A First Look At Ubuntu Unity 22.04 (Yes, Unity Lives!)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ค. 2022
- Even though I've never been a "desktop environment" user, I'm often asked which desktop environment is my favorite? Well, if I had to choose one that I thought fit my workflow the best, it would be the old Unity Desktop. And despite Ubuntu dropping Unity a few years ago, Unity still sees some development. And there is even an Ubuntu Unity flavor. Let's take a look!
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► ubuntuunity.org/
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The Unity DE is like Windows 7. The desktop looks so timeless and still stands to this day as one of the greatest desktops of all time.
No. You use Unity if you want a good or at the very least decent Desktop Environment. You use WIndows 7 if you want an obsolote, insecure and unsupported operating system. Windows 7 also hardly looks timeless. Skeumorphism is dead, and while there are many differing opinions on whether that's a good or bad thing, it remains that being skeumorphic makes you look dated.
I think it looks decidedly old
but that's not so bad
@@poudink5791 🤡
it makes me so happy that Unity DE is now regarded as one of the best considering that in 10.10 UNE it was total ass.
@@poudink5791 "skemorphism is dead" 🤓
DT's reviews be like
actual review - 25%
struggling with GUI apps - 75%
This takes me back when I first started messing around with Linux more seriously and installed Ubuntu 16.04. This desktop will always be nostalgic for me.
same
My first linux distro was ubuntu 16.04
Same started using linux with Ubuntu 16.04
Ubuntu holds a special place in my heart, always used it without knowing on libraries PC's
Me too! Lol
props to that kid for keeping Unity alive, it's my 3rd desktop environment and I absolutely loved it
I was using Gnome and KDE, but there is something about Unity that makes me love it
dammn thats a LOT for a 12 yr old.
Unity was my first DE and I'm so happy I can finally use it again.
But you could install it yourself to any distro you were using, I think
What? Huh? You're acting like Unity just got revived. Unity never died. The only thing that died was its inclusion as the default Ubuntu DE, so there's no "finally", here. You could use it all this time. You just didn't.
@@hanqnero yes but say goodbye to stability if you do...
Unity was my first desktop environment. I liked a lot of its features, so much so that I try to emulate them as best as I can on whatever DE I'm using (usually KDE or XFCE). I'm so glad someone is still keeping it alive, but as much as I loved it I'm going to keep using EndeavorOS with KDE for now.
>I liked a lot of its features, so much so that I try to emulate them as best as I can on whatever DE
same
This Unity nostalgia is really funny. I remember vividly how everybody absolutely hated Unity back then. Now everybody thinks it was the pinnacle of DEs.
Right. It was my first DE and was the main reason I quit Linux at first.
I hated it at first...until I lived in it for 2 weeks and 'got it'
And then Windows 10 came out. HAHA
@@191. Even worse: 8 ....
I always loved unity #silentmajority
it could be nostalgia goggles since unity era ubuntu was my first linux, but unity really was a good user interface. screen real estate being what it is it makes sense to use a vertical dock instead of a horizontal one. virtual workspaces being in a grid is something I still miss in other environments, too
The dock's icon size setting was under the Appearance settings section
A 12yo? wow! props to that one!
Many thanks to the person that is continuing this project!
18:00 your absolutely correct. for many (old) power users its needed to minimaxe the mouse use
I have to use Windows for my work all day. I've had to get an Ergonomic mouse because moving my arm (right handed) over to the right to close, minimise or maximise the window just causes me so much pain and discomfort. My elbow comes into my body, whilst my arm bends outwards to the left in an unnatural way. I've learnt to move my entire arm, not just my wrist, which makes it even more tiresome, whereby moving my arm inwards is comfortable.
There's gotta be a way to force windows to put them on the other side
I loved Unity when it was the stock UI for Ubuntu. Thanks for doing this review! I never quite understood why the Unity desktop seemed to upset more "hardcore" Linux users. But, I always loved it. Because of this video, I just installed it on my Ubuntu 20.04 LTS load and it runs just fine. I think there must be something going on with your video drivers to make it so that you can't get the tweak tool to make certain changes. It's working perfectly on my little Dell laptop. All the transparencies work as they should. The icons are able to be resized appropriately. One of the things I really enjoy about Linux is the ability for customization. Freedom is great!
