I’ve been vocal about my hatred of Ubuntu Unity. I liked Ubuntu before Unity was introduced, but afterwards it just sucked horribly.

The latest news that Ubuntu Unity is including Amazon search results directly in the Lens has a lot of users raging! Most are concerned that by offering these search results, regardless of whether the user wants them or not, is a violation of trust and a security issue.

There are many things that comprise a successful Linux distribution, but there may be none more important than trust. Before you build a production Linux system, you have to trust that the distribution isn’t going to contain malicious code or back doors or any number of other potentially major problems.

After users got all up in arms about this new feature, Shuttleworth released another statement trying to quell anxiety. Unfortunately, the already suspicious Ubuntu users picked apart and analyzed his words, and decided that he wasn’t being entirely truthful.

Shuttleworth said, “We are not telling Amazon what you are searching for. Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf.” That first  statement is a blatant lie! They are definitely passing your query terms on to Amazon; they’re just masking the originating IP address.

This by itself is a problem because nobody intends to search Amazon for sensitive personal information. For instance, someone might search for a file with a social security number, or with a specific text string that is in no way intended to be read by anyone else. They’re ostensibly searching through their own local file system, after all, and the thought that by default that search string will be sent out to not one or two, but 25 third parties is extremely disturbing.

This, however, IS the bulk of the problem. Think about the what the “Home” lens was originally used for: searching for files on your hard drive. These files are personal, and searches for things inside these files are personal. Even the filenames may speak volumes. You could be searching for the latest version of your resume at work because you’re considering leaving your job; you could be searching for a domestic abuse hotline PDF you downloaded or legal documents about filing for divorce; maybe you’re looking for documents with file names that will give away trade secrets or activism plans; or you could be searching for a file in your own local porn collection.

But now, Amazon knows what you search for. And if you make extremely specific searches that go inside a file, who knows what you might expose to the public eye (specific names and passwords).

The search terms used reveal a lot about the users making those searches. Users are going to be searching for files in the Home lens, because this is what they have always done. But now, they are sending their sensitive search terms over plain HTTP! This means it is visible to your local sysadmin, your boss, your ISP, Canonical sees it, and now so does Amazon, and any other person who manages to jump in the middle! The only thing Canonical is doing is masking your IP address from Amazon.

After this original problem was exposed, Canonical released an update to the Amazon search process. 

A problem that Canonical refuses to address is that Amazon (and other third party members) are still able to get your IP and correlate it with what you are searching for. Canonical did change the servers to send search queries via secure HTTPS. But even when Amazon product images are loaded over HTTPS instead of HTTP, the fact that they are loaded directly from Amazon’s servers instead of from Canonical’s means that Amazon has the ability to correlate search queries with IP addresses.

So in the normal Canonical way, they loudly released a patch for a security flaw, but they didn’t fix the problem. Or at least, they didn’t really fix the main problem.

Giving users an opt-out is not a fix. “Include online search results” should be disabled by default, and third-party search should be opt-in ONLY. New users to Ubuntu should not have to worry about security leaks on a new install.

So Canonical has all the IP’s and your search terms, and any one of Canonical’s 25 3rd party content providers, now including Amazon, has all your search terms and possibly your IP as well! All you need now is a proactive government to subpoena both of them and link up who searches for what.

And Shuttleworth answered complaints by responding to users like an emperor completely out of touch with his user base. “Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root.”

While you can turn this “feature” off, the real problem is the erosion in trust due to blithely selling users out. It’s no longer so far-fetched that there will be more features like this in the future and that they won’t have an off switch. Stepping back a bit, I’m disappointed in Ubuntu because I don’t trust Microsoft or Apple to do the Right Thing™ regarding privacy but I thought Ubuntu would. I’m no longer so sure about that.

I personally am never going back to Ubuntu. I have used Ubuntu for 9 years, but have in recent years grown very disillusioned with it. I have tried 12.04, and I previewed 12.10 and I think it sucks. Windows and Mac users are already accustomed to having their data sent to third parties without their express consent. Ubuntu, which should respect user privacy and hold to the ideals that are at the heart of the GNU/Linux operating system, remains an exception to this.

Interestingly, one Slashdot blogger called hairyfeet is calling this the final nail in Canonical’s coffin, and expects the company to fold long before Shuttleworth reaches the end of his thesaurus.

