As you will have noticed if you’ve read our review of Ubuntu 11.04, the Linux distro has a dramatic new look. And despite bearing the name “Unity”, Ubuntu 11.04’s default user interface appears to have divided Ubuntu fans.

Even some of the most die-hard Ubuntu advocates amongst the PC Pro readership have expressed their disgust at the interface, which was first introduced in the now defunct Netbook Edition last year.

So what’s sparking the revolt?

The moving Launcher

Unity dumps the traditional taskbar at the foot of the screen for a new icon-based Launcher that’s locked to the left-hand side of the screen by default.

As we state in our review:

“It’s a controversial change, but we reckon it’s an improvement. The Launcher at the side of the screen is far more inviting than Gnome’s niggly menus, and it makes better use of a widescreen display. The way the icons work – click to launch, right-click for options – will come naturally to anyone familiar with Windows 7 or OS X.”

Not everyone agrees, however. When I canvassed views on why people disliked Unity on Twitter, the splendidly named @explodingwalrus said “Unity only really makes sense on tiny tablet or netbook screens, it just doesn’t work on a large dual-head setup.”

However, the chief complaint on the various Ubuntu forums appears to be the way the Launcher disappears, until you fling your cursor over to the left-hand side of the screen. That half-second or so that it takes for the Launcher to reappear can be a real frustration when you want to quickly shift between open applications. (Although, as with Windows, you can use the Alt + Tab keyboard shortcut to flick between apps).

There is a way to stop that launcher from moving, using the Compizconfig settings manager (thanks to @blaserUK for the tip-off). You can install this either by searching for the app in the Ubuntu One Software Centre (which failed to install for me) or by typing the following command into the terminal:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Moving icons

A minor issue for people used to shuffling their taskbar icons into their preferred position in Windows 7 is the seeming inability to drag Launcher icons into a new position. If you click on the Home Folder at the top, for example, and attempt to drag down, the whole chain of icons move.

This is because the Unity Launcher behaves in a slightly different fashion to Windows 7. To move an icon to a new position in Unity, you have to drag the icon to the right and then slot it into your new preferred position.

Invisible scrollbars

The change generating the most anger is the new scrollbars. Instead of having a pervasive scrollbar on the right-hand edge of application windows, they now only appear when you move the cursor to the right-hand side – mirroring the default behaviour of the Launcher.

It’s fair to say this hasn’t met with universal approval.

“Moving from cautious optimism back to fear and loathing with the latest Ubuntu Unity. What the hell is up with the scrollbar?” tweeted the clearly irritable @squeekyhoho.

“Ubuntu is doing a great job throwing away years of UI experience. Unity is awful, and these new overlay scrollbars are impossible,” agreed @outzider.

I too find the hiding scrollbars irritating, largely because it makes the more difficult to click on, needlessly wasting more of my time. It’s also applied erratically – in some apps the scrollbar is hidden, in others it remains in place. Worse still, I can’t find any option to make the scrollbars stay put – even Compizconfig doesn’t seem to come to the rescue on this occasion. If you find a way, let me know on comments below.

Graphical glitches

The strictures of Ubuntu’s six-month release schedule certainly appear to have harmed Ubuntu 11.04. When we met with Ubuntu shortly before the release date, the company’s PR chief admitted that the developers were still firefighting bugs in Unity. Judging by the comments flying about on forums and Twitter, they didn’t manage to quash them all.

Every time I resume a Ubuntu 11.04 from standby on my laptop, the launcher is replaced with a texture similar to the on-screen fuzz you used to get in the days when they switched the television off overnight. It disappears when I first mouse-over the launcher, but it’s irritating.

There are more serious glitches:

“Graphics performance is shocking as well. Had to switch to Ubuntu Classic desktop without effects,” wrote @larryni.

“Can’t say I’m happy with #Ubuntu upgrade on my desktop. Reboot got stuck due to Unity graphics (fixed by turning it off), mic won’t work…” added @reuvenim.

None of us in the office have noticed any graphical performance issues, per se, although the Nvidia drivers now refuse to remember my native resolution, and I’m having real difficulties getting my dual-screen set-up to run properly. Hopefully a graphics driver update is on its way.

