jdabgotra

You knock it off :)

Facebook is a for-profit company and you've agreed to their user agreements. They use proprietary software, they store your data, and they aren't liable to what happens to your data, much less liable for keeping you happy in exchange for you doing absolutely nothing but consume.

You aren't entitled to anything from them. Stop using it if you don't like it. Use something else or create something else. Life is not going to be served up for you on a platter without you doing anything for it, from the government, much less a large corporation which has no accountability towards you, who so blindly signed up, supported and agreed to let over all your personal content and social connections over to a for profit company. I'm confuse as to how people can feel this entitled without deserving anything due to not putting any work or ethical and moral reflection on how you use the Internet. Knock it off.

Sorry, your letter pissed me off. It pisses me off that it is #1 on Hacker News right now. Knock it off, everyone. I am a very liberal person but this sense of entitlement from middle class Internet users has to stop. It is the reflection of a society that consumes far more than in produces.

Excuse my rant.

I think we can separate the design and the performance when evaluating Unity. The design is something innovative and gets a lot of things right. It doesn't mean its the desktop environment of everyone's choice, but it can still be an effective one. Then, there is the performance, which has been getting better, and it may catch on. Second, sometimes I've been annoyed with Unity, but I do like using it most of the time, some comments have shown a similar reaction. A lot of times the reasons I don't like using Ubuntu can be for potentially temporary reasons, like bugs, or lack of polish and maturity. But the reasons I do like it aren't as temporary, they are a set of good decisions already made. And the other reasons I do like it is the software availability, the stability and speed under the environment, using it as a web server, my own history of knowing how to use it -- all more established pros for Ubuntu. So, I can use that, or Gnome, or the Fallback, or any other environment really but in the switching back and forth it was ultimately Unity that seemed most nice to be on. I will, however, try out Cinnamon again. And I like using other environments as well, but there are negatives to them all. The ol' Windows 95 panel with a user's open app buttons (small icons and window titles) are arranged by when the apps were launched by the user. But they should be pinned icons that don't vary their location -- and launchers shouldn't be separate icons from these buttons, its superfluous -- that's my intuition now, especially after using Windows 7 and Macs, and Unity. I have my issues with Docky and Cairo and AWN is dead. So Ubuntu I think gets a lot of things right, adapting to some usable alternatives to the old Windows 95 desktop I discovered 15 years ago. It has a good dock, good global search, more screen space. But I like other environments too, I'll give it a fuller exploration when I have the time. The good thing about Unity is, it not being too customizable right now, I don't waste time trying to customize my desktop like I would on KDE.

Haha, no, but English is becoming the global language, I should have also mentioned. So Western culture is dictating global usability standards - be it good or bad, its happening.

You are right that the "largely ineffable" feeling needs to be cashed out. But I use that phrase largely because the psychology of UI interactions and usability that would justify my like of Unity is a new, inexact, and developing science. So, I'm starting with the basic observation that after giving Unity a try, it grew on me, as it did with others, to the point where we actually prefer something new. Part of it is increased simplicity. Another part is more screen space. Another part is that the OS doesn't get in your way (like KDE does). Another part of it is that is the tendency to place things of importance in the upper left which is, in our Western culture, where we tend to start looking for things (like when reading a book).

As far as evolution is concerned, my point is that I often notice, say, when Facebook changes their interface that users complain because they have to learn something new -- they are lazy, but if you force them into something, they may end up preferring it later. It is true that we shouldn't redesign things if they work well. But the way things are designed the first time may not be the best possible way.

The new features in Unity might not be molded by some process like natural selection. But there is some argument to made that it is. Creating one platform for all devices and levels of users would have enormous advantages, and is a response triggered by changed in the computing environment -- mainly, the widespread use of touch phones and tablets.

Aside from that, all I can say is that Ubuntu does do some user testing, and I hope they are listening to their users. They also have to take some chances and try out new things and see what users respond to. But I agree that their interface changes should respond to real needs, not imagined needs.