[Sussex] More new ubuntu confusion....

[Dominic Humphries]

On Sat, 2011-10-15 at 16:26 +0100, John The Fatbloke wrote:
> Wotcha list,
> 
> Why is it that with every new incarnation of ubuntu, they make it more
> confusing to do what we (well, ok, not really we, but me) used to ?
> 
Well, IMHO: Because they are, sadly, making the same mistake that
Microsoft did.

MS have been trying to launch the tablet PC for at least a decade, and
they failed every time, because they tried to do it using the standard
Windows UI - a UI designed totally around a keyboard and mouse - and
kludge it to be usable without a keyboard or mouse.

Apple were the first people to get it right: They had a desktop GUI and
a tablet GUI, and they were totally different. They kept the same OS,
sure, but the UIs were totally seperate. That's why the iPhone & iPad
were a big success.

So now Ubuntu wants to be tablet-friendly, but instead of following the
successful example of Apple and having a tablet UI and a desktop UI -
which wouldn't really be any harder than having a Gnome and KDE flavour
like they already do - they've done a Microsoft and tried to make a
one-size-fits-all UI. Which means it's a bunch of annoying compromises
whether you're using a mouse or a touchscreen.

Luckily, I only have to use Unity for as long as it takes to install
FVWM :o)

> Hey Ho ! If there was any alternative, I suspect I'd be trying that
> right now.

There's still plenty of alternate window managers you can have a play
with.. I don't think they've broken XFCE too badly yet.