Verdict

Despite the issues I and others have witnessed, I’d stick by the verdict we arrived at in our original review. Unity is a big change – and that will always upset some members of a loyal userbase – but features such as the new-look Launcher, the instant search menu and the option to snap windows to the sides of the screen all make Ubuntu a much more usable operating system. And for all of the comments quoted above, there are as many – if not more – people expressing their delight at the new Ubuntu.

Let’s just hope Ubuntu can fix the glitches, and isn’t too stubborn to give users the option to tweak settings such as the sliding launcher and the invisible scrollbars in future releases.

Here’s something that’s crept up on us at PC Pro towers: Windows 7 has overtaken Windows XP as the operating system most used by visitors to our website (click graph to enlarge).

The graph above runs from January 2008 until the end of last month – Windows 7 actually surpassed XP for the first time in December, we just hadn’t noticed it before (we’ve been busy, OK?).

The growth of Windows 7 has been quite extraordinary. In a little over 18 months, it’s gone from nowhere to the most used operating system. Compare that to Windows Vista, which didn’t even come close to toppling Windows XP, never getting any higher than 27% of the PC Pro audience.

It’s also worth noting the gradual incline of Mac OS X, which was used by 4.8% of our visitors at the beginning of 2008, and has since more than doubled that to 12.3% last month.

And what of Linux OSes? Our stats software only allows us to plot four trend lines at a time, hence the omission of Linux from the graph. Yet, it’s surpassed our Apple-flavoured friend in terms of growth, accounting for a mere 2.4% of visitors in January 2008, and 6.7% in February 2011.

That’s nigh on a fifth of the PC Pro readership using a non-Windows OS. Times really are changing.

Update at 5pm:

A couple of the commenters below asked for the figures on iOS and Android. It appears our regular stats software doesn’t discriminate between Mac OS X on the desktop and iPhone/iPad/iPods. Likewise, the Linux figure was indeed bolstered by Android users.

Google analytics provides a much more detailed breakdown of operating systems, although there’s a slight variation in the figures because of differences in the way the two analytics packages count users.

Here’s the top ten for visitors to PC Pro for February 2011, as provided by Google Analytics:

1. Windows 83.08%

2. Macintosh 7.31%

3. Linux 3.09%

4. iPhone 2.96%

5. Android 1.68%

6. iPad 0.91%

7. Unrecorded 0.51%

8. iPod 0.22%

9. BlackBerry 0.09%

10. Symbian 0.04%

You have to make a wee change to your settings before Ubuntu will offer you the six-monthly releases.

Go to System | Administration | Update Manager and then click the Settings button at the bottom of the window. Enter your password and click the Updates tab. In the Release upgrade drop-down at the foot of the window, select Normal releases.

Close the menu and re-open the Update Manager and you should be presented with the option to download Ubuntu 10.10.

About 10 years ago, when I was just a junior reporter in my first stint at PC Pro, I interviewed Richard Stallman, the self-styled “software freedom activist” and GNU Project founder.

To say the interview didn’t go smoothly would be like saying there’s a small spot of bother between Israel and Palestine. About 10 minutes into the interview I asked him a question about Linux. Big mistake.

“There’s no such thing as Linux,” Stallman shot back, before forcefully explaining that referring to it as anything other than GNU/Linux was a grave personal insult because it failed to recognise his work on the GNU project.

So I wasn’t altogether shocked to read the following comment in an online Q&A with Stallman that was published this week on Reddit:

At the 1999 Atlanta Linux Expo, I was standing there chatting with you and a group of people. A very young boy (around 14 years old) very timidly approached you to thank you for your work and what you have done. He was obviously very intimidated and spoke only a couple of sentences, but unfortunately made the mistake of referring to “Linux” instead of “GNU/Linux”.

You ripped into that boy and tore him a brand new a*****e, and I watched as his face fell and his devotion to you and our cause crumpled in a heap. You destroyed that boy with your harsh words.

