Compiz based Unity will be available to test ‘ASAP’

By , Published October 28, 2010

Ubuntu’s Jorge Castro has confirmed that Maverick users will be able to test the newly announced Compiz port of Unity via a PPA ‘as soon as possible’.

The PPA will, as with the Unity and AppMenu PPA available for Lucid users, likely contain continually contain updated development builds of Compiz-Unity during the 6 month development cycle for 11.04.

Speaking on the AskUbuntu ‘stack’ site Jorge also revealed that the work will also be available in Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 1 due later next month.

If you have any queries on Unity – or Ubuntu in general – the AskUbuntu.com site provides a great way to get clear answers from the community.

Related posts:

  1. Ubuntu 11.04 will use Unity as the default desktop
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  • http://petercast.net Peterson Silva

    This is awesome! Most Unity effects are very cool in their simple beauty, but the alt+tab thing is awful as hell.

    • zekopeko

      That’s because it is using Mutter, Gnome’s new window manager. Once it starts using Compiz we will get the nice shiny one back.

    • zekopeko

      That’s because it is using Mutter, Gnome’s new window manager. Once it starts using Compiz we will get the nice shiny one back.

  • https://launchpad.net/~david4dev david4dev

    This will be good for testing. Lets hope everything is running really smoothly for the release.

  • Anonymous

    We will really really need compiz in Unity

  • Anonymous

    Excited to try this out and see how it compares to my typical setup (GNOME 2 default panel on top, Docky on bottom, tweaked Compiz settings).

  • Anonymous

    I’m actually looking forward to a change in the UI for Ubuntu. No one will be able to say that it is ripped from Windos or iOS or OSX (Apart from the store I guess)

    V. slow on my netboook, but the idea is there. Some menus a bit obscure, but the new unity running on a real desktop + 6 months of development from canonical / ubuntu will surely make for a great release.

    Am off to install the UNE on my desktop

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

      “No one will be able to say that it is ripped from Windos or iOS or OSX”
      Sure they will. Unity’s launcher has a fair resemblance to OSX’s dock or Windows 7′s taskbar

      • Anonymous

        Glum :/

        I suppose so. It is so difficult to be different. Gnome shell certainly is but unfortunately doesn’t seem to garner much enthusiasm

        I have noticed that Unity has made me use the terminal more though, so it is a good thing in a way :)

    • Anonymous

      Isn’t the apple store a rip-off from Linux package managers (probably click-n-run in particular)???

      • Anonymous

        yes I suppose it is in a way, so is their “vetting” of Apps. I am no expert on Apple unfortunately (neither am I on ubuntu lol)

        Unfortunately, I only started on Ubuntu (sorry, was coerced by a friend) in 2007, and Linspire was nearly defunct by that time

        I would pay big money (and so would most people) to be in the R&D labs of Apple but their marketing department must be 20 times bigger :)

        • Anonymous

          The best part of ubuntu/linux. Is that we can take all the best elements of other OS’s and implement something similar while also having new ideas. Nothing wront with looking similar to some of the best aspects of other OS’s.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

    It seems like OMG Ubuntu has some character encoding problems:
    http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/2701/bildschirmfotos.png

    I’m using the German Firefox version with UTF8.

    • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

      Oh good, it’s not just me. Same problem here with Chrome on Windows 7 (OMG! Heresy! — don’t worry, I’m at work) in the U.S.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FX5ITOLLHVNOY673XBRGCKF3DI Freddi

      ��

    • http://dottorblaster.it/ Bl@ster

      Italy, Chromium, all right here :D

      • http://twitter.com/andreav89 Andrea V.

        LOL turycell è pure qui :D

    • Anonymous

      hi, it’s ok in France with firefox 3.6./4 & chromium 7 (utf8)

      • http://profiles.google.com/mpnordland Micah Nordland

        It’s the fonts installed on your machine, not OMG!Ubuntu’s fault

    • Anonymous

      hi, it’s ok in France with firefox 3.6./4 & chromium 7 (utf8)

    • Anonymous

      Egypt Chromium all O.K
      كله تمام :)

    • http://twitter.com/dj_mauz Maurício Delgado

      I’m using Chromium 9.0.566.0 (64191) Ubuntu 10.04. Everithing it’s Ok here. (Portugal)

  • http://twitter.com/davbren David Gross

    This should be good. Much better than it currently is anyway.

  • http://twitter.com/inkubux Francis Belanger

    Can’t wait to see this. Unity dosen’t run on my laptop at the moment. Lets hope that this move to compiz will improve compatibility as well as speed.

    • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

      Yup, Unity doesn’t run on my desktop either. Well, technically it does, but the whole interface is invisible unless I mouseover certain areas. I’m really looking forward to testing out the compiz-based version.

      • Anonymous

        same here with my laptop and desktop. i just get an invisible interface.

        • http://profiles.google.com/chammersley1 Cristobal Hammersley

          I have the same problem, i just get an invisible interface, but why? please more compatibility!!!!

  • Anonymous

    Because the current Unity build doesn’t use Compiz. It looks as horrible as Gnome without Compiz.

