Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Alpha 1 released

By , Published December 2, 2010

The first alpha of the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal development cycle has been released.

What’s new?

Being only Alpha 1 there are a lot of packages and features in heavy development, transition or out-right not included at all yet. As such don’t take too much away from this overview – a lot of things are going to change between now and April!

Unity Desktop

This is the big one. With work only starting on Desktop Unity in October it’s impressive seeing the amount of progress made in such little time.

Screenshot-5

The switch to Compiz from Mutter was certainly a good decision, not only does Unity now feel much more responsive it also looks very, very good.

The panel can also be set to auto-hide and ‘float’.

Ubuntu ‘Classic’ Desktop

If, for whatever reason, you want/need to revert to the traditional Ubuntu desktop just select ‘Ubuntu Classic Desktop’ from the session menu before logging in.

Sound menu changes

The Ubuntu Sound Menu has had a few minor changes already including new player control buttons and an ‘indented’ cover art frame.

Indicator-datetime is back

My favourite indicator is back – Indicator-Datetime! I’ve absolutely no logical/sane reason as to why I love it so much but it’s there, rocking out with its calendar widget…

Screenshot-4

Panel applets

I suppose the biggest change most users would recoil in horror at when using the Alpha is the redaction of traditional panel applets; applications using the old system tray are now at a loss.

Which means that…

Network Manager

The Network Manager applet now wears ‘indicator’ clothes. It feels feeble to say that this makes a huge difference to the way the desktop ‘feels’ but it really does.

Screenshot-2

Obligatory Video of Alpha 1 in action

Download

If you’re feeling brave you can grab Natty Alpha 1 – as well as see a comfortingly long list of known issues – @ ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha1

Related posts:

  1. Compiz/Unity PPA for Natty
  2. Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Daily Build’s available
  3. Ubuntu 11.04 named ‘Natty Narwhal’, aims to impress
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  • http://twitter.com/Ignisatrum Rudy

    I want to test it, looks great, I love the changes on unity

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

    I like the new sound menu. Natty is gonna be great by the looks of it.

  • http://twitter.com/genericmilk Peter Day

    Excellent stuff. Best one is the change to compiz. Mutter is just infeasibly slow to use as a desktop enviroment

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

      Mutter was annoying to work with. I like Unity…, just not the Mutter-based version.

      • Anonymous

        same here

  • Eugeny

    Without the tray, where Skype goes?

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZCKHVTP4QZOFR3PR2AB6FE7VJ4 Dexter

      Skype doesn’t show up but you can still use it. You do have to quit it in the down menu though.

    • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

      Some voluntary developers were already quite advanced in integrating Skype to the messaging menu (which is not difficult, as Skype is very dbus-friendly). I can’t give you a specific link right now, but googling should work.

      The only problem with the integration so far was precisely getting rid of the obligatory tray icon, which is “easy” if you don’t have a tray at all.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bartosz.zasieczny Bartosz Zasieczny

    Still GTK 2… :/

    • Anonymous

      I googled a bit, but no success.

      Is there an official document written somewhere that outlines Ubuntu’s plan wrt. gtk+-3.0 adoption?

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

        They may start supporting GTK 3 by beta. Though, it’s kinda hard to say since anything can happen at this point…

        • Anonymous

          I don’t mean supporting it, obviously they will ship gtk+-3 as a library. I was wondering if Canonical intend to move any of their core stack to gtk+-3.0?

          • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

            It’s almost inevitable. Maintaining Gtk2 in parallel would probably require more work and time than moving to Gtk3.

            Remember that Gtk3 is not simply a new version expected to be gradually adopted with smooth transitioning (like for example Python 3), it’s an explicit statement that Gtk2 is deprecated and should stop being used as soon as possible.

          • Anonymous

            Agree. Although Python 2->3 was hardly a nice transition ;-)

          • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

            Why? The API changes were fully documented, a subversion of 2 was released specifically for the transition and even a code converter was made available. Porting a Python2 app to Python3 is usually trivial.

            If you are referring to the slow adoption, that’s *exactly* my point. Python devs adopted a “things will break, so we’ll help you by supporting the old version for a while and gradually transitioning” policy, while Gnome devs are adopting a “things will break, PORT IT OR LOSE IT” policy.

