Ubuntu 8.10 Beta Screenshot Tour

This is sad.. very very very sad!!! What the hell is wrong with people out there in Canonical. I'm a BIG BIG ubuntu guy... Heck even my XP desktop at work is themed as ubuntu, and I've made at least 10 technologically deficient people use ubuntu as their OS, but I'm really getting tired of this!!! When they promised a new theme, we expected one. There are sooooo many good ones out in the Community artwork page! I mean, sometimes I feel like, it doesn't even have to look beaaauutifulll... just change it for god's sake! Love ubuntu, love brown, love humans... HATE HATE HATE brown human themed ubuntu! brown would be ok, if they made it look nice.. and this wallpaper, is definitely a step or 5 backwards... hardy's wallpaper was so much better.. jeez i could go on and on with a rant.. i'm just tired tired tired tired tired tired tired of this!

Your big complaint is that you don't like the wallpaper?! You obviously have too much time on your hands. Change the wallpaper yourself!

Man, you are absolutely right.
If no theme was planed, please don´t make expectations..

Wow... and here I thought that Ubuntu was trying to be competitive with the likes of windows and OSX. This release seems to just reinforce a common perception that linux is only for geeks with no aesthetic taste. Heck, even with a bunch of really great alternative themes/wallpapers/icon sets out there, they seem to strive for clunkiness for default (what the majority of users will end up with).

What!? I thought we were going to get a new theme! And The desktop background is ugly... Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter. I always use the Ubuntu Studio theme anyway.

Where is the new Theme?? One of the biggest complaints I have against Ubuntu is that it is UGLY! I come from a Mac and I just can't stand how ugly Ubuntu is compared to OS X. I excused the alpha builds because I thought that maybe the new theme wasn't ready to be defaulted, but come on, its the beta and you still wont make it the default??? You're shooting yourselves in the foot here. And yes the wallpaper is also terrible. It looks like something Windows 98 would have used.

The theme?.. You're "very very very sad / very very very tired" about the damn theme???

What - You won't eat Your mommas food if it is cooked in the black pot, and not the chrome one?

Just change the damn theme!.. thats whats ubuntu/linux i all about... customizing to ones own needs!

I like the brown one, btw... nice and un-windows'ish

Where is the much anticipated new theme?!

Wow the same look as 8.04 with different wallpaper. OOHHH this is gonna really make me install it right away! Seriously what the hell is this theme. I though they were gonna come out with a new theme which will be competing against the MAC OS. I also told many non linux users than ubuntu wil come up with a beautiful theme and you ubuntu community are gonna disappoint me! Oh ya the installer got a new look. WOW

If this continues I am gonna search for a new linux distro. Probably Sabayon!

I hoped for more....but maybe next time ... 9.04

xubean:
you really have a well made point there... really, really constructive critism. It's people like you that make the ubuntu community thrive!

I agree with you xubean, this theme does not accomplish the expectations. I know that Canonical is going to improve Ubuntu desktop and I'm pretty gratefully for that, but this release is less attractive than Hardy graphically, that wallpaper is not very nice and the changes in the Human theme are scarce. By the way you can personalize it so for mi there's no big deal...

How dare they! How dare Canonical release an ugly distribution! I am entitled to so much more. I demand a great looking theme. I love brown, I hate Ubuntu brown, and I am entitled to the brown of my choosing. I'm so very tired of this. If this distribution wasn't free then i would really complain! I would revile those graphic designers.
I would go on and on with my rant. I know I am entitled to it.

There is a use for that shutdown in 60 seconds but it should really be 15 seconds. When you press the power button on for soft off it pops up. So if you want to shut down and no monitor is hooked up then tada!

Second comment: WHY OH WHY THE DANG UGLY BACKGROUND?

I've been expecting a solution for nautilus behavior: Nautilus never ask for confirmation when deleting a file, like Conqueror o Thurnar.
Many times accidentally is pressed the " delete" key and file(s) are deleted immediately. I tried to change this option but nautilus never ask for confirmation.
I am surprised that nobody else thinks about this. Are every body fine with this. I hope this comment will be read by gnome programmers, and fix this bug.
Thnaks to Ubuntu Team for this great distro.

I agree with you, xubean. I don't know if certain people are just dragging their feet or have too much on their plate that they just haven't gotten to the 'radical' new theme yet. When Shuttleworth called for beauty a lot of people counted on it, myself included. Maybe they'll surprise us all with the final release, but I doubt it.