In a fascinating comment, he connects Shuttleworth’s announcement 2 years ago that he would not sink any more money into Canonical with a long line of events leading to today.

“Shuttleworth announced he would sink no more millions into Canonical that it was over and now we have the final nail. Look at their history since the Shuttleworth announcement…Ubuntu Netbook (trying to get into the netbook craze after the ship had sailed), selling search results to Yahoo, selling MP3s through Amazon, trying to get into the server business after Shuttleworth talking about how Ubuntu was gonna be “the desktop Linux” for the masses, trying to come up with Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu TV…their entire history since that announcement has been that of a desperate company trying to find SOME way, any way, to stem the flow of red ink and find a positive revenue stream… Final prediction? Canonical joins the other dead Linux desktops in a year and a half, maybe sooner. All those based on Ubuntu better be switching to Debian as a base NOW because it won’t be much longer before Shuttleworth pulls the plug and hits the lights on his way out. I wouldn’t be surprised to read in a month or two he has it up for sale just to try to recoup some of the money, doubt there will be any takers though, just no money in desktops.”

I agree with hairyfeet!

Canonical has compromised GNU/Linux ideals and the privacy of thousands of users. Ubuntu needs to be recognized for the crap it has become. I am looking forward to the downfall of Canonical.

In my earlier post Antidevelopment, I defined the word I coined in that article as “any change made to the user experience that is not beneficial and serves only to limit or restrict what the user wants to do, especially in the field of customization.”

I have been quite vocal about Ubuntu and GNOME3 spiraling into antidevelopment. Yet, as I am often criticized, it is not fair to say that no development at all is going on! Ubuntu continues developing their desktop Unity, and GNOME3 continues developing whatever that is (that most distros, including Debian, are rapidly abandoning for something else)

So when does development actually translate to antidevelopment?

Simply put, when the development ignores the core values that its users, testers, and developers have been asking for.

So many things that have been broken on the Ubuntu and GNOME3 desktop for so long, and yet no one revisits these problems to fix them. I continually ask Canonical and GNOME to revisit these problems and fix them, but there is no response, or a completely negative response indicating they are still completely detached from their user base. Slightly usable does not mean it’s good; if it’s not 100% then it should be fixed!

The only ones who seem to care the users who write countless patches, extensions, and unsupported programs to fix little irritations here and there.

Simply the fact that Ubuntu Tweak, the GNOME Tweak Tool, and MyUnity programs exist and are downloaded so heavily shows that the users do want the ability to tweak. But these are poor substitutes for tweaking a desktop. In many cases (like with mouse cursors) those programs are not able to makes changes system-wide, even though advanced tweaking of system properties shows that no breakage occurs when something is applied system-wide. There simply is no substitute for a developer who uses common sense, and listens to its user base.

In complete defiance of anyone who actually liked having a screensaver, GNOME completely destroyed the gnome-screensaver. No screensavers, no controls, just a blank screen. Blank screen, blank mind, all is GNOME - I think I’m going to coin that phrase.

Is This Development?

So many things are broken with current and future Unity and GNOME versions that it begs the question, “what has been developed?”

On GNOME’s side, the latest line of programs being axed to their core is Nautilus. First they destroyed menus by removing categories, and hiding Shutdown/Restart. Then they began axing menus and customization in a wide arc of programs. In the grand GNOME tradition of menu destruction, there are no text menus in Nautilus 3.6, just iconified buttons that somehow manage to do less than their text counterparts did in 3.4 and earlier versions.

The changes made to Nautilus 3.6 were so radical that Canonical decided to freeze Nautilus packages at 3.4 or even seek a new file browser, and Mint developers called it “a catastrophe”. It takes amazing amounts of antidevelopment to make something that no one wants to use!

Nautilus was a beautiful program that for several years grew almost organically from the desires and needs of its users. I feel sorry for Nautilus, and will mourn its passing.

An Interesting View of Development

At this time I would like to expound upon what development is. To do this, I am going to establish ground rules.

1. Every successful desktop environment innovates for itself.
2. Every successful desktop environment listens to its users, and makes solutions tailored to what its users want.
3. Innovation usually starts at a core and expands outward from that core. 

This is what I feel primarily makes up successful development.

Despite the fact that #3 is listed last, it is possibly the most important because that is where GNOME and Unity have failed.

Innovation starts at a core. A weak core makes for a weak overall desktop environment. What kind of core have GNOME and Unity established for themselves?