          • http://www.facebook.com/bartosz.zasieczny Bartosz Zasieczny

            Moving to GTK3 is critically important, because app development for 2.x versions is awful. And of course GTK looks better :)

          • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

            It’s almost inevitable. Maintaining Gtk2 in parallel would probably require more work and time than moving to Gtk3.

            Remember that Gtk3 is not simply a new version expected to be gradually adopted with smooth transitioning (like for example Python 3), it’s an explicit statement that Gtk2 is deprecated and should stop being used as soon as possible.

    • http://twitter.com/om26er omer akram

      both gtk+2 and gtk+3 are installed by default in natty.

    • http://twitter.com/om26er omer akram

      both gtk+2 and gtk+3 are installed by default in natty.

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

    Alpha 1 seems to dislike my nvidia 6600 graphic card

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

      What did you do exactly. I have a 6600 and i’ve lost almost 2 nights trying to get it to work. But it boots to a black screen every time I install a nvidia driver :(.

  • http://twitter.com/BrandonSheppard Brandon Sheppard

    Absolutely beautiful.

  • http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith

    I really don’ t like how the sidebar meets the top panel?

    Why not just include awn, cairo or docky?

    • Anonymous

      Agreed.

      What I especially don’t like is that the window controls are wider than the width of the panel, so that when the panel is minimised the Ubuntu logo thing and the window controls don’t match. A tiny, tiny complaint, I know, but…

    • Anonymous

      I HATE that sidebar!! It can be of utility in a netbook where vertical screen estate is precious, and the sidebar intends on saving it. But I think its a feature from unity that is still being worked on and will be improved in future to make it more desktop (or notebook) like. I sure hope they do, cuz it looks SO ugly!

      • http://mirek2.mp/ Mirek2

        I like the sidebar (I use it on autohide, in which case it’s good that it’s vertical and right below the “hot corner” — works a lot like GNOME Shell), but I also really hate how it looks.
        It actually looked pretty good in Maverick, but for some reason they made the icons huge for the Compiz version…

        • https://launchpad.net/~jassmith Jason Smith

          We are hamstrung somewhat by the linux icon formats. If you dont pick one of the standard icon sizes (24×24, 48×48, etc) you get fuzzy icons for every application that doesn’t ship very good svg’s. Some svg’s don’t even scale that well from their native resolution. In Maverick we didn’t use a native icon size and the icons are quite fuzzy (warning, once you notice, it cannot be unseen).

          In the compiz version we are using 48×48 standard size icons.

          • Anonymous

            ack my eyes! didnt read your warning till the end ;/

            it would be nice if it became themable like dockbarX, in which you can get the unity look, etc.

            am all with using native sizes, but will there be an option to downsize it to 32 or 24 in case i dont like 48 or want to save a bit of screen space?

          • https://launchpad.net/~jassmith Jason Smith

            I can say the code handles arbitrary sizing. I can’t say what the release options will be, that is not my department.

        • https://launchpad.net/~jassmith Jason Smith

          We are hamstrung somewhat by the linux icon formats. If you dont pick one of the standard icon sizes (24×24, 48×48, etc) you get fuzzy icons for every application that doesn’t ship very good svg’s. Some svg’s don’t even scale that well from their native resolution. In Maverick we didn’t use a native icon size and the icons are quite fuzzy (warning, once you notice, it cannot be unseen).

          In the compiz version we are using 48×48 standard size icons.

        • https://launchpad.net/~jassmith Jason Smith

          We are hamstrung somewhat by the linux icon formats. If you dont pick one of the standard icon sizes (24×24, 48×48, etc) you get fuzzy icons for every application that doesn’t ship very good svg’s. Some svg’s don’t even scale that well from their native resolution. In Maverick we didn’t use a native icon size and the icons are quite fuzzy (warning, once you notice, it cannot be unseen).

          In the compiz version we are using 48×48 standard size icons.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MYT2BRAJJMTSHAZ3XZVNFJM6GQ Buddy

      the way the dock meets the panel is ugly! the panel is small while the dock is big. It needs a redesign here, IMHO

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MYT2BRAJJMTSHAZ3XZVNFJM6GQ Buddy

      the way the dock meets the panel is ugly! the panel is small while the dock is big. It needs a redesign here, IMHO

  • http://alphaflock.mezoka.com AlphaFlock

    That bar on the right kills it.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZCKHVTP4QZOFR3PR2AB6FE7VJ4 Dexter

      By kills it you mean makes it look like the best dock out of all the other operating systems. :p

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

      What bar on the right? :P

      • http://alphaflock.mezoka.com AlphaFlock

        LOL my bad. And no I mean it looks horrid. I don’t know why but I can’t get used to Unity. At least not yet.

