Regan]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:40:06 -0400
Ron Frazier <atllinuxenthinfo at c3energy.com> wrote:

> Pat,
> 
> OK, I see your point.  I will say that my Dad, 73 years old but in
> good health, mastered these basic controls with only minimal training
> a few years ago and with only a few weeks of experience.  

My father does alright, but I'm betting he's going to enjoy Unity as
well.

> However, if, for whatever reason, a user that needs a simpler tablet
> or kiosk interface, then the designers could just give me, the
> installer, a choice as to which to use when I install; AND give me a
> menu option somewhere so I can switch back and forth at any time.

You do have the choice, even if you limit yourself to Ubuntu.  There's
Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu.  

> That way, when I work on the computer to do maintenance, I could have
> a more functional and usable system; and when the user is using it,
> they could have a simpler system.  Even better, have the UI
> selectable per user and switchable WITH ONE CLICK back and forth at
> any time.  

Today you can choose "gnome classic" or "ubuntu classic" or something
similar in a drop down menu at the login screen.  No one is forcing
either of us to use Unity and we aren't (currently?) the target
audience for it anyway.

> The live CD could have buttons to TRY WITH UNITY UI, TRY WITH GNOME
> 3, and TRY WITH GNOME 2, with a description of each.  I would have no
> problem with that.

The CD just isn't big enough for that.  Ubuntu seems to always be
fighting to fit a complete usable desktop experience on a single CD.

Unity doesn't seem fully baked at this point and Canonical warned
everyone about that ahead of time.

I'm just excited to see a Linux distribution forging ahead and doing
something new instead of just playing catch up with Windows and OSX. 

Pat