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diff --git a/ubuntu1710-review.txt b/ubuntu1710-review.txt index c93c163..3509091 100644 --- a/ubuntu1710-review.txt +++ b/ubuntu1710-review.txt @@ -8,17 +8,32 @@ That period of stagnation turned Ubuntu from one of the more interesting operati That changes with 17.10. There are big changes yes -- an entirely new default desktop in fact -- but that's not what makes this release different. This release feels different, not because the desktop has changed, but because Ubuntu feels like it once again has a sense of focus and direction. -Ununtu feels like it's turned a corner. Even Canonical's letter-based naming scheme has arrived that the starting over point, A -- "Artful Aardvark" is 17.10's nickname. +Ubuntu feels like it's turned a corner. Even Canonical's letter-based naming scheme has arrived that the starting over point, A -- "Artful Aardvark" is 17.10's nickname. Desktop users paying close attention to Ubuntu may not like the renewed sense of focus and direction since much of the chatter, features and tools coming out of Canonical right now are geared toward the server, container and what the kids call the internet of things (IoT) releases. While it's true that that's where Canonical's bottom line lies, and without giving some attention to its paying customers there won't be a Canonical, that ignores the fact that Canonical put tremendous effort into transitioning away from Unity and building a replacement desktop out of GNOME. If Canonical really didn't care about the desktop it wouldn't have put in any effort at all. It would have been much easier to just get rid of the desktop entirely, but that's not what happened. -In a blog post announcing 17.10 Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth encourages users to "pick a desktop". "we're using GNOME", he writes, "but we’re the space where KDE and GNOME and MATE and many others come together to give users real and easy choice of desktops. And if you’re feeling boned by the lack of Unity in open source, you might want to hop onto the channel and join those who are updating Unity7 for the newest X and kernel graphics in 18.04". +In a [blog post](http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1518) announcing 17.10 Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth encourages users to "pick a desktop". "we're using GNOME", he writes, "but we’re the space where KDE and GNOME and MATE and many others come together to give users real and easy choice of desktops. And if you’re feeling boned by the lack of Unity in open source, you might want to hop onto the channel and join those who are updating Unity7 for the newest X and kernel graphics in 18.04". The last bit hints at the future of desktop Ubuntu. So does a recent call for community input on a new Ubuntu desktop theme. These hints point to a new Ubuntu desktop, one that's much more community-centric. Canonical got rid of most of its design team so in one sense it has no choice but to farm these things out to the community, but that's not the entire story here. This is pure conjecture on my part, but I think that Canonical's course reversal on "convergence" goes much deeper than just abandoning Unity. Canonical shows signs of also abandoning its sometimes rather rigid belief system as well. Gone are the days when feature requests were dismissed as "wont fix" simply because they conflicted with some designers vision of how the desktop should work. Instead I believe that Ubuntu realized its mistake wasn't just pursuing convergence, but that convergence wasn't what its users wanted. I believe that the new Canonical, the new Ubuntu, is going to listen more closely to its community. Will the actual paying customers' needs set the ship's course so to speak? Probably, but that doesn't mean the desktop community will be abandoned. After all more than a few developers started using Ubuntu on the server because they were already using it on the desktop. +This is a major release for Ubuntu not just because it's a brand new desktop experience for users, but also because it's a preview of what's coming in the next Long Term Support release -- Ubuntu 18.04, coming April 2018. -Ubuntu 17.10 is a preview of what will be arriving in the next Long Term Support release -- Ubuntu 18.04, coming April 2018 -- Ubuntu 17.10 is packed full of big changes and makes use of many new technologies. +## Ubuntu 17.10 GNOME -Read on for our full Ubuntu 17.10 +The Unity desktop is gone, rather it's "available in the archives," which is to say it's gone for all but the diehard fans looking for an obscure cause to get behind. Instead ubuntu 17.10 boots in to GNOME Shell by default. + +The first time you log in to 17.10, you'll notice that it doesn't look all that different from the last release. Ubuntu's developers have put considerable effort into making GNOME cosmetically similar to Unity. Unfortunately, in some important ways, them similarities are only skin deep. Much of Unity's appeal was in the small things that greatly improved its usability relative GNOME, for example the keyboard-driven HUD, the global menu, the nice notification system and several other innovations present in Unity are also "available in the archives", which is to say, gone. + +How much this matters to your experience with Ubuntu 17.10 depends on how much you used anything of these things and how well GNOME plugins can mimic them. Let's start with the bad news: if you were a heavy user of the HUD features in Unity your transition to GNOME will be painful. There is no GNOME plugin to pick up the slack (there are some admirable efforts underway, but in my testing none of them were ready for prime time). Worse, this is the kind of feature request that will have you hounded right off the GNOME developer mailing list so don't even bother. GNOME will never have a HUD, undo your muscle memory and move on. Or stick with Ubuntu 17.04 until it reaches end of life in 2022. + +If the HUD wasn't your go-to tool in Unity then the transition to GNOME will be less painful. In fact most of what unity could do can be imitated with GNOME plugins. + + +By choosing to drop Unity most of Ubuntu’s home-grown usability efforts also fall by the wayside. + + +In Unity’s place comes a bespoke version of GNOME Shell that is ‘customised’ to resemble something that’s superficially close to the Unity desktop layout (but is not a like-for-like replacement). + +The Ubuntu 17.10 desktop uses a two panel layout: a full-height vert |