    • http://www.colinharrington.net Colin Harrington

      The dock is on the ‘other’ right, otherwise known as ‘left’ :-)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_545IBL4ROGGRKAI6PKNVTDKDB4 John P

    I really don’t get all the “beautiful” and “looks great” comments. It looks like 10.XX with Docky to me. Maybe I will get what all the fuss is about when I use it.

    • Anonymous

      What about the dash looks like Mac OS? In fact we did it in 10.10 and Apple said they were going to do something similar in lion so they are copying us not us copying them.

      • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/hushnecampus Sam Illingworth

        I think when he said 10.XX he was referring to the last couple of Ubuntus. Mind you, I’d say anything with a single panel across the top, global menus and a dock does look somewhat like OS X.

        Which is fine by me, OS X is lovely.

    • http://jdevelopthis.blogspot.com Jacky Alcine

      Same thing I feel.

    • Anonymous

      Admittidly today it looks fairly basic, but all the juicy features have not been ported over yet. They will land before Alpha 2; I think the point is that even in it’s current basic form, there is beauty in it’s simplicity.

      So in summary: the final product will look stunning, it will just take a few months to get there. That is the wonderful aspect of Open Source – you get to peek into the sausage factory and see it developing. :-)

      Unity will rock, I have do doubt. :-)

      • Anonymous

        Agreed. The work is solid although the features are missing.

        Question: will the panel be somewhat customizable? as in, size and color ..

        Also a potential flaw with the dock (sidebar) is you can’t move the icons because dragging affects the whole dock instead of individual icons.

        • http://twitter.com/johanumartins João Martins

          It is possible to rearrange, just drag the icon out of the bar to the side and drag it in in the place you want it to be.

      • http://twitter.com/manzabud abraham

        jonobacon, one thing i do not like about unity dock is that i have to possibility to change its theme, is anything can we do about it?

      • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

        Having recently moved to Unity I really find that the interface would be greatly improved by introducing the same technics as are seen in Windows 7′s Aero Peek. I am eagerly hoping to see something like this make an appearance somehow as it would make work really quick and easy to find and access.

        Sadly the request filed for it was labelled opinion which to me sounds like Launchpad speak for WONTFIX.

        Regardless, hope remains strong on my part.

        • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/hushnecampus Sam Illingworth

          What does Aero Peek do? I like the thing where you drag windows to a screen edge and they go half-full-screen. I’m sure there’ll be an app for it (I’ve got one on XP and OS X), but it would be nice built and pre-configured in as a Compiz plugin (you can do it as a Compiz macro thing, but it’s a bit messy).

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GE4EYP3QOQ246PLG2Y2DOD2NIQ Dr. Fly

            Well, I have been keeping up with the latest builds of GNOME Shell, and while Aero Peek may not have been implemented into it yet, the other window management things (dragging to the edges to half-maximize and dragging to the top for a full maximize) have already been implemented.

            I am REALLY looking forward to seeing Unity and GNOME Shell competing with each other in a finished state. Both seem pretty good so far.

        • http://twitter.com/ricare richard icare

          would the unity interface work even if my graphic card is not allowing compiz? i have a dektop from 2000 and it work so well thank’s to Ubuntu. the only challenge I have is that it dos not like compiz at all, so i cannot have any effect what so ever, and the new unity interface kind of put me of for that reason.

  • Anonymous

    Downloading now… :D

  • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

    I’ll just keep my fingers crossed for dual screen & global menu issues to be resolved. At least partially. :)

    • Anonymous

      I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that a dual screen set-up can be found somewhere in my future. preferably on my computer desk… :P

      On track… how do you think that this issue could be most effectively resolved? Would there be anything wrong with having the same global menu display on the top of both screens?

  • Anonymous

    Unity and compiz woot ! :-))

  • daas88

    They better add time zones to indicator datetime, and integration with evolution calendar! I wouldn’t get rid of the gnome panel because of that applet and those features.