I've never used Ubuntu Unity myself but I'm happy to see that it's back! Looks interesting
I'm very pleased that this is available, but not because I was really motivated to use it myself. There was such an outpouring of disappointment and sadness when Canonical killed it that I had hoped someone would fork it and let it live on for those who had lost something they were fond of and found useful. That's one of the joys of proper software, that the licensing accommodates this possibility.
ubuntu 14 LTS is my first linux experience , and this give me nostalgia .. beautiful
Ubuntu Unity was my first look at something different than Windows on a machine. Shocked me and kind of opened my eyes back then :D Clueless me :D
I love the how to panel/window controls work on unity.
It took me a bit of time to replicate it on KDE.
Wow, it exists and it's usable! Gotta definately swith to this lavour rigth straight from the original Ubuntu. Thanx for comprehensive review.
I think there's some solid experiences out there now, but I'm with you on the stand alone WM thing. It really just fits me the best
20:25 these global menu feature its the thing that i really miss from these unity desktop.
Nemo is a Cinnamon application. Mate uses Caja.
Unity has a lot of awesome features. I hope this project will continue!
Man, I forgot how much I miss having window controls in the panel when an application is maximized.
I loved that feature! Unity had lots of neat tricks to maximise screen space.
I really like that this exists. What I wanna know though, as a not so knowledgeable person on this topic, is how secure it is. Is Unity still being maintained?
The old File, Edit, View menu also traditionally used to be in the top left. Now Chrome screwed that up by putting it all the way up to the right under one stupid catch-all button, then Mozilla ripped off Google's bad design in Firefox (as usual), and so have many GNOME applications IIRC. I think even some KDE applications are doing it. IMO we're going backwards in GUI design... I prefer the old File/Edit/View menu system. Back before Google screwed it all up by trying to cram everything under one menu button, eliminate screen space that could otherwise be used for extra functionality, hiding/removing features, and generally just dumbing down the UI.
Well, FireFox still includes the old-style menubar if you just enable it. It's actually there even if you don't enable it, tap left alt-key once and it will appear - choose View->Toolbars->Menu Bar to make it stay visible. On my old netbook having it hidden and only accessing it when the single stupid catch-all button doesn't have what I'm looking for is a good thing because of the low vertical resolution of the screen - what mozilla did was enable you to have which way you want, which I find better than being forced to just one way of doing things.
I never understood why Unity got so much hate from Linux users. It wasn't something I used much but I did give it extensive testing and it wasn't perfect but still something great for first-time Linux users.
It's impressive how a 12-year old kid was able to keep Unity alive and up-to-date. I guess no one is pining to bring back the Win 3.1 desktop. I got rid it that desktop using a great third-party program called "Calmira". It actually looked identical to the Win95 desktop but had extra useful features that were even better than Microsoft's iteration. Not surprising to see someone improve on software made by Microsoft though. Lol! 😆
I liked it a lot!
The Unity DE looks great on smaller displays, it reminds me to ubuntu netbook edition (cmiiw)
Actually, until 10.04 it wasen’t called netbook edition it was called netbook remix 🤓
Thanks for your awesome content. You have helped me migrate two of my machines to Linux. The last one that I use for work will be Linux before 2025.
27:33 There's "Launcher icon size : 48" on the bottom of the window. I guess this was overriding the previous settings.
I've never used Unity before, my first version of Ubuntu I ever tried out was Ubuntu MATE 20.04 on a Raspberry Pi 3B. Over time I moved to vanilla Ubuntu. So far, Ubuntu 22.04 remains as my favorite operating system.
Good review, my 3 desktop in order Unity, which I am using now, KDE and finally xfce. In my opinion there isn't any other. A very weak forth would be Gnome Version 2 any other version is just a hack of the 4.
I was one of the few that really loved unity and was sad to see it go. Though the beauty of Linux is the ability to find and adapt to something different or better.
I really like the menu doing stuff at the top... I don't know why Gnome and KDE does not have this feature.
Such an old but good feature, I set up my KDE environment to have a top bar because it just makes sense, be nice if i could make full screen stuff put the stuff up there like this.
my opinion about why the action buttons on the right is the priority, you don't need them all the time like refresh btn or backforward btn etc
In addition, the designer wants to place the title in the middle so that the tops of the windows appear consistent and not moving on one side
I think Ubuntu w/ Unity was my first distro back in undergraduate :o
Nooooooo they made Unity flat
¿Where's the skeuomorphic aero Unity we used to know and love?
Right??? One of my favorite aspects of Unity was its Windows 7 Aero Glass style look
Probably the person who update the desktop environment want to make it look more modern
It was aesthetic, well designed,
coherent, usable conception.
As i see you using the unity desktop the bug with the launcher setting in unity tweaks was about the compositor, it looks like the vm was not using the compositor, see when you use the dash there was no transparente blur effect, i use it on real hardware and everything works just fine. and yes i want an arch unity remix too :)
I will say I am from Chicago if it gets me a Chicago Pizza
This still looks like it still is a work-in-progress, but this being done by a youth is quite impressive.
This is 100000000% my full desktop environment experience of choice. I like my i3, but Unity is excellent. This distro is awesome, and that kid is doing some excellent work.
And I should mention, I NEVER had the performance issues you had, so it's probably a virt-manager thing.
Unity Tweak Tool isn`t working on this review cause VMware accelerate 3D GRAPHICS is ON.I switched it OFF, tested it, and now is working flawlessly!
I didn't realize how much sense Unity makes in terms of UX, thanks for explaining this.
However, I don't easily get used to a left-side launcher, so I move it to the bottom, although I won't deny it's probably because of having been brainwashed by Microsoft since school.
My KDE is setup like unity. I like the KDE backend and awesome tools from remembered windows positions to daily wallpapers. But prefer the left bar for wide-screens and line a global menu. Ubuntu. Great distro.
I also agree 100% with the left side close buttons for the exact reasons you mention. Limit mouse travel.
I used to use Unity in 16.04, I believe it was the last supported version of Unity. It was ok, quite useful. Definitely got the job done.
What I didn't like about it is how corporate-ly default-y it feels - like Windows' shell. It was coherent but that made it almost impossible to customize.
I've used everything and nothing fits my taste Quite like KDE Plasma. It has the eyecandy, it has the build-it-yourself features. For the past few years it has become super efficient, using 1% CPU and 500MB RAM (assuming you haven't crammed it with effects xD)
The dash icons size was also in the Settings, I guess it works from there. I miss Unity, mostly the Global menus now, as Gnome + Ubuntu team brought some of the other features frum Unity.
Honestly I haven't enjoyed any desktop environments after Unity got deprecated by Canonical. And it was weird for me to find out people don't have much of a positive opinion towards Unity.
Long live UNITY desktop!
The Unity Tweak Tool may be broken because original Unity used Compiz as the window manager and as far as I know they replaced it for Marco, the MATE Window Manager.
If you're concerned with the window controls being on the left side for reducing mouse movement, you cannot be for a top menu at the same time. If the window is not fullscreen, and the menu is used by the mouse, it means that the mouse has to travel from the window to the screen, which is not the case when you have an in-window menu. Mac OS does not get everything right in terms of usability (actually, it gets more things wrong than a lot of people think).
locally integrated menus is the best of both worlds, even KDE devs started to re-create it.
At least the theme is absolutely beautiful. Not a fan of dual panel interfaces like Gome 3.x or Unity but I think it looks great.
Unity is still one of the best DE even after being essentially abandoned by cannonical
btw 24:06 it usually hides the bar when the apps are full screen
My favorite feature of unity is that all the menus are automatically integrated into the top panel, and that when maximizing, windows are combined with this top panel - this makes most apps just so much more clean!
I don't care how "macOS" it is, it just works, and it works well.
The only notable fundamentally different design i've seen is how GNOME tries to omit app menus altogether, at least in their own apps.
No, it's stupid. Unintuitive.
Some applications don't have menus. You have to hover over the top panel to look. You have to hover to see what's there. Sometimes you forget it's there and you don't find your options.
It's detached from the window.
If you want to save space, then move the top panel to the side. In this case combine it with the other panel. It really doesn't make sense to have 2 panels.
It's just different from the standard Windows-style environment, just to different, and it loses function and usability in its hipstery.
Windows (98...7) is the ultimate default standard normal desktop UI, if you change it, change its workings, if you don't have the functions, settings it had, then your distro is garbage.
Unity is back from the past...And I like her !
Today I made a non-VM install of Ubuntu Unity 22.04.1.
The "Launcher" section of the Unity Tweak Tool works fine, except icons turn black if you toggle "Colour" to "Custom" then back to "Based on wallpaper".
I did not test the Software Center though.
Although I use htop/vim/git, I disagree about installing those by default, on the contrary, most DESKTOP users don't need CLI apps, much less developer-specific apps.
When testing in VM (VirtualBox), I also noticed that transparency doesn't work, although it works outside a VM.
Hey DT, can you find a full desktop environment that is as light as a window manager?
Personally I like the good old Mate or xfce. They are relatively light, too.
