Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

http://beginlinux.com/desktop_training/reviews/ubuntu-1004-appearance-changes

by aweber • 16 years ago

52 51 16 years ago

kilian• 16 years ago

While I really like what they're doing design-wise in ubuntu, the second screenshot makes me kind of sad. I really think they should strive for less administration applications, instead of adding more.

krainboltgreene• 16 years ago

All the ones showing are the ones that show up in a default 9.04. The 9.04 example, for some reason, has hidden a few.

joshfinnie• 16 years ago

For as much complaints that people had for this x button being on the wrong side, I have to say that I am really impressed with the growth between these two releases.

I understand where Ubuntu was when it came up with the brown design, but they hit a cord with the linux community and realized that they outgrew what they originally set out to do. I think the design shown in 10.04 really shows that understanding.

andrewvc• 16 years ago

Agreed, I personally moved the window controls back, but otherwise 10.04 is a huge step forward.

baddox2• 16 years ago

As a huge fan of Linux, I have to say the modern Apple and Microsoft operating systems look significantly better.

sliverstorm3• 16 years ago

It's a growing process. The point is that it looks better than it did.

eru4• 16 years ago

I for one like the clean look of my XMonad.

kierank• 16 years ago

The problem is that Windows will have gone through another design interation by the time Ubuntu has reached the XP/Vista generation look-and-feel.

kingkilr• 16 years ago

As someone using all 3 OS's day to day (Ubuntu is my primary development OS, I have an iMac next to me, and I switch my laptop to Windows 7 for video games in the evenings), Windows 7 is easily my least favorite OS, it's performance is generally crummy compared to OSX and Ubuntu, and it's UI often aggravating.

starbuck_• 16 years ago

See I find the opposite is true for me. I don't have much experience with OS X but between ubuntu and Windows 7 I _much_ prefer Win7. I just can't stand how much screen space is eaten up by useless padding, menu bars, sidebars and panels, not to mention the overly large fonts. I realize that everything is customizable, but I don't have the patience. Windows 7 also seems faster and more responsive to me but responsiveness is largely subjective and situational.

To each their own I guess.

y0ghur7_xxx• 16 years ago

I agree. I find the new kubuntu with kde 4.4 much nicer.

http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.4/plasma.php

TheBurningOr• 16 years ago

I agree with you there. I've stuck with the Gnome flavor of Ubuntu, despite my preference for KDE because Kubuntu feels like Ubuntu with KDE duct-taped on top. It seems to be missing quite a bit of the functionality and polish of the Gnome flavor, which is really quite unfortunate.

sliverstorm3• 16 years ago

The engine/mechanics/code in KDE 4.4 are great, but I hate every single KDE theme. Way too much candy, way too cheesy. I personally kind of wish the two projects would merge in just the right way.

cabalamat2• 16 years ago

I like the way I have set up Gnome. I don't want to have to change it.

dchest3• 16 years ago

I've recently tried Mint Linux, and it's very aesthetically pleasing (screenshot http://i.imgur.com/2OBiH.png). (Disclaimer: Mac user)

Edit: except for the tray icons.

chancho2• 16 years ago

That is almost exactly the Dust theme which is now default in ubuntu, with green icons instead of orange.

kentosi2• 16 years ago

One of the main reasons why that screenshot looks good is due to the fonts you're using, which are good fonts (presumably from MS Windows).

Good fonts always make a massive difference in terms of screenshots.

sant0sk1• 16 years ago

Looks to me like an unfortunate step sideways in usability. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong when I try it myself.

adnam3• 16 years ago

Are you referring to the positioning of the window control icons?

daleharvey2• 16 years ago

I installed the beta a few days ago, while it isnt an overnight, omg this is better than osx, it certainly is a big improvement.

the default menu bar is incredibly nice, very similiar to osx, and glad to see the new weather icons that have a great finish (the old ones were so bad they were often confused as a bug)

The rest of the changes arent that significant, the new buttons and scrollbars are nicer but arent a huge improvement. I quite like the toolbar text, dark themes have always been my preference.

nautilus is still godawful, I am not a particularly huge fan of finder but nautilus does obviously lack here.

but I did take the time out to try xmonad and I am loving it - http://junk.arandomurl.com/xmonad.png , ill probably write it up soon.

neovive• 16 years ago

The nice thing about Ubuntu/Gnome is how easy it is to customize. As long as Emerald Theme Manager still works on 10.04, this release should be great.

I also prefer the window buttons on the right and it's good to know that we have a choice. On my MacBook I just have to accept it as is.

