subject:"\[Hampshire\] Ubuntu Unity"


On 08/11/12 22:37, Gordon Scott wrote:

For her also, menus on the screen top-bar were so counter-intuitive that
she thought they'd been removed.



Are you aware of the HUD? You press alt then search the menu rather than 
peck through them with the mouse?



Sorry Alan, but we both strongly dislike Unity.



:) Not a problem for me.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

On Fri, 2012-11-09 at 11:48 +, Alan Pope wrote:
 On 08/11/12 22:37, Gordon Scott wrote:
  For her also, menus on the screen top-bar were so counter-intuitive that
  she thought they'd been removed.
 
 
 Are you aware of the HUD? You press alt then search the menu rather than 
 peck through them with the mouse?

I was, but as I reported a while back, it kept opening menu bars for the
wrong application, possibly related to my focus-follows-mouse setup.

Probably my wife was not and she always uses the mouse anyway. She does
mouse and typing .. all special keys are alien.

I do agree with and generally prefer keyboard access than mouse (I hate
mice as they cause so much stress on and bruising of the wrist, when
used a lot). My personal editor of choice is vi/vim for the no-mouse
reason amongst others (other people's opinions will differ, of course!).

One of the difficulties with menus is that they differ so much between
applications and across platforms, that remembering more than a modest
number of short-cuts is quite impossible, so we become conditioned to
going for the mouse/trackball/whatever.  I've been being conditioned
since DR-GEM, so Pavlov's dog looks like an rank amateur.  :-)

Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-11-09 Thread James Courtier-Dutton

On 9 November 2012 11:48, Alan Pope alan.p...@canonical.com wrote:
 Are you aware of the HUD? You press alt then search the menu rather than
 peck through them with the mouse?


What, not use a mouseimpossible!!  ;-)

On another note, it would be useful if the HUD contained the short cut.
E.g.
Press ALT-F and it shows Save page as has a shortcut of CTRL-S
It would be nice if
ALT, savwould display CTRL-S next to the save page as HUD item.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity


On 09/11/12 12:14, Gordon Scott wrote:

On Fri, 2012-11-09 at 11:48 +, Alan Pope wrote:

On 08/11/12 22:37, Gordon Scott wrote:

For her also, menus on the screen top-bar were so counter-intuitive that
she thought they'd been removed.



Are you aware of the HUD? You press alt then search the menu rather than
peck through them with the mouse?


I was, but as I reported a while back, it kept opening menu bars for the
wrong application, possibly related to my focus-follows-mouse setup.



I miss focus follows mouse, but not so much that I'd enable it on Unity :)


I do agree with and generally prefer keyboard access than mouse (I hate
mice as they cause so much stress on and bruising of the wrist, when
used a lot). My personal editor of choice is vi/vim for the no-mouse
reason amongst others (other people's opinions will differ, of course!).



I have switched to a Lenovo Thinkpad keyboard with built in touchpoint 
(nipple thing). So my hands never stray from the keyboard :) I am 
tempted to get another one for my desktop PC and just use a 'real' mouse 
when playing the odd game.



One of the difficulties with menus is that they differ so much between
applications and across platforms, that remembering more than a modest
number of short-cuts is quite impossible, so we become conditioned to
going for the mouse/trackball/whatever.  I've been being conditioned
since DR-GEM, so Pavlov's dog looks like an rank amateur.  :-)



Since having Unity+HUD I have been conditioning myself to bring up the 
HUD and search for stuff in menus. It's taken a while and I still 
sometimes revert back, but it's worthwhile in the end.


Cheers
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity


On 09/11/12 12:19, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:

On 9 November 2012 11:48, Alan Pope alan.p...@canonical.com wrote:

Are you aware of the HUD? You press alt then search the menu rather than
peck through them with the mouse?



What, not use a mouseimpossible!!  ;-)



See my last mail (I use a Lenovo keyboard now).


On another note, it would be useful if the HUD contained the short cut.
E.g.
Press ALT-F and it shows Save page as has a shortcut of CTRL-S
It would be nice if
ALT, savwould display CTRL-S next to the save page as HUD item.



HUD should display keyboard shortcuts for menu entries if available
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/921546

Great minds..

Cheers,
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

On Fri, 2012-11-09 at 13:04 +, Alan Pope wrote:

 
 I miss focus follows mouse, but not so much that I'd enable it on Unity :)

I use it fairly extensively and hate being without it .. on Windows, for
example.

 I have switched to a Lenovo Thinkpad keyboard with built in touchpoint 
 (nipple thing). So my hands never stray from the keyboard :) I am 
 tempted to get another one for my desktop PC and just use a 'real' mouse 
 when playing the odd game.

Those touchpoint things seem quite good for normal mouse work, any idea
if they're really workable for heavier graphics stuff, specifically
PCB-CAD, which is the time I have to use it most, though some large
cut-and-paste tasks can be as bad. (I'm _not_ doing freehand drawing.)

I hadn't realised one could buy just the keyboard, I'd only noticed them
on laptops and a laptop is totally unworkable in my normal context.

Does that long 'nose' where a touchpad would normally be give any
usability issues? 

  One of the difficulties with menus is that they differ so much between
  applications and across platforms, that remembering more than a modest
  number of short-cuts is quite impossible, so we become conditioned to
  going for the mouse/trackball/whatever.  I've been being conditioned
  since DR-GEM, so Pavlov's dog looks like an rank amateur.  :-)
 
 
 Since having Unity+HUD I have been conditioning myself to bring up the 
 HUD and search for stuff in menus. It's taken a while and I still 
 sometimes revert back, but it's worthwhile in the end.

Unfortunately I have to work in both Linux and Windows (correction, I
choose to work in Linux, unfortunately I also have to work in Windows),
and I haven't dared update the real workstation to 11.04 due to the
presence of Unity and other changes. I've updated only the PC in the
lounge, so 98% of the time the HUD isn't available. In the remaining 2%,
I just don't adapt enough and, as you're aware, get seriously
frustrated.

It's the automatic stuff that gets you. Like when driving a hire car on
the continent .. I'm happy enough on the right-hand side of the road,
fine with the funny mirror locations, OK with priortie a droit, fine
with back-to-front roundabouts and so on.

