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Gnome is a reasonable desktop manager, but it doesn't seem to match Mac OSX or Windows 7. Are there any alternatives for Ubuntu that focus more on usability?

Marco Ceppi
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Casebash
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  • This question appears to be too broad - could you narrow it down to something more specific like "What Window Manager provides me an environment similar to Mac OSX" A more specific question will allow users to provide a more concise answer. Asking multiple questions to help fulfill your needs is also encouraged if necessary (IE: one regarding Mac OSX and Windows 7 if that was desired) – Marco Ceppi Sep 02 '10 at 13:56
  • You should focus on fixing (or asking for fixes on) what isn't behaving as you would like, rather than ask people to fix 'everything' which is rather unlikely to happen. – levesque Sep 02 '10 at 14:28
  • @Marco: I am not looking for an environment to necessarily be similar to Mac OSX or Windows. I am just asking about projects which change the ui with the stated aim of improving the usability – Casebash Sep 04 '10 at 13:21
  • @Casebash - I understand your aim, but the question becomes very subjective/arugmentative as everyone has a different opinion of usability. For instance I prefer Ratpoison because it's very usable to me, though it may not be for others. What things in particular are you looking for in usability? This will help narrow the scope of the question and provide you with a more concise answer. – Marco Ceppi Sep 04 '10 at 18:23
  • @Marco: True, usability is subjective. That's why I asked if there were projects with the stated aim of increasing usability for general users. Re: ratpoison - "All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes." I don't think that they are targeting general users, but power users instead. Seeing as most of alternative desktop managers are probably targeted towards niches, this restriction should restrict the scope enough – Casebash Sep 04 '10 at 22:22
  • Actually, both GNOME & more recently KDE focus on usability a lot. And in my experience Windows 7 is a usability disaster, so how you can point to that as an example is beyond my possible understanding. ;) (What's more, even most Windows users I know agree with that!) – JanC Oct 13 '10 at 18:05
  • Oh, and you didn't answer Marco's question: “What things in particular are you looking for in usability?” Please add that to your question above. – JanC Oct 13 '10 at 18:08

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The most common other two used with Ubuntu are KDE and XFCE. Both are available as pre-packaged distributions known as Kubuntu and Xubuntu and both have live CD's available if you just want to try them out. (Of course you are free to download and install them to your existing Ubuntu install if you don't want to start from scratch).

If you are looking for something that is closer to windows 7 or OS x then KDE might be worth a look. In my opinion it has a better looking interface than Gnome. It does have it's quirks though and doesn't really have any more of a focus on "usability" than gnome does.

XFCE focuses on simplicity and productivity.

There are many others. You can find a partial list and some points of comparison on the wikipedia comparison of X-Window System desktop environments

Simon P Stevens
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but it doesn't seem to match Mac OSX or Windows 7

I'm not sure that's a valid complaint. Just because something is different, doesn't mean it's less accessible or less usable.

Neither Gnome, KDE (or many other environments) are trying to be the same as Windows or Mac as they believe there are user experience and accessibility issues with them. They're both trying to be something new that works better.

Gnome plans to move even further away from both Window and Mac in future releases by bringing in an interface called Gnome Shell. You can try this out today if you wish but it's a way off from being complete.

Now, if you're looking to clone the Windows 7 or OSX interfaces on a Linux computer, that can be done with a bit of modification. Check out a site like gnome-look.

Oli
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  • Always be careful installing software from sites like gnome-look, though that should apply to anything you find online. – aperson Sep 03 '10 at 03:58
  • Its not a complaint, but a question 2. Yes, it is less usable and not just because it is different 3. I'm not looking for a clone, just curious whether anything comes close in terms of usability. Windows/Mac have a massive advantage as they have the money to hire expensive UI experts, but the open source community has often surprised me with the quality of their software
    • – Casebash Sep 04 '10 at 13:19
  • Can you cite a qualitative source showing that they're less usable? Just pointing at the companies' available money doesn't mean they can implement the "best" UI as they're both tied to keeping old users in a roughly familiar environment. FOSS has the advantage of flexibility here. And it also doesn't mean open source projects don't have better people on the job. – Oli Sep 04 '10 at 13:37
  • The gui is less usable - at least for general users. Flexibility is powerful, but it also makes good GUI design hard. Windows XP was about the same level of usability as Ubuntu, but Windows 7 is vastly ahead. – Casebash Sep 04 '10 at 22:26