Unity adds improved launcher, dash icons

Ubuntu 10.10's Unity interface has gained some new icons in an update tonight.

Three new launcher icons - for applications, places and trash respectively - are joined by category icons in the dash over-view.

Also noticeable in recent updates are a refined set of 'hover' effects.

Continue reading

Ubuntu 10.04 Unity users with slow Nautilus/apps may wish to install this...

Users on Ubuntu 10.04 who have Unity installed abut have since found Nautilus and other apps are a bit on the slow side to open may be grateful for this: the ace Omer Akram has uploaded a new version of the AppMenu that aims to fix this: -

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:om26er/test
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

It should go without saying that if you don't have Unity installed in Lucid you don't need to install this ;) 

Continue reading

Unity 0.2.28: A quick recap of Unity

Canonicals' Neil Jagdish Patel posted the following news onto the Ayatana mailing list and whilst most regular readers will already be up to speed on these features/additions/changes it gives a nice way to provide a quick recap to those fresh aboard the Unity train.

Toot toot!

Home Screen when you click the Ubuntu button

“This is the first thing you see upon clicking the Ubuntu button, and is a set of activities to (hopefully) get you where you want to go quickly. It's meant to be new-user friendly, but still be useful after you've learnt Unity. The search entry is still focused, and typing something will perform a global search and replace the home screen.”

It’s sexy, it’s darn nifty and going back to regular desktop Ubuntu after using it sometimes feels a step back.

Undecorated Maximised Windows

“I'm a bit shocked it took so long, but it was definitely my bad (getting stuck on something I really shouldn't have!). Maximised windows should undecorate and their decorations should be restored when they are unmaximised. The window buttons have been updated to use the Ambience beta theme if it's installed.”

This is the one part of Unity I can happily confess to not liking. (Hey, I can’t love everything all the time right?). It’s totally logical I can admit and, when I get a replacement netbook charger next week, I may be a tad more appreciative for it on a smaller screen but for now it’s something I just can’t get used to.

Enhanced Workspace Switching/Manipulation

“The workspace switcher should be performing much better now and it also allows you to move windows between the workspaces.”

If you’ve ever tried GNOME Shell’s overview or one of the many Compiz workspace plugins you’ll be familiar with how this works. You pick a window on one workspace, drop it on another.

Removable Media Support

“Plugged-in media such as USB keys/Cameras/CD-Drives will show up in the launcher, allowing you to launch a file-manager at the location they are mounted and also allowing you to eject them.”

Improved QuickLists

What's a quicklist? It’s a mean little launcher icon that ‘steals’ the ‘indicator applet’ from the panel and puts it in a handy popup menu on the ‘launcher’ itself. It’s actually really darn useful and helps free up the ever-increasing right-hand icon pile up.

Recent updates are now rendering these much better than before.

Still to come…

Plenty of awesome updates yet to land including: -

• Radeon driver love
• Multi-monitor fixes
• Places final visual design
• Intel GPU driver quicklists issue fix

On last count, there are > 100 open bugs. The next couple of weeks is going to be hectic, but please keep testing and reporting bugs, we will get through as many as possible.

Continue reading

Mark Shuttleworth talks Unity at DebConf 10

Mark Shuttleworth talks about Unity, the new shell for Ubuntu Netbook Edition at DebConf 10 which took place earlier this month in New York City.

In the video Mark covers the main aspects of Unity, major changes to the desktop such as indicator applets, app-menu using dbus and the idea behind the design and layout as well as the dual boot controls, and much, much more!

Enough jibber jabber, enjoy this nice video.

Continue reading

A handful of Unity updates...

Ubuntu’s new netbook interface ‘Unity’ received a batch of big updates 2 days ago but, due to wrestling with the beasts known as Ralink chipsets, i've only just managed to update. What was added, what’s new and what’s changed? Let’s take a quick 1 minute rundown. Fingers on your stop watches…


Window control buttons on the panel
Amid at increasing space for screen-space suppressed users, maximised windows push their window control buttons into the panel. As of yet they also remain in the window border but you can get the idea.