GNOME’s core can be summed up this way: Make everything idiotically simple, and remove options and menus. Systematically they have removed menus, customization options, and preferences from numerous programs, despite outrage from both users and software companies.

Unity has a different core. Integration seems to be the common thread. When Unity was first premiered, it was designed to integrate user and programs in a new way. The Ubuntu Software Center was designed to integrate users and programs. Dash was designed to integrate users with their music, pictures, and programs. The Me menu was designed to integrate users with social networks. Ubuntu One was designed to integrate users with the cloud.

12.04 saw the integration of users with television with the release of Ubuntu TV.

In 12.10 sees the release of Unity 6.0 which has the Dash being designed to integrate users even more with their news (BBC, CNN, Yahoo, Google News, Yandex News, Google Reader, Reddit, NewsBlur), their mail (GMail, Yahoo! Mail, QQ Mail, Windows Live Mail, Mail RU), their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, VK.com, LinkedIn, Tumblr), their games (Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, Lord of Ultima, Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances), their office apps (Google Docs, and Google Calendar), their music (last.fm, libre.fm, Pandora, Grooveshark, Hulu, Rdio, YouTube, Ubuntu One Music), and more!

As you can see, GNOME and Unity have radically different cores. So you’re probably wondering why I bash them with equal intensity.

I realized why when I read the Linux Mint blog article. When discussing the core of its Cinnamon environment, it said: “The file manager isn’t just a file browser, it defines how the user interacts with filesystems, documents, and the visible desktop. It’s a core part of any desktop and it’s important it properly integrates with it… KDE built Dolphin as a central piece of KDE. Xfce and LXDE rely on Thunar and PCManFM… it’s probably only a matter of time before Unity gets its own file manager (patching/freezing Nautilus was the right decision but it’s only a good decision if it’s a temporary one, long term they’ll need to make their own file manager if they don’t want to chose between breaking Unity or Shell.”

Now, I realize why I bash Unity and GNOME equally. Both seem to have forgotten that the central core of an operating system, the one integral program that should not be forgotten, is the file browser.

Users don’t necessarily need to be integrated with the web, or have an interface so simple it borders on the idiotic. They need to be integrated with their files. That should be the core.

I just want to make it clear that the chat conversation I recorded in this Tumblr post happened in the official #ubuntu chatroom on FreeNode.

Since the mods seem to think that the best way to fix Unity is to use something else, I bring you this post…

This is how to fix Unity!

