Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it) [LWN.net]

Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 17, 2012 21:30 UTC (Fri) by rahvin (guest, #16953)
In reply to: Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it) by ean5533
Parent article: Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Irrational? When I loaded Unity for the first time I couldn't figure out how to open a terminal window. Do you have any idea how frustrating that was? The second version (I'm not good at tracking the version number but I think the first was 11.04 and the second was 11.10) fixed some problems so that it was actually possible to find the terminal icon and click it. I've been using computers since I was 8 years old, my first PC that I purchased myself was a top of the line 386 with 4 megs of memory and an 80meg hard drive so that should give you a clue how old I am.

Unity was so anti-intuitive for a regular computer user that it wasn't even funny. I like that they are experimenting but Christ, they need a button that says "Flip back to regular interface" on the toolbar so people that want to get actual work done can do so. This is why people are complaining. People are upgrading and can't even open a program anymore, it's like turning advanced users into first time users and it's VERY frustrating. Particularly given the lack of any type of help when you first run it.

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Lea: The Unity design process (and how you can play a part in it)

Posted Feb 18, 2012 8:08 UTC (Sat) by Rehdon (guest, #45440) [Link]

I have 'converted' quite a number of people to Ubuntu, I even gave away CDs to my students, and guess what? when Unity came out all of them gave up on Ubuntu. All of them. Gnome Shell got a similar reaction, no way people could feel comfortable with the new UI Paradigm.

And what was Gnome/Unity devs' reaction to people complaining and explaining why they wouldn't use a desktop that they considered a major regression? Utter denial:

- if you were lucky, you were encouraged to "embrace change", to give it time, to give up to your "old" ways because change is good, and there are billions of people already loving GS/Unity; your friends stopping using Ubuntu or Linux altogether? just anecdotal evidence, don't worry about that (as if a UI study conducted on a total of 15 people might be considered something different than 'anecdotal evidence' ... at best);

- when they saw that many users just didn't buy the party line, the "irrational hatred" straw man popped up: some devs singled out the most offensive and inflammatory reactions as "hatred" and brushed off all criticism.

So we've got our own "reality distortion field" in the Linux world, and it ain't pretty. Me, I'm using Linux Mint and Cinnamon at the moment, and following GS/Unity development all the same, just in case they realize that they've really alienated a good part of their existing user base (not holding my breath there), but my Linux evangelizing is done for good, I've had enough of "WTF" reactions.

There you go, file this under "irrational hatred of a previous Gnome/Ubuntu user and fan" if you want.

Rehdon

Opening a terminal

Posted Feb 18, 2012 17:17 UTC (Sat) by boog (subscriber, #30882) [Link] (3 responses)

A friend who is a programmer but a first-time user of linux made exactly this complaint - unable to launch a terminal in ubuntu. As a KDE user, I couldn't even help him. Possibly not quite discoverable enough for the chosen target group of people who don't know what ubuntu is?

What is the answer?

Opening a terminal

Posted Feb 18, 2012 18:20 UTC (Sat) by sladen (guest, #27402) [Link] (2 responses)

Ctrl+Alt+t

The hot key is the fastest way for a power-user; an intermediate speed method is <super> t e r m <enter>. Once running, one can right-click on the Launcher Terminal icon and tick "Keep in Launcher" to make it omni-present. Note that both Ubuntu and Mac OS X do not show a Terminal by default, but one can find it by searching.

Opening a terminal

Posted Feb 18, 2012 18:29 UTC (Sat) by boog (subscriber, #30882) [Link]

Thank you.

"Note that both Ubuntu and Mac OS X do not show a Terminal by default, but one can find it by searching."

This does seem to say something about the ubuntu attitude to *existing* (and loyal) users, who presumably have grown used to the command line. Current users of linux are probably not pining for the "hidden terminal" feature.

Opening a terminal

Posted Feb 20, 2012 11:30 UTC (Mon) by etienne (guest, #25256) [Link]

In my experience, the intermediate is more:
<super> term
then look at the screen to note that the first three letters have been missed and only thing starting with "m" are displayed, then backspace and retype "t e r m" and then check that the first found application is "terminal" and not "terminal - supervisor" so that either you press <enter> or get the mouse and click on the second icon...