Tyler Mulligan comes up with some of the more left-field tips and tricks south of Ubuntu. I really enjoy his blog. This tip was preened from a posting on Ubuntu Forum's and raises questions about exactly where Ubuntu osd-notify is heading. Surely not just a blinking irritation in which the only hack available is changing the colour, position, shape and timing of the damn thing.
More humanised and personalised information would be a start. Different levels of information from techies to casual users, would be a bonus. But if you want the power to click through, using the notification system to excute programes, scripts, and whatever, you'll have to "reinstall" the default gnome notifications system. Which means osd-notify is really just a diversion from the real thing. Nevertheless a sign of healthy competition and development going on in Linux
HERE IS HOW TO DO IT
Ubuntu has had its fair share of questionable UI decisions but this is up there with the worst. I was wearing my Ubuntu tshirt yesterday and literally took it off when I realized that a decision this bad was made.
ReplyDeleteReplacing an unobstrusive notification system with a popup dialog??? Whoever made this decision needs to go back to design school.
osd-notify is a crippled notification system that brings nothing to the table. It lacks many features of notification-daemon and is so crappily coded that there isn't a notification queue... but rather some popups are explicitly placed lower... so they don't overlap. Obviously this confuses some people who are wondering "Why are some of my popups displayed with a weird padding above"
Thanks for the pingback, I'm glad others can benefit from my research :)
I'm strongly considering switching to arch or crunchbang.
Hi Tyler,
ReplyDeleteStick with us. Ubuntu has the better metaphor. One which perfectly complements the world of open source and free software.
If you want proprietory, exclusive and elitist systems, then by all means, head off in another direction.
Ubuntu has mass appeal, and is, as Brian Eno says, putting Africa back into the machine.
Part of the brillience of open source is that if you don't like something, then you can always change it, as you did when you installed gnome notifications. who knows, if enough people follow you, it will become the default in the official Ubuntu again. Always good to have choice and parallel evolution.
As for Arch, come on, sudo is way better than pacman.
Crunchbang is quite supurb as an Ubuntu deviation.
Linux is forever.
Davidrobertlewis:
ReplyDelete"Ubuntu has the better metaphor."
Perhaps you could explain this instead of just putting it out there.
"If you want proprietory, exclusive and elitist systems, then by all means, head off in another direction."
He did not say that he wanted these kinds of systems, he said he wanted the old ubuntu way back (or is that proprietary, exclusive, and elitist?).
"Ubuntu has mass appeal, and is, as Brian Eno says, putting Africa back into the machine."
Ubuntu has mass appeal due to marketing and convenient package management more than anything else, I believe. I really don't understand what Africa has to do with anything - yes, "ubuntu" is an African concept, but so what?
Personally, I don't mind the new notification system. Sure, it's less flexible (no buttons), but I really haven't needed buttons a whole lot in my personal experience. That said, several ubuntu design decisions *are* made with little apparent rhyme nor reason, such as removing the ability to specify a path with a text box in the "open file" dialog and the sudden and abrupt movement of the window controls to the opposite side.
Hello Stauroscope,
ReplyDelete1. Let's face it, Linux is not the easiest computer framework. Its very strength (robust, close to the metal & machine ready) is seen as a major weakness by those who demand a user-friendly OS which "granny can understand". Ubuntu gives users a better metaphor for interacting with each other in the form of a community-driven ethic which is stated as "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" or "a person is a person through other persons". thus replacing the client-consumer paradigm with a definition of selfhood which is extended by ones relationship to others. Think about it -- if Apple is all about the the forbidden fruit behind a walled garden (consumer and commercial excess), and Windows is about looking out (but never really accessing, and letting the FBI look in), then Ubuntu provides us with the whole farm, a human-centred technology, or as Ivan Illich would put it -a tool for conviviality. This makes Linux a lot more palatable for the masses.
2. I was referring to other Linux distros, many of which a elitist and cultish, but yeah I accept the point.
3. Since I am an African, I am also pretty biased. Ubuntu has (by and large) broken the mould of corporate technology in the West by associating itself with Nelson Mandela's principle number 1 (which just happens to be Ubuntu) and engaging in a wide range of mainly philanthropic initiatives,.focused on free software and free culture. You can't beat that, but yes there are freer distributions out there but none better in terms of cultural narrative . Its not the marketing but the metaphor (see point 1) which makes all the difference. FOSS plus Ubuntu (the concept) has indeed produced a winner.
4 As for the notifications, I stand by what I said and agree wholeheartedly with Tyler.
"Since I am an African, I am also pretty biased. Ubuntu has (by and large) broken the mould of corporate technology in the West by associating itself with Nelson Mandela’s principle number 1 (which just happens to be Ubuntu) and engaging in a wide range of mainly philanthropic initiatives,.focused on free software and free culture. You can’t beat that, but yes there are freer distributions out there but none better in terms of cultural narrative . Its not the marketing but the metaphor (see point 1) which makes all the difference. FOSS plus Ubuntu (the concept) has indeed produced a winner."
ReplyDeleteThat's just the thing. Try as I may, I can't find a single reference to the concept of "ubuntu" on the site of ubuntu. Though there might be such a reference, it is likely deeply buried. On a software level, I still do not see particular "human centricity", as you put it. Do you mean ubuntu is "human centric" by way of being easier to use than other distros?
Stauroscope, you raise two additional points.
ReplyDelete1. The new makeover has changed the official Ubuntu site and yes, Canonical need to be reminded that Ubuntu is first and foremost a concept and an OS second.
2. Ubuntu is not easier to use than other Linux distros, although it is one of the better ones, especially when one gets under the hood. Like I said Ubuntu best encapsulates Ivan Illich's notion of a convivial technology. This means, a technology which is centred around humans, which is both appropriate and possessed of the spirit of mutual sharing, cooperation and non-aggression. Ubuntu best exemplifies a meta-narrative which tends towards conviviality and community. This is not mere coincidence -- the only way Africa can get out of under-development is if the world becomes more African. Could it be Africa has something to teach the world? There is something special to be gained from having a technology which exists for human beings instead of the other way around, and perhaps we should be talking about a social code in the way hackers used to talk about social engineering and mean a way to hack which included the abstracted human operator, Ubuntu as social code = a better way to generate a free and open society.