unity-design team mailing list archive

["a.grandi@xxxxxxxxx" <a.grandi@xxxxxxxxx>]

I really don't know where the Ubuntu desktop is going and to be honest
I don't know what to suggest at this point.

We are in a situation where even the code base (GTK/GNOME) is more
different as the time goes on. Ubuntu is not either using the new
Nautilus. They completly ignored Gnome Online Account to implement
Ubuntu Online Account etc... this is going to the direction where
Unity will be completly different from Gnome/GTK codebase someday.

>From a point of view I can understand this: they want to differentiate
their product and offer something original. That's ok, but this will
require a lot of effort.

What I cannot understand is how they're going to use Unity on tablet.
Unity makes no sense on tablet, or better: the UI does, but the rest
don't.
What I mean: it's useless to have a tablet interface if you're
executing applications that were made with desktop in mind. How can
you use Evolution, Firefox, Gwibber etc... that are currently
available in Ubuntu Desktop, on a tablet? You can "run" them, but you
surely cannot use them. (run and use are pretty different things!).

2 years ago I suggested to switch to Qt because I knew that it was
made with "touch" in mind: they should have created the desktop UI
using Qt or even better with QML. Then they should have created a
unique SDK for desktop and tablets, for example: you need a panel? You
use a UPanel. You need a button? You use a UButton etc....

In this way you could really reuse the backend of your application
both on desktop and on tablets, because UI widgets would be rendered
in a different way if they run on tablet or on desktop.

So, what are they doing? I really don't know. For sure they abandoned
Qt for Unity but I hope they're not using GTK for touch device,
because they're not made for touch devices. Are they creating two
different implementation? I hope not: this would require a lot of work
and I don't know if they can afford it.

Another thing that really surprise me is their desire to make Ubuntu
run on Nexus 7: Ubuntu, or better, Linux desktop has no meaning on
tablet: please keep this in mind!

It's pretty useless you try to optimize the kernel to save 1-2%
battery when the applications ecosystem is not made for a portable
device. Look for example Windows 8 or Android: they don't let you run
an app in the background if you don't use proper services that are
managed by the system. Ok... let's leave Win8 apart. Let's take
Android as example. I think everybody here know its architecture.
Surely they can do the same, but at which cost? It would be a
completly different operating system. It would not be a GNU/Linux
distribution at all (open or not open, this is NOT the problem).

While I can understand Canonical right not to disclose their future
projects, I realy don't know what to suggest more. All I had to say I
already said, if they want to read/listen, they can do it.

Best regards,

--
Andrea Grandi -  Software Engineer / Qt Ambassador
Ubuntu Member: https://launchpad.net/~andreagrandi
website: http://www.andreagrandi.it