Σάββατο 26 Νοεμβρίου 2011

Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" and the 3 DEs

As we all know many articles have been posted and many have expressed how much they don't like Unity and/or Gnome3 DE of the new releases of Ubuntu. The number 1 alternative ubuntu-based release so far is as we all know Linux Mint but they, as the rest of us, understand how hard is it to use unity so they came up with Linux Mint 12 and to be practical they bring it with 3 choices for a DE. They started developing a layer called MGSE to be placed upon Gnome 3 and make it as usefull as gnome2 was by trying to make it look alike gnome2 rather gnome3 that the layer works with. So they combine the fact that they have to move up in the world and embrace Gnome 3 but at the same time trying to bring the familiar characteristics of gnome2 as many as they can to make Gnome 3 as practical it's former version was. Here is the source article http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07000

Παρασκευή 25 Νοεμβρίου 2011

Tweak MyUnity!


And speaking of unity earlier today, just found out of a new app called MyUnity for tweaking the so hated DE.
Here is the original article:




Amongst its features are: -
  • Change Dash, Launcher and Panel transparency
  • Adjust Dash blur
  • Display ‘home’, ‘trash’ and mounted drives on the desktop
  • Adjust launcher size, backlights and hiding preferences
  • Tweak font settings, including size, RGBA and hinting

Download
MyUnity is available for Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 (and 12.04 if you’re already on that bandwagon).
To get it, add ‘ppa:myunity/ppa’ to your Software Sources, update, then install ‘MyUnity’ from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Ubuntu, Unity, Gnome 2 and What the actual problem IS!


Enough with the complaining about a Desktop Environment! COMMON PEOPLE!

I have read an article today among so many other articles about how wrong Canonical is placing Unity as a DE for Ubuntu and after reading all this time so many articles, watching the news and progress of how Linux Mint team started developing a brand new layer to place on top of Gnome 3 and make it look like Gnome 2 or the appearance of MATE, the Gnome2 fork developed by a developer of Gnome and employee of RedHat because even Linus Torvalds asked him too after complaining about the inconvinience Gnome 3 and Unity brings to the desktop, I finally set down to write what i believe because i am sick of reading people saying things and complaining about things they shouldn't have. And because i am sick of finding out that most of the Linux users today talk about the DE like it is the Operating System it self!!! I set down and posted a comment and after all this time of not posting an article on my blog i finally gathered all i wanted in one big article. The main article of which i replied is about ubuntu's popularity downfall here:

http://www.techspot.com/news/46401-ubuntu-popularity-in-downward-spiral-is-unity-to-blame.html

And the comment i posted is below but because i believe goes for all this criticism on unity, gnome3 and what canonical is doing with ubuntu releases and so on.. i believe it is an article by it self. So here my comment is as follows:

I can't believe my eyes of what has been written from some comments... like windows is ready out of the box? In which planet does that happen? Failled to boot an OS 1 out of 5 times and also dare to make a comment? I personally hate unity but i've also read above "As for Unity... upon the load/boot, you should have a choice, of that I agree." I mean, Canonical wanted to make ubuntu clearly with unity in THIS release so why the choice? Has anybody refused access to the previous release with Gnome? Why is it such a fuss to have the latest version? It is like u are saying that in windows vista one should have the choice of vista or xp. Then why don't u install xp? I mean.. Why a version of a distro SHOULD have the view YOU like? I have 10.04 on my machine. I want my interface with Gnome 2 and not with Gnome 3 or Unity. So what do i do? I KEEP 10.04! All this time i am reading articles and articles.. saying about unity. YES UNITY SUCKS! So why don't you keep your version that suites you? Even the hardcore user above is complaining.. If you were a hardcore user you would clearly stick with the version you like and simply don't complain of the changes ubuntu has made. I've read so many articles on the matter specially latelly.. I don't use mint and do not intend to but i have read that they are heavilly opposed to unity and actually made great progress with Mint 12 "Lisa" providing 3 choices of DE. Gnome 3, MATE (a really newborn buggy fork of gnome 2 created from ONE of the Gnome developers and RedHat employee when asked by Linus Torvalds himself) and MGSE a new layer developed by mint team to be set right upon Gnome 3 and try to "look" much like Gnome 2. My congratulations to mint for this progress but personally what i think in up close is as follows.

Canonical's ubuntu is the last 4-5 years mostly number 1 distro and that is because of the easyness, the eyecandy, the simplicity and the right marketing of the first three. Canonical actually helped the community alot by bringing many many people from windows to linux just by that eyecandy and the easyness the distro is dominant for. After that shift every user is different and afterwards choosed the path and distro the user wanted to use depending on one's needs and uses. I use linux for work since RedHat 7, long before fedora appear on 2003 but never for home usage until i met ubuntu on 2007. I thought of linux fit for me only as a server perpose until i used ubuntu and thanks to ubuntu i never booted windows again. For the easyness! And for the all working out of the box and not have many things to worry about. Now Canonical wants to make a sole path and be unique among linux distros, canonical wants to compeet with apple because apple focuses on the GUI experience as much too without giving much effort to evolve operating system new technologies because redhat does that! Actually canonical has done nothing to contribute to the actual operating system the last few years and is only focusing on making it pretty. And that is OK because that is what brought people over to linux from windows! And opensource is opensource, so others spent time and effort on OS technologies and innovations and canonical is free to use them to update their ubuntu. Anyways that is what Canonical represents and u know what? It is OK! Also every version of ubuntu and of any other OS represents it's packages and GUI and that is what you are choosing when you install a version. For a windows user for example if one wants to work simple installs xp! on the other hand, one wants it to be in a way pretty too? Installs 7. Before that, vista and found out what a failure that was. That is the version FOR. TO CHOOSE! vista is buggy? ok You install 7, that is the same thing here. I want gnome 2! i want it as it is the minute it stopped being developed. I like it that way! so what do i do? I KEEP 10.04 and have all packages i care updating, updated! After all the DE is just another package and the same way i do not update blender because i don't care to do so and the same way i do not update libreoffice the same way i will not switch my DE. I want for example the latest on Chrome or firefox? ok i update that! I want the latest kernel? i update that. So i have my 10.04 the way i want it! Customised to fit my needs! that is supposed to be the beauty of linux. I believe that when the point comes that i will have to upgrade because of other dependencies and only because of that, i believe that gnome 3 will have grown and matured right, if not MGSE layer from mint might have matured as well and work nice or MATE will not be buggy anymore because it will not be at the time, a new project. For now, Gnome 2 does my job the way i need it, besides that 10.04 does the job the way i need it to do and so i am happy i keep that. Remember people because it seems that u have forgotten, the Desktop Environment is NOT the Operating System! That is why there are so many choices on the Operating Systems and So many choices on the DE! And i really do not see the reason why on earth one HAS to update to 11.10 and WHY 11.10 MUST look like 10.10! Why? I see different numbers there, why not different DE. Unity IS hatefull. OK that is why i do not upgrade! Canonical showed their new product, it is in my hand to choose. The actual downfall of ubuntu is based mostly on the MISTAKEN MUST that i see on mostly newbies like the "hardcore" user above complaining about unity. Yes Unity is awfull and a person cannot work right in it.. it looks like it is being inspired by smartphones ! FINE use a gnome2 ubuntu version instead. They are all available! Why on earth do u have to install 11.10? Do you actually think that as an Operating System it has innovations comparing to 10.04? Hell no! Just the DE and small things apart that mostly! I am using 10.04 and i have all the applications i use updated to the very last so i can do my job and have the most stable versions of all properly!