6 little thing in Ubuntu 10.04 that I love

By , Published March 5, 2010

1. Drag n’ Click
You can now click and move a window from anywhere in the top part – both the metacity and the space next to the menu-bar are dragable.

2. Software Centre’s navigation buttons
Not only useful but really slick to look at!

3. Putting Nautilus tabs back on top
We mentioned that during the previous Alpha’s Nautilus’s tabs were moved to the bottom. This was a really annoying change but thankfully has been reverted back to normal (for now at least…)

4. Docky is in the Lucid repos
Not so much a change to Ubuntu itself but an awesome fact nonetheless – Docky is in the Lucid repos! No bzr branching and compiling needed to get the greatest Dock up and running on Ubuntu 10.04 – just whack install.

5. Nautilus wants to help you!
In various locations, such as the ‘Downloads’ folder as in the screenshot, Nautilus offers up helpful information and quick links to helpful tasks.

6. Ubuntu Radiance Tool-tips
You probably saw them in the Ubuntu Light promo shots and i can confirm they are every bit as gorgeous in reality. Sadly the slick purple ones are only on the Ubuntu Light/Radiance theme (I’m an Ambiance/Dark kinda dude). I’ve been randomly hovering over stuff just to catch a peek…



7. ALT+TAB
I’m not an ALT+Tab kinda guy (Compiz scale + hot corner for me) so i’m not sure if ALT+TAB is actually any different in Lucid to previous versions… either way it looks rocking!



Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • Anonymous

    alt-tab looks like it got a little zoom and fade animation.

    • http://www.theonelike.me theonelikeME

      fade works in karmic as well

      • Anonymous

        Well yes, but not in the same way by default.

        • daas88

          You mean it works by default, without compiz? Because all i see is the old alt+tab compiz effect.

  • om26er

    The transparent tooltips are cool

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Oh yes you’re right! My list just grew!

      • Anonymous

        Ambiance also has the tooltips; they actually look the same, at least in Karmic.

  • Anonymous

    OMFG.. i didn’t know that Nautilus’ tabs on the bottom was a Alpha issue..
    Tks god it returnet to the top..

  • http://ammonkey.posterous.com/ ammonkey

    tabs back to normal by an ubuntu patch … i think the vanilla version still got tabs bottom. so it may change. anyway i am not really concerned about that ;)

    • om26er

      I think that patch is from debian?

    • Yi Sun-sin

      Thank you !

      • http://ammonkey.posterous.com/ ammonkey

        for? i didn’t do anything ;)

        • Yi Sun-sin

          For giving a useful information that d0od always fails to provide : mentioning which changes are from upstream, and which are Ubuntu-specific. I’m fond of Gnome, but I mainly use ArchLinux, and I’m interested mainly in upstream change.

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            It’s not that i fail to provide it it’s simply that it’s not relevant for our intended read-base. The second we start throwing words like ‘upstream’ and the politics of development around the less “fun” reading this blog becomes and the development know-how pre-requisite becomes heightened.

            The majority of readers here are not interested in where it comes from but the fact it is there.

          • Yi Sun-sin

            Well, there are at the very least three users (archers, to be precise) here who are interested in the difference between upstream changes and Ubuntu’s patchs.
            And you don’t have to even use the word upstream : just say “Gnome just got a new feature, …” or “The Gnome development team just added …” for upstream stuff and “Ubuntu just got a new feature, …” and “The Gnome development team just added …”
            Most people may not pay attention to it, but :
            - Both team will get the credit they deserve
            - Advanced users will get the informations
            ;â‹…).
            On the other hand, if you could point me to a blog about Gnome development so that I could read it in parallel with yours to get both pieces of informations, it could be another solution ;â‹…).

          • Anonymous

            I don’t want to be rude but why are you in OMG!Ubuntu instead of “OMG!GNOME”.
            D00d knows his target audience, newbies and pros using Ubuntu.
            Sure, he can add “Gnome team did this… not Canonical” but that would be pointless since his readers (especially the new ones using Ubuntu) wouldn’t care or they might get confused.

