Ubuntu Font Hebrew Subset in the making - why not help out?

A Hebrew subset of the new Ubuntu font is in the making and scheduled to to be ready in time for Ubuntu 11.04 thanks to the initiative of Israeli web developer Tom Bigelajzen.

His enthusiasm for the community-derived project is infectious and no-one can deny that the the addition of greater language support is an valuable one for Ubuntu users of whatever language.

"A real OpenType font must be created and refined, people need to test it, to find where it breaks. And there are more variants - we have to do the Bold font, the Italic and Bold Italic, and by the time these will be finished there most likely be some Condensed variants too". Tom states on his blog, continuing "I need designers, typographers and testers to pitch in, we have a bit more than 6 months, it’s enough, but not a lot of time for a community project."

Interested? Were I familiar enough with Hebrew I know I would be!

Find out more information @ http://tombigel.com/2010/08/29/ubuntu-font-hebrew-subset-now-has-an-issue-on-launchpad/

Image, source | Tom Bigelajzan

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Nautilus's revamped 'places' sidebar

As part of Nautilus's ongoing revamp - which will see Zeitgesit integration, a beautiful new breadcrumb path-bar & the long-overdue 'undo' feature amongst other things - a newly redesigned Places sidebar has been committed as 'fixed' in the GNOME master branch.

The sidebar now rocks up with an Nautilus-Elementary-esque layout that neatly arranges items under headings.

Whilst this sidebar won't be rocking up in time for Maverick (boo!) it will most likely make an appearance in Natty Narwhal come April.

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Ubuntu 11.04 named ‘Natty Narwhal’, aims to impress

The name of Mavericks successor in the alliterative  naming stakes has been revealed by Mark Shuttleworth to be 'Natty Narwhal'.

No, really it is.

Our self-appointed benevolent dictator for life has posted a fluid reasoning behind the choice of name over on his blog.

And a short explanation of the what on earth a Narwhal actually is.

Dressed to impress

In his post Mark states that the intent is to make the Narwhal release ‘the best-dressed ever’ with both ‘style and substance’.

He continues “Once Maverick is out the door we’ll be turning our attention to making the most of the amazing capabilities of modern graphics hardware, both for outer beauty and for inner efficiency.”

Whilst focus may, for a short time, switch to 11.04 in the dreams, hopes and aspirations of many, let us not forget that the Maverick Meerkat is due to rear its head later this year, when Ubuntu shall once again redefine the Linux desktop experience for end users.

Image | DoctorMo

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