[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Release upgrade, menu downgrade



Debian-devel team,

On the Web page announcing extended support for Debian 6, you state "Users ... are encouraged to upgrade to Debian 7 (“wheezy”)".  Well, I tried Debian 7 on my desktop PCs and laptops.  My first and strongest impression was of the menu.  It is a dumbed-down Ubuntu / Windows 8 style menu that seems better suited to portable devices than to desktops.  The Debian 7 menu is not a quick path to the desired app but a series of hurdles to be overcome in order to find the application.  Launching an application on a desktop using this menu is not a pleasure, It's a nuisance that is always in the way.  I tried Debian 7 "classic", its menu is a pale shadow of the Debian 6 menu that feels like an afterthought, a feature that Debian would rather not include.  I tried Xfce, Linux Mint and a few other things, but found nothing satisfactory.  Finally I uninstalled Debian 7 and reinstalled Debian 6. 

In spite of flagging sales, there are still zillions of users running PCs and laptops.  You will recall their reaction to the slap-in-the-face Windows 8 front end at its release.  Could that account for the resistant popularity of Windows 7?  Why should you too stop serving these users?  I would upgrade to Debian 7 or 8 in the blink of an eye if it offered a full-featured desktop menu.
--
Peter
peter@bratton.ca

Reply to: