I enjoy Unity and/or Gnome Shell. I'm the 1%

So you either end up with the GNOME recipe of arbitrary categories ("I just installed a time tracking application! Does it go in Tools or Office? Oh wait, neither: it's a panel widget. Clearly. I'm so stupid."), or the Windows recipe of free for all ("Yeah, let's default the installer to put the shortcut under our company's name. What kind of person would forget PopUpBlocker was made by PlastrolTech?!")

"seems to have fixed almost all of the problems with UAC's implementation"

I really doubt it was UAC that changed much there - what really did change was everything else as it was adjusted to not assume everything runs with admin privileges. Also - nothing game changing? Really? The fucking search box in the start menu is *nothing* new on the table? Every time I have to use WinXP again, I really do long for it.

Windows 7 is just rebranded Windows Vista after everybody had the time to readjust.

"Honestly though I do have to say, there is absolutely no feature in windows 7 that I find a huge improvement over XP"

Search in the windows menu. The new and improved taskbar, and the death of the quicklaunch bar and its abuse. A system tray that's no longer in your face, and no longer abused ("OH HEY! I R RUNNING! BETTER PUT AN ICON THERE!"). Being able to run Windows as a limited user. An actual 64 bits version. A new and improved driver model. Window compositing.

An operative system that wasn't built ten fucking years ago.

What do you want more? Prancing ponies? Telekinesis? Then what is it that WinXP added to the table that Win95 didn't have?

Windows 7 has so many little nice extra touches (like inbuilt support for ISO files), but the above just is a killer deal already.

"it by default eats more resources, it's interface requires a ton of getting used to, but when you're done adjusting to it, you can finally access things at a similar speed as you could before"

You've got to be kidding me. Putting in a simpler version of terminal with smarter tab-completion in the hands of everybody, that IS a massive improvement to looking into a list of application sorted by arbitrary categorization ("I just installed this time tracking tool. Will it be in Accessories? Will it be in Office? is it here in the first place, or is it a panel widget?).

"Oh but I can make shortcuts!" Well it's still more efficient as you don't have to switch to the desktop to activate them! Provided you do know how to switch back to the desktop and manage those pesky windows. "Oh but I'd put them on the panels!" Grats for being the 1%; pinning things to the taskbar (be it Windows 7's or Unity's) is way more easy to make, manage or use - it's more usable.

Also - back to Unity. I really have to wonder what changed performance wise. Unity is a compiz plugin. Ubuntu already did ship with Compiz. So almost all of the graphics legwork is in the GPU, which is barely used on a normal workload anyway. Ubuntu no longer does indexing either (files are entered into the Zeitgeist search system as you open them, AFAIK). What's left to consume more resources?

In your example no one is above median though...

TAB completion is there already - they replaced TAB with waiting for suggestions to load. ;)

"Luckily I figured out I could use the Spotlight-esque search thingie to bring it up, but FUCK... no wonder everyone is complaining."

Pretty much everything is "hidden" behind the Spotlight-esque search thing because the Spotlight-esque search thingie IS the main way to access everything in Unity. And Vista. And Seven. And KDE 4. And GNOME 3. And OS X. And probably iOS too, if iOS had a physical keyboard.

So it's definitely not hidden. Welcome to five years ago, when we realized that listing all the apps in a menu doesn't cut it anymore.

"Yet if you can show your friends a shiny looking UI they suddenly think your nerd operating system is pretty cool. Wobbly windows and spinning cubes impress people, and people in the community feel the need to impress their friends outside of the community"

And yet, Unity has no burning windows, no spinning cubes, no sparkles, no genies, no wobbly windows.

So that's why many geeks are swearing by Windows fucking XP today, after they sworn by Windows 98 as WinXP launched?

Windows XP stagnated the operative system markets just as much as Internet Explorer 6 did, but no one seems to mind as much.

Apple does it? If I had to look at Apple's lead operating system, iOS, and its basically flat application listing spanning for screens and screens, I wouldn't quite claim that.

Yes, there is a search screen, but it can't work as a default mechanism to launch apps without a physical keyboard.

You do realize that now pretty much all modern window managers (OS X, Windows Vista+, KDE 4, Gnome 3, Unity) are abandoning the browsing paradigm for searching + pinning because we have so much stuff installed right now, flat lists don't cut it any more?

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<OT>Yes, I know mutable objects are a no-no as a default parameter; copying doesn't help. I said it was legal python, not good python.</OT>

Whitespace is only meaningful when it separates statements (newline) and it structures code (spaces/tab for indentation). Although the Python coding style suggests against lining it, you can line things up to your heart's content.

This is legal Python:

def my_func_params_let_me_show_you_them(
            foo = 1,
            bar = False,
            egg = None,
            spam = [][:],
        ):
    pass

Have you tried right clicking on a panel widget and picking 'Lock to Panel'?

1. Ubuntu will still use GNOME -- just with a different way to switch between applications.
2. GNOME Shell ain't ready till it's ready. The delays however are not the point.