Prev: SCO gets screwed (again)!
Next: wifi help
From: Andy Davison on 31 Mar 2010 10:14
I just updated Ubuntu on my old laptop to see what differences there are
because it is the distro my mother uses and I don't want her worrying
about different ways things are done. She's in her 70s and likes to use
what she is used to.
They moved the Metacity buttons to the left and swapped the order. Why?
This is the sort of thing that can really alienate older existing users
particularly people like my mother who freely admit to being not that
computer savvy quite apart from putting off Windows users trying out
Linux who want as little unfamiliarity when changing over as possible. OK
it's easy enough to change back but I had to google for the answer and my
mother would have felt totally lost especially if she didn't have me at
the other end of a phone line or going round to sort it out.
Also the volume control disappeared. This happened with 9.10 when it
became part of the Notification Area. It is no longer part of that. It is
now part of the Indicator Applet. Why change it again? TBH I would have
been happy if it was still the volume control. When it was the volume
control and when it was part of the Notification Area a mouse over would
show the %age of volume - not totally necessary but nice to have and
something I was familiar with. This doesn't seem to be the case anymore
though I suspect there is a conf file I can edit to make it so. I don't
want the hassle. I have set up a keyboard shortcut to increase and reduce
volume one-handed as the fn+pageup/down takes two hands but it still
doesn't give me the familiarity of a system I was getting used to which
knocks me out of my comfort zone and is therefore irritating.
Here endeth the rant. The volume thing I'll get used to but moving the
Metacity Buttons by default is sheer stupidity.
--
Andy Davison
andy [ at ] oiyou [ dot ] ukfsn [ dot ] org
From: Kevin Safford on 31 Mar 2010 13:34
On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:14:54 +0000, Andy Davison wrote:

<snip>
> ...but moving the
> Metacity Buttons by default is sheer stupidity.

Hear hear!

--
Kevin Safford
kevin full stop safford at ntlworld full stop com
From: Geoff Clements on 31 Mar 2010 16:42
Andy Davison wrote:

> I just updated Ubuntu on my old laptop to see what differences there are
> because it is the distro my mother uses and I don't want her worrying
> about different ways things are done. She's in her 70s and likes to use
> what she is used to.
> They moved the Metacity buttons to the left and swapped the order. Why?

There's been a bit of a flame war about this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/light-
themes/+bug/532633?comments=all

with Mr. Shuttleworth getting involved, comment #167 is quite revealing,
especially the last part. Bottom line is that they've got some things
planned for the future and this makes way for them.

To get things back to the way you like them:

$ gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout --type string
"menu:minimize,maximize,close"

--
Geoff
From: Ian on 1 Apr 2010 17:46
On 31 Mar, 15:14, Andy Davison <andyd...(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> I just updated Ubuntu on my old laptop

I'm on the point of giving up on Ubuntu, or at least stopping
upgrades.

9.10 was a complete dog compared to 9.04: twice the boot time and
bugged to the eyeballs. On the Thinkpad X31 I'm using, 9.10 broke wifi
support, graphics chip support and Huawei mobile broadband dongle
support. The Ubuntu team seem so intent on Great Goals that they have
basically given up on the whole "it just works" business.

Ian
From: Tony van der Hoff on 2 Apr 2010 03:42
On 01/04/10 22:46, Ian wrote:
> On 31 Mar, 15:14, Andy Davison<andyd...(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> I just updated Ubuntu on my old laptop
>
> I'm on the point of giving up on Ubuntu, or at least stopping
> upgrades.
>
> 9.10 was a complete dog compared to 9.04: twice the boot time and
> bugged to the eyeballs. On the Thinkpad X31 I'm using, 9.10 broke wifi
> support, graphics chip support and Huawei mobile broadband dongle
> support. The Ubuntu team seem so intent on Great Goals that they have
> basically given up on the whole "it just works" business.
>
> Ian

My experience of 9.10 on my HP laptop was diametrically opposite. Clean,
easy install, wifi without tinkering, excellent graphics; "it just works"
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2
Prev: SCO gets screwed (again)!
Next: wifi help