Its been few months since Ubuntu launched its latest version 11.10 aka "Oneiric Ocelot". First noticeable change GNOME Shell is no longer the default. It kinda pissed me off since I find Unity annoying. Ubuntu 11.04 had the classic GNOME Desktop as fallback so it didn't bother me when they introduced Unity. The current version does not support GNOME 2 nor does it allow one to install it.
This situation had put in fix so much that I even considered moving from Ubuntu to some other Linux Distros after being its avid user for almost 6 years. I liked GNOME 2 interface since it was simple and even my dad who is retiree could use it ( BTW he was core Windows user until I introduced him to Ubuntu ). Therefore introducing my dad to a completely new interface would result in him being uncomfortable and eventually moving back to Windows. Hence I haven't installed the latest version of Ubuntu at home, in fact I still have the good old Ubuntu 9.04 which hasn't crashed since I installed it. This situation holds true not only for my dad but many other users.
It would me incorrect to assume that I am reluctant to embrace new improvements since I am currently working on Oneiric albeit with GNOME Shell installed at my office. Though not completely satisfied, I still feel much at ease with GNOME 3. Though not up to the mark GNOME Shell has a fallback which looks similar to GNOME 2. It still has a lot to improve starting with stability, which was quiet evident after installing it in Oneiric. Since I work on PC for almost 10-12 hours on stretch, one of the effects were gnome-shell using almost 70-80% of my CPU over a period of time causing me to force kill it. This continued till a new update was available, after which the heavy CPU usage has stopped but now it randomly crashes at times.
Thankfully not all hope is lost, there is an alternative to GNOME 3 & Unity in the form of MATE. MATE is a desktop environment forked from the now unmaintained code base of GNOME 2. It has already been implemented in Linux Mint 12 aka "Lisa". Linux Mint releases are based on Ubuntu releases hence the upgrades from Ubuntu are also available in it with the added advantage as it allows the user to choose between GNOME 3 & MATE. The rise of Linux Mint is quite evident by the viewing the ratings of sites such as DistroWatch.com where it has been in top spot for the year 2011. I myself was quite impressed by Linux Mint 11 which was almost like experiencing Ubuntu albeit with a much beautiful interface. Although I have yet not switched from Ubuntu since I am using the wait-and-watch approach, it can't be guaranteed that I will not in future.
Although Ubuntu is steadily losing users, it can still turn things around by finding a round about method or by making Unity simply irresistible. GNOME 3 has been out for only a few months so it would be premature to judge it since GNOME 2.x was the culmination of 8-9 years of work. I am keeping my fingers crossed, anyway whatever happens I know one thing for sure, I ain't switching to Windows not after my 7 years of affair with GNU/Linux.
This situation had put in fix so much that I even considered moving from Ubuntu to some other Linux Distros after being its avid user for almost 6 years. I liked GNOME 2 interface since it was simple and even my dad who is retiree could use it ( BTW he was core Windows user until I introduced him to Ubuntu ). Therefore introducing my dad to a completely new interface would result in him being uncomfortable and eventually moving back to Windows. Hence I haven't installed the latest version of Ubuntu at home, in fact I still have the good old Ubuntu 9.04 which hasn't crashed since I installed it. This situation holds true not only for my dad but many other users.
It would me incorrect to assume that I am reluctant to embrace new improvements since I am currently working on Oneiric albeit with GNOME Shell installed at my office. Though not completely satisfied, I still feel much at ease with GNOME 3. Though not up to the mark GNOME Shell has a fallback which looks similar to GNOME 2. It still has a lot to improve starting with stability, which was quiet evident after installing it in Oneiric. Since I work on PC for almost 10-12 hours on stretch, one of the effects were gnome-shell using almost 70-80% of my CPU over a period of time causing me to force kill it. This continued till a new update was available, after which the heavy CPU usage has stopped but now it randomly crashes at times.
Thankfully not all hope is lost, there is an alternative to GNOME 3 & Unity in the form of MATE. MATE is a desktop environment forked from the now unmaintained code base of GNOME 2. It has already been implemented in Linux Mint 12 aka "Lisa". Linux Mint releases are based on Ubuntu releases hence the upgrades from Ubuntu are also available in it with the added advantage as it allows the user to choose between GNOME 3 & MATE. The rise of Linux Mint is quite evident by the viewing the ratings of sites such as DistroWatch.com where it has been in top spot for the year 2011. I myself was quite impressed by Linux Mint 11 which was almost like experiencing Ubuntu albeit with a much beautiful interface. Although I have yet not switched from Ubuntu since I am using the wait-and-watch approach, it can't be guaranteed that I will not in future.
Although Ubuntu is steadily losing users, it can still turn things around by finding a round about method or by making Unity simply irresistible. GNOME 3 has been out for only a few months so it would be premature to judge it since GNOME 2.x was the culmination of 8-9 years of work. I am keeping my fingers crossed, anyway whatever happens I know one thing for sure, I ain't switching to Windows not after my 7 years of affair with GNU/Linux.
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