Still surprises me how much of a following Unity has since it was lambasted however many Ubuntu versions ago when it debuted. Never liked it (or GMOME 3 for that matter) myself, but that those who do can still use it says a lot about the Linux/open-source ecosystem - sure, it's oversaturated with similar distros, but on the flip side there's something for absolutely everyone.
I disagree about the window control buttons.
for right handed people at least; the lowest effort, most comfortable direction to move your mouse up and to the right. wheras movements going to left are what puts strain on your wrist.
I really enjoyed unity too, but I was always trading off the slightly suboptimal window control location against the other benefits, such as that brilliant feature where window decorations disappeared into the topbar giving you a true full screen application experience without obscuring any of your OS control. I loved that.
GNome, elementary. etc. alwats feel like a step backwards where there's 2 bars at the top of my screen wasting space.
When moving your mouse to the left as a Right Handed user, your elbow moves outwards and your wrist and arm move inwards, which is natural. Moving it to the Right side causes you to bring your elbow into your body, and your arm to move outwards in a way that is not natural. Whilst this may not be the same for all users, logically speaking if everything is on the left side already, having the buttons there as well is best practice. In Western Culture we read from top left to bottom right so logically having the buttons on the left is where most people would be most comfortable.
That being said, It should be customizable according to the user.
@@chrisraven7629 ah, we're talking about slightly different movements.
I'd gone for the worst case scenario for strain where you were moving exclusively at the wrist as opposed to engaging the whole arm, in which case I have always found that I feel more strain when rotating my wrist inward toward the thumb, than outward toward the pinky. Although I accept they may be particular to me.
But everything else is on the left...so your not really dragging left to get to the Window buttons, whereas with the buttons on the right, It's about the only thing to go over there for and then your dragging BACK to the left
@@LowSpecLinuxLaptop I don't know what applications you've been using but as a rule I've found that rarely used UI elements like file functions, or controls which are duplicated with ubiquitous key combinations tend to sit on the left, whilst the main body of the working space is either in the centre or on the right.
Look at Photoshop, look at pretty much any video editor, look at blender, look at Microsoft frickin word... They all place core functionality on the right.
Even Chrome really. That hamburger menu, that user profile, those quick links to Google webapps, they all sit over on the right.
In fact the back button is literally the only thing on the left.
Bro, the sources for all apps in the Store are at the very top of the window on the right - hand side. Threre is a drop-down menu.
This is still hands down the best desktop environment, while I absolutely love KDE and Budgie, Unity makes great in terms of vertical space, though this has been fixed with Dash to Dock now a days. However, I think if you are doing thing like programming and word editing, it's fantastic, I am only using 3gb of memory which is about as much as my Gnome desktop and Pantheon desktop uses. The problem though is that interacting with other gnome desktops can cause it to bug out, but if you are able to change the background it's fine.
17:50-20:08 It's probably common for Microsoft Windows users to expect the window gadgets to be in the top-right corner. It seems that Microsoft Windows still insist this be the case. It's nice that in most Linux DE configuration tools, you can change this.
28:37 Most Desktop Environments are RAM hungry, as DT probably has explained many times before by now.
I'm installing Ubuntu again 💯
Hi Dt how this music, video, and photos works it doesn't work on mine?
That's the Adwaita icon for the Gnome Software
There on the background dialog it has a setting for the panel icon size, and there it is shown as 48 px. Maybe you need to change it there.
the last time i used ubuntu was 12.04 lts.
i don't remember clearly but i think it wasn't unity yet, was it?
i don't remember what it was, but i remember that i didn't like whatever it was.
Hey DT, I've been a Windows user all my life, I've used Linux in the past and really enjoy they over idea of a free and open source operating system, but I'm still afraid of making the switch because there are so many good Distro's out there and all of them have good and bad stuff in them. The only Distro I would like 99% would be Linux Mint XFCE, but the DE doesn't receive as much love by the developers as the other DE's. What would you recommend?
If you're fine with snaps, would Xubuntu be an option?
edit:
I found that once I stopped thinking about what distro to use, the switch was actually quite easy (for standart tasks). Sorry, not sure if it helps but just wamt to say: You should just try the awitch with something! We get so obsessed with trying the BEST distro and desktop that we forget that we should actually just try it (by plunging into it head first ... - maybe not with a wok computer though hahaha)
@@xelnoc2100 it might depend on the hardware.
personally, i wouldn't recommend Cinnamon if the hardware is low-end, it's even heavier than Plasma
@@erned8445 plus, while I quite like it, I can definitively see why someone may not like it/may choose to go with a different version. Personally I didn't notice it being any more hardware intensive, but then again, I have a fairly decent pc (its from 2015, so a bit older but still very decent)...🤷♂️
(edit: spelling mistakes)
I switched to Mint XFCE a couple months ago, and I've been loving it personally. I would definitely recommend it.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's fairly easy to switch distros on linux as many things are compatable with each other.
