[PLUG] Ubuntu how-to documentation rant

[Denis Heidtmann]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com>wrote:

> On 03/22/2012 03:26 PM, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 12:23 PM, Russell Senior
> > <russell at personaltelco.net>wrote:
> >
> >>>>>>> "Word" == Word Wizard<Word.Wizard at comcast.net>  writes:
> >>
> >> Word>  Some thoughts on the Unity/Gnome 3 change I migrated to Ubuntu
> >> Word>  Linux about 6 years ago after being alienated by the total mess
> >> Word>  that Windows XP/Vista had become. The Gnome2 desktop was easy to
> >> Word>  master, not all that dissimilar from Windows. Then Ubuntu
> >> Word>  introduced Unity about the same time that Gnome3 superseded the
> >> Word>  old linear menus. I really disliked the new interface models at
> >> Word>  first and wondered why Linux developers just couldn't stick with
> >> Word>  the old tried and true.
> >>
> >> Word>  A year of so later, my perspective has changed completely. I'm
> >> Word>  currently using Ubuntu 11.10 w/Gnome 3.2 and the Avant
> >> Word>  dock. After getting used to the change I'd never go back
> >> Word>  (although Ubuntu 11.10 offers the option of the "classic Gnome"
> >> Word>  desktop). The incredible flexibility of lenses combined with the
> >> Word>  traditional linear menus and launchers in Avant makes just about
> >> Word>  every task easier faster and more fun.
> >>
> >> Word>  My advice to those who find Linux' general move away from the
> >> Word>  old Gnome/Windows menu model uncomfortable is to just slowly
> >> Word>  acclimatize oneself to them. The fully user-customizable Avant
> >> Word>  dock (AWN) is a great tool to ease that transition as it offers
> >> Word>  everything the old Gnome2 menus did and more. Gnome2 fans can
> >> Word>  explore the new paradigm without being lashed to it for every
> >> Word>  task. I suspect most users will eventually find themselves more
> >> Word>  comfortable with Unity or Gnome3 and many will become happy
> >> Word>  fans.
> >>
> >> Dude.  This is called the "Stockholm Syndrome".
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
> >>
> >>   "In psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is an apparently paradoxical
> >>    psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have
> >>    positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of
> >>    defending them."
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Russell Senior, President
> >
> >
> > I do not doubt it, but if it were universally true, we would all be
> singing
> > MS' praises.
> >
> > -Denis
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>
> #ubuntu is only for general ubuntu support if you needed instructions
> you could join there on freenode however if you wanted to provide
> feedback #ubuntu-doc would be the appropriate place for such.
>
> 12.04 will be the shipping LTS next month so all documentation is being
> transitioned to reflect that Ubuntu uses Unity. You can complain all day
> long about Ubuntu using Unity but in the end anyone who is still
> shipping Gnome 2.x is just behind on times since that project is EOL
> (End of Life).
>
> Going forward you will have a choice of Gnome3/Unity/XFCE/KDE/Insert You
> Fave Here all which run fine on Ubuntu and we generally maintain
> community variants of the most popular spins.
>
> Ubuntu is just keeping up with times and times are moving forward
> instead of staying in 1990 :) We call it progress... You call it whatever
> :P
>
>
> --
> Benjamin Kerensa


I think you miss my point.  In my rant I did not complain about the use of
Unity.  My complaint is that the exclusive use of the vocabulary of Unity
shuts out those who have yet to drink the Cool Aid.

The instructions are intended for those nubee's needing hand holding; the
set of instructions I refer to were for those generating the startup disk
from an Ubuntu install, in my case a LTS release, which does not have such
a thing as "dash".  Why should the LTS not be supported in the
documentation?  The "S" in LTS does stand for "support" IMO.  I feel that
the extra parenthetical phrase required to clarify the instructions is not
asking for 1990.

-Denis