Unity at Last!

I've been a satisfied Ubuntu user since 2009, but with all the furore created by Canonical's switch to the Unity user interface in October 2010, I decided to wait as long as possible before upgrading my faithful, pre-Unity 10.04-64 LTS installation. My ideal distro upgrade cycle would be about every 10 years, as I just can't afford all the downtime associated with installing and configuring a new OS. With Canonical moving to a 5-year LTS cycle, my plan was to wait until April 2014 to upgrade. Unfortunately, my system got infected with a few viruses (I'm blaming my wine installation, as they were all Windows viruses), so I had to upgrade my OS a few months ago. I moved up to Ubuntu 13.04-64.

So here we go again...yet another Ubuntu user's impressions of the new Unity interface...I know, I'm a little late to the party. A few notes on my perspective:

1. I'm not a Canonical-hater; I actually like Ubuntu and want Canonical to succeed.
2. Although I admit to being somewhat swayed by all the negative feedback regarding Unity, I tried my best to be objective. I've lived with Unity for about three months now and have tried my best to learn and enjoy it. 
3. While I consider myself a power-user, these days I just don't have much time to spend dealing with computer issues. I need something that just works, and works efficiently.

So here's what I do and don't like about Unity.

Likes:

1. I like being able to access the system menu by pressing the Super-key. I'm really not sure why Ubuntu didn't do that a long time ago...maybe Canonical just didn't want to be seen as copying M$. 
2. I like being able to search all applications by simply pressing the Super-key and typing. Another feature ripped from M$, but hey, if it works, why not? 
3. I like the list of keyboard shortcuts that pops up if I hold down the Super-key, and I like all of the system-wide shortcuts that are now available (if only they worked reliably; more on that later).

Dislikes: 

1. While the new keyboard shortcuts are a great idea, they just don't work properly, and they interfere with a lot of other keyboard shortcuts. Let me explain: 
• First, the keyboard shortcuts don't work consistently. I find that sometimes I have to press the keys multiple times to get them to work. Some Googling showed that I'm not the only one with this issue.
• Also, the ability to assign custom keyboard shortcuts has been severely limited; you can't easily override the default shortcuts with your own custom shortcuts.  I was forced to abandon many of the custom shortcuts I had used with 10.04.
• I use rdesktop regularly to remote into our firm's Windows server, and Unity's new keyboard shortcuts interfere with my use of the Windows keys in an RDS session. 
2. I don't like the new side launcher; I much prefer the taskbar-style task switcher on the top of the screen. I find myself having to move my mouse a lot more with the side launcher. The old GNOME taskbar is also a lot cleaner to be able to quickly see which applications are open. Also, to add a custom item to the task launcher requires a complicated process of creating a text file with a slew of strange codes. Why can't I just drag a shortcut to the launcher?? And I found that when I did add a custom item to the launcher, it shows up twice when I actually open the program.
3. I miss the option of being able to use the old GNOME menu. 
4. I don't like the fact that the old GNOME applets no longer work, and even now, three years after the Unity launch, there are not yet equivalents to replace many of them. E.g., I liked my old GNOME CPU monitors that used minimal screen space in my taskbar to quickly show me the CPU and core usage and temperature. There are some Unity-based tools, but they're not nearly as good.
5. I confess that I actually hate the new Mac-style menus that reside only at the top of the screen. Why should I have to mouse all the way to the top of the screen just to access the menu? And if I'm in one program but want to click on the menu in another program, two clicks are required; first, I have to click on the inactive program to make it active, and then I can click on its menu.
6.  I don't like the new scroll bars; honestly, I still haven't quite figured them out. Why exactly did they have to change the way scroll bars work?
7. I dislike being regularly prompted, as I browse the Internet, to install a slew of lame Unity apps that do nothing except add an extra icon to the side launcher. 
8. I'm not sure whether to blame Unity for this or not, but 13.04 is less stable than 10.04. It had probably been more than a year since my 10.04 installation had required a reboot due to a system hang, and yet 13.04 consistently hangs if I connect my wife's iPhone to the USB, disconnect it, and plug it in again.

Conclusion

I hate to join the nay-sayers, but I'm afraid this is one more Ubuntu user who fears that Canonical has lost its way. Yes, mobile devices may be where are the new hardware sales are, but most people still get most of their real work done on an old-fashioned computer. And for this old-fashioned computer user, Unity just doesn't cut it. Guess I'll be looking for a new distro soon...I do hope Canonical gets its act together, though. They've done a lot to help bring Linux to the masses, including this blogger...