Talking of window controls, the solo-circular styling of the panel version look much better than that of the ‘indented trough’ the Metacity currently uses, non?

New launchers

Quick launchers for ‘places’, ‘applications’ and, er, ‘trash’ have been placed onto the launcher bar for easy access. Talking of which…

New look launcher bar

The textured background of the launcher bar has given way to a silky, ambiance gradient - and looks all the better for it.

Workspace overview mode thing
It works kind of like Exposé on OS X or ‘Window picker’ in Compiz - you press, it shows. I assume it is supposed to give an overview of workspaces too (judging from the launcher icon) but alas for now it doesn't.
Folder browsing mode
Folder browsing within the ‘Places’ pane has been implemented.

Downloads on front page

Prepare to start installing a tonne of applications by accident for the application page - including each category - now boats some handy links to other similar software.

Click on on and the application will/should open up in the Software Centre for you to install.

Continue reading

Unity as of now - looking better than ever

In Benjamin’s earlier post previewing the new GNOME Shell mock-up displayed at GUADEC, Canonicals very ace David Siegel posted this beautiful ‘as-of-now’ screenshot of Ubuntu Unity in a comment.

Now, because the screenshot is so darn pretty - and because David can break-dance and I'm hoping he’ll teach me a few things one day - I felt it deserved being glorified in its’ own post.

A few other choice screenshots of the latest look to Unity in action: -Selecting the ‘Games’ category' when no games are installed displays a pretty dialogue as above but also lets you search games from software centre via the bar at the top, triggering install.

Thanks to Mssr Siegel

Continue reading

Latest update to Unity brings Global search, App indicator support & new ‘Quicklists’

Canonical’s Neil Jagdish Patel has just announced a new release of Unity - Ubuntu’s forthcoming ‘Ubuntu Light’ interface as well as the Ubuntu Netbook interface replacement.

This update brings global search in the ‘Places’ pane thus allowing you to find what you’re looking for in the relevant fields. Also added is ‘initial integration between the Appindicator framework and Unity.’ On the Aytana Developers Mailing list Patel goes on to note two ‘cool things’ this will bring: -

1. “When an application like Banshee or Tomboy creates and appindicator that shows up on your panel, you should see it in the Unity launcher too. This also means that if the application hides it's window (like Rhythmbox, Banshee and Tomboy do), it still shows up in the launcher with a "running" indicator. We hope that this will lead to less confusion for users when these "no-guaranteed-window" applications are running. Things like Dropbox, Gnome Power Manager etc are automatically ignored (or should be!).”
2. “So, we know that the application has an indicator and the awesome interface of Appindicator uses a MVC-style menu-exporting system using dbusmenu, so what comes to mind next? Stick these application's menus in the quicklists when you right-click on an application! This is *very* new so please treat it with care :)”

For now applications that also use Indicators will remain in both panel and launcher whilst the team “weed out all the bugs”. He also goes on to note, as we so often point out, that ‘Unity is still pending final visual design, so please don't take what you see in the builds as final (especially in places), as we could be using placeholders etc’

As expected the release sees numerous bug fixes and stability improvements.

Continue reading

Accessing apps has never looked so good (unity)

A few days back we blogged about how applications will be accessed and launched from Unity. The good stuff, my friends, has finally landed in the ‘Unity’ testing PPA and does it look good? Boy does it ever…
The design team designs and the desktop-experience teams’ work in turned said designs into reality deserve surely a few minutes of our total admiration and respect.
We’ll show you the ‘file browser’ a little later along with a video of both of these in action but for now why not install it and drool away?

Install

If you already using the “Unity” testing repo then you’ll find these updates waiting for you in Update Manager. If you would like to try it out - usual caveats apply - then add the following PPA: -

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-dx-team/une
• sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-unity-default-settings

Unity > Shell is all I'm saying right now.