But I keep hitting my hand on the door whenever I try to change gear.

Gordon.



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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-11-09 Thread Ally Biggs

Unity is awful, Gnome 2 or Mate is what I use. 

Sent from my iPhone

On 8 Nov 2012, at 22:38, Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:

 
 It isn't just me.
 
 I've been trying to warm to Unity and had pretty much given up.
 
 I'd set-up my wife's account in Unity to see how a less computer-savvy person 
 gets on with the interface.
 She does just mail, web, and very occasional WP, so nothing special.
 
 Today she rebelled and declared it 'stupid'.
 
 For her also, menus on the screen top-bar were so counter-intuitive that she 
 thought they'd been removed.
 
 So now, for the moment at least, we've both reverted to Gnome.
 
 Personally I'll likely now switch to an fvwm set-up, which I always 
 preferred, only having changed to Gnome to 'go with the flow'.
 
 Sorry Alan, but we both strongly dislike Unity.
 
 Gordon.
 
 
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity


On 09/11/12 14:30, Gordon Scott wrote:

I hadn't realised one could buy just the keyboard, I'd only noticed them
on laptops and a laptop is totally unworkable in my normal context.



I hadn't realised until a co-worker with the exact same laptop told me 
about them. They're expensive for what they are, but I wouldn't be 
without mine now.



Does that long 'nose' where a touchpad would normally be give any
usability issues?



It's a wrist-rest really. I prefer it to having a touchpad. I turn 
touchpads off usually, unless I'm on a Mac running OSX where their 
touchpad is better than all other touchpads in the world, ever. [FACT] :)



But I keep hitting my hand on the door whenever I try to change gear.



Hah! I do that driving in the US too!

Cheers,
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-11-09 Thread Tim Brocklehurst

On Friday 09 Nov 2012 14:30:41 Gordon Scott wrote:
 Those touchpoint things seem quite good for normal mouse work, any idea
 if they're really workable for heavier graphics stuff, specifically
 PCB-CAD, which is the time I have to use it most, though some large
 cut-and-paste tasks can be as bad. (I'm _not_ doing freehand drawing.)

I do quite a bit of CAD now and again (usually part free-hand i.e. not using 
grid or object snapping), and I'm not aware of anything that beats the mouse 
for precision and speed. I have a touchpad on the laptop, and while it's a 
good one, it just doesn't compare. I've never had any luck with the 
touchpoints either. CAD packages are unusually mouse-heavy, but also require 
typing a fair few commands, so keeping the keyboard area clear is important.

Tim B.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

On Fri, 2012-11-09 at 16:53 +, Alan Pope wrote:
 On 09/11/12 14:30, Gordon Scott wrote:

  But I keep hitting my hand on the door whenever I try to change gear.
 
 Hah! I do that driving in the US too!

You have to start worrying about that in the US ..
They're all automatics over there, aren't they?  :-)

Generally I have more trouble with the clutch :-D

G.




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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

On Fri, 2012-11-09 at 18:20 +, Tim Brocklehurst wrote:
 On Friday 09 Nov 2012 14:30:41 Gordon Scott wrote:
  Those touchpoint things seem quite good for normal mouse work, any idea
  if they're really workable for heavier graphics stuff, specifically
  PCB-CAD, which is the time I have to use it most, though some large
  cut-and-paste tasks can be as bad. (I'm _not_ doing freehand drawing.)
 
 I do quite a bit of CAD now and again (usually part free-hand i.e. not 
 using 
 grid or object snapping), and I'm not aware of anything that beats the mouse 
 for precision and speed.

I have both a mouse and a trackball and swap over when the pain get too
much. At least the strains and bruises happen somewhere slightly
different.

But cf my comments elsewhere about gears and clutches :-)
A similar problem, except a rear-end shunt is less likely.

  I have a touchpad on the laptop, and while it's a 
 good one, it just doesn't compare. I've never had any luck with the 
 touchpoints either.

Yes, that's as I suspected. Good for occasional moves around, but
probably slow as you're relying on pressure/acceleration rather than
direct movement.

I keep meaning to try a pen+tablet arrangement, but haven't yet done so.
Memo to self..

  CAD packages are unusually mouse-heavy, but also require 
 typing a fair few commands, so keeping the keyboard area clear is important.

Indeed.

Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-11-09 Thread pavithran

On 29 September 2012 17:15, Andy Smith a...@strugglers.net wrote:
 On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 08:20:56AM +0100, john lewis wrote:
 I am biased towards Debian as you all know and make no apologies for
 promoting the Debian Way

Me also ! :)

 A large majority of HantsLUG members were Debian users a few years
 back but for some reason chose to go with the new kid on the
 block.
Thats sad , understand the newbies running towards the new kid and
even newer kid (mint) , why would old LUG users ditch Debian?
Is it because of the drivers and easy installation especially when
your hardware wouldnt compulsorily not work with free drivers .

 And they are wrong and you will keep on about it until they change
 back? :)
I will :D

 Luckily since Debian and other distributions do exist, users still
 have plenty of choice and the situation isn't really comparable to
 Apple. It is in fact very easy to run Linux and all applications
 that are made for Linux without using Unity or Ubuntu.

I especially like Linux Mint Debian edition based on testing of debian
with its bells and whistles , after all the bells and whistles are
wjhat which attracted people in first place imho . I should also thank
linuxmint project for caring about the user and his needs by bringing
out forks of gnome2 and gnome3 aka mate and cinnamon , people who
missed gnome 2 are so good in number that there are fedora packages
for mate :D

For my main desktop I always use debian but I carry the LMDE USB key
so that I can pop in and do my tasks without installing a single
package .

Regards,
Pavithran


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-11-08 Thread Gordon Scott



It isn't just me.

I've been trying to warm to Unity and had pretty much given up.

I'd set-up my wife's account in Unity to see how a less computer-savvy 
person gets on with the interface.

She does just mail, web, and very occasional WP, so nothing special.

Today she rebelled and declared it 'stupid'.

For her also, menus on the screen top-bar were so counter-intuitive that 
she thought they'd been removed.


So now, for the moment at least, we've both reverted to Gnome.

