Unity interface

Good description of the new interface is here. Home page.

I looked at the new Unity interface on Ubuntu. People are all a buzz about Ubuntu dropping Gnome for this new tablet interface. From what I can tell Ubuntu is keeping their mouth shut and letting the community give them a bunch of free advertising. The interface looks limited to me. It is a mobile device interface. It is designed specifically for touch screen interfaces. It looks like it sits on top of GNOME, but I doubt it.

Do I think this is a huge failure? No. Do I think this is the way of the future? No. Unity is one more tool in the box. The idea of a touch interface has it's place.

Note about some of the videos I've seen about this and other touch interfaces. They use a video camera aimed at the screen rather than a screen capture technique to show off the interface. This is to show off the hand gestures. It is also because there is no mouse pointer. If you want to explain what to do next, you have to show your hand doing something because the mouse pointer is not there. No big deal, just an observation.

So many people just want pretty icons that "make it work." This is a fare assessment of mobile phones. Te be honest, I like the idea of the phone and my dish washer just working. I call this sort of thing an appliance interface. This is not a bad thing. I've heard people who call themselves technology reviewers who are frightened to death of the command line. They turn off when it comes to learning something new. I do this myself on occasion. I insist on having control regardless of interface. I do not want any one else making my decisions for me. I want them to make my decisions easier to understand and follow through on.

This brings us right back to the appropriate interface for the device. I want my computer to come up and present the web to me. I want to be able to pop the hood and tinker around as well. If you want it to just work and can't be bothered to sweat the details, expect other people to make those decisions for you in their favor, not yours.