  • Anonymous

    Because the current Unity build doesn’t use Compiz. It looks as horrible as Gnome without Compiz.

  • Anonymous

    Because the current Unity build doesn’t use Compiz. It looks as horrible as Gnome without Compiz.

  • Anonymous

    Because the current Unity build doesn’t use Compiz. It looks as horrible as Gnome without Compiz.

  • Anonymous

    I can’t wait to start testing Unity on my system!

  • https://launchpad.net/~danielestrife Daniel

    I’ll use surely unity on my laptop, and i will finally see how’s the desktop experience, because , the UNE interface is INVISIBLE!, and so finally i will have this fantastic interface, i like a lot the interface and if they will improve this one for the Desktop so it will be more fantastic than ever! I’m really excited!
    OMGUbuntu, posto the ppa’s ASAP!! Please!

  • http://twitter.com/Afrodiseum N.C. Weber

    It took a while for me to get used to it, but now I’m loving Unity. I put all my most commonly used programs on the launch bar and anything else is a snap to find in the Application Search. My only qualm is file handling, which Mark Shuttleworth spoke about at length in his Keynote, and the fact that Mutter prevents me from playing Ryzom. I have to switch to the Desktop Edition to play it. :-P

  • Anonymous

    Good news…..i really can’t wait!Alpha 1 is near and my desktop always is ready for a good test session!

  • iamsid

    All righty! I can’t wait to get my hands on it and start filing bug reports. May the best shell win. :)

  • http://twitter.com/johnprattchrist John Pratt

    Will this make Unity more compatible? For some reason, it didn’t seem to work on my computer, even though I’m sure I have 3D acceleration

    • http://twitter.com/Sephiroth_VII Sephiroth_VII

      Yes, it should.

    • Anonymous

      I’m sure it will.

  • Anonymous

    i don’t want Unity as it is now for my 4:3 screen and i don’t like docks (mac/win7) or single menu? (mac). So, what about me? they’ll force Unity on me? i don’t want that.. i like the way gnome is now (except the bugs :-) )

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

      The global menu aspect will be changed for the desktop version of Unity. Nonetheless while an Ubuntu install may default to Unity, you’ll still be free to use GNOME Shell or even the panels (the latter of course eventually being phased out in favor of GNOME Shell)

      • Anonymous

        wait! I like global menu bar. What is changing about it?

        • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

          I may be misunderstanding but I think there is discussion about eliminating that behavior. UNE was thought to be one application at a time, and making use of every little bit of screen space.

          People tend to do more than one thing on their desktop/laptop and have more screen space. So it’s possible they may have the menu bar behavior be the more classic/Windows way.

          At the Ubuntu Developer Summit, which you can participate remotely, there is a discussion in about 2.5 hours in Bonaire 4 about using a desktop Unity instead of GNOME Shell, perhaps that will provide more information.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj

      at least for a while you will be able to use “traditional panel”, although it will not be a default. In the long run – if you prefer the old ways maybe you could give Xubuntu a try? I haven’t used traditional Gnome panel/menu for a long while, and if I were to use something as oldfashioned I would prefer XFCE.

  • http://gbutola.wordpress.com Gaurav Butola

    Just installed Unity from the software centre and using it in my desktop edition. First look, nice!
    OMG no nautilus!

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, no nautilus really threw me!

      • http://petercast.net Peterson Silva

        There is nautilus, isn’t there? I mean, click the trash icon.

    • Anonymous

      Where is it in the software center? I searched “unity”…

      • http://gbutola.wordpress.com Gaurav Butola

        Search for Unity. It is the firt result saying ‘Unity interface for netbook edition’.
        It is just ~1600MB.

  • http://gbutola.wordpress.com Gaurav Butola

    Just installed Unity from the software centre and using it in my desktop edition. First look, nice!
    OMG no nautilus!

  • http://twitter.com/carlrice Carl Rice

    Now all I need is Compiz to run on FOSS Nvidia drivers… As soon as I install Nvidia’s drivers and enable Compiz everything feels slow.

  • http://twitter.com/carlrice Carl Rice

    Now all I need is Compiz to run on FOSS Nvidia drivers… As soon as I install Nvidia’s drivers and enable Compiz everything feels slow.

  • http://twitter.com/carlrice Carl Rice

    Now all I need is Compiz to run on FOSS Nvidia drivers… As soon as I install Nvidia’s drivers and enable Compiz everything feels slow.

    • Anonymous

      i wish 3d would be as mature and standard as 2d is

      • Anonymous

        I hope the 9.2 release of compiz stabilises the 3D experience as well as adds more bells and whistles. The word from the compiz team is that they have. As there is a HUGE amount of faith from canonical to the compiz dudes we have to assume that they are as good as their word on 9.2.

    • http://twitter.com/SmSpillaz SmSpillaz

      It runs on nouveau already (if that’s what you mean by “FOSS Nvidia Drivers”. I believe in Maverick you need to install another package to get the 3D stuff turned on.