sudo apt-get remove adium-theme-ubuntu apg appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt at-spi2-core bamfdaemon banshee banshee-extension-soundmenu banshee-extension-ubuntuonemusicstore baobab binfmt-support bluez-gstreamer branding-ubuntu brasero brasero-cdrkit brasero-common checkbox checkbox-gtk cli-common compiz compiz-core compiz-gnome compiz-plugins-default compiz-plugins-main-default compizconfig-backend-gconf deja-dup duplicity dvd+rw-tools empathy empathy-common eog evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common example-content gbrainy gedit gedit-common geoclue geoclue-ubuntu-geoip ginn gir1.2-atspi-2.0 gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 gir1.2-gtksource-3.0 gir1.2-indicate-0.6 gir1.2-peas-1.0 gir1.2-totem-1.0 gir1.2-totem-plparser-1.0 gir1.2-wnck-3.0 gnome-bluetooth gnome-control-center gnome-control-center-data gnome-desktop3-data gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-icon-theme-symbolic gnome-media gnome-nettool gnome-online-accounts gnome-orca gnome-power-manager gnome-screensaver gnome-screenshot gnome-search-tool gnome-session gnome-session-bin gnome-session-canberra gnome-session-common gnome-settings-daemon gnome-system-log gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal gnome-terminal-data gnome-user-share gnome-utils-common growisofs gstreamer0.10-gconf gvfs-backends gwibber gwibber-service gwibber-service-facebook gwibber-service-identica gwibber-service-twitter hwdata ibus-gtk3 indicator-appmenu indicator-datetime indicator-power indicator-session intel-gpu-tools libappindicator0.1-cil libarchive1 libatk-adaptor libatspi2.0-0 libaudio2 libbamf0 libbamf3-0 libboost-serialization1.46.1 libbrasero-media3-1 libcamel-1.2-29 libcanberra-pulse libcdio-cdda0 libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio10 libcompizconfig0 libdbus-glib1.0-cil libdbus1.0-cil libdbusmenu-qt2 libdconf-dbus-1-0 libdconf-qt0 libdconf0 libdecoration0 libebackend-1.2-1 libebook1.2-12 libecal1.2-10 libedata-book-1.2-11 libedata-cal-1.2-13 libedataserver1.2-15 libedataserverui-3.0-1 libexempi3 libfolks-telepathy25 libfolks25 libgail-3-common libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata1.7-cil libgdata13 libgdiplus libgdu-gtk0 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4 libgkeyfile1.0-cil libglew1.5 libglewmx1.5 libglib2.0-bin libglib2.0-cil libglib2.0-data libgmime-2.4-2 libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-control-center1 libgnome-desktop-3-2 libgnome-media-profiles-3.0-0 libgnome-menu2 libgnome2-common libgnomekbd-common libgnomekbd7 libgoa-1.0-0 libgpgme11 libgpod-common libgpod4 libgtk-sharp-beans-cil libgtk2.0-cil libgtkmm-3.0-1 libgtksourceview-3.0-0 libgtksourceview-3.0-common libgtkspell3-0 libgudev1.0-cil libgweather-3-0 libgweather-common libgwibber-gtk2 libgwibber2 libhyphen0 libidl0 liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil liblircclient0 liblouis-data liblouis2 libmetacity-private0 libmhash2 libmission-control-plugins0 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo4.0-cil libmono-corlib4.0-cil libmono-csharp4.0-cil libmono-i18n-west4.0-cil libmono-i18n4.0-cil libmono-posix4.0-cil libmono-security4.0-cil libmono-sharpzip4.84-cil libmono-system-configuration4.0-cil libmono-system-core4.0-cil libmono-system-drawing4.0-cil libmono-system-security4.0-cil libmono-system-xml4.0-cil libmono-system4.0-cil libmono-zeroconf1.0-cil libmtp-common libmtp-runtime libmtp9 libmysqlclient16 libmythes-1.2-0 libneon27-gnutls libnotify0.4-cil libnux-1.0-0 libnux-1.0-common liboauth0 liborbit2 liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0 libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common libprotobuf7 libprotoc7 libpth20 libqt4-dbus libqt4-declarative libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-svg libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtbamf1 libqtcore4 libqtdee2 libqtgconf1 libqtgui4 libquvi0 libraptor2-0 librasqal3 librdf0 libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw libreoffice-emailmerge libreoffice-gnome libreoffice-gtk libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress libreoffice-math libreoffice-style-human libreoffice-writer librest-0.7-0 librsync1 libsdl1.2debian libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio libstlport4.6ldbl libsyncdaemon-1.0-1 libtaglib2.0-cil libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-logger2 libtextcat-data libtextcat0 libtotem-plparser17 libtotem0 libubuntuone-1.0-1 libubuntuone1.0-cil libunique-3.0-0 libunity-2d-private0 libunity-core-4.0-4 libunity-misc4 libwmf0.2-7-gtk libwnck-3-0 libwnck-3-common libyajl1 libzeitgeist-1.0-1 light-themes media-player-info metacity metacity-common mono-4.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime mousetweaks mysql-common nautilus nautilus-sendto nautilus-sendto-empathy nautilus-share notify-osd notify-osd-icons nux-tools obexd-client overlay-scrollbar plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo protobuf-compiler pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pulseaudio-module-gconf python-brlapi python-configglue python-dateutil python-egenix-mxdatetime python-egenix-mxtools python-farsight python-indicate python-libproxy python-louis python-papyon python-protobuf python-pyatspi2 python-pyinotify python-speechd python-support python-telepathy python-twisted-names python-ubuntuone-client python-ubuntuone-control-panel python-ubuntuone-storageprotocol python-uno python-wnck qdbus qt-at-spi seahorse shotwell sni-qt ssh-askpass-gnome telepathy-butterfly telepathy-gabble telepathy-haze telepathy-idle telepathy-indicator telepathy-logger telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut thunderbird-gnome-support tomboy totem totem-common totem-mozilla totem-plugins ubuntu-artwork ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-docs ubuntu-mono ubuntu-sounds ubuntu-system-service ubuntu-wallpapers ubuntuone-client ubuntuone-client-gnome ubuntuone-control-panel ubuntuone-control-panel-gtk ubuntuone-couch ubuntuone-installer unity unity-2d unity-2d-launcher unity-2d-panel unity-2d-places unity-2d-spread unity-asset-pool unity-common unity-lens-applications unity-lens-files unity-lens-music unity-scope-musicstores unity-services uno-libs3 ure vino whois wodim xdiagnose xfonts-mathml zeitgeist zeitgeist-datahub zeitgeist-extension-fts

AND…

sudo apt-get install xfce4-session

In the words of one of the moderators in the #ubuntu chatroom… “it’s a simple solution.”