Since most languages are LTR, having it on the left makes sense, though it'd be interesting if you could set it to the right for RTL languages users.
It's just the linguist in me that notices that little caveat about language writing directions.
unity is why I dropped Ubuntu in the first place but ok
snap packages are now in the hole Ubuntu so now when you use ( sudo apt update & sudo apt upgrade) it will now mess up the os to somtimes where you have to do a clean install witch bugs me i like doing update in the terminal because i don't like rebootin my computer after updates
Nemo was Linux Mint Chinamon DE isnt it?
Been a Plasma guy forever, but I ran Unity at work for a while back in the day. The web searching crap in the menu was bullshit, and the backlash against it justified. But it was a great desktop for daily use. I loved the menu search functionality.
thats why I do file > exit (ctrl+q)
Its been accepted as an official Ubuntu Flavour beginning with 22.10. That means in October!
"I never managed an University, instead, I'm more familiar with Village Roadshow. How's the water tank?!"
I admit I don't miss Unity anymore. Mate is a simple option for Windows users.
Not as ergonomic, as Unity to me. Too many clicks, no proper search function.
One of the things that I miss about Unity is being able to press Alt and start typing the name of a command I want and it automatically pops up. Quite useful for menu-intensive apps like Gimp or Audacity.
choose : yellow or purple?
Auto hide in some distros only works on full screen windows. Don't know why the rest does not work
Unity was the best DE for me, nowadays i mostly use kde, but i find cinnamon to be more stable
Agreed, while I love kde I have found it to be to unstable over time. Cinnamon I can mess with themes and the look all day and it's rock solid. My desktop looks just as good if not better with cinnamon.
I agree with you about Nemo vs. Nautilus. Nautilus seems so stripped down of features. Of course, my favorite is probably PCManFM
Honestly i don't think that they switch to Nemo (or other non Gnome application) because of some missing features, imo global menu support was a problem. But you're right Nemo is better. :)
20:55 most of time i dont have window fullcreen. all menus of a window should be at the window and not top left or so
BASED DT for liking global menus. absolutely based
The flatpak store has been iffy for me when trying to update on Ubuntu 22.04. Using the software updater app or, obviously, the terminal both work much better.
Hey DT, you should make a video on how to desnap Ubuntu
I think Derek likes Snapd. You need to $ snap list. Remove snap packages. Unmount snap core services. Remove Snapd. Remove associated folders. And I recommend you add a snap block to your system.
The worst thing with this DE was lack of customisation options. Dock on the left is the worst option for me - in Windows I always keep it on the right side or on top. So this is the big reason why I was never ever considering to use this DE (and no, I don't want to use Cairo or other substitutes).
I myself loved Unity and my wife cut her teeth with Linux on Ubuntu with Unity. While she remained on Ubuntu with the change to Gnome, I switched away as there was so much missing compared to Unity. I'm loving this new Ubuntu Unity distro so far.
I was yelling out that the launcher icon size was there on the wallpaper 'Appearance' setting page, guess you didn't hear me :-D
Yes, very much 😢
I disagree with the idea that the window decs should be on the left. Doing so makes it more likely that you will accidentally close your window. Also, if you want to save your mousing wrist, it would be far more productive to increase the mouse pointer travel sensitivity, so you don't have to move your wrist as much in general, not just for manipulating windows. I mostly use my fingers to move my mouse, not my wrist, so my wrists are fine after many years of mousing.
Death is preferable to gnome
How does this compares to MATE?
The funny thing is that I was programming in flutter when I was ~13 ish. That's when it'd just come into the public.
Maybe not rebooting after installing the updates that said reboot required caused some of the issues.
I love unity
Hey Im a windows user but im interested on linux.
Please read my comment DistroTube im a subscriber
Try to look at linux mint cinnamon as a first choice.
@@dod_ytent9984 i installed it on my old laptop but its boring
I use arch btw
@@win10kimo23 Arch? I thought you said you're a Windows user?
@@ZgavY both
Plot Twist: His "strong and complicated password" is not actually "dt" as many would've guessed.