UI Changes of Ubuntu 17.10

A Timeline Of Discovery

1. Dist-Upgrade went through without an issue. Check! ✓
2. Up-to-date packages installed. They seem to work just fine. Check! ✓
3. Old stuff removed. Check! ✓
4. Internals basically work the same except some minor systemd changes. Check! ✓
5. A lot of UI changes. 🗙

UI Changes

1. First things first: login now requires an additional keystroke (Enter-Key) to see/activate login form of user. Meeeh! 🗙
2. Starting applications from dock results in strange icon animation. Meeeh! 🗙
3. Pinning applications is not called “pinning” anymore but “Add to Favorites”. Meeeh for beginners – pinning is a well-known concept!
4. Missing Desktop Link to Desktop in Files. Meeeh!
5. No hot corners for closing maximized application by mouse. Meeeh! 🗙
6. Trash not in dock, polluting desktop – disabled trash icon altogether. Meeeh! 🗙
7. Top bar does not merge with window bar when maximized – wasting a lot of space. Meeeh! 🗙
   
   
8. Ancient-looking icons with random arrows on the top right. Meeeh! 🗙
   
   
9. Aggregation of unrelated concepts, makes it harder to find right quick settings and requires a second click to open menus with arrows. Meeeh! 🗙
   
   
   
10. Clock in the middle of the top bar. Actually no issue, but is reason for issues 5 and 7, so meeeh!
11. Space-wasting buttons on the top-left corner, another reason for issues 5 and 7. Meeeh! 🗙
    
    
12. Apps-floating-around animation when clicking on the Sudoku icon on the bottom left. Like kindergarden, meeeh! 🗙
    
    
13. No known shortcut for Sudoku icon. Meeeh! 🗙
14. Cannot see all settings in the Settings app at once, needs scrolling now – space wasting again. Meeeh! 🗙
15. Single settings dialog looks clean. Nice! ✓
16. Super-key search doesn't work reliably – depending on the mouse position (windows steal focus). Super annoying. Meeeh! 🗙
17. Super-key search not forgiving of typos like in former Ubuntu versions (e.g. geidt -> gedit) Meeeh! 🗙
18.  Lock screen image disappears when entering password - displaying gray-noise background. Looks 10 years older! Meeeh! 🗙
19. Long-pressing super key does not reveal dock numbers of applications. Meeeh! 🗙
20. Long-pressing super key does not reveal shortcuts of systems. Meeeh! 🗙
21. In preparation of this post: taking screenshots - they aren’t in the clipboard by default but stored in Pictures as an image file. Couldn't find a setting so far. Meeeh! 🗙
22. I don't get the conceptual difference (thus intended usage) of the Sudoku Icon search and the Super-Key search. Both allow to search for/start applications but they look different for unknown reasons. 🗙
23. Plugged in my phone. Why isn't it in the dock? I discovered it after closing all apps (and finished the task). Hmm. 🗙
    
    

Conclusion

• Upgrade from 17.04 works fine!
• Internals and drivers work fine as well!
• UI has changed a lot; as a desktop OS graphical design is important:
  • wasting a lot of space – especially bad for smaller screens such as the laptop I use to write this post
  • aged look :-(
  • a lot of useless bells and whistles

Despite all the meeehs, thanks a lot, Ubuntu team, for the hard work you put into this release. I am very eager to see the next iteration of this product!

Cheers,
Sven

PS: you might wonder why I nitpick about so many tiny details of the new Gnome-based UI. I care because I build my workflows around these tiny details of which I have now no viable alternative (e.g. the clipboard one - issue 21) or no time-efficient one (hot-corners for closing apps by mouse).