Continue reading

'Introduction to Unity Launcher' video shows off some very slick features

Christian Giordano of the Canonical Design team posted a very nice video introduction to the new Unity Launcher yesterday showing off several new effects and features hitherto unbeknownst.

Some of the new features of the 'not-a-dock' launcher include a very nice 3D 'accordion' stack effect when lots of icons are present in the launcher bar (see screenshot to the right), a 'boot into windows' button (remember Unity is used in Ubuntu Light which is targeted as a dual boot OS) and the ability to assign & view shortcut keys to launchers on the 'not-dock'.

All of these look much better in glorious 25fps - so hit play on the video and prepare to get officially excited.


Unity Launcher Introduction from Canonical Design on Vimeo.

Oh, Hello... 
Also in the video you'll notice that the familiar 'Applications, Places, System' menu is present and the search bar isn't. I wouldn't take either of those as solid hints at what will be present in the final stable release, but it's curious to note nonetheless...

Continue reading

How you will access applications in Unity - Meet Applications Place

In a discussion on the Ayatana mailing list about implementing a simpler-way to view and install applications, Ubuntu UX member David Siegel shared a frustratingly tantalising tid-bit: -

“This looks very similar to the Applications Place, coming to an Ubuntu Netbook near you in 10.10 ;)”

Attached was the following mock-up: -

The mock-up shows ‘Applications Place’ on the Unity desktop and demonstrates how users of Unity will access installed applications. For anyone testing Unity as of now will be aware that a method for doing so isn’t currently implemented.

It looks exciting from the mock-up (if a bit overly-complex) but for my first glimpse of Unity’s ‘Dash’, I am expecting great things. Thoughts?

Continue reading

Chromium based webapps for Ubuntu Light?

Ubuntu Light – the “7 seconds to web” Ubuntu experience targeted at netbooks that will use the Unity interface – will more likely than not feature some form of web-app type application support from the get go, but will it be using Chromium-based web-apps or Mozilla Prism web-apps?

OMG! reader Radel discovered, when poking around in GConf, that it seems Ubuntu Light will default to Chromium-based web apps, noting the following GConf key under desktop/unity'/launcher: - 

"webapp use chromium" and the description says "Whether the launcher should create Chromium-based webapps. If this is False, Prism-based webapps will be created." 

A recent job listing by Canonical for the Ubuntu DX team also points towards Chromium involvement somewhere along the line, with the post description being: -

"As a member of the Desktop Experience Team, the Software Engineer's role will be to design and develop new web browser features. This role demands both a strong experience with developing with the WebKit or Chromium codebases, as well as up-to-date Javascript development skills. Knowledge of the Mozilla platform would be a plus." 

Should we expect some Jolicloud-esque web app and/or web app launcher in Ubuntu Light? Time, my friends, will tell…

Thanks Radel & Alex Murray!

Continue reading

Change The search provider in Ubuntu Unity Search Bar

Like the Ubuntu Firefox start page the Unity search bar (what’s Unity? where have you been?!) uses a custom Google search results page free of, well, everything useful and loaded down with ads.

Whilst this arrangement likely supports Canonical/Ubuntu financially (and we all want to support Canonical/Ubuntu financially)  some of can’t live with out seeing a link to Gmail on every Google page we visit nor are we ready to give up lusting over the brand-spanking new Google search results page.

OMG! reader Bob took a peek inside gconf-editor and found a string that changes the search terms, namely: -

• /desktop/unity/panel/search_template

So to switch from the ‘encumbered’ custom search to, for example, the “regular” search result for Google UK enter: -

• xdg-open http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%s

Thanks Bob!

Continue reading

Tyler on Ubuntu: Why Netbooks are bringing the future

In case you've  been hiding under a rock, or hang around people who exclusively use Mac hardware, then you've witnessed the explosion of the Netbook. Small, light, less then 10 inches, and with impressive levels of battery life, netbooks have gone from toy to everywhere in 2 years, and have now settled into an area somewhere between secondary computer and primary net device for many people. They're cheap, they're portable, they can very nearly be given as gifts and many schools, such as my own, have handed them out like candy.

