Is this author nuts?

Story: How to run Unity desktop on Linux Mint 12Total Replies: 9
Author Content
cmost

Dec 11, 2011
5:38 PM EDT
Why on earth would you want to run Unity in Mint. Unity is the antithesis of Mint which represents "Ubuntu done right". My take on this is if you're crazy enough to like Unity, stick with Ubuntu. Everyone else use Mint.
tracyanne

Dec 11, 2011
6:19 PM EDT
I wondered that, I had to comment I asked him if he was serious. Yes I use Mint. I can't understand why anyone would go to the trouble of installing Unity on Mint, if you want it that bad, just install Ubuntu.
DrGeoffrey

Dec 11, 2011
7:01 PM EDT
Quoting:Why on earth would you want to run Unity in Mint.


To see if it works?

To give fodder for a blog?

Because it's there?

Not everyone views Unity quite like I do, fortunately.
tracyanne

Dec 11, 2011
7:19 PM EDT
@ DrGeoffrey

Quoting:Not everyone views Unity quite like I do, fortunately.


Please explain.
DrGeoffrey

Dec 11, 2011
7:54 PM EDT
Quoting:Please explain.


Unity to me is a distraction, much like Gnome3, only worse.

But a good argument can be made that Linux thrives on variety, and experimentation is essential to develop variety.
tracyanne

Dec 11, 2011
8:07 PM EDT
I see Unity as a pretty good touchpad type desktop, lousy however on a desktop. A friend of mine is use Unity on his desktop, he said he's getting used to it, but preferes the GNOME2 desktop on his Linux Mint install. Unity, damned by faint praise.
DrGeoffrey

Dec 11, 2011
8:28 PM EDT
It may be good for touchpads, but that's another market that I do not quite understand. Part fad, part potentially useful tool. I understand some of the potential latter applications (e.g., inventory counts, simple income tax return preparation), but many of these would be better served with a small laptop.

Touchpads strike me as a hammer in search of a nail.

And if that market collapses, as all fads inevitably do, whither the new interface?
BernardSwiss

Dec 11, 2011
10:39 PM EDT
He answers that question right of the bat:

Quoting: Out of the box, Linux Mint 12, the latest edition of Linux Mint, a desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop, comes with a choice of two desktop environments – GNOME 3 with Mint GNOME Shell Extension (MGSE), and MATE, a fork of GNOME 2.

While the combination of GNOME 3 and MGSE is an attempted to improve on the user-experience of a stock GNOME 3 installation, it still leaves the user fighting the desktop just to get things done, and MATE is not yet ready for prime time.

While I am not exactly a fan of Ubuntu’s Unity Desktop, I think it presents a better user-experience than GNOME 3 with MGSE. So, this tutorial shows the steps necessary to install and run Unity Desktop on Linux Mint 12.


Seems rational -- even sensible -- to me. Mind you, I've got my Mint system still on Mint 9 LTS, and I plan to play around with LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) sometime after the holiday season is finally over.

tracyanne

Dec 11, 2011
11:19 PM EDT
Quoting:Mind you, I've got my Mint system still on Mint 9 LTS,...


Me too. I'm not moving until I have a decent upgrade path, that will be either MATE or KDE4. I'll wait until I find a reason to buy a Tablet before I experiement with Unity or GNOME 3.

i've got LM12 (Lisa) installed on one of my netbooks, and while MATE is not perfect, it is still streets ahead of either GNOME3 or Unity on the same configuration (Keyboard + mouse). There are a couple of things I still can't do. One is run Compiz Fusion (it fails to load something, I'll find out what when I have time) the other is control/monitor power usage and related functions via a GUI (the applet that usually displays in GNOME 2 panel isn't there, nor it appears any replacement). Other than that MATE is good. Soon I'll work out how to remove the GNOME options from the Login screen, and only have MATE.

Also thanks to Fettoosh I'll now have another crack at KDE4
r_a_trip

Dec 12, 2011
3:51 AM EDT
It does seem largely counterproductive. What is Mint, if not in its essence a substantial (and for me pleasant) deviation from stock Ubuntu. Putting Unity on LM12 just begets you Ubuntu 11.10 with the medibuntu repo.

I don't know what is quicker, trying to shoehorn Unity into LM12 or just wiping your / and installing Ubuntu into that. Assuming of course that /home is nicely placed on its own partition.

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