          • Yi Sun-sin

            Just take a look at the comment : some of his readers would be interested. Maybe not all of them, but that’s not the point.

          • http://ammonkey.posterous.com/ ammonkey

            d0od cannot knows everything, that’s why comments are usefull, and that’s why we read them ;) It’s an exchange. But where i disagree is that for me the difference is important, it show the UI direction upstream follow and the one ubuntu prefer to follow.
            As an archuser like many who read this blog too, upstream decision are important for us. And as an ubuntu user u may be interested in the choices your distribution is doing or not.

          • http://ammonkey.posterous.com/ ammonkey

            same here, archlinux too.

    • Anonymous

      Actually, tabs are back on top Upstream. Check out the relevant commit message: http://git.gnome.org/browse/nautilus/commit/?id=4d742c83498df29d6f4b853dca946c0b4c4b13a3

      • http://ammonkey.posterous.com/ ammonkey

        thx for the info. no need to patch anymore ;)

  • Anonymous

    5 or 6?? Oo’

  • Raptor

    why they can’t use software centre’s navigation buttons and breadcrumbs in nautilus?

    • om26er

      actually I read somewhere that this was discussed at the gnome UX hackfes

    • w1ngnutz

      please! It’s so much more elegant, ain’t it?

  • Majki-Fajki

    How to achieve effect from point one in GNOME in other distros? Is this some kind of Gconf-Editor tweak?

    • om26er

      the workaround atm would be switch to ubuntu ;)

      • Majki-Fajki

        I prefer Arch Linux :)

    • Yi Sun-sin

      Give Gnome 2.29 a try, maybe it’s included upstream.
      I don’t like how this blog blurs the line between upstream changes and Ubuntu’s changes.

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        It’s sometimes hard to know the difference, tbh! That said, as is made clear in our about page, we focus on stuff from the perspective of ‘Ubuntu user’ and to them they don’t care where the change has come from only that it has changed on their “ubuntu”. Obviously, as in our article on missing menu icons, making the distinction between ubuntu is GNOME is much more prescient but in cases like this where, for Ubuntu users, it appears as a change in Ubuntu so that’s how we call it.

  • http://twitter.com/myfreeweb MyFreeWeb

    1 was in Mac OS X for years :) That’s good.

    • w1nGNUtz

      yep, it rockz

      • Anonymous

        Excuse me but how was this in OSX when OSX windows don’t have a menu bar?

  • Anonymous

    Does #1 work with other themes too? It might be a little weird with some themes, but it would be awesome with shiki.

    • Anonymous

      I’ve tried it in VB and can now confirm it only works with those themes (Radiance and Ambiance). Obviously, I haven’t tried all themes in the world, but at least none of the other standard themes can do this neither can Shiki.

  • Kurtins

    Radiance Tooltips and the update in the ALT+TAB effect are just amazing. I would have liked the expo plugin to be upgraded (i’d love to have the really useful effect KDE SC 4.4 have added in expo when they inserted some sort of expose for all the windows in each virtual desktop).

  • Anonymous

    I like the changes to the software center like the external repo view(.
    I can see myself using it instead of synaptic now but but the blue departments screen looks really bad as does the more info page. I really wish they would integrate DanRabbits design for the more info page.

  • http://twitter.com/dervish666 Sam

    Really like that but if you can already see the application window can the alt-tab window itself be moved to a corner of the screen, it only needs to be a reference of where you are not actually what program you want.

  • http://twitter.com/kinesthesia kinesthesia

    Number 5, “Nautilus wants to “help” you” pissed me off to no end when I installed the alpha. If there was a way to turn the ugly banner off in my Downloads folder without having to change Ubuntu’s default Downloads folder, then fine. But, there isn’t. :(

    • Paradiesstaub

      I had actually the same thoughts

    • http://jamesgecko.com/ James

      No way to turn it off? Please tell me that message doesn’t appear if you don’t have Bluetooth.

