And then there were three friends – Ubuntu, Fedora and Mint. Each of them being unique in their own way but unified by a common goal to provide free and quality software to the ones who look up to them. Back then, it was not just their motto that was binding them together. There was this good old friend GNOME – the most popular desktop environment by date.
They say it right?! People change and so do their preferences. A wise saying it was that very soon, things changed. As years passed by, Ubuntu started to adopt Unity as its default desktop environment while Mint had shifted its focus towards Mate & Cinnamon. And Fedora had to stick to GNOME, leaving millions of users with nothing but strained eyes and dried throats in lookout for UI customization options. No distro really wanted to bend even a bit.
Hold your breath! Things are about to change now. Unity and Cinnamon are coming to Fedora and the buzz is that Ubuntu’s next version 12.10 by the name Quantal Quetzal will have a GNOME build too.
Pretty exciting stuff happened last week. First up was the O’Reilly’s OSCON 2012 – One of the biggest Open Source Conferences (that’s why it’s known by the name OSCON, if haven’t figured out yet!). Perhaps it was Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Cannonical, the force behing Ubuntu, who made the news there. During his presentation, he had some important confessions to make.
Mark, why did you choose Unity?
My memory sucks. But, if I’m not wrong, roughly about two years ago, Ubuntu had started shipping their version 11.04 with the Unity Desktop Interface. Shuttleworth addressed the attendees that Ubuntu intended to take the design of the desktop UI and the experience to another level that was until then not comprehended by any – ahead of Apple and Microsoft.
Ubuntu had realized that computing was not just the Desktop. The future is here and if you needed to really harness the power of the web, you needed to have to bring in a lot many factors. “We want to have a user experience that spans a range of form-factors, a desktop and also a tablet and a phone, and, in fact, we even wanted a TV as well.” he told the crowd. If you can remember, they’ve got the Ubuntu for Android project running and unveiled their Ubuntu TV at the CES this year – all part of the big plan to bring Ubuntu to all devices.
So, all that Ubuntu had intended to do was to bring in a unified interface and a platform that could work like the same everywhere. Kind of “part of a family” as how Shuttleworth had put it. But, all that was not easy. Rather complicated at that time and with the traditional desktop model, things were never going to get anywhere near their ambitious goal – to have a unified user experience across various platforms and devices – maybe the reason why they named it Unity. Don’t you think?
And that was how the big decision was made to switch over to Unity.
Later, you know what happened. Ubuntu had to witness raised eyebrows, bear the curses and huge criticism from users and developers alike. But, they didn’t budge. Two years of continuous effort and today, they’ve carved a niche for themselves. They’ve got a following too.
Now, so, what’s up with Fedora and Ubuntu here?
All that being said, we know that Fedora has from the beginning, been a loyal friend to GNOME. But, there do are people who would want to see some change. Unity in Fedora is something people wouldn’t have dreamt about. But, thanks to the GNOME:Ayatana Project on the openSUSE build service. The repository now contains a list of RPM packages that you may install to have Unity running in your device. Not much detail is known about this project although developers do agree that Unity in Fedora is no piece of cake. Workarounds employed in getting Unity working in Fedora is also something that Fedora package managers are not approving of – Means, no official Fedora Unity repository.
Another development here is that Cinnamon Desktop Interface has officially entered the Fedora package repositories. Cinnamon developed by Linux Mint has been on hold almost the whole of last year for its entry into Fedora. Now that it has been approved, we may even see a Fedora Cinnamon Spin for its next version.
During the Ubuntu Developer Summit this year, it was discussed on having a GNOME flavor of Ubuntu amid increasing requests from users to incorporate the ever-loved GNOME. And if all things go by the book, we may even expect a GNOME version of Quantal Quetzal.
Distrowatch : It’s not the beauty anymore !
Varied options and choices have been put up against all the big guns of Open Source Industry. With the increased portability of desktop environments across various linux distros, UI is not the one that’s going to cause a great impact in wooing people. So, if someone really wants to show his prowess, he has to find other ways to display his skill set. What’s in store ?