Yet more evidence that there is a huge push for traditional linux in the tablet space:

Here is a project that aspires to be the de-facto on-screen keyboard for MeeGo:

http://www.jonnor.com/2011/04/introd...rd-in-gnome-3/
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_7f3Lxd4_I

It's demoed on Fedora and running in GNOME3. Looks alright, but only just.

I think it will be a winner in one of my computers, located in the living room. I have a combo device with keyboard and mouse and I think it will be easier to manage the system with this new layout.
Maybe tomorrow or next week I'll install it (I only tried the beta virtualized on another computer).

I'm now on day 2 of using Ubnutu with the Unity interface as my primary system, and there are things that I really like about it, and things that are annoying. Of course, I'm focusing this review on the UI component of the OS.

I've never really been crazy about the Mac OSX launcher, which is essentially what the Unity launcher is a copy of (including positioning of the ubuntu symbol). Now it adds some very nice innovations, but there are more than a few things that are vexing as well.

I like the fact that the buttons are very large, and really like the fact that you can somewhat 'see' everything on the launcher when it first pops out. I also like that the icons can have specific contexts for additional functionality.

The true strength of the UI, IMO, is the ability to remove the mouse from navigation. I *love* the fact that you can use the 'super' key to launch apps associated with icons in the launcher. This is really handy to launch or switch to existing applications that you commonly use. I can reliably call up my web browser with 'super 1' regardless of what screen I'm on, which is a really handy shortcut. Switching windows/desktops via keyboard shortcuts is standard and useful for those that know them.


However, IMHO it also has huge flaws:

If you, like me, had a long list of items on the bar, reaching those at the bottom is an exercise in frustration. The scrolling is extremely slow and likewise for the mouse scroll button. It takes a singe scroll to move the distance of one icon, meaning that if you have large lists, you will be scrolling the mouse button many times to reach the bottom. In the designers defense, you can also drag the list with the left mouse button quite simply and quickly.

I also don't like the fact that I can't keep the launcher visible. This is my preferred way of working, and I would rather not have to feel around in the dark to select something by mouse. I would rather be able to see what is there and select accordingly. I rely more on the super key to launch apps, than the launcher menu and subsequently use my mouse less -- maybe a blessing in disguise...

I don't like the differences in full-screen vs. windowed management of app windows. Full screen offers a novel concept of incorporating the app title, and the main menu (File Edit, etc) in the top bar of the UI. However windowed mode introduces a title on each window. This makes sense, but you start to wonder about the purpose of the top bar in the first place. My guess is that they're once again pulling an Apple -- that is keeping the app main menu at the top of the screen. The difference is that it's hidden and only visible in each case with a mouse over. I personally don't like it, but like this entire review, it's based on my personal tastes.

By default, traditional 'tray widgets' are off on the top panel, which may/may-not be a problem. There is a way to turn them on, though with minimal effort ($ gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"). I suspect a new API call is needed for 'tray' items.

I do find that there are some bugs with the UI and launcher, but I suspect that they'll be ironed out in time. Some of these include:
- Problems in selecting multiple windows of the same app if they are on different desktops.
- Selecting an app that is only ever so slightly on-screen from a different desktop, fails to change desktops.
- Sometimes the minimized mouse scroller doesn't show up when hovered over.

The Ubuntu 11.04 is the Mac-ification of Ubuntu's UI -- no question. The implementation tries to get it right, but has many shortcomings, some which I expect will be solved in time. But if you're like me, even the original Mac OSX interface is not desirable. It makes up for it in stronger keyboard navigation which is very welcome for 'power' users, though it has much farther to go before its considered fresh, or even good.

This is in no way a review, just some impressions, and early ones at that. I may grow to love the new system given time, and appreciate the thought into higher degrees of productivity and user pleasure. I also understand that it's an early work and by no means the final. So take these impressions as the are: early.

However, the somewhat disconcerting echo resounding from this release is time-old: It shows that traditional linux OSS sometimes has trouble innovating -- especially in non-technical matters.

I would have much preferred if Ubuntu's Unity moved in a fresh direction, rather than to produce a poor copy of the Mac OSX UI.

Some more impressions after another day of intensive use -- it's my primary system after all.

Frustrating problem -- Simple Solution
I was finding it especially frustrating trying to launch multiple instances of apps using the launcher or the super key. Thankfully, the super key comes to the rescue again. Holding shift-super-2, I can launch a new instance of my terminal (for example) on a desktop, without needing to go to the original instance and spawn a 'New Window' from its menu. I can also do this without touching the mouse, which is welcome at times.

Since I like to use shortcuts, this works for me, but for lay users or new users, use of the dock will be the only option and will certainly be frustrating to use at times.

I'm finding out that the best part of Unity is the fact that I don't have to use the key UI component, the launcher. Navigating and the super-key have made the experience bearable and in some ways quite a bit better than the original Gnome dock. The super-key launcher, IMO, is the single best innovation about this product, though it's likely to be accessible only to those that are comfortable using keyboard shortcuts.

Broken Search
Clicking the Ubuntu button, or hitting the super key on its own brings up an application/file search. This seems great until you realize how inconsistent it is to use. It works well for applications, but finding files is another matter entirely. Typing in a fragment of a known file on my system yield no results, or results only some of the time -- silly, right? What's worse? Directories are omitted altogether from the results. I don't know who coded this mess, but they need to be fired.