Personally I'll likely now switch to an fvwm set-up, which I always 
preferred, only having changed to Gnome to 'go with the flow'.


Sorry Alan, but we both strongly dislike Unity.

Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-11-08 Thread Benjie Gillam

A few more data points:

My parents and uncle both find it confusing still after using it for a year. 
The invisible menus are the biggest issue for them.

My wife who is a programmer (so a little more tech savvy ;) dislikes it and 
finds the window grouping to be annoying/frustrating and the tray indicators to 
be buggy - especially with LibreOffice.

I don't find it confusing but I prefer GNOME 2 considerably and dislike the 
left hand tray (on widescreen you have to move your mouse further too!). I also 
find it's considerably slows me down, and the extra space produced doesn't seem 
necessary on my 2560x1440 monitor. I now use Mac primarily, despite having been 
using Linux almost exclusively since 2000 (when I was 14).

I've not heard anyone IRL singing it's praises, unlike GNOME 2.

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On 8 Nov 2012, at 22:37, Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:

 
 It isn't just me.
 
 I've been trying to warm to Unity and had pretty much given up.
 
 I'd set-up my wife's account in Unity to see how a less computer-savvy person 
 gets on with the interface.
 She does just mail, web, and very occasional WP, so nothing special.
 
 Today she rebelled and declared it 'stupid'.
 
 For her also, menus on the screen top-bar were so counter-intuitive that she 
 thought they'd been removed.
 
 So now, for the moment at least, we've both reverted to Gnome.
 
 Personally I'll likely now switch to an fvwm set-up, which I always 
 preferred, only having changed to Gnome to 'go with the flow'.
 
 Sorry Alan, but we both strongly dislike Unity.
 
 Gordon.
 
 
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-10-08 Thread Gordon Scott


On 07/10/12 16:45, Michael Pavling wrote:
In Unity, I open the home folder, click file | connect to server, 
then enter my authentication details. Once done, and the share (or 
whatever sub-folder I want to have quick access to) is shown, I press 
crtl-d to bookmark it, and then next time I can skip the whole 
connect to server stage and go straight to it in my bookmarks. 
Kindof like a much more sensible map network drive approach. 


Yup, that works for me.

You can right-click the mounted drive and make the bookmark that way, too.

Gordon.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity .. some more progress

2012-10-08 Thread Gordon Scott


I've made some progress on the following, though it's a bit  patchy...

On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:


How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
 In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
 with top-level headings like Graphics, Programming and so on.
 Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure 
there must

 be a way .. dedicated lens or something?

How to tidy the launcher?
I've minimized the of icons on the launcher so I can see a fair
percentage of them, but I'd like to remove most of the clutter.
It's too full even before I open any applications.
That's compounded somewhat, also, by the tooltip hovers vanishing
after scanning just a couple of icons, and at present many icons 
are unfamiliar.


There are (Gnome I think) .desktop files in /usr/share/applications and 
~/.local/share/applications and I've devised a few that allow something 
like what I need, though I have some reservations.


For the moment, I have one called DAW.desktop with some appropriate 
stuff in it, that runs a bash script, which changes to the working 
directory and starts related applications. In this case just to 
~/Documents and audacity to demonstrate the principle. I have another 
called Programming.desktop that opens a directory ~/Programming in which 
I can presumably set up a bunch of links or scripts to location-switch 
and start applications as appropriate. I guess they too can be done as 
.desktop files.


I guess this will mean that rather than just following a menu and 
opening the workspace I want, I'll have to open he directory, run the 
workspace, then close the directory again, which is clumsy but workable.


Disappearing hovers seem not to happen when the launcher is still 2D. 
When it goes 3D, the problems start. Hopefully I can manage that by 
keeping the launcher tidy as per my question.


There seems to be another oddity with the launcher in that if I run 
applications from the command-line, rather than from the Launcher, I get 
a second icon on the launcher for that application, which again means 
the launcher clutters very quickly.


The apparently handy feature to show previews of open applications via 
Alt-tab, or double-click a Launcher Item, or Special-W only really seems 
works sensibly for low use desktops. Once there are a few dozen 
applications open, it becomes hard to tell one from another, 
particularly if they're mostly editor windows or nautilus windows or 
similar (I try to have one nautilus window with many tabs to help reduce 
clutter). A dozen little previews showing illegible program snippets is 
not wholly helpful.


Hopefully sometime this can have the filename in the hover. OK, granted 
that doesn't help much if several files are all called main.c, but it's 
a start.


Kind regards,
 Gordon.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-10-07 Thread Gordon Scott


My struggle with Unity continues :-/

Can anyone tell me how to get a samba drive on my server mounted on my 
new PC with Unity, such that I can write to it and so it mounts 
automatically? Searches in the Dash for Samba, smb, map, mount, drive, 
window, even nfs all come up with usually nothing, occasionally nothing 
useful.


I can browse and mount via the home folder, but the mount is always 
not-writeable and it always disappears at logout or shutdown.  I can do 
it from Gnome-fallback, so the tools are there.



I think I've asked before, but can't find a useful answer .. is it 
feasible to get the menus from the top-bat back onto the individual 
windows? Maybe when I get to the point of doing real work I'll adapt to 
the Alt-Menu operation, but presently that seems very unreliable and 
whilst I'm trying to set things up, I'm mostly using the mouse. 
Sometimes it's a long, long, way from window to the far top-left and back.



How can I get to some different themes? The default four is all I can 
presently find and I really want something that shows better where the 
focus is, and ideally that puts the minimise/normal/maximise/exit button 
row top right, rather than top-left.  Again I search on Dash and Ubuntu 
Software Centre, but can find nothing appropriate.


Thanks,
  Gordon.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-10-07 Thread Michael Pavling

On 7 October 2012 16:16, Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:
 My struggle with Unity continues :-/

 Can anyone tell me how to get a samba drive on my server mounted on my new
 PC with Unity, such that I can write to it and so it mounts automatically?
 Searches in the Dash for Samba, smb, map, mount, drive, window, even nfs all
 come up with usually nothing, occasionally nothing useful.

I don't know that this is a Unity question, as I've found this a pain
in the last half-dozen releases of Ubuntu, and in Mint et al... but...