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        I don’t have bluetooth and the message appears…

        • http://jamesgecko.com/ James

          I assume you see the issue here. ;-)

  • Mohan

    Alt Tab isn’t different, you can set it like that way back when with CompizConfig. :)

  • Paradiesstaub

    My favorit new featur is the extra nautilus pane

    Pic: http://justoneidea.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/bildschirmfoto.png

  • michel perez

    In this version of ubuntu arent going to be fixed the pixelated icons in the compiz task switch????
    when is this bug going to be fixed ????? never KDE already fixed it why ubuntu cant????

  • http://peligrociencia.com/ aloctavodia

    I have installed lucid and alt+Tab has the same behavior (I don´t use compiz but i think the video is showing the Alt+Tab behavior from compiz not form metacity).
    I don´t get the first “love feature” as far as I remember the Drag n’ Click behavior is the same than karmic (and older versions).
    and the fifth point it only works with the download folder (but I guess they are going to extend to other folders like music and videos) may be and interesting features for newbies.

  • http://wakoopa.com/yo2boy yo2boy

    Is there an Ubuntu equivalent for Winkey + Tab? Like in Aero

  • daas88

    I love all those small changes :)
    Although my eyes hurt when i see those ugly metacity buttons =/

  • Anonymous

    “You can now click and move a window from anywhere in the top part – both the metacity and the space next to the menu-bar are dragable.” I’ve been waiting for that for years! I remember DBO saying it would be pretty easy to implement in GTK but I never got around to it :P

  • hansioux

    one of my biggest wishes is when applications need to open a file and calls Nautilus to look for the file, user will be able to choose view mode like they can in normal Nautilus.

    Currently we cannot swith to Thumbnail View under that mode for some weird reason. It makes looking for photos a pain. You have to click through every file just to see the preview on the right hand side. what’s the design logic behind disabling the choice of viewing option anyway?

    Also, some web applications specifies file extensions in either all CAP or all lower case. When uploading pictures for example, it is annoying that we have to change the extension case just so we can upload. I know that perhaps websites should design with linux and case sensitive systems in mind. But there should be a function in Nautilus to over look extension cases when it comes to those situations.

    The system knows they are different files, that’s all case sensitive needs to do. Since whether it is .JPG or .jpg or .Jpg, the system knows to open it with the photo viewing program, why should it do otherwise when it comes to uploading files?

  • insanelyapple

    I hope that work on both themes isnt over and they will make them pixelperfect… Ive just download yesterday daily iso and after zooming, whole beauty vanished in few seconds.

  • Anonymous

    Anyone have an idea where I could get the GTK patch to move windows around from the menubar? I’ve been looking for this on Linux ever since I first used OSX back in ’03. It would be great if someone would make a pkgbuild for it, seeing as I’m on Arch and am quite comfy.

  • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ Dylan McCall

    My favourite thing (at the moment): gnome-games are fun now! Sounds are still disabled by default for some reason, but the use of Clutter in Nibbles, Quadrapassel and others (about half of them) really makes a huge difference. I’ve actually been actively playing them to pass time!

    I hope everyone tries them out; it’s a huge improvement.

  • http://www.tudorholton.com/ Tudor Holton

    Ok, that Nautilus helping you thing looks like it could get annoying pretty quickly. It would be much better for all users to have context-sensitive help by having a consistent ‘?’ button, F1 key, and/or right-click and “Help me!”. We should have a policy of not bugging the user or using up their valuable screen real-estate unless they’ve asked for it, IMHO.

  • Anonymous

    Number 1 is very nice. I’ve been asking myself for years: why do we have a title bar and a menu bar? Now that most nice themes merge both in color, and even now that they both can be grabbed to move the window around, isn’t it about time we merge them both and stop wasting vertical space???? I know suggesting things like this is like praying in the desert when it comes to Gnome developers (or Ubuntu’s, for that matter), but isn’t this just utterly obvious?