When I asked several people why they liked GNOME3 or GNOME-Shell, the most common answer was “the extensions system that allows you to customize your desktop.” GNOME3 simply wouldn’t be popular without the extensions system that allows developers to write and publish desktop extensions.

Customization is at the heart of every Linux desktop. A long time ago, when GNOME2.0 was the standard, customization was openly allowed on Linux systems, and everyone used that freedom in different ways. Everyone tweaked their desktop differently, and made it feel like $HOME in different ways.

But recently there have been changes in two major Linux desktops that seek to limit customization and development. I’m going to call it what it is… if it seeks to limit development, it’s antidevelopment!

Antidevelopment is any change made to the user experience that is not beneficial and serves only to limit or restrict what the user wants to do, especially in the field of customization.

I read an interesting post the other day from deviantART user half-left. He recently had a falling out with GNOME3 because of the same antidevelopment I’ve seen in GNOME3 and Ubuntu Unity.

half-left journaled it this way: “Apparently, GNOME upstream thinks their users don’t customize their desktop… because they are so detached from their user base.”

I would extend this to include both GNOME and Ubuntu Unity. GNOME3 and Ubuntu Unity seems to be completely detached from their user base. Why are they so detached from their users?

The GNOME team has made such puzzling changes in the past year that it is clear that they aren’t connected in any way, shape, or form to their users.

Mouse cursors? - You can’t change them and expect the change to stick. When I filed a bug about the problem with mouse cursors, I was told “Don’t change the mouse cursor. DMZ-White is good enough for every user. Problem solved.” That’s the solution! Don’t change anything; just stick with default… and there’s no problem.

Changing the mouse cursor can be more important than just the desire to tweak a new theme. What about users who have trouble seeing the DMZ-White cursor and need to change to a larger cursor? This could be considered a bug in Accessibility. Because mouse cursor changes have been ignored and largely removed by GNOME3 and Unity for the last 2 years, I claim that this is antidevelopment!

Screensaver? - What screensaver? Oh, the GNOME screensaver? There is no screensaver, anymore. For many years the GNOME screensaver was frustrating because it had no user controls to set screensaver properties. Now… all it does is blank the screen. There are no controls or screensavers left in the screensaver package! GNOME has apparently decided that its users don’t like using screensavers so they took all the controls out! This is antidevelopment!

Themes? - What themes? There are 5 themes provided in Ubuntu, and only 1 theme provided in GNOME. Only recently did Unity add the ability to change between the 5 themes that came installed on it. But no ways have been provided in either Unity or GNOME to import user themes. This is antidevelopment!

Extensions? - Ubuntu Unity does not support extensions at all, period!

GNOME3 maintains the veneer of supporting extensions, but once you start digging you realize the truth… GNOME3 extensions are barely supported at present. Many extensions only work with older versions of GNOME3. My favorite piece of evidence that GNOME isn’t supporting extensions is this: There is a website which explains how a user can make and submit an extension to GNOME, but it’s completely out of date! It explains how to make extensions for GNOME 3.0 and there’s a link to how to update the extension to 3.2… but, we aren’t using 3.2 any more! GNOME is at 3.4! And there is no documentation at present on how to update extensions to be compatible with the current version. Which means, every time GNOME updates, ALL the extensions break! This is antidevelopment!

One user explained the frustration this way to me on IRC: “I get the feeling that the so called gnome-developers do things in ‘their perspective’ rather than the ‘Gnome users’. The most important problem I see is that many of the other “modern” desktop environments are forks of GNOME…”

Another themer said: “…they even want to delete the applications categories selection. Pretty soon there will be nothing left in GNOME3 to theme.”

When you are too stuck up to listen to your users who are asking for the ability to customize their desktops, and you are actively developing the desktop in ways to limit the user experience… you are stuck in antidevelopment.

When it comes to changing themes and cursors… you can do more with Microsoft Windows than you can with GNOME3.