Someone in the FSF [Free Software Foundation] told me a year later that you had changed for the better and you were much calmer. My question to you now is: do you regret the harsh tone you’ve dished out to so many people over all that time?

Stallman’s answer denies all knowledge of the confrontation and suggests the questioner might have “exaggerated” it – which I very much doubt, as it sounds almost identical to the strip he tore off me.

In his defence, Stallman does admit he shouldn’t have behaved in such a manner, before stating:

I will try my best to keep my good humour as I explain that the system is GNU/Linux. You can help me succeed by joining in the work. If you make a point of calling the system “GNU/Linux” and explaining why, the error will gradually become less common.

Perhaps more people, journalists included, would be willing to give Stallman his due credit if he learned that manners – like his preferred type of software – cost nothing.

(Image courtesy of Daniel Villar Onrubia)

Speaking at the launch of the touchscreen Pure Sensia digital radio, director of marketing Colin Crawford was pressed for specifics of the new device’s software. But after his CEO reminded him that the new radio was based on a Linux OS, Crawford remarked: “I don’t like the using the word ‘Linux’ on a radio.”

Why did the man in the sharp suit go queasy at the very mention of Linux? His reluctance may be borne out of perceived consumer antipathy towards versions of the open-source operating system. PC retailers have largely retreated from Linux-based netbooks following reports of consumer confusion and a marketing onslaught from Microsoft, which has persuaded manufacturers such as netbook pioneer Asus to drop Linux in favour of Windows XP.

Equally, it may be that Crawford simply doesn’t want to draw attention to the OS on a consumer device where, quite frankly, the flavour of the operating system is about as noteworthy as the colour of the screws they used to hold the thing together.

Either way,  don’t expect to see a penguin logo on the Sensia box in Currys.

His conclusion was an interesting one, principally because I haven’t heard it before. To paraphrase Tim, Linux will remain niche because open-source vendors don’t have the inclination to push it that extra mile, to front up for “the hassle-free” experience that users expect in their operating system. Not when they have a devoted, tech-savy user base already to hand.

It’s an intruiging point of view, but one predicated on a fallacy. If anything, Linux works the hardest for the hassle-free experience of any of the operating systems. Each alpha, beta and RC is passed through thousands of hands before it ever gets anywhere near an end user. Each line of code is mulled, every aspect of the operating system considered – by that I mean that unlike the revolutionary three years jumps of Windows or Apple’s OSes, Linux is in a constant state of evolution.

Its DNA is interchangeable. Open-source may be built on cooperation, but that doesn’t equate to a lack of competition. There are dozens of desktop environments such as Gnome and KDE being developed and tested constantly, and yet only one will ever make it into a final Linux release. But that doesn’t mean it will stay there. It’s the same with the bundled utilities, office packages, codecs, audo and display drivers, even the notification system – beneath the bonnet there’s a host of file systems and codec packs to choose from. A component only makes it into the final release if it’s “hassle free” because there’s always something to replace it with.

In effect, putting together a Linux OS is a process of natural selection dedicated to creating the best possible combination of parts. Where this has failed in the past is in “the pretty”. People who spend hundreds of hours typing code aren’t typically known for their aesthetic sense, and while they’re brilliant at coding shiny new effects there’s nobody taking charge of the overall look so that each aspect hangs together in a pleasing way. Linux-based OSes have always been utilitarian packages, with the shiny hidden away like some shameful secret. That has to change. We’re shallow creatures, and like it or not, the average user equates quality with beauty.

Assuming the average end user knows nothing about computers and you lay Snow Leopard, Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 before them, they’ll choose the prettiest one. If you explain that with Ubuntu you get a fully featured Office Suite, the fastest OS and essentially an immunuty to viruses out of the box, they’ll probably still pick the prettiest one. Make Ubuntu beautiful and suddenly the landscape shifts.

This may sound ridiculous, but I’m not alone. Canonical supremo Mark Shuttleworth has pencilled in a visual revamp for the Karmic Koala release of Ubuntu, and has drafted in a full design team to make sure it happens. He wants an OS that reflects in its visuals the thousands of hours that go into making it. I think this is smart, and necessary.

