Ubuntu

[Leo Mauler]

--- Arthur Pemberton <pemboa at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Instead of one bottom taskbar (in
> >  Windows and KDE)
> 
> This is purely it's default state, so doesn't 
> seem fair to use that as a mark against it.

Kubuntu will both be used most of the time by the same
people who use Ubuntu, people who won't change from
the default, so I think its completely fair to use it
as a mark against it.

> > which has to hold everything, a top and 
> > bottom bar means more of what I'm doing is
> > visible at any one time, and no application 
> > names are being abbreviated or erased in 
> > their buttons.  I also get to see day of the 
> > week, date, and seconds in addition to the 
> > time, without having to increase the width 
> > of a single taskbar or further shrink 
> > everything else on a single taskbar.
> 
> Really, you get to decide how you want it.

Unless you don't know how to change it to something
else, like most users of Kubuntu.

You may recall back when AOL went "average user" and
millions of people who had never used the Internet
before ended up on the Internet?  Back then there were
thousands of technical users complaining about all the
AOL Internet users really screwing up on the Internet
because they didn't know how to do anything.  This is
that situation all over again, only with Kubuntu
Linux.

> > If KDE does do that behavior then I have
> > another reason to dislike KDE, though I'm 
> > afraid its a bit of a "damned if you do, 
> > damned if you don't" situation for KDE, 
> > because the alternative to "application 
> > stacking" is to shorten the application
> > button size until the text is unreadable.
> 
> Is it still damned if it leaves the choice 
> to the user?

I have the option of converting my gasoline engine in
my car to an electric engine.  The fact that I don't
know how to do it and would have to take
weeks/months/years to learn means that it really isn't
an option.  If one has trouble sending an E-mail, I
really don't see them being able to take advantage of
the option to change the desktop.
 
> > Obviously I could do more to make my workspace
> > more efficient by really customizing my window
> > manager, but as I haven't had a lot of free 
> > time lately, having a top and bottom bar in 
> > default Ubuntu Linux has made me rather enjoy 
> > using Linux (and made Windows in many ways 
> > downright painful).
> 
> It takes less than a minute to add a second bar.
> Definitely less than 5 clicks

Find someone who barely knows how to send an E-mail in
Outlook, and see if it only takes them 5 clicks.  And
you then have to add applets to the top bar, which is
going beyond "5 clicks" and going into "hours of time"
if you;ve never done it before.  I know it took me
awhile to learn it, and I did it several times a week
just for the practice.  Joe Average is just going to
screw it up and go back to Windows.

The problem you're having here is that you are
thinking Fedora while forgetting that we're talking
about Ubuntu (note subject line if you don't believe
me).  The reason Ubuntu Linux is so popular is because
it takes away a lot of the options by making most of
the choices for the end user (unlike Fedora).  While I
personally find that irritating (it isn't difficult,
but it is still a pain to always have to uninstall
OpenOffice from a 128MB RAM PII-300Mhz machine after
Ubuntu installs it automatically without asking), most
people probably find that it makes their lack of
computer experience irrelevant to their enjoyment of
Linux.

Kubuntu defaults to everything I've said, and most of
the end users who use it won't know how to change the
default KDE desktop to something else, let alone make
it look like GNOME's default "top and bottom taskbar"
desktop.  I don't think its unfair to point out all
the problems of KDE that will be unfixable (or at
least have a long "steep learning curve") by *most* of
the end users of Kubuntu.


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