    • http://www.tudorholton.com/ Tudor Holton

      Not at all. The title bar is managed by the window manager and is very strict about its layout. The menu bar is owned by the application and can contain *anything* – menus, icons, text, animations, you name it. So merging the two would be both dangerous (in that the application could mess with the window controls) and inconsistent (in that each application is different, so the title bar would have to be able to change in size.)

      • Anonymous

        I’m not saying it’s obvious from a development point of view, but just from a design and visual point of view. Just look at the huge amount of wasted vertical space. Maybe GTK 3 could address this, either by allowing the application to draw to the titlebar or by forcing window controls (buttons) in a mandatory first bar.

        EDIT: Look at this mockup: http://bradwjensen.deviantart.com/art/Ubuntu-Theme-Mockup-Light-69993148. And check the explanations on the left. Maximizing a window designed like this (or snapping it to the upper edge of the screen) makes use of the famous Fitts Law, making menus much easily accessible, as in the Mac. But keeping the menus on the window -not as in the Mac- makes them easier for bigger screens. Best of both worlds and lots of vertical space saving. Now Ubuntu is so close, yet so far, with the new behaviour of menu and titlebar…

        • http://www.tudorholton.com/ Tudor Holton

          I’m not arguing from a development point of view. I’m arguing from a user’s point of view. The mockup you site is trivial. Try doing a mockup of the same scenario but with something that has a decent amounf of menus or a long title. You’ll see the title disappear. Something like firefox, for example, can have very long titles. I say leave the title bar a title bar, and the menu bar a menu bar and save the confusion and ensuing gui design headache.

          As for disappearing menu bars, that’s a different argument. I can’t tell you how long it took me to find the menu in the new msn “live” client for example. By all means hide it, but standardise the accessibility of it otherwise people will get easily lost.

          • http://peligrociencia.com/ aloctavodia

            why is trivial? because NOW Firefox use long titles? but what if Firefox does not use long titles? in fact i don´t see the point of using such long titles y know what i am reading or looking i don´t need a long title and make even less sense with the use of tabs

          • http://peligrociencia.com/ aloctavodia

            why is trivial? because NOW Firefox use long titles? but what if Firefox does not use long titles? in fact i don´t see the point of using such long titles y know what i am reading or looking i don´t need a long title and make even less sense with the use of tabs

          • Anonymous

            I don’t find the mockup trivial at all (BTW, it isn’t mine and it’s about three years old, but still very relevant). What is definitely trivial is making extra-long window titles. No need for them at all. Do you really think that huge vertical space wasted in the current design is OK? Do we need a 40+ pixels high area to grab and move a window around the desktop? Do we really need all that empty space standing there for no good reason?

            (I don’t quite get why you bring disappearing menu bars into the discussion.)

          • Anonymous

            I don’t find the mockup trivial at all (BTW, it isn’t mine and it’s about three years old, but still very relevant). What is definitely trivial is making extra-long window titles. No need for them at all. Do you really think that huge vertical space wasted in the current design is OK? Do we need a 40+ pixels high area to grab and move a window around the desktop? Do we really need all that empty space standing there for no good reason?

            (I don’t quite get why you bring disappearing menu bars into the discussion.)

        • http://www.tudorholton.com/ Tudor Holton

          I’m not arguing from a development point of view. I’m arguing from a user’s point of view. The mockup you site is trivial. Try doing a mockup of the same scenario but with something that has a decent amounf of menus or a long title. You’ll see the title disappear. Something like firefox, for example, can have very long titles. I say leave the title bar a title bar, and the menu bar a menu bar and save the confusion and ensuing gui design headache.

          As for disappearing menu bars, that’s a different argument. I can’t tell you how long it took me to find the menu in the new msn “live” client for example. By all means hide it, but standardise the accessibility of it otherwise people will get easily lost.