Of course, all of this assumes that Linux is actually competing with other operating systems that are hassle free. Untrue. Vista was plagued by compatibility problems and while pundits argue that Apple’s OS X is the operating system Linux wants to grow up to become, they’re missing the point that it’s the most niche of all, and thus the antitheses of what Linux is evolving into. All of the major Linux distros have extensive device support; will work across lots of hardware and are suited for dozens of tasks – unlike OS X.

It’s not this that will hinder Linux’s surge into the mainstream. In the long term it’s the lack of a message that’s going to be the biggest hurdle. Linux thrives on its distributed developer base, but this means there’s a lot of voices rattling about, each with its own agenda. If Linux wants to penetrate it needs once voice explaining the benefits. Linux has many selling points, it needs to pick one or two and hammer them to retailers and PC makers. They want support, they want flair, and they want something they can easily explain to customers. Linux fits just one of these criteria so far.

Canonical’s already has some success with Dell, but there’s more work to be done. The battle for the desktop OS is still being fought and Linux has enough weapons to have its say. It needs a General though, otherwise it’ll be doomed to watch inferior OSes fighting it out amongst themselves. And that really would be a pity.

As is usual with Terribly Senior People, they were quite resistant to actually giving away any information that might be considered useful, but one thing came out loud and clear: initially Samsung did seriously consider a Linux netbook, but after speaking to retailers it won’t be dabbling with Linux any time soon.

I asked why, especially when Acer had such success with its Linux-based Aspire One. Over to Terribly Senior Person Patrick Povel, senior product manager of Samsung’s European computer operations: “When the mini-notebook launched it was 100% Linux-based and that was the reason why a certain community was very happy, but… the normal user is used to this XP thing and how to install a printer and so on.”

Did Samsung every consider Linux? “[Before we released our first netbook] we even started to develop in some Linux platforms, but once we had the product almost ready it turned out there was no demand from the customer.”

Just to be clear, in this context Samsung was talking about retailers like PC World being the customer, and the reason why they weren’t demanding Linux was very simple: the likes of Dixons were hit with return rates of something close to 40% when people found they couldn’t easily hook up their camera or install a printer onto their lovely, shiny new netbook.

But, as Mr Povel pointed out, if people on the street were demanding Linux-based netbooks “the retailers would be knocking on our door. [But] it’s a niche market and the big mass consumer doesn’t ask for Linux at the moment.”

Which brings me to the main question of this post: has Linux missed its chance of ever hitting the mainstream? I think it will struggle to ever break out of the enthusiast niche, and to a large extent because that niche is so comfortable.

If the prime target of your operating system is tech enthusiasts, you’ll tend not to go that final painful mile to make it a totally hassle-free experience. Even the most consumer-friendly Linux distribution of them all, Ubuntu, has occasional hiccups when trying to connect to external devices, and if you do hit problems your only support is via forums – fine for techies, not so great for the “big mass consumer” Samsung refers to.

So where does Linux go next? Is there anywhere else for it to go on the desktop? I can’t see it – if it was going to dominate anywhere, it would be cheap devices that had little expectation from buyers, but both retailers’ and consumers’ fingers have been burnt.

To a certain extent I guess that Red Hat’s chief exec feels the same, but he inevitably puts a more positive spin on it – that he really didn’t want to be there anyway. “The concept of a desktop is kind of ridiulous in this day and age,” he said. “I’d rather think about skating to where the puck is going to be than where it is now.”

He might be proved right, but wherever that puck ends up the end-user experience needs to be a pleasant one not just for the buyer of the product (and I’m not going to argue with anyone who suggests that Ubuntu has largely done this), but for the manufacturer and the retailer. And unfortunately both are too often forgotten when extolling the undoubted virtues of Linux.

It took mere hours for my baseline Vostro PC to be bettered, thanks in no small part to blog reader Tom A pointing me in the direction of Ebuyer’s pre-built PC section. There, for a penny-perfect £249.99 inc VAT and delivery, sat the Zoostorm Versatile Premium PC which now tops my shortlist.