  • Anonymous

    wow, compare this to 9.10

    ubuntu has come a *long* way

  • Anonymous

    Is the Dash working? That is probably the thing that I am most excited to see working…

    • Anonymous

      Hooking up the dash is targetted for alpha2

      • Anonymous

        good to know… thanks :)

  • http://www.colinharrington.net Colin Harrington

    The dock is on the ‘other’ right, otherwise known as ‘left’ :-)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LOR655GR4ZFHCMSV7FW5ROPSAA Cliff W

    Perhaps someone who’s tested this can clarify the side panel a bit.

    Is it scalable? I currently have 14 launchers/applets in AWN which just fits horizontally on my 13.1″ screen with an icon size of 48px. Moving to a vertical layout cuts the overall size of the bar significantly, but reducing the icon size might be a workaround.
    While I can see from the video that the panel scrolls to accomodate more launchers… well, I’m not loving that. I like the horizontal AWN layout precisely because stuff is immediately visible.

    While not exactly related, coverflow represents the same usability disaster: the user can’t see where they are going, which slows down navigation considerably.

    In any case, I’m reluctant to say “this sucks” because I haven’t tried it and some genius developer may have neatly solved the usability issues, but having tried other similar UI elements, I’m not optimistic.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      the ubuntu netbook version had an ‘accordian; feature so that you could see all icons at once., i assume if this hasnt been implemented on this one already then it will be

  • http://www.colinharrington.net Colin Harrington

    This is beautiful, but most of us who spend the time to customize our Desktops with Compiz, Docky, Gnome-do, Conky, etc. already have an excellent experience.

    I think that this may hurt power users a little bit, but will definitely raise the view of Ubuntu in the casual user’s eyes – which I think is the right move.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LOR655GR4ZFHCMSV7FW5ROPSAA Cliff W

      I doubt it will hurt anyone. Unity will be the *default*, but that doesn’t make it required. If you are using Docky, gnome-do, conky, etc, then you are already familiar with deviating from the default.

      OTOH, one way “power users” might suffer is if their favorite apps languish a bit from disuse or become more difficult to install because their former packagers/PPA maintainers stop using them.

    • Anonymous

      I believe power user are called power user in the first place coz they know what to do, they know how to control the system. If someone is a power user, there is no reason to panic as even a novice like me knows that anytime we can revert back to the normal GNOME desktop we all love.

      For raw novices, Unity will be a out-of-the-box-surprising-gift… Cheers Ubuntu… :)

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MBVVKZ27VI7BWWQSVUN6WWTZPI Anonymous

      Casual users wont be able to get past the black screen bug after installing Ubuntu’s “tested/recommended” nvidia drivers.

  • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

    Sad to say that after a lot of hard work on our part, and that of the Ubuntu packagers the Banshee MIR missed the deadline however the switch should come within a week or so and awesome shall be delivered to all.

    We have lots of cool stuff in the pipeline including some performance tweaks and UI updates.

    Overall, I am fairly impressed with Natty so far, though Unity has required me to switch to the proprietary nvidia driver after what seems like forever using the nouveau gallium3d driver. A bug naturally is filed to track this problem.

    • Marie

      To get this look right now, just go into your AWN settings in dock preferences and change the dock orientation to the left. One click, basically same thing. LOL

    • http://twitter.com/shadowwoman shadowwoman

      Will it be available through Ubuntu’s default repos?

  • http://gerbilschool.wordpress.com/ gerbilschool

    I started on 9.10 back in January, having only previously used Windows XP. I was impressed back then, and then 10.04 came out… (with it’s fantastic ‘light’ theme)

  • Anonymous

    I’m not feeling the whole dock on the side thing. Heck, I don’t even use those other docks. They never quite suited me. I don’t know. I may install it on a virtual machine to play around with it a bit. It may just take some getting used to.

    • Anonymous

      I personally think it is logical to be able to reach and interact with my most used applications in a neat and comfortable way. Not digging through the menu just to get there. Desktop icons are no-no for me. I like a clean desktop.
      Also, the dock on the left means more horizontal screen space, and we all are using wide-screens now, aren’t we??…

      • Anonymous

        The 6 apps I use most I have icons for on the top panel. The other one I prefer the menus, because I don’t use them that much and the categories let me find them quickly.

        I prefer my desktop clean as well, though I do put new stuff and high priority docs on there so I don’t forget about them. Once I’m done with them, they are removed from my desktop.

        As for the wide screen, I don’t have one. And i don’t plan on getting a wide screen monitor until I graduate due to a lack of money, and a place to put it.

        I’m not saying the doc on the left is without merits, but I am unsure as to how convenient it will be for me personally.