The real trick, though, was to get the perfect balance of hardware and software so that they actually mattered. To get something so small with enough battery to make them worthwhile, you really have to hit a home run with the software. Many of the first generation, and  some of the more clueless manufacturers still do this, simply shipped windows on the netbook, so what you get is a very slow, really small windows laptop. Even still, people have estimated 90% of netbooks still use XP. However, it is estimated that 32% of laptops shipped since November 2009 run customized Linux of some form, and Ubuntu Netbook Edition is one of the most used OS's available (Yes, those statistics are from Wikipedia).

UNE has already made great strides. Working off the model Moblin established in '07, UNE has been consistently doing something that has stagnated on the common Ubuntu desktop: Innovate. Something about the combination of the cheap computer, small screen, and tiny trackpad has given people the ability to release control of their desktop just enough for a complete change to take place, a change which has been steadily pushing its way to the common mix of Ubuntu over the last 2 years. Much of Ayatana's work has been under the label of 'Saving vertical screen space for netbook users' and much of what we will continue to see will fall under this header.

Unity

And we've seen it happen yet again. Mark Shuttleworth's announcement of the new "Unity" interface for UNE has shown something we should have noticed for months now. Ubuntu is working on the interface for Netbooks far more then for non-Netbooks. Partly, this is just the nature of the netbook. Anything done to improve the standard desktop will float downstream to the netbook interface eventually, but its more then that. The netbook is the testing ground, the place for new things to happen. The newness of the device means the newness of possibilities, and if I got one message from Mark's address, it was "Lets conquer this device." How many of the last few Ubuntu announcements been entirely Netbook oriented? Since Mark announced Maverick Meerkat, every announcement has either been entirely or at least half and half Netbook oriented. Its clear that this is important to them, and I think it should be made clear to Ubuntu users that this is the direction we are moving in: fast, User-data oriented, and internet focused.

Not only that, but the new Network Connections menu is UNE only, the recently announced global menu is UNE only, their new launcher... the new things are UNE oriented, almost in entirety, and the only love for the common desktop is the overlap between the two.

What does that mean for 10.10?

Well, first of all, I think theres something extremely telling although not mentioned directly in Marks announcement. In the Official screenshots, Firefox is still the browser, but in Mark's personal screenshots, we see Chromium. Don't be surprised to see Chromium become official sometime in the next year and a half, at least for the Netbook edition. Now, I didn't say expect it, I said don't be surprised. Don't misquote me. :D

Secondly, don't expect gnome-shell to find a permanent home any time soon. Unity has apparently been worked on for longer then gnome-shell, as Mark said on his blog. Why is this important? It means that Ubuntu has their own panel and their own launcher, which may well be based in gnome, but could very easily be brought up to snuff as a whole before development for current Gnome ceases. While gnome-shell will be apparently packaged as an option in Ubuntu, I think its more likely that we'll see a slightly altered version of the netbook panel and launcher far more likely.

Third, expect more of this. If you hate the me-menu, and the announcement today about Unity, and you demand more bug fixes instead of new menus... you're going to be disappointed. Theres going to just continue to be more announcements of new panels  and new indicators and new this and new that. I personally get excited, but I know some of you guys hate it. Sorry.

Lastly, lets hear the (constructive) feedback. If you ask me, Ubuntu has become the best desktop experience available, and the only thing that Ubuntu lacks compared to Mac and PC is professional use applications and some usability. This Netbook stuff is the foundation for pure perfect beautiful usability on the Ubuntu desktop, and you, the user, needs to speak up about the things you want. Theres plenty of stuff that I spend my time criticizing, but its by analyzing what is good and what is bad that leads to improvement. Lets speak up, and make 10.10 the best operating system it can be.

Share your thoughts on the new Netbook announcements in the comments!

Continue reading