I'll also have some heavy work ahead, thanks to the fancy new Unity. Personally I don't care much, as long as there are other options in the Linux world, but some folks I know currently use the previous Ubuntu version with Gnome 2, happily unaware of the change that is taking place. That's going to be a problem--I can imagine that only few of them will accept and get to like Unity, the rest probably won't. They're all working people, so "trying out for fun" and "playing around" won't work for long. It's either a complete change of DE--XFCE or KDE probably--or a change of distribution, which could be a big mess, or even worse, change of the whole operating system family, an even bigger mess. Gnome 3 will quite surely be a problem as well, due to its young age and the big changes (to a person not wanting *any* changes to the routines), KDE is already rejected by some of the folks, and Gnome 2 is not really an option in the future. OS X would be, but it's too expensive a change.

I can already hear some coins dropping into the Veryunhard Holesinwalls chest. Duh..

It's interesting that when you run 11.04 from a Live CD/Live USB, you're auto-logged-in to Unity, and you can't log out to switch to the "classic desktop".

There's also this:

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | May 1, 2011, 4:25pm PDT
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-sourc...nux-unity/8780

Unity is a mistake made by assuming that MS users are idiots. One of the big strengths and attractions of switching to Linux is the fact that it is configurable.

This is important not only for eye candy but to shape the desktop around your way of working. Folks that are happy with a desktop that they must shape their way of working around are NOT going to be the ones switching.

Frankly, I think the name of 11.10 is prefect. It seems to have been designed by dreamy bird brains.

Hopefully it will not be released with as many outstanding bugs as 11.04. I suspect it will be worse.

You should be able to switch desktop environments without logging out of the live session. I am sorry to say that I can not remember the command for that but I am sure some one else will jump in with that information.

sooo... the problem here is resources. ubuntu seems to have chosen one that has fallen flat: Gnome. so shall we now harass, belittle, and flame the Gnomorons, in addition to the quasi-brilliant minds that chose it?
no. be the same old linux ducks you've always been. find something better, and use it. it worked for American Motors and the Pacer, it'll work for canonical and gnome.
if your product sux, customers will leave you in droves.

i'll continue using ubuntu, until suse, fedora, mandrake, or slack come up with a Gnome or KDE DT that is not quite as hideous. or boot to console and use alpine and lynx. heh.

That sums it up very well.

I have always preferred Gnome, and hate to see it go down hill.

I also have xfce and lxde installed on one of my installs to see which may suit me best in the future (I am not compatible with KDE). OpenBox with maybe the Awesome WM has some appeal too.

After much thought, I will either run XFCE on Ubuntu, or Kde on Ubuntu, or look at OpenSuse. The wireless card drivers only work under Ubuntu. Ubuntu can easily install them, but when I use another distro and try to install the driver, it does NOT work.

Debian could NOT even detect my wireless card, Aptosid could not even detect it, and would not work with both even though I installed the drivers.

Also, used Fedora 15, it detected the wireless card, but would not work after installing the drivers. It still complained that the firmware was still missing.

I am looking at OpenSuse. I am going to check it out.

I have been using Windoze 7 a lot, lately, and it is DEFINITELY much, much better than Unity, Compiz, and Gnome 3. Still have not made up my mind if I am going back to Windoze 7 or not. Depends on if I can find another distro other than Ubuntu that can work with my Broadcom 4312 wireless card. Ubuntu is the only distro that will work successfully with it other than Windoze 7.

so it is either Windoze 7, or another Linux distro that WILL work with my wireless card or else go back to using ONLY Windoze 7. Hate Windoze 7 but will use only it; if I have to. I will NOT accept Unity, Compiz, or Gnome 3. I will go back to Windoze first before I accept them.

XFCE is very Gnome2-like, you may find that Xubuntu is the answer for you. Lubuntu is also an option, but LXDE is definitely less full-featured than either XFCE or Gnome2.

1 members found this post helpful.

yeah but, hate on ubuntu for their decision all you want it's still Linux and you still have a choice, you can install other WMs/desktop enviroments from the repositories and use them instead.
now windows 8 on the other hand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZEnssVjb2g, you don't have that choice.

1 members found this post helpful.

Broadcom 4312? I've got one working with debian in the past.

http://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

Broadcom 4312 should work with any distro, you can download the driver here if your distro doesn't have it pre-packaged (most do, including Debian):

http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

The bad part with Ubuntu based versions of Linux is that in order to install the Broadcom wireless driver, you have to install and update the Linux distro you are using byhaving your computer connected to the Ethernet, HARDWIRE!!!!
Then, run "Additional Drivers" while connected with hardwire to download and install the driver.....
Now that is nonsense!!

You mean to tell me that with such a popular wireless card like the Broadcom (and many others), there isn't a way to include some popular drivers in a distro??? I know about GPL's, ideologies and such, but C'mon! Even Puppy Linux has included wireless drivers so you can start IMMEDIATELY using their distro!!!

Until Ubuntu (and some other distro's) accept that they are turning off potential users because of the archaic and onerous methods to install wireless drivers, they'll shoot themselves in the foot like they are with Unity.....

My $0.02......

So you mean that it would be totally OK to break Broadcom's licensing for your convenience?

Nope.

Easy 1-2-3-4 to install Broadcom wl driver in Ubuntu 11.04 (no internet connection necessary)

1. Boot Ubuntu 11.04 in "live" mode
2. Run the "Additional Drivers" application and activate the Broadcom STA driver
3. In the terminal, type "sudo modprobe wl"
4. Install Ubuntu

Tested on my Dell netbook with BCM4312 chipset.

But surely it still needs a wired connection, otherwise how will it download the driver?

Nope, the driver is included on the Ubuntu 11.04 Live CD.