Gnome 3 vs Unity

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Looks like it's going to be an interesting time for linux this year with Ubuntu's Unity and Gnome 3 starting to surface. Just did some youtubing to try and get a better idea which camp I'm in and I am starting to lean towards Gnome 3. Looked at it in the new Fedora 15 alpha and I must say that it is looking a lot more refined than Unity. I know Unity is still in heavy development, but they don't have very much time before the release so I doubt things are going to change too much.

I don't know, is it just me or does Unity look a bit shoddy? On the other hand, I was looking at what some new themes for Gnome shell are looking like and it's looking very promising (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/03/gnome-shell-smooth-inset-theme-is-light-airy-and-beautiful/).

What you folks think about the two?

 

[ponder]

Not fond of Unity.

 

[CR34M3]

Agreed, Gnome3 looks prettier, but I can’t help but still feel like everyone is trying to make OSs that look like a Mac.

But to be honest, I’m not bothered too much – my transition to linux has seen me moving away from eyecandy in favour of performance.

 

[sjm]

Going to stick with Gnome 3, give Unity a skip

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I cannot decide which sucks more. I might just go back to XFCE in the end. I don't like eyecandy, I'm too old to care and I'm too busy to want anything that does not add to my productivity.

 

[Ockie]

I cannot decide which sucks more. I might just go back to XFCE in the end. I don't like eyecandy, I'm too old to care and I'm too busy to want anything that does not add to my productivity.

sjoe! We are a mr grumpy pants today!

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

sjoe! We are a mr grumpy pants today!

I still like the world of ASCII, Mkay

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Agreed, Gnome3 looks prettier, but I can’t help but still feel like everyone is trying to make OSs that look like a Mac.

But to be honest, I’m not bothered too much – my transition to linux has seen me moving away from eyecandy in favour of performance.

Well, developers definitely "borrow" design elements from OS X, but I really don't mind too much because OS X has a great looking interface.

 

[wishblade]

Can't say I'm favouring Unity at this point either... Either way, how many times do people sit with their desktops visible? Don't think it would be too often, at least mine is never visible, except just before shutdown (doesn't happen too often) and then again naturally just after boot up.

So I guess the 'winner' would generally be the interface that allows for better productivity... Personally, I've played around with Gnome 3 alpha, and it seems this is the way I'll be going. I don't like Unity, judging by the beta releases of Ubuntu.... But that might also be because I'm used to a certain way of doing things.

Pity though that Unity has to be installed by default, and then removed later, when upgrading existing installs... almost seems like its a forced choice on the end user. Wonder if there will be another flavour of 'Buntu that will be shipped with a default Gnome interface??

 

[ponder]

Wonder if there will be another flavour of 'Buntu that will be shipped with a default Gnome interface??

Maybe Mint will tweak it

 

[wishblade]

Maybe Mint will tweak it

Can't say I was ever a fan of Mint...

 

[CR34M3]

Pity though that Unity has to be installed by default, and then removed later, when upgrading existing installs... almost seems like its a forced choice on the end user. Wonder if there will be another flavour of 'Buntu that will be shipped with a default Gnome interface??

Sorry if this is a stupid question (but 2 years into Ubuntu and I still feel like a noob); but doesn't Ubuntu ship with Gnome as the default interface? Or am I missing something?

 

[phoneJunky]

Hmm, Just looked at unity. I am not all that impressed. I have been using ubuntu since dapper drake, and for I while it felt much better than Windows XP. But Ubuntu going the unity route doesn't give it a competitive edge against Windows 7 in my opinion (For a general OS that is). KDE4 looks so nice, haven't used it in a while because last time I use it, it broke allot.

 

[CrazYmonkeY159]

Hmm, Just looked at unity. I am not all that impressed. I have been using ubuntu since dapper drake, and for I while it felt much better than Windows XP. But Ubuntu going the unity route doesn't give it a competitive edge against Windows 7 in my opinion (For a general OS that is). KDE4 looks so nice, haven't used it in a while because last time I use it, it broke allot.

gave GNOME3 a try on Karmic Koala, its really wierd imo

OT: cool sig, really pompous

 

[wishblade]

Sorry if this is a stupid question (but 2 years into Ubuntu and I still feel like a noob); but doesn't Ubuntu ship with Gnome as the default interface? Or am I missing something?

Not a stupid question ... Basically, you're right - Ubuntu does currently ship with Gnome 2 as the default. As of the next release (due towards the latter half of April), Ubuntu has switched desktop environments to Unity, chucking out Gnome as the default GUI.

Which was where my comment was headed - if Unity becomes the default, then it will be installed on any upgrade / new install. Meaning that if its not wanted, the user is required to complete the process of uninstalling Unity, and installing GUI of choice...

 

[CR34M3]

Not a stupid question ... Basically, you're right - Ubuntu does currently ship with Gnome 2 as the default. As of the next release (due towards the latter half of April), Ubuntu has switched desktop environments to Unity, chucking out Gnome as the default GUI.

Which was where my comment was headed - if Unity becomes the default, then it will be installed on any upgrade / new install. Meaning that if its not wanted, the user is required to complete the process of uninstalling Unity, and installing GUI of choice...

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Thought I was missing something that was (literally) right before my eyes.

By the way, how much effort is a switch between Unity and Gnome? Is it as easy as apt-get... or is there allot of trouble involved?

 

[AfricanTech]

don't like unity at all - happy mint user...

 

[kingrob]

Unity looks a little bit low-budget to me....almost like it's a netbook/tablet OS.

But I'll reserve judgement for the day Ubuntu 11.04 launches.

GO MARK & TEAM!!

 

[Tinuva]

Ubuntu 11 has a lot of things that make is very attractive, for one it will have the 2.6.38 kernel with the magic latency fix, so things feel snappy even though you busy compiling the kernel with 64 threads. Thats a big one in my books at least. Just hope Ubuntu didn't patch it out.

 

[ponder]

Ubuntu 11 has a lot of things that make is very attractive, for one it will have the 2.6.38 kernel with the magic latency fix, so things feel snappy even though you busy compiling the kernel with 64 threads. Thats a big one in my books at least. Just hope Ubuntu didn't patch it out.

It's not unique to Ubuntu so not really a plus in my book. Other distros are already offering it.