In Unity, I open the home folder, click file | connect to server,
then enter my authentication details. Once done, and the share (or
whatever sub-folder I want to have quick access to) is shown, I press
crtl-d to bookmark it, and then next time I can skip the whole
connect to server stage and go straight to it in my bookmarks.
Kindof like a much more sensible map network drive approach.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-10-07 Thread Alan Pope


On 07/10/12 16:16, Gordon Scott wrote:

My struggle with Unity continues :-/



This is not really a Unity issue.


Can anyone tell me how to get a samba drive on my server mounted on my
new PC with Unity, such that I can write to it and so it mounts
automatically? Searches in the Dash for Samba, smb, map, mount, drive,
window, even nfs all come up with usually nothing, occasionally nothing
useful.



https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MountWindowsSharesPermanently

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-10-07 Thread Gordon Scott


On 07/10/2012 15:47, Alan Pope wrote:

On 07/10/12 16:16, Gordon Scott wrote:

My struggle with Unity continues :-/



This is not really a Unity issue.


Um, OK, though as I say, it's there and working on gnome-fallback.
Michael's method of using the File menu appears to pop up the tool that 
Gnome uses, so I'll likely try that.


To me It seems telling that I'm not sure I'd even realised there _were_ 
menus as they're hidden until I hover on that screen-top bar.  That 
still seems horribly counter-intuitive to me. Why move it away from 
where they're used, why hide them until hover? My eyes are much faster 
then waving a mouse over the top-bar to see if there's something helpful 
there. Alt-Menus again may be better when they work properly with 
focus-follows-mouse.





Can anyone tell me how to get a samba drive on my server mounted on my
new PC with Unity, such that I can write to it and so it mounts
automatically? Searches in the Dash for Samba, smb, map, mount, drive,
window, even nfs all come up with usually nothing, occasionally nothing
useful.



https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MountWindowsSharesPermanently

Cheers,


Oh, right, just like we used to do it a decade or two ago.
I'd completely forgotten and become used to the newer way.

I'm comfortable with modifying fstab, if somewhat surprised.
How is a newbie to Linux now recommended to find that out?

I guess I'll search around there for theme and top-bar solutions?

Kind regards,
Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-02 Thread Gordon Scott


On 01/10/2012 21:36, Alan Pope wrote:

On 01/10/12 21:32, Gordon Scott wrote:

Can anyone say if 'upgrading' from 10.04 to 12.04 would result in a
default switch to Unity?


It will.

Frankly that is alarming, but also as I suspected, and precisely why I 
have not upgraded.


Have you any idea how disruptive that change would be if it were unexpected?

Do you have any idea how badly a change like that can be received?

I have already spent many hours trying to work out how to make Unity 
effective for me as my _work_ environment. Unity is already costing me 
time, and I don't yet even have it on my work machine.


Are there any nasty surprises in the upgrade from 10.04LTS server to 
12.04LTS server, without the GUI?  Hopefully with absolutely no bling at 
least that one should be relatively OK, though any upgrade is always a 
risk and challenge.



If it does, is it reasonably easy to get back to the previous
desktop?



GNOME 2 is dead. If you want to get something looking like your old 
desktop then there's GNOME Fallback mode (which as I understand will 
also soon be dead), XFCE or a myriad of other desktop environments.



I'm aware of Gnome Fallback, though I haven't tried it.
Unfortunately as my 10.04LTS laptop just smoked, I don't have a machine 
on which to try that out for real.


Does the upgrade process inform us of fallback, or better still offer it 
as an option?
Does it remain comparable to my present desktop, i.e., I don't waste 
hours or days betting back to something with which I can work.



The reason I'm on Ubuntu LTS was because I understood that there would 
be steady upgrade process and I hoped that that would minimise many of 
the disruptive changes that have happened in the past .. stupid things 
like a new blingy CD writer that doesn't work properly superseding the 
old drab one that did.


Change is very much a two-edged sword.  It needs to be for the better, 
and hopefully Unity will eventually turn out that way, or die, but 
change almost always also causes disruption, particularly if it's not 
carefully controlled.   At this moment, Unity feels a little like Ubuntu 
threw a grenade into the mix.  Yes, I know it's been around a year or 
so, but I ditched it back then as too profound a change. I'm trying to 
prepare for what seems presently to be an inevitable change, but at the 
moment that's feeling a bit of a struggle.   I'm still hoping I'll 
mellow.  I like Ubuntu, it's always been relatively painless to work 
with in the past.  Hopefully it will be again.


Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-02 Thread Alan Pope


Hi Gordon,

On 02/10/12 11:42, Gordon Scott wrote:

On 01/10/2012 21:36, Alan Pope wrote:

On 01/10/12 21:32, Gordon Scott wrote:

Can anyone say if 'upgrading' from 10.04 to 12.04 would result in a
default switch to Unity?


It will.


Frankly that is alarming, but also as I suspected, and precisely why I
have not upgraded.



What's alarming about upgrading a system and getting new stuff? It 
happens in all software distributions. OS/2 2.x - OS/2 Warp, Windows 
XP - Windows 7, Android 2.x - 3.x - 4.x, Linux Mint 11 - 12. Some 
more dramatic than others, granted.



Have you any idea how disruptive that change would be if it were
unexpected?



How would be unexpected? When you click upgrade to go from 10.04 to 
12.04 you are presented with release notes and a clear link to:-


http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features

Which goes out of its way to detail what's new and funky in the later 
release.



Do you have any idea how badly a change like that can be received?



I recommend this book:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091816971/ - Who Moved My Cheese: 
An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life



I have already spent many hours trying to work out how to make Unity
effective for me as my _work_ environment. Unity is already costing me
time, and I don't yet even have it on my work machine.



So don't use it. Use something else if it's that much of a bugbear for 
you. There's lots of different desktops in the repository. I'm sure one 
suits.



Are there any nasty surprises in the upgrade from 10.04LTS server to
12.04LTS server, without the GUI?


Not that I'm aware of. We generally don't go for nasty surprises in 
Ubuntu, either on the desktop or server. We tend to favour new 
features and updated software.