Microsoft listens to its users. Sometimes changes don’t come for years, but at least they listen. The same can’t be said for Ubuntu or GNOME3 though. They are currently stuck in antidevelopment.

Here’s an interesting distro! Hybryde Evolution v1, based on Ubuntu 12.04, comes with nine different desktop environments by default. These include KDE, GNOME 3, GNOME Classic, Unity, Elightenment 17, LXDE, XFCE, Openbox, and FVWM. The system smartly and fluidly transfers over open windows and applications to the new Desktop.

Hybryde is an Ubuntu-based live boot DVD which, according to the Google-translated project home page (which is in French), “is a tool to discover and use a multitude of desktop environments and without disconnection.”

The boot process boots you into the Hy-menu system dashboard. A small dock gives you a terminal, home folder, and the Hybryde menu that expands when clicked. From here you can select one of nine different desktop environments: KDE, GNOME3 Fallback, Gnome3 Shell, Unity, Enlightenment 17, OpenBox, FVWM, XFCE, and LXDE
…as well as a full menu of Linux applications. You also can continue to work in the Hybryde dashboard environment.

The Hy-menu also has four options for window managers:
Metacity, the default for Gnome3 Fallback
Mutter, the default for Gnome3
Compiz, compositing window manager for X, and the default for Hybryde (although I noticed a slight speed increase when I ran Hybryde in Mutter instead of Compiz)
and Kwin, the window manager for KDE

From the Hybryde desktop environment you will also find the full suite of Linux applications, and you can run any of these from the Hybryde desktop, or switch desktop flavors and run them in another desktop! The choices are virtually endless…

First impressions of Hybryde. It sounds like a distro put together by a team who have commitment issues. They couldn’t commit to a single desktop, so they committed to them all! As it turns out, this first impression wasn’t that far off.

At the outset, I feel I should explain the title. I am using GNOME-Shell 3.4 again, having shucked Unity in favor of it.

But… but… you say. Didn’t you say that Unity was amazing? I did. And I don’t think I’m going to go back on anything I said in my previous posts. Remember, I won’t use a UI if I don’t like it. And I chose to use Unity for the past several weeks, and that means I liked it.

Ubuntu 12.04 has been described as the best release of Ubuntu yet, and I don’t fault that. Most of the hurrah’s Ubuntu has gotten on this release are for the improvements to Unity, the addition of HUD, and the many other minor fixes and tweaks along the way.

It’s been 2 years since the fall of GNOME 2. GNOME 2 had lots of minor bugs, but instead of fixing them, GNOME developers decided to scrap the whole project and move into GNOME 3 (a project which had been developed for 6-7 years and which had it’s own unique bugs).

For whatever reason, Ubuntu decided to not run with popular opinion, and quickly cobbled together it’s own GUI, which they called Unity. Unlike GNOME3 which had almost half a decade of slow developments under it’s belt at that point, Unity was kind of a flash project. It had bugs, some of them serious. And it would take entire distribution cycles for some of those bugs to be removed or even addressed.

And, looking back at the events which led to Linux User Interface Battle (Unity vs GNOME3 Shell), I find it almost ironic the bugs that have been tolerated on both sides all this time, because other problems are considered bigger.

And it’s still ironic what both of those UI’s CAN’T do correctly.

For example, both GNOME 3 and Unity have issues with mouse cursors. In case you hadn’t realized it yet, there are only 5 cursor themes installed on Unity (and only one of them works 100%).

So let’s say you download a mouse cursor theme and install it to the correct location on your drive. Remember GNOME 2 where you could bring up Appearance properties and change the pointer and preview it immediately? That is history… Now, in order to change your cursor theme you have to be a Linux wizard! First, to change your mouse cursor theme, you have to install gnome-tweak-tool and change the theme there. But that doesn’t work completely (it might only change the cursor for 40% of the programs you use, or for none at all). So then, you have to open the Terminal and type “sudo update-alternative —config x-cursor-theme” and select the x-cursor-theme you just opted to use in gnome-tweak-tool again to make it a systemwide change! But that still doesn’t work completely… Finally, you have to Alt-F2 and type “compiz —replace” and (theoretically) your mouse cursor should change after all that. But usually, one more step is required. You must restart your computer to make the change stick everywhere.

How retarded is that?