Suggestions for improvement
I would like to see a better way to quickly organize a bunch of on-screen windows. Blender handles this quite well with a user-defined pane system, and the new Touchwiz Galaxy Tab widget interface seems to have a novel approach to this as well. Currently, Unity incorporates the Windows 7 'snap-to-side', which is useful. However, the horrible top menu, and the fact that your window spills over onto the next desktop leads to some undesirable effects. I think it can be done far better.

I would also like a method to see what windows I actually have active on a desktop. Ugh. I would rather not have to do an alt-tab, or move windows around to discover what is running on a desktop at a given time. Again, the dock is at fault as this information should be available at a glance.

Tear down and rebuild the app/file search engine. It's that simple. This should be a simple search against an aggregation of keywords (possibly against a synonym database) collected from files and their contents (when available -- eg. ID3 MP3 tags). The code base should be *tiny* and very, very fast. The problem is that the search doesn't work, which hints at some poor fundamental design decisions.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
This version has some bugs, so you may wish to wait. On my system at present, the graphical performance of dragging windows around has degraded to the point where I'll be lucky to get 2fps, and some windows are failing to register mouse clicks. These are clearly bugs, and I have full faith that problems like these will be fixed in short time. In the interim, a restart is required...

At this stage of the game, developers should be conscious about what it takes to move around a few 2D windows. The UI out of the gate should be quick, smooth, and function more-or-less flawlessly. I can appreciate that there are some problems that need to be ironed out, but even on a fresh boot, the desktop is a little choppier than I would like, on a system that can certainly handle it.

Final Verdict
Let me preface this verdict by saying: this is my system, and I don't have the time or patience to try another -- I'm locked into the Ubuntu ecosystem. It would take something major for me to move to something else.

Unity is novel to the halls of stock Linux distros, though it leaves a lot to be desired, and is a rather poor implementation of something I didn't like to begin with. Strong keyboard shortcuts have helped balance the playing field, but I'm left longing for more.

I believe with some work, some of these concerns can be alleviated, though I'm left wanting some real innovation rather than misguided facsimiles of existing software. There's plenty of ways to improve usability and UIs, and I believe Ubuntu can do better.

But for the time being, if I were the type of user that wasn't tied to Ubuntu, I would either wait to upgrade (I did it because it was automated), or consider another flavour. There's more to hate than to love about Unity.

Yeah I always thought Ubuntu should go in the way of making a intuitive-but-smooth user interface. Something like a hybrid of Win7 + OSX (just a few things) + Moblin + MeeGo tablet (video).

I think that's what they're trying to do. There are definite characteristics from Win7 and OSX (moreso the latter). It's just that it's not working terribly well at this stage. With some polish, I'm sure it will be better, but still a re-hash.

I would much rather see, as you mention, something a little more bold like the MeeGo UI, rather than a re-iteration of decades old concepts.

Consider improving the graphical toolset for drawing applications. Look at Androids use of fragments and a 3D API, and iOS's paned displays. This type of functionality would be a welcome part of the UI and certainly make this a viable tablet-friendly OS. Also, innovations in simplifying the development problem, or even cross-binary executable or a new-type of repository. Even existing concepts like exposing the web as an interface, or tighter integration of web-apps.

Pushing out in these fresh directions requires vision -- a characteristic that Canonical seems to lack. To be fair, they produce a distribution, which by definition is mostly a collection of already existing parts -- I would expect that innovation is new territory. However, with vision comes the implementation of new things, rather than a perpetual game of catch-up.

Ok have been messing around with 11.04 some time now, and finally got fed up about all the bugs etc....

My advice is do not upgrade to 11.04, not for about a month or how long it takes to fix all the small things, i really wish i had read some forums before just thinking that, hey new ubuntu nice it's probably better then my version..........

But now im back on 10.10 again, and everything is beautiful.

If you want a 10.10 version, upgraded to may, codecs + video/audio apps installed, you can try my 'Frost_10.10'
This remastersys'd 10.10 has almost everything, install and you can see all video's you have etc...., firefox 4 is also in it, well in the ppa, just update and it will be installed

upgraded my netbook, Unity seems to crash the gfx drivers (intel crap), and somehow gnome 2 was broken (no more panels).

So in the end I had to wipe it and get 10.10 back on it. One day lost, I'll look at other distro's in the future, and move away from Ubuntu.

And that is apart from the crashes, I do not like this whole Unity thing. My computer is a work instrument. If it were a shiny toy I would have bought a Mac.

Installed 11.04 beta on a low-end netbook: very happy using it, launching apps and changing desktop with the keyboard only is very easy and extremely usefull. (I tried installing meego on it, but no driver for the wifi nor for the ethernet, so I figured I'd wait for 1.2).

Updated 11.04 Xubuntu on the fanless desktop/media center in my living room: went smoothly, seems a bit better but nothing obvious (apart that vlc against nvidia is now broken...)

Updated 11.04 Kubuntu on my main laptop: update failed, kde doesn't work anymore, still in the process of correcting the mess, command line style...

I guess it would have been wise to wait a bit before upgrading the distro, but as far as unity desktop is concerned it felt quite nice (on a small screen)

It's very interesting how users are split when it comes to Ubuntu 11.04 .

I personally don't like Unity all that much, but I'm willing to stick it out. Yes, its a bit rough around the edges, but in time it will a) feel more natural, and b) improve greatly in stability and usability.

Of course, much old functionality from Gnome is gone, though some welcome new functionality has arrived.

For what I do, it's fine, and I wish the team good luck. One thing is certain, Canonical has p***ed-off a swath of its user-base and will likely lose them to other distros.

I bet Mint is looking all the more appetizing now...