Gnome Shell Vs Unity

It's really amazing to see how open source software development works. It's too natural. Open software is the only place where one can observe socialism and evolution in its true practical sense. It unites people from various cultures and countries and make a big nation where everyone can be proud and be a part of it . I love open source for this very reason. I never felt this, because it's free or it is more powerful than the commercial counterparts(Well it is in some cases). Open source  is like a tree. The trunk will be very strong to support it's branches. As the tree grows some branches may be weak and some will be strong. But this tree will never stop growing.

The first distribution I used was Redhat. And that's when I came to know about Gnome and KDE. After using both for sometime, it was very clear ,Gnome for its simple design was the best DE for GNU/Linux. And ever since I have been
a huge fan of Gnome DE. Then came along Ubuntu- the game changer in GNU/Linux distributions. Since then I have been following developments in both the projects. In April 2011,Canonical(ubuntu) decided to take a different path, a path that is different from the Gnome project. They thought that they have a different UI solution than what Gnome was trying to do. Which was never discussed with the community. This decision caused some heated discussions in the community. I too wanted to see what Canonical was trying to do. And Gnome was busy making its own interface with the Gnome shell in the open. They didn't want to hurry it. Because they wanted perfection in what they do. End of the day, it made users confused and made them think what they need to choose. Well, this is what I thought about it.

Why they were made?

The proliferation of the mobile devices with OSes that gave more importance to UI design sparked this overall design change. Touch interaction became common and the future of interaction. People appraised these platforms for their ingenuity. And so it became a standard accepted by all common people. Even companies like Apple and Microsoft started taking these concepts into their desktop versions. So the bright minds in open software started to think that we need to build a solid base to bring exciting user experiences. Gnome 3 was the base that got developed and Unity was just something build on top of it replacing Gnome shell - a component of the whole Gnome 3 experience. Canonical took all what was developed by Gnome community and put Unity on top of it. They wanted something that makes them different from all other distributions. In short, all these development was done for the common user. To bring the desktop GNU/Linux to the common man.

Gnome shell is more polished than Unity in many ways. The Gnome shell implementations I liked

1. The virtual desktop - Gnome shell makes it more natural. This change is most welcomed by many users.
2. Activities/Application View - I used to use something similar with Compiz on Ubuntu 6.04. It only did the running application part. But Gnome shell is a polished implementation of the Compiz screen corner hotspot.
3. Themes - Gnome is known for the easy configuration of its appearance. By gnome shell this has just been repeated once again. 
4. Different window design for the user authentication - a screen that pop up every now and then in GNU/Linux and I always wanted it to be different and visually pleasing. Because you will see it many times while using GNU/Linux. It is one thing that I have been waiting for. And finally its here.
5. Error handling - who told error handling should be boring.
6. More animation in various UI controls - Making the UI more suitable for Touch application, easy to learn.

Reasons why some people aren't using Gnome Shell

1. Hardware support has seriously caused problems. This is not due to the advanced requirements of the Gnome 3 desktop. In fact, Gnome 3 requires less graphics capabilities compared to Unity. But the current graphics drivers provided by ATI is not working along with Gnome 3. This has caused many people to use the old version of Gnome or the Unity desktop.
2. There is no desktop icons by default. This is pretty useless enforcement on the users. Desktop is like a table I put my things on it and organise them later. Especially if I want to keep something for my parents so that they can open it up with very less effort.

Why people use Unity

1. Badges on the dock - There are badges on the dock that notify users about download progress ,new mails , number of applications being installed,...  
2. Indicators - It is a good thing but there are so many bugs in the system. Making it a bad experience for many users.
3. Implementation of Notification - It is one of the best UI decisions I liked on Ubuntu
4. Ubuntu Software Center - concept is great but execution currently is very bad. It has very slow boot up time and there are many bugs that needs to be fixed.
5. Dock and many elements have visually appealing animation effects.
6. Unified look with the taskbar for the application when windows are maximised.
7. Unity comes up with Ubuntu, which is now used by millions. So naturally people will take what ever that comes from Canonical. Personally I tried all other distributions(Fedore,Opensuse..) to use Gnome shell. All those OSes never gave the simplicity of Ubuntu. Let it be the installation of the OS or the installation of the individual applications.

Why people hate Unity

1. Unity is not as polished as Gnome Shell.
2. The Global Menu has many UI glitches. I don't have confidence in what I do. Sometimes things work sometime they don't.
3. Crazy hardware usage by compiz. With which the whole experience is built. There are so many Compiz bugs that causes this. Like the frequent mouse freezing that happens every now and then. Power management is another one, but that cannot be talked about. Because neither gnome-shell or  unity does it. 
4. All new features are hindered with bugs even in the final release of Ubuntu 11.10

Who is the winner?

Currently the winner is Gnome Shell but in the future it would be the Unity desktop. Because it will get better and better by the coming releases due to the huge support it has from users.