Another thing Unity can’t do is themes! You can’t theme Unity AT ALL! It is what it is. The only things you can tweak on Unity are whether the dock hides or not, and the size of the icons in the dock. And since Intellihide was removed as an option recently, hiding the Unity dock sometimes causes more problems than you bargained for (I believe the “My dock disappeared and won’t come back” bug is classified as a low-priority bug; the solution suggested is “Don’t hide it”)

But it’s these minor inconveniences that really tweak some people off!

Which leads to my initial statement. I have decided to start using GNOME Shell again. You’re probably wondering why.

Here’s the thing, when you dig into one particular operating system enough, you’ll eventually find all it’s flaws. And I still have some issues with Unity. Ironically, changing the mouse cursors is a problem shared by GNOME-Shell, so I found no immediate resolution there, but when I went to check out GNOME-Shell it captivated me faster than Unity did… so I stayed.

In parting, I will admit there were a few things I truly liked about Unity. And there were some things I didn’t realize could be improved about Unity until I looked at GNOME Shell

The Ubuntu Software Center. I rarely used it since I favor other hardcore solutions like Synaptic. But I did like the graphical whoosh that USC did when you installed a program thru it. The program would fly from your USC to the Dash bar and stick there. It was cool!

HUD was another thing I liked. However, I rarely used HUD. It was much easier on my mind to explore a menu.

12.04 didn’t cause my laptop to overheat. The overheating bug is something that I refer to as a superbug, because it was a bunch of micro problems inside and outside the kernal that caused observable macro problems (HEAT!!). It took Ubuntu about a year and two distribution cycles to solve it.

When I first tested Unity on 12.04 I was impressed by the speed of the Dash menu. It wasn’t laggy like it had been in previous distribution cycles. I’ll touch on this later though.

There was one issue I mentioned in my previous article that I still stick to. It’s hard to multitask on Unity. Multitasking for me is a big deal! On a normal day, I usually have Chromium, Skype, the FatRat download manager, Synaptic, and 2-3 Terminals open all at once. When I have that many programs open, and I’m flipping back and forth between them, Unity can’t keep up! This is where Unity fails horribly and ends up slowing me down! The Unity taskbar shows that a particular program is open. I click on that icon to raise the program, but it will only raise the last used window in that program. What if I want a different window? Click again. It will spread the active windows of that program eventually. Then click on the window you want and it pops to the top. But if you click on a different program and then try clicking back again that window is what will display. Want a different window? Repeat the directions above… see, how Unity complicates multitasking?

So, after updating the repositories with ricotz’s PPA and GNOME3’s PPA and updating gnome-shell to the highest version, I switched to see what things looked like on the other side.

When I checked out GNOME Shell I discovered that as fast as Unity was (mentioned above), the Activities Overview in GNOME 3 was about 20x-50x faster. It found results as I typed individual keys, no matter how many programs I had installed and no matter how fast I typed. Unity always lagged slightly, sometimes by a fraction of a second, sometimes more. There was no lag finding the program I wanted on GNOME 3. Unity gets props for increasing it’s speed, but for me, GNOME 3 gets the vote because it’s still faster!

Despite the fact that the overheating problem (mentioned above) appeared solved, I have noticed that my laptop is running even cooler while using GNOME Shell. Unity deserved some props. Not overheating in the first place is good; but cooler is ALWAYS better, so GNOME 3 wins my vote.

GNOME 3 does themes! You can change how the desktop looks easily by writing up a CSS stylesheet and loading it into theme package. You can select the theme package using the gnome-tweak-tool. Unity I don’t think should even get a vote here because the Unity UI is locked and cannot be themed, except in very minor ways (mentioned above)

GNOME 3 has one issue in common with Unity. Mouse cursors. Neither UI does mice spectacularly. And GNOME 3 has serious complications with “compiz —replace” because GNOME 3 doesn’t use Compiz as a display manager. So both fail in this regard.

Multitasking is amazing on GNOME 3! Push your mouse into the left-hand corner and it spreads all the windows. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of certain windows, or click on a window to select it. There are certain shell extensions which refine the process even better (select windows using Alt+#, native window placement, etc.) Multitasking has never been easier or more efficient. Unity approaches the UI in a different way than GNOME 3 does, so it’s hard to compare them on this area. For me, I’m torn between both… they both have individual facets I like.

Long blog summed up? TL,DR?

I’m using GNOME Shell now. My reasons are my own.