  • Anonymous

    I’d really prefer to have the option to use classic Gnome applets in the panel. I don’t mind checking out Unity, but for me, desktop customization is one of the biggest perks of using Ubuntu.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      its not a gnome panel though… so i would assume there would be some porting issues, and i doubt it would be worth it

  • http://gerbilschool.wordpress.com/ gerbilschool

    Does this different clock mean the end of my weather info?

  • Anonymous

    I have not liked gnome shell, but it looks way better than unity at this point. Maybe Unity can catch the years of work on gnome shell in a few months time but i doubt it.

  • http://youtube.com/Ants45 Ants

    It’s Alpha I know, but have the icons in the “system tray” stopped moving (even when locked)? I really REALLY hope so.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      that bugs the hell out of me

    • http://twitter.com/17Twenty Nick Glynn

      From what I recall, a fix for the traditional panel landed a little while ago and the move to the Indicator menu system should mitigate any outstanding problems.

      • Anonymous

        Good to know. :) My wife is really sceptical about linux in the first place, so I hate it when I have her use my computer and the tray on the top right is mangled and ugly. I guess this is just one more thing that she won’t be saying “pshaw… linux.” about any more. :P

  • http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/ Doug

    are laptops with nvidia optimus (2 graphics cards) going to be able to work in this next version with a newer linux kernel.

  • http://twitter.com/dojan5 Joel Lundborg

    Am I the only one who absolutely detests having windows maximized all over my desktop?
    I suppose if you’re low on screen estate, but why even have a desktop if it’s going to be covered by windows all the time?
    There’s so many other ways to improve workflow without the desktop…

    Urk.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      you dont HAVE to have your windows maximized….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RSWKLXMKEVS7WMXAFCKNE7Q4ZA Mamo

    same as before and still bad

    • Anonymous

      On the now ubiquitous wide screen monitors, the importance of vertical space trumps that of horizontal space — ergo, launcher on the side.

      • Anonymous

        can you move it (to left/bottom) though? i’m not going to change the way i like doing things on someone else’s whim(my buttons are on the right too). if i wanted those decisions made for me i’d use apple.

        • Anonymous

          Who, incidentally, allow you to move the dock to the bottom or the right.

        • http://www.google.com/profiles/ISantop Ian

          I think a lot of people miss the point of the Dock. It’s supposed to be a part of the ubuntu button in the top left, almost like an extension of it. Moving it to the bottom throws that all off.

  • http://twitter.com/_takzk22CP Takashika

    When I install 11.04, I will find out how to get rid of that side panel and install a dock.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      then what would be the point in testing 11.04?

      • Anonymous

        What would be the point of releasing an upgrade if the only change was the desktop manager? Maybe Takashika wants to try the other changes that an upgrade brings…

  • Anonymous

    This is an interesting war gnome-shell vs Unity. I wonder how its going to turn out.

    • Anonymous

      Probably will turn out that the number of KDE users increases. Gnome has a whole bunch of KDE3 refugees who need a gnome upheaval to make them switch again.

      • http://twitter.com/17Twenty Nick Glynn

        I dunno about that, nothing can make you appreciate Gnome/Unity more than having to use KDE for a few hours. It’s the FOSS equivalent of sorting out your problems over a beer “Yeah we argue, but at least it isn’t as bad as this!” ;)

        • Anonymous

          i live in hope. i try it for 15 minutes occasionally after most releases, but haven’t tried since 4.4.
          i used unity on a good laptop for a whole morning and realised that its current problems are actually by design, and unofrtunately will still remain in a finished version of the product. we can only hope though.

  • Anonymous

    full size web pages here we come!!!

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

    Black screen after activating Nvidia graphics which is needed to use unity :(.
    To bad.

  • Anonymous

    i said it already in other compiz natty posts…. but i really hope the launcher and icons get the old mutter look back. the smooth bar int he mutter version looked better with the theme and now the littlelines around the launcher and icons i personally think look less cheap. i just think the smooth look was working great so why change it

  • Anonymous

    What’s about my battery? I’m reading “3d” and nvidia binary driver all the time.. Will it put my laptops gfx to performance mode?

    Will there be some kind of energy saver?

  • http://twitter.com/Sephiroth_VII Sephiroth_VII

    That’s OMG!Ubuntu!’s trademark. It always has, and will, focus on the details.