The specs improve on the Vostro:

• 2.2GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2200
• 2GB DDR2
• 250GB hard disk 
• DVD writer
• mouse & keyboard
• Vista Home Premium
• 1yr warranty

Ebuyer also had several others even cheaper than that, including the same system with a Celeron Dual-Core and Vista Home Basic for £209.83, as well as a low-power Fujitsu Siemens PC with lesser components and no operating system for £189.97. Neither really piqued my interest.

One other system that did intrigue me was one of Ebuyer’s own with an almost identical specification to the Zoostorm, but with a hefty 4GB of RAM. I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw the price of £199.99, until I realised it comes without an operating system. It’s a dilemma I’ve had at several other sites too.

Now, an OEM copy of Vista costs more than the £50 I’d have left, so should I go the Linux route and spend it on other extras instead? I’m reluctant to. The remit was to buy an everyday PC for £250 and – I’ll be honest here, don’t hit me – I’m just not sure I’d want to use Linux every day. Vista has it’s many annoyances but it would have to crawl out of my screen and wedge my keyboard somewhere uncomfortable to make me go so far as to get rid of Windows entirely.

So the Vista-equipped Zoostorm has the yellow jersey, at least until I find a site that sells a more impressive pre-built system for my budget. I’ve been looking and I’ve not found one yet, so keep the suggestions coming…

My motivation is that while I’d like to work on the train, getting anything done at the moment requires more effort than I’d like. Which, ideally, is no effort at all. At the moment, hammering out a review on the journey home involves lugging a (relatively) heavy laptop in an extra bag, with the respective power cables in case I decide to use it when I get home, too. I’d like to condense this down somewhat, and some sort of smaller, lighter laptop stands out, as I’d be able to slip it into my backpack with everything else.

Given its runaway success, the Eee PC stands out, but there’s already two models to choose from – the original 701, and the newer, slightly bloated 900. However, both, while being undoubtedly brilliant little machines, come with caveats. The original Eee, for instance, has a screen that could be generously described as cramped and, while I use FireFox and OpenOffice at home, they’re both on Windows XP. The Eee’s custom Linux distribution doesn’t sound like it’ll co-operate with Football Manager, and Windows XP costs a bit more. The keyboard also looks a little cramp for my sausage-sized fingers – my colleague Sasha Muller has warned me away from the 701, as I’ll probably spend most of my time on the train deleting letters that I’ve inadvertently hit.

It’s fair to say that the 901 does address many of these problems. The screen, thankfully, is larger, supporting a resolution of 1,024 x 600. The hard disk can be up to 16GB in size – far better for Football Manager, as well as all that work I’ll be doing – and the Celeron processor now uses all of its 900MHz, as opposed to being clocked down to 630MHz, as it was in the 701. It runs XP comfortably thanks to the doubling of RAM – 512MB to 1GB – and weighs not far over a kilogram. It sounds like the ideal train companion, and one that I can slip into my bag with ease. It’s also a better performer than the original Eee.

However, these improvements come at a price – £280 excluding VAT, to be exact. Which is another sticking point – for not much more than that, I could invest in a genuine laptop with a 13in screen. Back in Issue 161’s Light Laptops Labs, nothing stretched beyond 2kg in weight, with 12 and 13in screens the norm. Almost all of these, though, were far more expensive than the little Eee that could, and benchmark scores indicate that virtually all of them are far more capable performers than the Eee.

And then there’s the raft of pretenders to the Eee’s ultra-cheap, ultraportable crown. MSI’s forthcoming Wind should be arriving in the PC Pro Labs pretty soon, and that is promising to be another contender for my cash. However, the top specifications of that model could cost up to £700 which, again, would buy me a very tasty laptop with a 13in screen and, no doubt, a better specification.

The battlelines have been drawn for my wallet’s affection – the Eee 900 will sate my train-working needs, sure, but the price could be a sticking point when better-specified laptops – I’m thinking larger screens, better processors, hard disks and optical drives – could almost as easily fill a niche in my bag, and be far more versatile and powerful for it.

So, any ideas or clues as to where my cash should go? What’s the best small, light and cheap laptop you’ve seen? I’m open to suggestions.