 Hopefully with absolutely no bling at
least that one should be relatively OK, though any upgrade is always a
risk and challenge.



You say bling I say beauty. Let's call the whole thing off.


Does the upgrade process inform us of fallback, or better still offer it
as an option?


No. However it's as easy as clicking this link once you've upgraded.

apt://gnome-session-fallback


Does it remain comparable to my present desktop, i.e., I don't waste
hours or days betting back to something with which I can work.



You want the world to stay the same, but upgrade nonetheless? Should we 
have all stayed on GNOME 1.x or perhaps CDE? :)



The reason I'm on Ubuntu LTS was because I understood that there would
be steady upgrade process and I hoped that that would minimise many of
the disruptive changes that have happened in the past .. stupid things
like a new blingy CD writer that doesn't work properly superseding the
old drab one that did.



That's a reasonable set of expectations. Nobody is forcing you to 
upgrade right now, are they? I mean, there may be software you need for 
your work which isn't available in 10.04, or there may be hardware which 
is only supported on a newer kernel?


But if you're on 10.04 then you've got until April next year before you 
need to think about no more bug fixes and security updates on this 
release. Why not sit back and take stock of the changing world around 
you and make the step when you're ready?



 At this moment, Unity feels a little like Ubuntu
threw a grenade into the mix.  Yes, I know it's been around a year or
so, but I ditched it back then as too profound a change. I'm trying to
prepare for what seems presently to be an inevitable change, but at the
moment that's feeling a bit of a struggle.   I'm still hoping I'll
mellow.  I like Ubuntu, it's always been relatively painless to work
with in the past.  Hopefully it will be again.



I run 12.04 on my main machine and will probably stick with it for some 
time to come. I am enjoying 12.04 much more than any of the previous 
releases I've used. Each to their own though. I hope you find a desktop 
that suits you.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-02 Thread Full Circle Podcast

Gordon,
Popey probably won't thank me, but the answer may be gnome-session-fallback
atop any Ubuntu/Unity, which will give you a Gnome-2-like desktop with all
the other benefits of the 12.x releases (of which there are many.

I've already gone to 12.10 on my two main machines - okay, the Beta is
still a bit buggy in places, but so much better than 12.04, already.

I *can* work in Unity, I know what it's trying to provide, mostly I choose
not to use it; mainly because Unity seems to want to make me type more,
whereas Gnome menus do 80% of the things I want within 2 clicks and there's
the old Gnome search tool for files and ALT-f2 for everything else.

Look on the bright side, Mark Spaceshuttle could have copied Windows 8
NOT-Metro, Modern-UI, Tiles-thing for a desktop instead!

Overall I still think the Vancouver team book, Unity: Simplify Your
Lifehttp://ubuntu-za.org/sites/default/files/unity-5-10-0-final-pdf.pdfis
the best guide for the Unity doubter, and our Ubuntu and Unity Special
Edition is available from the main *Full
Circle*http://fullcirclemagazine.org/ubuntu-11-10-and-unity-special-edition/site.
--
Rgds
RC

Robin Catling
Full Circle Podcast

On 2 October 2012 16:06, Alan Pope alan.p...@canonical.com wrote:

Hi Gordon,

On 02/10/12 11:42, Gordon Scott wrote:

On 01/10/2012 21:36, Alan Pope wrote:

On 01/10/12 21:32, Gordon Scott wrote:

Can anyone say if 'upgrading' from 10.04 to 12.04 would result in a
default switch to Unity?

It will.

Frankly that is alarming, but also as I suspected, and precisely why I
have not upgraded.

What's alarming about upgrading a system and getting new stuff? It happens
in all software distributions. OS/2 2.x - OS/2 Warp, Windows XP -
Windows 7, Android 2.x - 3.x - 4.x, Linux Mint 11 - 12. Some more
dramatic than others, granted.

Have you any idea how disruptive that change would be if it were
unexpected?

How would be unexpected? When you click upgrade to go from 10.04 to
12.04 you are presented with release notes and a clear link to:-

http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/**featureshttp://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features

Which goes out of its way to detail what's new and funky in the later
release.

Do you have any idea how badly a change like that can be received?

I recommend this book:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/**product/0091816971/http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091816971/-
Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and
in Your Life

I have already spent many hours trying to work out how to make Unity
effective for me as my _work_ environment. Unity is already costing me
time, and I don't yet even have it on my work machine.

So don't use it. Use something else if it's that much of a bugbear for
you. There's lots of different desktops in the repository. I'm sure one
suits.

Are there any nasty surprises in the upgrade from 10.04LTS server to
12.04LTS server, without the GUI?

Not that I'm aware of. We generally don't go for nasty surprises in
Ubuntu, either on the desktop or server. We tend to favour new features
and updated software.

Hopefully with absolutely no bling at
least that one should be relatively OK, though any upgrade is always a
risk and challenge.

You say bling I say beauty. Let's call the whole thing off.

Does the upgrade process inform us of fallback, or better still offer it
as an option?

No. However it's as easy as clicking this link once you've upgraded.

apt://gnome-session-fallback

Does it remain comparable to my present desktop, i.e., I don't waste
hours or days betting back to something with which I can work.

You want the world to stay the same, but upgrade nonetheless? Should we
have all stayed on GNOME 1.x or perhaps CDE? :)

The reason I'm on Ubuntu LTS was because I understood that there would
be steady upgrade process and I hoped that that would minimise many of
the disruptive changes that have happened in the past .. stupid things
like a new blingy CD writer that doesn't work properly superseding the
old drab one that did.

That's a reasonable set of expectations. Nobody is forcing you to upgrade
right now, are they? I mean, there may be software you need for your work
which isn't available in 10.04, or there may be hardware which is only
supported on a newer kernel?

But if you're on 10.04 then you've got until April next year before you
need to think about no more bug fixes and security updates on this
release. Why not sit back and take stock of the changing world around you
and make the step when you're ready?