      It actually works great in the majority of cases, but there are two big caveats:
      -> 1) No power management, which means that if you need a battery that lasts longer than an hour, you’re out of luck. Also, you need to not mind your card catching fire all the time
      -> 2) Not supported upstream yet. File a bug and watch them laugh at you. It is under heavy development ;-)

  • http://twitter.com/carlrice Carl Rice

    Now all I need is Compiz to run on FOSS Nvidia drivers… As soon as I install Nvidia’s drivers and enable Compiz everything feels slow.

  • Anonymous

    Will it behave with virtualbox or will one need to create a new partion for it? I’m going to go for it either way – my curiosity is just too strong.

    • http://twitter.com/KyleClarkeNZ Kyle Clarke

      I think virtual box hates video card drivers. So I’m not really sure it’ll like it.Unity didn’t work in virtual box because Mutter had to fall back to 2d. So assuming unity now *requires* compiz, it’ll also have no fall back to 2d…well the fall back to 2d will be no unity. But you already have that.

      You probably could create a new partition. I am personally just going to install it on top of my existing installation. If all else fails you should be able to change back to a standard gnome session fairly easy.

      • Anonymous

        Thanks Kyle. I’m not sure which will have the greater worth – submitting bug reports from a virtualbox or a partition installation. I’m a bit confused though, will the alpha be just of unity or will it have the underlying architecture of natty beneath it? If its the latter I can’t see how I can revert back to a non-alpha desktop :-/ Will deffo wait a few days after the release to learn from any mistakes that others have made. Not very intrepid of me I know!

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

      It should behave in Virtualbox. Mutter has a problem with Virutalbox yes, but I’ve used Compiz in a virtual machine before.

      • Anonymous

        Thanks Merk

      • Anonymous

        Thanks Merk

  • http://twitter.com/mauriziogalli Maurizio Galli

    well I like Ubuntu desktop the way it is and always been…. On my desktop I use two panels and menu bar. On my netbook I use top panel with menu bar and dockbarX…. Will those choices still be available?

    • http://twitter.com/zc456 Zenon Tigerpaw

      I can imagine so. I doubt the Software Center is picky about desktop environments. I mean, you have no idea how many times Dockey kept loading up under Netbook Edition even though I told it not to start-up on login.

    • http://twitter.com/zc456 Zenon Tigerpaw

      I can imagine so. I doubt the Software Center is picky about desktop environments. I mean, you have no idea how many times Dockey kept loading up under Netbook Edition even though I told it not to start-up on login.

    • http://twitter.com/zc456 Zenon Tigerpaw

      I can imagine so. I doubt the Software Center is picky about desktop environments. I mean, you have no idea how many times Dockey kept loading up under Netbook Edition even though I told it not to start-up on login.

  • Anonymous

    well this sounds loverly.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_I32UYQJ2ZBOZ37UCAQPB56OVCE Luigi

    If it weren’t for Compiz, I’m sure there would be 20 times more bitching about the move to Unity…

  • Anonymous

    Just beginning to get my head around this…so anyone with an android or an iphone will feel the lurve immediately?

  • Anonymous

    I am *delighted* for the compiz team. They put in so much effort and squeezed out so much goodness for the gnome desktop. I know that it has helped adoptation with certain friends of mine. And then gnome shell says no compiz? Like, what? OK I’m on the outside but that really looks like a slap in the face to me. The compiz team deserve so much more than nostalgia, and I am delighted for them that they have been entrusted and empowered to take unity forward. Nice one compiz devs! Let’s big it up for them because they really, really deserve it.

  • Anonymous

    Is there any way I can hide the SHARE STORY bar in Opera? It’s a complete pain that it keeps covering lines of text when using page down.

  • http://twitter.com/crimsdings crimson

    still not a fan of the whole unity idea, and probably will continue to use gnome ;/

  • http://www.facebook.com/mario.masetti Mario Masetti

    I was so happy with 10.10 that I jumped blindly to 11.04.

    How sorry! That chinese tablet look ( and not needed) , a dash to type where before I oneclicked, lost compiz cube and last, but not worst, no window borders, no menus, no move… and no “panic button” or soft landing option visible…

    After almost killin the instalation seeking for lost panels and indicators I ended up in a site explaining the login screen and the classical inteface option….

    Guys, when you engage in a quantum leap send us an alert signal in advance, provide vomit bags and a emergency “pull cord”!

    Or put an arrow, big arrow showing Classical Mode on Login Screen!

    I cant easily change my workspace now, and I hope You bring me back my cube!

  • http://www.facebook.com/mario.masetti Mario Masetti

    I was so happy with 10.10 that I jumped blindly to 11.04.

    How sorry! That chinese tablet look ( and not needed) , a dash to type where before I oneclicked, lost compiz cube and last, but not worst, no window borders, no menus, no move… and no “panic button” or soft landing option visible…

    After almost killin the instalation seeking for lost panels and indicators I ended up in a site explaining the login screen and the classical inteface option….

    Guys, when you engage in a quantum leap send us an alert signal in advance, provide vomit bags and a emergency “pull cord”!

    Or put an arrow, big arrow showing Classical Mode on Login Screen!

    I cant easily change my workspace now, and I hope You bring me back my cube!

 
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