One thing I would love to see from Ubuntu is clean fonts working out of the box like Windows and Mac. I think that would be game changer for desktop Linux.

carussell4• 16 years ago

One thing I would love to see from Ubuntu is clean fonts working out of the box

Sounds like a matter of difference in personal preference. I'm pretty sure that the way fonts look out of the box is intentional, not a deficiency for which devs are actively seeking a solution.

iamdave• 16 years ago

Still using those ugly orange folders, though. Hrm.

cabalamat2• 16 years ago

The big question for me is: if I upgrade to 10.04, will it by default overwrite my colour scheme and other things I've set up on my desktop?

Because it took me time to set up the colours / fonts / effects / etc the way I like them, and I'm buggered if I'm going to let some arrogant bastard tell me I have to either (i) have my desktop they way he wants it not the way I want it, or (ii) re-do all that work.

sliverstorm3• 16 years ago

Just preserve your home folder. I believe the changes are just a theme.

igorgue• 16 years ago

Nop, I did that and it will keep all your changes... you'll just notice the improvements over the notifications area.

barnaby• 16 years ago

I totally can't wait! 7 days left!

adnam3• 16 years ago

I already upgraded, and I'm quite pleased with the changes. Unfortunately, the new default theme is slightly buggy; for example, when you open gvim from a terminal, you get various error messages show up which are to do with the window manager. I swicthed back to the "Human" theme, and the error messages disappeared.

adnam3• 16 years ago

I've noticed the window manager under Lucid is much more responsive. I'm not sure if that's just me though, because I'm unfortunately damned with SiS graphics drivers, and I had to update those manually.

Tichy3• 16 years ago

Will they ever get rid of the dual task bars (or panels or what they are called)?

carussell4• 16 years ago

They're panels. There's one task bar (window list) on the bottom panel by default. And you can get rid of them now if you want. I'm reading comments like above mentioning how Linux Mint's look is aesthetically pleasing. Really? It's almost all GNOME. Why discuss a whole change of distro to get a different theme/look? Just change the theme.

It's not even like you're downloading third party apps or doing registry tweaks/resource hacks on Windows 10 years ago. Context menu→"Delete this panel". It's less of a hassle than managing your desktop icons. It's just like making sure Firefox's "Always show the tab bar" preference is set to the value you want it to be.

More broadly, it seems like any level of hullaballoo about Ubuntu's default theme is too much. Who actually sticks with the default theme?

Tichy3• 16 years ago

I usually stick with the default theme, except for reconfiguring the panels. Why change the default theme? Last time changing themes excited me was when I had an Amiga 500.

pge• 16 years ago

It's much more important to me to be able to change the resolution on my monitor (impossible to do anything other than 480x640 on 9.10) than what color the default theme is. What I mean to say is that for Ubuntu to displace Windows in any measurable amount, the things that users expect to work have to work. While I am happy to edit my xorg.conf file because ubuntu doesn't recognize certain graphics card/monitor combinations, my mother would not. My office laptop was recently upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. The background colors and overall theme changed. After a few days, I didn't notice it any more, nor was there a HN post about the color scheme change. What I did notice was that offline folders worked a lot better than with XP. Those are the changes that actually make a difference to users. Users adapt to different themes and visuals pretty quickly. Ubuntu has made huge strides in desktop linux usability, but Canonical needs to continue to focus on ironing out the last remaining kinks so it "just works."

kunley• 16 years ago

Yeah well the more important thing seems to be that they changed gnome-over-compiz setting to gnome 3.0 w/ gnome-shell, which means the compositing window manager is now part of the gnome. While some ideas in gnome-shell are quite cool (though obtainable in gnome 2.x as 3rd party stuff like gnome-do project), the stability on some GPU hw/firmware/driver configurations may be sucky.

And if you care about your current gnome2+compiz configuration, it will be most probably messed by upgrading.

jsz0• 16 years ago

I think it's a big step backwards. It just doesn't fit. The selling point of Linux, as a desktop OS, would be its stability, reliability, flexibility, etc. I don't think using these weird exotic colors in such inconsistent ways sells those points very well. It looks very amateurish. Of course the point is made you can change the colors/theme easily but let's face it -- lots of people are going to look at the screenshots and make huge irrational assumptions based on them. Something cleaner and more professional looking would capture the essence of desktop Linux better in my opinion. I've always liked the default CentOS theme:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Centos41-...

kentosi2• 16 years ago

But you could also argue it the other way.

Staying with a stereotypical light gray desktop theme is easy and doesn't distinguish it from anything else out there. Mac and windows both made bold decisions with their UI, not all of which may have appealed to a lot ot people (remember "pinestripes" on mac? remember the cartoonish look of XP?).

While I do see this theme as slightly unual (in that it's a "dark" theme), I do applaud them for taking a risk.

Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

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