At this moment, Unity feels a little like Ubuntu
threw a grenade into the mix. Yes, I know it's been around a year or
so, but I ditched it back then as too profound a change. I'm trying to
prepare for what seems presently to be an inevitable change, but at the
moment that's feeling a bit of a struggle. I'm still hoping I'll
mellow. I like Ubuntu, it's always been relatively painless to work
with

Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-02 Thread Samuel Penn

On Tuesday 02 October 2012 10:42:19 Gordon Scott wrote:
 On 01/10/2012 21:36, Alan Pope wrote:
  On 01/10/12 21:32, Gordon Scott wrote:
  Can anyone say if 'upgrading' from 10.04 to 12.04 would result in a
  default switch to Unity?
  
  It will.
 
 Frankly that is alarming, but also as I suspected, and precisely why I
 have not upgraded.

The most obvious change from 11.04 to 12.04 was the font and
the style of the login screen (which now seems to be running
a Unity themed session manager rather than a KDE one).

Other than that, KDE seems to be pretty much the same on both
systems. I wasn't switched to Unity.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-02 Thread Gordon Scott


On 02/10/12 16:06, Alan Pope wrote:

On 02/10/12 11:42, Gordon Scott wrote:


 At this moment, Unity feels a little like Ubuntu
threw a grenade into the mix.  Yes, I know it's been around a year or
so, but I ditched it back then as too profound a change. I'm trying to
prepare for what seems presently to be an inevitable change, but at the
moment that's feeling a bit of a struggle.   I'm still hoping I'll
mellow.  I like Ubuntu, it's always been relatively painless to work
with in the past.  Hopefully it will be again.




Interesting selective edit. You lost a bit.

Change is something I deal with all the time. Every working day!
I generally enjoy change provided it's manageable.

But I also had a period a few years back when change was so rapid and 
profound that eventually we 'slammed on the brakes' and took stock.  
What we concluded was that we'd spent four months getting from a system 
where mostly everything worked to a system where very little worked 
because it had all been broken by the changes on the changes. We'd done 
four months very hard work and had simply gone backwards.



Well, OK, I'm probably being over-sensitive at the moment. I'm feeling 
pretty stressed for a variety of reasons; I guess still here working now 
is one of those.  As I said earlier, I'm trying to warm to Unity, but at 
present it's being a bit of a royal pain.


Part of the reason I'm facing Unity right now is the smoked laptop I 
mentioned. That's forced a new install at very short notice whilst I'm 
under a heavy workload.  I presume I could still have installed 
10.04LTS, but the change will come and this is a chance to try get the 
new desktop in an arrangement where I feel I can work comfortable with 
it.  The Alt- problem last night wound me up quite a long way.


BTW, a big problem with animations is that they're so often in 
peripheral vision areas. If like me you wear varifocal glasses, you'll 
find that many of those animations are not just a big distraction, but 
because of the odd effects of the peripheral distortions can actually 
induce motion sickness.
They're also, therefore, _very_ tiring and stressful at the end of a 
long day.


Gordon.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-02 Thread Alan Pope


On 02/10/12 23:18, Gordon Scott wrote:

On 02/10/12 16:06, Alan Pope wrote:

On 02/10/12 11:42, Gordon Scott wrote:


 At this moment, Unity feels a little like Ubuntu
threw a grenade into the mix.  Yes, I know it's been around a year or
so, but I ditched it back then as too profound a change. I'm trying to
prepare for what seems presently to be an inevitable change, but at the
moment that's feeling a bit of a struggle.   I'm still hoping I'll
mellow.  I like Ubuntu, it's always been relatively painless to work
with in the past.  Hopefully it will be again.




Interesting selective edit. You lost a bit.


It was your opinion. I have no opinion on your opinion, so I edited it 
out. :D


Cheers,
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Engineering Manager

Canonical - Product Strategy
+44 (0) 7973 620 164
alan.p...@canonical.com
http://ubuntu.com/

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-01 Thread Peter Salisbury

On 28 September 2012 10:42, Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:

 Putting my present frustration with Unity into context, I'm a person who
 on first setting up any OS immediately turns off all the distractions
 from and obstructions to efficiency, like slide-out menus (I don't want
 to wait for those .. I want to get the job done!), fades, glass effects,
 beeps, boops and whoo-hahs.  I want a quiet, quick machine that does
 what I ask with question, tantrums or flourishes. My computers are
 tools, not special effects playgrounds.


Me too - for me the only worthwhile eye-candy is window shadows and
transparency during window drags, That's why I use xubuntu.
Hierarchical menus, custom drop-down entries on the panel for your own
'categories' and of course ALT-F2 works too!

ATB, Peter

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-01 Thread john lewis

On 28 September 2012 10:42, Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:

  I want a quiet, quick machine that does what I ask with question, tantrums
 or flourishes. My computers are tools, not special effects
 playgrounds.

I fully agree with those comments. I have very simple needs and Debian
has given me a system that does just that - with the exception of
gnome3 in its initial form and we cannot blame Debian for that.
  
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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-01 Thread Gordon Scott

On Mon, 2012-10-01 at 15:37 +0100, Peter Salisbury wrote:
 On 28 September 2012 10:42, Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:
 
 does
  what I ask with question, tantrums or flourishes.

That should, of course, have read 'without' as you realised.

 Me too - for me the only worthwhile eye-candy is window shadows and
 transparency during window drags, That's why I use xubuntu.
 Hierarchical menus, custom drop-down entries on the panel for your own
 'categories' and of course ALT-F2 works too!

Personally I'm not that keen on transparency even when dragging, though
occasionally it's useful, so I'd likely not stop that.

I guess quite a few people probably do like the eye candy, at least as
an attention grabber if not in everyday use.

I can't help feeling, though, that Unity is intended more to be a
marketing hook than something for users to work with.

Maybe I'll mellow on that as I use Unity more, though it's not going so
well at the moment  ...  I've set up the focus-follows-mouse and stopped
auto-lift, so the windows work as I'd like, but I very quickly found a
problem where Alt-F was opening the menu for the wrong window. It didn't
seem to matter what I did .. move mouse between windows, click on the
window in question, right-click, escape, it simply would not open the
correct menu.  I spent two or three minutes messing about before it
eventually opened the correct menu.  I _think_ I moved the mouse to the
top bar directly, without passing over the desktop or any other windows,
clicked and selected on the menus and it was back to normal. Of course I
had to return to the window to check it, so who knows what else might
have happen in the meantime.