For those of you who were wondering, I thought about that blog title for about 24 hours. I wanted something that worked well with either Precise or Pangolin and implied the thought of a thesis or article.

Precis means “a concise summary of essential points, statements, or facts”.

This is my precis on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

I have been using the new update for exactly 1 hour and 42 minutes. I am quite impressed!

As is my custom, I back up all my files and do a fresh install whenever a new release of Ubuntu comes out. This is so that I stay up-to-date on new features. And usually after 6 months of modding and programming, I need a fresh install just to clean out all the detritus on my hard drive. The downside of this is that it takes me around 1 day to back up my files and reload them on the flip side.

I knew of several features of Precise Pangolin long before I tried them. Now, I’ve tried them. Perhaps I should include some before and after observations here.

I used to harshly bash Unity for being so bad. I blogged about Unity being a memory hog (It was in Natty, and Oneiric). I blogged about Unity being absolutely horrible for multitasking (Definitely true in Natty and somewhat true in Oneiric). I blogged about Unity not supporting older computers the way GNOME did on previous Ubuntu versions (definitely true in Natty).

Unity got some huge updates in 12.04!

The huge icons in the Home Lens are gone!

When you press and hold the Dash key, an overlay showing Unity shortcuts will display after a few seconds. This is a huge improvement over older versions of Unity! In order to remember all the Unity shortcuts on older versions, I actually had to make them into a wallpaper and change my background to my infographic! No more! Now I can see all the shortcuts displayed when I need them!

Software suggestions in the Dash can be disabled. And, to make it even more efficient, you can disable them directly from the Dash. No need to install other programs to adjust Unity.

It is more memory efficient and much less laggy than any previous Unity version.

Unity has finally managed to impress me! Unity on 10.10 and 11.04 used to lag so bad that for those Ubuntu releases I sought out different desktop interfaces just so I wouldn’t have to use Unity. Unity has changed for the better, and I am happy.

The HUD feature on the Dash is one feature that I blogged about in the past. In the past, I harshly criticized Unity for adding HUD because I thought it was just a flashy feature that would needlessly slow down a computer, and would make programs more confusing since menus (which people have been using forever) would be replaced by a command prompt.

Now that I’ve used HUD? It is definitely flashy! It can be confusing, and it takes a lot of getting used to! For menu commands that are commonly used and easy to remember, HUD is a timesaver! But for figuring out the commands to use with a program, HUD does not save time at all, and makes programs much harder to learn. I would definitely reccomend learning the program via the menu method first before switching to HUD. On a good note, I was wrong, HUD doesn’t seem to slow down Unity or Dash, although HUD lags occasionally when you first invoke it.

The Ubuntu Software Center got a few nice improvements. I’m still not entirely convinced I like it though. One cool feature is that when you install a program from USC the icon of the new program will fly from the USC to the Dash bar. I suppose this will make finding the new program much easier for new users.

However, I have fears that this is too much like Microsoft Windows installing shortcuts to every program on the Desktop. And what became of that? Millions of users who could only find programs that were stuck to their desktop. In recent years, no one knew how to use the Start menu to find programs, even with Vista’s search feature. I fear this Ubuntu Software Center feature will lead to millions of inefficient users trying to use overloaded and crowded Dash bars because every program they’ve installed got auto-stuck to their Dash, and now they can’t find anything!

What would I suggest to improve this? My normal response to things like this is to advocate education. Teach the user how to use the Dash! Instead of making the program fly to the Dash bar, I would make an overlay message pop-up on the screen educating the user. If the user wants the program in the Dash bar, teach them how to find it and put it there. That’s just my opinion… I don’t know, maybe I’m being unreasonable. For example, if you install the program FileZilla, the overlay would say:

“Your program is installed. To find it, hit the Dash key and type in FileZilla. Your program will appear in the menu within a few keystrokes. You can drag this program to your Dash bar to make it even easier to access later.”

My one concern which I blogged about in the past was that Unity is not easy to multitask on. In the past when I was actively trying to avoid Unity, I tried GNOME Shell. GNOME Shell has near perfect multitasking capabilities. Once you’ve gotten used to multitasking in GNOME, it’s near impossible not to compare it to other things, like Unity. Needless to say, multitasking is still an issue for Precise, though it’s gotten much better now that the memory and lag issues plaguing earlier versions of Unity are gone.

So, all in all, what would I rate 12.04 Precise Pangolin? On a scale of 1-10, I give Precise a rating of 8