Discussion on:

10 things to love about Ubuntu 11.10

The changes you mentioned are indeed positive and I love them, but I think they shouldn't have removed the ability to switch to Gnome 2.32. I don't mind Unity being the default, but no backwards compatibility? C'mon. the Gnome fallback session thingy doesn't work as well as the older Gnome.
By the way, if somebody can show me a keyboard shortcut to activate the application menu in the fallback session, and a way to activate the "Run a command" menu, I'd be just as happy with Oneiric Ocelot. I am waiting for the next Linux Mint version, by the way, because it gives me the old UI.

The changes are cool. However the system is still buggy. Try ejecting a multi-partition drive and the system panics.

The alt-F2 keyboard shortcut still works to activate the "Run a command" menu.

Unity still sucks and is still buggy even if it sucks a *little* (and only a little) less.

Evolution may be bloated but if you need Exchange support, it's better than Thunderbird.

I've switched the desktop to Xubuntu (because Gnome 3 sucks too) and loaded Evolution.

Yeah, who cares about "usefulness", as long as it has a small (useless) footprint. Nothing like a "stripped down" version of Thunderbird to help make ubuntu a viable replacement for MS Windows.

I agree ...mostly ... Jack. However, just looking at Compiz Config Settings switched off Unity and froze the computer, forcing me to reboot by switching off ... only to return to a system without any sign of Unity (good thing some might say, but I'm distraught). Not being an expert (or even experienced) with Linux, I'm still not able to put things right. Looking at various debates on the net, I see I'm not the only one; and I seem incapable of following any of the solutions proposed . Ho Hum, back to Windows for a bit ...

Unless someone out there can help?

If your looking at a black screen with white writing, you might try the
"startx" command. That may bring your Unity desktop back.
If it fails, you might try "xwmconfig", choose the windowing program you prefer, and then start your X-server with "startx".

Note: The preceding is the opinion of a Slackware Zombie who has never ventured into the roiling badlands of Buntustan (though is considering rolling out some tablets using the distro "whose name cannot be spoken" assuming it's as reliable as the author seems to think it is.

I want & need Canonical to get on the tablet bandwagon. There is just too much B.S. w/ android. With Microsoft & Apple either trying to kill it or get there greedy little fingers in it. We NEED something fresh. Please Canonical learn from androids mistakes & hopefully that is why you are taking your time to put something out there.

For years I ran Red Hat, which then became Fedora. I would never have considered another linux. Then I tried Ubuntu and loved it, up until 11.04 that is. I loaded that version, hated it, and switched to Kubuntu 11.04. When 11.10 came out I gave it another try and I'm back on Ubuntu and very happy.
I couldn't agree with the author of this article more.

I tried the new and improved Unity. It still doesn't click for me.

As a multi-OS user, I don't want to remember every arcanely spelled Linux program, so the lack of hierarchical menus makes Unity quite painful. For instance, I might not know a painting program name, but I can certainly figure it out if it's under the Graphics menu.

1. Unity
2. Unity
3. Unity
4. Unity
5. Unity
6. Unity
7. Unity
8. Unity
9. Unity
10. Unity

I miss GNOME 2! I regret the upgrade more each day. I am now running Kubuntu and I might try Xubuntu but most likely if Kubuntu doesn't start winning me over soon I am going to give Bodhi another try. Enlightenment is the bomb.

For those who don't like Unity, give GNOME 3 a try. GNOME 3 replaces GNOME 2 in Oneiric because the GNOME team deprecated GNOME 2; it wasn't Canonical's doing, it's just coincidental timing. But it's an interesting improvement.

For those who think they don't like GNOME 3, be aware that there are several packages that you need to install to open up its full potential and make it customizable. (I'm not sure I would like it without these.)

The GNOME 3 packages are not installed by default (probably because Canonical is pushing people to use, and provide feedback for, Unity), but they are in the Ubuntu repositories. And it's not obvious what to install... Here's what I've found so far:

gnome-shell
gnome-shell-extensions-common
gnome-shell-extensions-user-theme
gnome-tweak-tool
gnome-themes-standard
gnome-sushi

If you install these with "apt-get install ", it will fully install GNOME 3 in Ubuntu 11.10 and allow you to customize it with themes, control its behavior, and determine what is visible, etc.

Be aware that you will need to log out and back in for most of these packages to be picked up by the system and applied to your GNOME 3 desktop.

One "hidden" function that you'll want to know about: Hold down the Alt key to turn "Suspend" into "Shut Down", which brings up a menu for restarting or powering off.

Pretty much everything else you can discover by playing around with the interface. It's different, sure, but it's also more efficient for many things -- and it's obviously designed to be "finger driven", meaning it's being angled towards tablet use. That's good; Unity is also intended for that. But I think GNOME does a much better job of also working well on Desktops with mice & large multiple monitors.

The only thing I haven't yet figured out how to do is how to add icons for manually-installed apps.

I agree with all of that. and I also agree that having ubuntu on a tab would be excellent. In fact that is one of the reasons I've waited to get a tablet in the first place. I mean, I like droid OS. but I want a "Proper" desktop OS on a tablet before I buy it.

I disagree with number 5. Gwibber, while horribly in its infancy, worked really well for me and updating my social networks. But this latest version is so stripped down and useless, I've gone back to just logging into the websites and updating there, or using my phone. The biggest complaint I have is that I can no longer separate streams from different social networks. My twitter account and my facebook account get used for different things, and I don't need everything cluttered up in one stream.