I guess as with John's comment, in this case it's Unity in it's initial
form and it may still be a bit previous.

I am _really_ glad I'm doing this learning process on my new home
machine and not yet on the ones on which I earn my living!


Can anyone say if 'upgrading' from 10.04 to 12.04 would result in a
default switch to Unity?  If it does, is it reasonably easy to get back
to the previous desktop?


Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-01 Thread Alan Pope


On 01/10/12 21:32, Gordon Scott wrote:

Can anyone say if 'upgrading' from 10.04 to 12.04 would result in a
default switch to Unity?


It will.


If it does, is it reasonably easy to get back to the previous
desktop?



GNOME 2 is dead. If you want to get something looking like your old 
desktop then there's GNOME Fallback mode (which as I understand will 
also soon be dead), XFCE or a myriad of other desktop environments.


Cheers,
--
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Engineering Manager

Canonical - Product Strategy
+44 (0) 7973 620 164
alan.p...@canonical.com
http://ubuntu.com/

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-10-01 Thread Vic


 GNOME 2 is dead.

...And looking remarkably sprightly on my Fedora 16 laptop...

Vic.





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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-30 Thread john lewis

On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:45:19 +
Andy Smith a...@strugglers.net wrote:

 Hello,
 
 On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 08:20:56AM +0100, john lewis wrote:
  Apple have always adopted the attitude that their way of doing
  things is the only way and make it very difficult if not impossible
  to reconfigure the look of their OS. Is that now the route Canonical
  are going to follow?
  
  I am biased towards Debian as you all know and make no apologies for
  promoting the Debian Way
 
 Very much the paramilitary wing of the Debian Republican Army..

I wish! 

I am sure there are plenty of Debian users who are far more militant
than me. I'm not even a true follower of  the 'Debian way' because I
use non-free software when I think open source apps aren't yet good
enough.

 
  A large majority of HantsLUG members were Debian users a few years
  back but for some reason chose to go with the new kid on the
  block.
 
 And they are wrong and you will keep on about it until they change
 back? :)

I don't suppose that my opinions will have much influence and in any
case I may not be around all that much longer having recently had my
80th birthday. 



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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-30 Thread Tony Whitmore


On 29/09/12 08:20, john lewis wrote:

I am biased towards Debian as you all know and make no apologies for
promoting the Debian Way A large majority of HantsLUG members were
Debian users a few years back but for some reason chose to go with the
new kid on the block.


I moved my laptop (and soon desktop) from Debian to Ubuntu over six 
years ago, for good reasons[1]. Although Debian have addressed many of 
the issues that made me move away, Ubuntu have not (yet?) given me a 
good reason to move back.


http://tonywhitmore.co.uk/blog/2006/01/27/sorry-debian/

Tony

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-30 Thread alan c


On 30/09/12 10:08, Tony Whitmore wrote:

On 29/09/12 08:20, john lewis wrote:

I am biased towards Debian as you all know and make no apologies for
promoting the Debian Way A large majority of HantsLUG members were
Debian users a few years back but for some reason chose to go with the
new kid on the block.


I moved my laptop (and soon desktop) from Debian to Ubuntu over six
years ago, for good reasons[1]. Although Debian have addressed many of
the issues that made me move away, Ubuntu have not (yet?) given me a
good reason to move back.

http://tonywhitmore.co.uk/blog/2006/01/27/sorry-debian/


I am deeply appreciative of Debian including because Ubuntu depends on 
it heavily in a number of ways. I support and use Ubuntu a lot, in 
part because the governance and its ethic is most broadly community 
friendly, and not least because it has undiluted commercial, mass 
market, ambitions. These aspects, for me, make it seem most likely 
that Ubuntu will go mass market,  other things being equal


I wish.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-30 Thread john lewis

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:07:19 +0100
alan c aecl...@candt.waitrose.com wrote:

 On 29/09/12 08:20, john lewis wrote:
  Some like Alan went over lock stock and barrel;-)
 
 Moi?

Non! Monsieur Pope


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-30 Thread Tony Wood


On 30/09/12 11:07, alan c wrote:

On 29/09/12 08:20, john lewis wrote:

Some like Alan went over lock stock and barrel;-)


Moi?

If referring to moi, then yes, the same techniques worked when I wanted
to escape from Windows(!) which was a brutal and painful period, even
though I had been using several cross platform programs for the previous
6 months. It came to a time when full immersion seemed appropriate. It
paid off!
:-)



+1

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-29 Thread john lewis

On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 23:22:45 +0100
Alan Pope alan.p...@canonical.com wrote:

 On 28/09/12 22:27, john lewis wrote:
  OK, I had no idea such a thing existed, I have never installed any
  version of *buntu on any system I have owned and never actually seen
  it running on any computer. My only knowledge of that distro is
  from the complaints of unhappy users.
 
 
 I know nothing but I'll tell everyone not to use it anyway. Nice
 work.

I wasn't exactly telling people not to use it but there do seem to be
lots of people unhappy with the way canonical have imposed their way
on users without giving them an (easy!) option of reverting to the
old way. (OK, that may be an exaggeration and I expect it is possible
to remove unity and run other desktops)  

Apple have always adopted the attitude that their way of doing things
is the only way and make it very difficult if not impossible to
reconfigure the look of their OS. Is that now the route Canonical
are going to follow?

I am biased towards Debian as you all know and make no apologies for
promoting the Debian Way A large majority of HantsLUG members were
Debian users a few years back but for some reason chose to go with the
new kid on the block. 

Some like Alan went over lock stock and barrel ;-)  

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-29 Thread Andy Smith

Hello,

On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 08:20:56AM +0100, john lewis wrote:
 Apple have always adopted the attitude that their way of doing things
 is the only way and make it very difficult if not impossible to
 reconfigure the look of their OS. Is that now the route Canonical
 are going to follow?
 
 I am biased towards Debian as you all know and make no apologies for
 promoting the Debian Way

Very much the paramilitary wing of the Debian Republican Army..

 A large majority of HantsLUG members were Debian users a few years
 back but for some reason chose to go with the new kid on the
 block.

