Okay, so I did a clean install of 18.04, just to test my theory that my old home folder had become messed up by Aptik restore, and this was the cause of my problems. Wrong!
Cron is still broken â âPermission deniedâ error. (No solution found here, or elsewhere.) Fingerprint login is still broken. Compiz is still broken â no animations, effects. If I un-expand the panel on display0 the desktop icons move â the left column to the middle of display0 and the right column to the middle of display1. Also, menus on display0 appear way over to the right â if I click on the menu icon on the left edge of the panel the menu pops up at the right edge of the panel. Window grab handles are still too small â what is it, 1 pixel to each side?! sheesh
Caja and Eye of Mate so far seem to be improved. Automatic mounting of Samba shares is still not possible. My critical Wine apps work fine. Firefox and Thunderbird picked up the saved state from their old dot folders. So, I can live with it, but the experience is quite far below the 16.04 level. Iâll wait to see if wineasio gets fixed, and how .1 turns out.
I think widespread adoption of the Linux desktop is a pipe dream. It is never going to happen unless a major OEM decides to ship it factory installed. It will cost them quite a bit to deliver an experience in the same ballpark as Windows or Mac, and it will end up being a fork they will have to maintain fully. Itâs not going to happen. The first time an end user has to type in a terminal, he will be like, âWTH! what is is this, 1985?â
If the Mate team is small, and time limited I suggest simplifying the mission. The classic Gnome 2 UI, thatâs it. Make changes to it SLOWLY. Small improvementsâthey have to be slam dunk improvements, not just differentâmatured and tested thoroughly before being pushed through to the LTS. Changes should be accompanied by plain English explanations, images and a switch for changing the default that shows up in the Welcome. User should always have an EASY way to reject the change and stick with the traditional UI. Instead of copied things from the Windows UI, letâs have FUNCTIONS that Windows has had for a long timeâmigration tool to analyze and preserve a custom home folder, and automatic mounting of Samba shares are two I can think of right away.
Plain English, please. For example, âGTK+ Bookmarksâ â âWhat the heck is GTK+?â Proper English, please. For example, âGlobal Application Menuâ has the comment âAll menus will hosts hereâ â what does that even mean??? And then I also have âBrisk Menuâ, âMain Menuâ, âMate Menuâ, âMenu Barâ â none of them has a useful comment explaining what it is. (âAn appletâŚâ not âA appletâŚâ) The end user has to go through trial and error to find what he wantsâI have still not found the old fashioned Gnome 2 version. Here is what I suggest â have ONE item called âMenusâ, then when I choose it pop up a dialog with pictures of the different styles of menus, and radio buttons.
Rinse and repeat, for âWindow Buttons Appletâ, âWindow Listâ, âWindow Menu Appletâ, âWindow Pickerâ, âWindow Selectorâ, âWindow Title Appletâ. I have not created a Ubuntu One account yet, so this the best I can do for now by way of feedbackâuse it, or donât, itâs up to you.
Thank you for your patience!