  • fishears

    Looks like most complaints can be answered with:
    a) It’s only the first Alpha, or
    b) So use Ubuntu ‘Classic’ Desktop

    I’m looking forward to being able to choose from more than one quality, gnome-based front-end.
    Keep up the good work.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VWKDYGJOF23MM4G7XRXP6DRJEQ David .

    My only problem with indicator-date-time is that the calendar closes when I click on another window. The current calendar STAYS OPEN until I click it back off.

    Which is very useful.

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

    Is it possible to easily re-add the traditional system tray? Backward compatibility is rather important to me.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      you can select ‘ubuntu classic desktop’ as a session at login

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

        This is not the same. I’d like to use Unity but with a classic system tray.

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

        This is not the same. I’d like to use Unity but with a classic system tray.

    • Carl

      Same way it’s done now, I would imagine- right click on the panel, add that applet right in there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ethana2 Ethan Anderson

    That’s what phoronix is for, imo

  • http://www.facebook.com/ethana2 Ethan Anderson

    That’s what phoronix is for, imo

  • http://www.facebook.com/ethana2 Ethan Anderson

    I can’t wait for the power consumption improvements that will come with the Wayland switch.. Hopefully that and Unity bring performance improvements to 3d-capable computers with SDRam.. You don’t notice how heavy Ubuntu is on a machine until your RAM bandwidth is horrible.

    • Anonymous

      don’t expect wayland to be ready(not as default) before 12.04 at the very least

  • http://twitter.com/brandenmikal branni.

    the dock is murder to me. why would i want a dock that looks like something out of a child product. sorry but i will NOT be upgrading; i’ve worked too hard to customize my computer to my liking for the upgrade to go and f**k it up.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=882690104 Callum Saunders

      its alpha one man give it a chance…

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

      Other than “put it back”, in your opinion, how could the dock be improved so it looks less like “a child product”.

      I say “put it back” isn’t an option, because whether it’s Unity or GNOME Shell, you can’t use the panels forever.

      • https://launchpad.net/~jassmith Jason Smith

        The traditional desktop is still available in Natty.

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

          That is a short term solution, yes. I was referring to long term, ie when GNOME no longer supports the traditional desktop (panels)

          • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/hushnecampus Sam Illingworth

            I agree with branni – the current style (of icons, specifically) does remind me of a kid’s toy (the background is also too dark for my taste). The solution’s obvious – make it all themable. If it can be easily changed from a well designed Appearance window then we can all be happy :)I’d also suggest changing the default, unless branni and I are in the minority in not liking this style. We don’t want new-to-Linux users’ first impressions being that it looks like a toy, that’s not much better than looking like something designed just for programmers (the old prejudice).I think it’s essential that Unity’s themable, at least for the first LTS release.

      • http://www.google.com/profiles/dsnettleton dsnettleton

        I suspect he disapproves of the size of the icons. That’s my only real complaint too. They’d be nice if I had a touchscreen, but they are pretty huge. I think it gives the dock that “preschool” look. Also, you can’t fit as many icons on the dock when they’re that big without having them “fold over.” However, since the code supports resizing, I have no idea why anyone would make such a big deal over such a small thing.

    • http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B

      Last time I upgraded None of my customizations were lost. In fact I ended up adding a few more to take advantage of new features. At most all I’ve ever had to do is tweak a few depreciated configs.

    • Anonymous

      chill! the upgrade is not like when Vista! :O

      in fact going back to classic gnome is as easy as turning off a little plugin or choosing “classic desktop” in the login screen ;)

      They thought it out well and kept both versions.

  • Anonymous

    Now I’m not a developer, but there’s a BIG decision for Ubuntu users on whether to stick with the official Unity or switch to GNOME Shell. Now, I’ve heard people say that Unity is looking better at the moment (and I agree), however, the good people at the helm of development obviously know something about them to think that Unity is a better bet, and letting us in on this will help make our decision easier.
    Once again, I’m only looking to provide constructive criticism, and I love OMGU.

  • http://twitter.com/zemikit Vladimir Scherbaev

    Hm, I can’t install it in the Virtual Box. Why?

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

      Requires 3D Support, 3D Support in Virtualbox tends to break during alpha/betas of any release of Ubuntu.

  • http://delata.blogspot.com TunaCaserole

    Looks a little similar to 10.10 NBR. Though I like the fact that Natty seems to sport a universal menu. Would love to see this turns out in the coming months.