And they are wrong and you will keep on about it until they change
back? :)

Luckily since Debian and other distributions do exist, users still
have plenty of choice and the situation isn't really comparable to
Apple. It is in fact very easy to run Linux and all applications
that are made for Linux without using Unity or Ubuntu.

Cheers,
Andy

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists


On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:

How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
   In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
   with top-level headings like Graphics, Programming and so on.


1)Dash
2) click on Apps (lens??) [the icon at the bottom of the dash  which 
is next to the house symbol, looks like a ruler with pens] 'applications'

3) notice the top right hand side option 'Filter Results'

This seems to do exactly what you are asking?

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - searches


On 27/09/12 22:32, Gordon Scott wrote:

I thought it searched for 'function related' things. It seems to with
'player', as it finds a number of applications that are players, e.g.,
Timidity++.

It found nothing for 'transparency', nothing for 'glass', nothing for
'jpeg' and nothing for a number of other things for which I searched.
What are the rules by which it works?


The longer term intention of the dash facility seems to include 
powerful searches. This will move what is now 'category based' life 
towards 'search based' life. This already happened  with internet 
search engines some time ago, courtesy of Google. It is no longer 
useful to declare a category of search,  just enter some search terms. 
Microsoft, uncle Tom Cobly and all, are also moving away from 
categories towards search, eg in windows 7. This is ok as long as the 
machine power and the algorithms are up to the task. Google have 
proved they can do it. I do not have faith in MS, but they are rich, 
and I do have faith in Ubuntu and hope that  it can be made to work well.


I have noticed the Dash searches are improving, although I wonder if 
crowd sourced help activity could be used with any advantage, or 
machine learning action. After all Thunderbird has a learning spam 
filter which is pretty good.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity


On 27/09/12 19:52, Jack Knight wrote:

As it happens, after I discovered some love for Unity, popey posted this:

http://youtu.be/xA9EHaNc2VI

Which for me added the icing on the cake. Enjoy.


+1

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-28 Thread Tony Wood


On 28/09/12 10:00, alan c wrote:

On 27/09/12 19:52, Jack Knight wrote:

As it happens, after I discovered some love for Unity, popey posted this:

http://youtu.be/xA9EHaNc2VI

Which for me added the icing on the cake. Enjoy.


+1



+1

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity - Dash - context lists

2012-09-28 Thread Gordon Scott

Hi Alan,

On Fri, 2012-09-28 at 09:40 +0100, alan c wrote:
 On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:
  How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
 In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
 with top-level headings like Graphics, Programming and so on.
 
 1)Dash
 2) click on Apps (lens??) [the icon at the bottom of the dash  which 
 is next to the house symbol, looks like a ruler with pens] 'applications'
 3) notice the top right hand side option 'Filter Results'
 
 This seems to do exactly what you are asking?

Ah, I obviously didn't explain well enough.

Ideally what I want (need?) is a quick-access route to tools for a
context.  In gnome et al, that would typically be via the hierarchical
menu, e.g., from the top-bar 'Applications'.

Looking at Unity, what would make sense to me would be either a
dedicated 'Dash' for each context, or a lens (or whatever) from the
existing Dash. I have seen a Python Dash builder, though whether that's
a sensible route is another matter.

I briefly tried your suggestion, but again the searching seems flawed.
As examples, 'Graphics' shows some applications, but not Gimp,
'Programming' similar but not Eclipse.


Putting my present frustration with Unity into context, I'm a person who
on first setting up any OS immediately turns off all the distractions
from and obstructions to efficiency, like slide-out menus (I don't want
to wait for those .. I want to get the job done!), fades, glass effects,
beeps, boops and whoo-hahs.  I want a quiet, quick machine that does
what I ask with question, tantrums or flourishes. My computers are
tools, not special effects playgrounds.

(I'd dearly like also to turn off animations in Firefox, too. I think
Konqueror will do that, but for me it has other shortcoming).


It was Alan Pope's video that encouraged me to try again.
A good video that helps with a lot.

There are aspects of Unity that look very useful indeed.
But I have to be able to work with it and at present I'm finding that
not easy. It also means I've declined to upgrade any system since I
first met it, though as I mostly use the LTS versions, that's only been
a modest issue so far.

Gordon.


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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-28 Thread Simon Reap


On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:

How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
 In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
 with top-level headings like Graphics, Programming and so on.
 Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure 
there must

 be a way .. dedicated lens or something?
I did this by installing cairo-dock - it's a bit of overkill, since I 
don't use any of the application icons, but I do use the menu icon at 
the left-hand side to find context-based items.  This is handy if you 
don't know which music programs or games, for example, are installed on 
the machine - you don't really mind which they are, you just want the 
installed one(s).


Simon

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-28 Thread Gordon Scott


On 28/09/2012 10:05, Simon Reap wrote:

On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:

How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
 In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
 with top-level headings like Graphics, Programming and so on.
 Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure 
there must

 be a way .. dedicated lens or something?
I did this by installing cairo-dock - it's a bit of overkill, since I 
don't use any of the application icons, but I do use the menu icon at 
the left-hand side to find context-based items.  This is handy if you 
don't know which music programs or games, for example, are installed 
on the machine - you don't really mind which they are, you just want 
the installed one(s).


Hi Simon,

I've just been looking around the glx-dock/cairo-dock website.

My initial impression wasn't too good, but exploring shows there's more 
promise.


I note particularly that it has sub-docks, which sounds like what I 
want/need.
The manic animations are a turn-off for me, but it sounds like I may be 
able to stop those.
I may well give it a try, though part of this was to try and tolerate 
Unity as it's Ubuntu's default environment.
An awful lot of people seem to dislike Unity, though, so it may just 
fade away.


Gordon.

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity

2012-09-28 Thread john lewis

On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:43:32 +
Gordon Scott gor...@gscott.co.uk wrote:

 I may well give it a try, though part of this was to try and tolerate 
 Unity as it's Ubuntu's default environment.
 An awful lot of people seem to dislike Unity, though, so it may just 
 fade away.

many people disliked Gnome3 too but the developers listened to the
complaints and there is now an option to use Classic Mode, at least
there is when running Debian. 

Hint! Hint! ;-)

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Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu Unity