[Newark] Ubuntu Natty / Unity

[Chris Hayes]

Here're my two cents concerning window managers.

Notion (a maintained fork of the now defunct Ion3, originally by the
seemingly defunct Valkonen) is the only window manager I'm aware of
that put efficiency first. Instead of implementing de facto mistakes,
the type that regularly mar many a Free Software project, Valkonen
actually considers what a window manager should do and wrote one
accordingly.

Notion divides the screen up into tiles and sub-tiles, within these
applications or nested tiles sit with a tab bar allowing the user to
switch between them. It can be controlled very nicely from the
keyboard, but for normal use you aren't forced to rely on this. It's
good, and if you're interested in efficient and sane user interfaces
I'd strongly recommend you try it.

It's not perfect by any degree, I don't think it's suitable for
newbies due to certain actions relying on the use of the keyboard.
Also I'm not aware of how to reference the same pane in multiple
desktops -- although I admit, it could be possible, I just am not
aware how.

WMII and Awesome are supposedly similar, I've used WMII and I find it
to be really quite flawed.

Of course, if you don't agree with the premise that stereotypical
window managers are inefficient, and -- well, just plain stupid, I
don't suppose that taking the time to try something like Notion would
be terribly useful.

If you are interested in Notion, still; I'd advise you to use a
secondary/inline X server like Xephyr with TWM in order to run (Java)
applications that are real pushy and don't like it when the window
manager enforces its control over window geometry. But don't worry
about that now, unless you're constantly using Java applications.

On an unrelated note, am I suppose to top or bottom post here? It's
been so long... I'm looking at you, Burton.

Chris Hayes

On 10 May 2011 13:03, Craig Lynch <c.m.lynch87 at gmail.com> wrote:
> In similar fashion I just pushed a box upto latest Ubuntu for a family
> member. The lad having had some experience with GNOME but isn't a techie,
> took a dislike to it. He seems alot happier with GNOME3 and the Shell.
>
> Personally I quite like the look of it. Seems to have a lot in common with
> both Shell and MacOS X. I didn't get to have a good play with it because the
> lad wanted Shell but I'm open to putting it on a box myself to take a look.
>
> I'm always on the lookout for new UX/UI. Having had KDE4, Shell, E17,
> blackbox, plan9 and finally Haiku on a dual-boot. Its always fun trying out
> the new workflows.
>
> On a random note, anyone tried etoilé? I haven't managed to get it to build
> yet.. :(
>
> Craig
>
> On May 9, 2011 4:55 PM, "Peter Adams" <praest76 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> So what's the general opinion here on Ubuntu 11.04 with Unity? I have
>> Ubuntu installed on the girlfriend's netbook which I keep up with the
>> latest to test. So far I've found Unity quite nice on a small netbook
>> aimed at non-tech users. Still haven't convinced her of it's merits
>> over the Windows 7 it dual-boots but Windows related frustrations are
>> helping push her over.
>>
>> While most Linux users I know are fairly down on Unity I'm finding it
>> a more simple and user-friendly experience and can see where Canonical
>> is going with it; Linux for the non-geek.
>>
>> --
>> Peter
>>
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