    And as much as I don’t want to admit it, the dock on the side just isn’t appealing to me. Would prefer to have it at the bottom too as Mamo said.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MY2PNWUEJM42SHVOI6NI2GUFZE Alfred E.

    Why are panel applets so terrible and indicator-applets so great again? And are indicator applets a Ubuntu invention or part of Gnome?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ICV4WEXTYE5SC2POQEQMWKZOEU Matt

      Well, there kinda both..
      Technically there gnome, but recently (ever since its been more than just the messages menu for evolution only) there’s been an extreme amount of ubuntu contribution to them, and the indicators themselves are largely created by individuals following the craze. I do believe the specifications are mainly Ubuntu..

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ICV4WEXTYE5SC2POQEQMWKZOEU Matt

      Well, there kinda both..
      Technically there gnome, but recently (ever since its been more than just the messages menu for evolution only) there’s been an extreme amount of ubuntu contribution to them, and the indicators themselves are largely created by individuals following the craze. I do believe the specifications are mainly Ubuntu..

    • Anonymous

      because with indicator applets, you will be able to have four or five categorical applets which hold a bunch of panel applets. that way, you dont have 20, ugly, un-uniform panel applets taking up space in your panel.

  • http://twitter.com/DrDeeps Mike Waller

    I didn’t think I would like Unity all that much. And while I will most likely be makingthe move to another DE, or even better, a WM, I am starting to like it a bit more. However, XFCE is looking better to me.

    • Goldman

      Yup, XFCE rocks. I don’t miss anything from Gnome.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_35C4VFILBRPONLTLCP57Y536TE Danilo

    People dont be so fast to judge, i mean it is just an Alpha ONE , try it , test it , report problems etc but dont be furious and angry like some ppl here that commented… The 11.04 have a long road to go yet…

  • https://launchpad.net/~b.a.koenig Your Name

    Haha, 720MB is too large for a live CD and I have no free usb available. :(

  • http://twitter.com/pavolzetor Pavol Klačanský

    Unity will be perfect, I don’t like opinions about how it’s wrong, it is next step

  • http://johannpopper.myopenid.com/ Johann Popper

    The only major usability concern I see is that auto-hide can be very annoying with the window controls on the left. Obviously, exiting or minimizing a program and inadvertently recalling the dock will be an extreme paper cut. Perhaps the dock should be on the right or the window controls restored to the right, for now there’s going to be so much activity in the upper left corner of the screen, upon release people might go mad and do terrible things to themselves.

    • http://www.google.com/profiles/mazelm M. M.

      I agree.
      It’d be great if it was possible to move the launcher+ubuntu button to the right. That’s where it makes sense — with all the other system-related things, away from the app-specific menus. Plus the close button could be in the left corner, so I could quickly close apps (that’s one thing I missed from Windows).

  • http://twitter.com/ChrisBaum ChrisBaum

    Is ist now possible to use the Desktop Cube Effect with unity? I tried that with an earlier version and could not manage to get that working…
    At all I’m quite impresst how fast the development here works!

  • Anonymous

    Unfortunately, I’ll have to pass on Unity as my AtiXpress 200 won’t handle it. It can barely handle the regular desktop with all effects off…which is a shame. I know it’s an old ATI card but don’t tell me it can’t displays those basic effects. Under Windows, I can run old games that show more than this.
    Compiz was running fine on it around 8.10 but since then, since the open-source drivers are the only solution, it just have been worse every release.

    The bug has been reported but they don’t seem to care…

  • https://launchpad.net/~maitraya-bhattacharyya Maitraya

    Wish it was themable…

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/mazelm M. M.

    Except for the speed, it seems to be a step back from the Mutter Unity.
    The icons are too large. The trash icon is, for some strange reason, never collapsed and sometimes covers over other icons.
    Auto-hide would be great if the Ubuntu button was on the right, not right next to the window buttons. It’s a pain.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RQT3PUR3JN5WJ2ZETREERMBM4M Zamato

    Switching To Unity = Biggest Mistake In Ubuntu History

  • http://twitter.com/AlexSocop アレックス ソコプ

    I really like the new Ubuntu’s look. Will be so cool to use the final version.

  • http://twitter.com/AlexSocop アレックス ソコプ

    I really like the new Ubuntu’s look. Will be so cool to use the final version.

  • http://www.facebook.com/haasb Blake Haas

    Eh, this looks like it was made for tablets, not desktops…

    • Anonymous

      actually is kinda both.

      they’re also implementing touch just in case.

  • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

    Performance articles do appear here, however they are notoriously hard to get right (read impossible) and tend to be boring reads. E.g. if I was to write an article on how we improved the feel of scrolling through the artist list in Banshee it wouldn’t be very exciting stuff. The result is fantastic though.

    But here goes, start your typical Banshee with lots of artist in the database. Now select the artist list and hold down the “down arrow” key. See how it lags and turns Banshee into mush? Not great at all and we all want to be great.

    The problem is that for each artist you hit under way till you release the key you generate an SQL query and the UI is updated. Each of these takes maybe 50-100ms to return, plus the time it takes to update the UI.

    So what Alex Launi did was to change this to only issue a request when you release the button instead of every step down the list. Suddenly everything is now smooth and Banshee appears to perform better.

    Sadly this won’t screencast well, and one cannot easily do a before and after graph to show how much quicker it is as we are talking about saved work rather than increased performance on existing work.

    Regardless users can enjoy that performance will feel much better for this case in 1.9.1 (provided the patch is merged prior to Dec. 15)

    Performance is a fascinating area with lots of pitfalls, it takes time and expertise to right. It is always fantastic to find a great article on the subject but also vanishingly rare. It is just not the type of stuff OMG! Ubuntu! would tend to publish. Typically we do fire and forget type articles written in a couple of hours. About something fresh that is easy to show.

    That is not to say we haven’t done articles on performance, e.g. there was an article on the tty based scheduling scheme introduced as an RFC just a little while ago. The debate surrounding which was far more interesting and which also showed that performance articles do require a lot of background not to be misleading.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin

      Sorry to say, but if that’s an optimization, your program has bigger problems.

      • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

        All applications do stupid things, however this was fixed within hours of being reported (on thanksgiving none the less). But this only goes to show my point, you just can’t please some people.We apologize for making Banshee better as a result of someones bug report. We will try to ignore, repress and/or deny our problems just like everyone else from now on, deal?

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin

          There’s a difference between optimization and bad design. Unfortunately my experience with most software code (my own included) is that it’s all one big hack after another. My current opinion on various computer technologies (including most programming languages) is also not that great, but maybe that’s just me. Sorry if I offended anyone.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZCKHVTP4QZOFR3PR2AB6FE7VJ4 Dexter

    How come Banshee is not in alpha 1?

  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p0120a5509de8970c Mikko

    more mono programs to purge and more programs to install and that side bar is seriously fugly

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

      What is it with you people and Mono? #DontAnswerThat

      • http://profile.typepad.com/6p0120a5509de8970c Mikko

        i said mono programs!

        don’t like them!

  • http://twitter.com/T_Cantara Tom Cantara

    Downloading Alpha1 now, can’t wait to give it a “test drive.” The new look is interesting, and it will further separate Ubuntu from the other Linux OSes out there, as well as from Windows and MacOS. I just hope the finished product gives the ultimate user experience that I’m used to seeing in Ubuntu.

  • https://dralvarado.wordpress.com Jorge Luis Alvarado Pérez

    Esperaré con paciencia las salida de Ubuntu 11.04! sobre todo en su versión notebook.

  • Anonymous

    as someone who already heavily customises my desktop environment i’m not sure i like the new UI. i agree with some of y’all that as far as usability goes these new ‘features’ could hurt power users more than anyone else (then again EVERYTHING could change by the official release). as far as the rest of the computing world goes 99% of the idiots out there ARE more concerned with how it looks as opposed to how it functions, so in that regard i think it was a good move. hopefully it will help to divert some wac/windoze users from the dark-side.

  • Anonymous

    as someone who already heavily customises my desktop environment i’m not sure i like the new UI. i agree with some of y’all that as far as usability goes these new ‘features’ could potentially hurt power users more than anyone else (then again EVERYTHING could change by the official release). as far as the rest of the computing world goes 99% of the idiots out there ARE more concerned with how it looks as opposed to how it functions, so in that regard i think it was a good move. hopefully it will help to divert some wac/windoze users from the darkside.

  • Anonymous

    I assume the whole Unity/Compiz interface does work flawlessly with open drivers, and does not require the proprietary drivers, am I right?

  • http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith

    what is going to happen with google chrome and the global menu? I spend the majority of my time in google chrome, and I love all the screen real estate….

 
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