Geesss! what has got into you to put such a horrible wallpaper in the release??? If you understand only codes, plz leave the art-work to someone else with taste! try to chase Mac? with this attitude?? I'll wait for Mint,

"However, I don't see any reason for this function, except that it's somehow cool;"

I believe the reason for this is that some applications, if you have unsaved data, will block the shutdown with a dialog. This is painful on laptops, when you press shutdown, close the lid, and think it'll shutdown - when you forgot to save your text document, and it never shuts down and just drains the battery.

So this is quite a welcome feature; the time limit is quite reasonable too.

There was a promise of a new theme and what is presented in the beta release is just plain terrible. How can they do this again? Why does Ubuntu even have an Artwork Team? Plenty of distributions with only one developer present better default artwork than this. It is time for people to speak up about this and be heard!

Its better put empathy than pidgin

I, for one, welcome the new theme. Comparing it to Windows 98 is just downright ridiculous and stupid. The background isn't beautiful, but it's far, far from ugly. Also, GNOME 2.24 has a bunch of really nice backgrounds, which should be available in Ubuntu. (Why is there no screenshot?) FWIW, the Hardy theme had very few or zero updates, whereas this one is actually improved.

Change the background and theme. It's not that difficult. Right click the desktop and click Change Desktop Background, (Sound familiar? Better than Accessories...) and it's all right there. Easy.

Function > form.

this is one UGLY distro....

As long as the Ubuntu OS is rock solid, I could care less about the themes.

I genuinely believe that experienced linux users who gripe over the DEFAULT theme are very stupid people. That kind of comment should be left to noobs moving over from another OS who simply don't know any better. Switching distributions based on a default theme is equally low in intelligence.
Changing a theme is NOTHING. That is the point of open source, it is your choice. The canonical devs have to put something there and this is what they choose. Say thank you very much for this totally free and fully functional operating system, then install it, then calmly change the theme to anything you like.
I suggest browsing gnome-look.org. The Hydroxygen icon theme is quite amazing for example.

Come on people. There are more pressing matters in ubuntu that we can set our minds to.

I don't get concerned about something as superficial as the default theme. Themes are easily changed to something you like.

I look for steady improvement under the hood, increased hardware support, etc. IMHO Linux is not ready for the average computer user without some hand holding from an experienced Linux user. For that matter, I don't consider any version of Microsoft Windows ready for the average computer user from a security standpoint - failure to download updates, failure to use firewalls, antivirus software, etc. Running the system on the internet with full administrator rights.

If I recall correctly, Mark Shuttleworth's comment related to surpassing the Mac in usability was aimed at release 9.10, which is a year away - an aggressive goal to be sure.

THEME UPDATE INFORMATION:

Mark Shuttleworth, during a meeting on the Ubuntu Dev IRC in September, stated that Canonical was to hire a professional themer for creating the new Ubuntu 8.10 theme. Unfortunately, the theme wouldn't be ready until just before the final release, due to delays in finding a qualified themer. At the same time, the Ubuntu devs plan to pick 2 of the community-made themes to package along with the official release as alternatives to the new official theme. In the meantime, the Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha/Beta releases are being packaged with the "New Human" theme as default. No further information has been released, although presumably the new theme is under development, and Mark has promised it will be ready for the final release.

Just because there is no brand new theme yet does not mean there won't be one. We are still in beta phase, which means anything can change until the RC, whether they be the programs or the theme. Mark Shuttleworth has the final say on the new theme, and he is likely to implement the new one between now and the 30th.

Now we just need a standard one click install and i'll convince every one i know to switch to linux. and yes, some wierd bugs has to be fixed too, but wow!

Thanks for the update. I agree, lots of time before now and the 30th for the devs to do amazing things.

Hey, how about that 8.10 wallpaper.

Come on, guys. Yes, the wallpaper sucks, but if you just put in a tiny bit of effort you'll realize there's another built-in wallpaper that's awesome. Changing icons and color schemes is easy too, but the main complaint I keep hearing is the damn wallpaper. Go to change the wallpaper and you'll see the other option, which is awesome.

Yes, I agree. We can make changes, that's GNU/Linux. I change my themes 4 o more times every week. Ugly default theme? no big deal, 3 clicks and theres' no more uglyness.