See what’s new in Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2

By , Published February 3, 2011

By Jove we’ve made it to the second alpha of  Ubuntu 11.04!

Time flies when you’re in a development cycle, I guess. To acknowledge the ace-ness of the alpha release (cos alpha’s are always ace, beta’s are brill’ and stables are swell) I’ve decided to write this post as if I was still twelve. And writing about Doctor Who.

So, to the crunch, what’s new and is it worth trying out yet? Buckle up and we’ll take a gander….

New since Alpha 1

Disclaimer: Ubuntu 11.04 is only at alpha 2. What you see listed below is not finished. I don’t know how many times I have to reiterate this to stave off mini-rebellions against Canonical in the comments, but folks: alpha. Remember ‘alpha’.

Unity

Unity, being the default desktop session in Ubuntu 11.04, has received all sorts of tweaking, fixing and honing.

The Launcher now respects your system theme and has intellihide enabled by default. Other important parts have also landed in Unity since Alpha 1, including: -

Dash

A initial version of the Dash is now present.

Places

Browsing for files and applications is a mite easier in this second alpha thanks to the initial deployment (why am i writing like this is a company report? No idea, I’ll continue) of Unity’s ‘file’ and ‘application’ places.

unity places

They look a bit inelegant right now but it’s an alpha, folks. As D:Ream once sang: ‘things can only get better’.

Sound menu

As a long-time Sound menu advocate (Yes, being an advocate comes with a Unity-branded beret and sash) I was super pleased to see the return of playlist support to the menu. It’s not 100% as it should be in the Alpha (keyword being: alpha) but it works, therefore making it useful already for playlist aficionados like myself.

Screenshot-2

Ubuntu one control panel

The new look ‘Ubuntu One Dashboard’ is included by default in Alpha 2. The overhaul is welcome – it certainly helps make syncing and managing your Ubuntu One account easier.

Grid ‘Aero Snap’ feature

A nifty Compiz plugin now enabled by default is the ‘Aero Snap’ style ‘Grid’. Drag an app window to the top to maximise, left or right to resize windows side-by-side.

GTK+ Gripper

For the times when auto-sizing doesn’t do it you’ll find a new ‘grip’ handle on window borders and an invisible  ‘border aura’ make manual resizing much, much easier (particularly on touchscreens).

You can read some more on coming border changes on @ smspillaz.wordpress.com.

Software Centre

Ahh, and so we come to Ubuntu’s ‘app store’. Notable additions present in Alpha 2 include: -

Ratings and reviews

Long wanted and now they’re here: give your favourite apps a star rating, fill in a short review and then tweet your verdict to your social buddies via Gwibber.

Clever Centre

Zeitgeist-powered application recommendations and application usage tracking is also ticking away in Alpha 2. Use it to find new apps to install, find installed apps you don’t use or just freak out at its intelligence.

Ubuntu Classic Desktop

It may be classic but that doesn’t mean it’s sacred; Unity’s Global Menu applet now appears on the top panel, alongside a compact menu button. (See image above)

LibreOffice

OpenOffice has been replaced with the newly released LibreOffice in this alpha for evaluation purposes.

Download

Did you skim directly to this bit? Tsk!

Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 is not recommended for installation on production systems, your brothers netbook or military supercomputers. If you’re eager to try it out do it safely: use a usb stick or a LiveCD.

The parent-part over, the official download links for Ubuntu 11.04, along with more information, can be found @ ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2. Alternatively the direct links are below.

Use torrents where possible - this helps everyone get it a bit faster by not hammering the servers.

Related posts:

  1. Lubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 to be delayed
  2. Try Natty Alpha 1 safely using a usb stick
  3. Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Alpha 1 released
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  • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/giowckln@googlemail.com Your Name is My Name

    yeah great!

    It’s the first time that there are so many new things for an alpha 2

    :D

  • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

    “”I don’t know how many times I have to reiterate this to stave off mini-rebellions against Canonical in the comments, but folks: alpha. Remember ‘alpha’.”"

    I LOLed at this. Joey, have you ever succeeded?

    • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

      Completely sincere question.
      At what point in time will it be appropriate to express dissatisfaction? Beta? Release day? Should the people who are expressing concern right now about this second attempt at writing a codebase named Unity bite their tongues now and make their opinions known on release day? Will you give them the floor to air their grievances then?

      -jef

      • Anonymous

        No one is stopping you from airing your opinions, BUT the point is not to despair as if this version is final herald of the doomsday. Express your views, suggest improvements, but don’t curse the developers and despair as if it’s a complete work which you will find in the actual release.

        Peace.

        • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

          Me? I haven’t expressed an opinion as to the technical strengths and weaknesses of Unity thus far as far as I know.

          But lets talk about this over-melodramatic concepts of despair and doomsday that you have introduced in response to my question about when displays of dissatisfaction would be welcomed. If you really think people believe a form of doomsday is coming don’t you think the most rational thing to do if you are one of those people is to speak up early instead of waiting when its clearly to late for things to change course? Seems pointless to me for anyone to herald the coming of doomsday..after it has actually arrived. That’d just be petty sort of thing to do. Seems to me the most hopeful thing you can do is to continue to shout a warning in the hopes it can be avoided. Whether or not your shouting is effective doesn’t change the fact that your actions or born out of _hope_ instead of _despair_.

          -jef

          • Anonymous

            I think the point is if you think they’re going in the wrong direction, you’re absolutely right – now’s the time to say so, but if you just think it hasn’t been implanted well yet, then duh – ‘s alpha!

            Right?

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

            What are you talking about? Saying “I told you so” is one of mankind’s most precious gifts, just below hash browns and sausage gravy.

          • Anonymous

            Like I just said, do express your thoughts and shout your warnings, but my point is not to think that the fate has been decided with the things as it is in alpha – there is still time to change the course with your very help. That is what the alpha warning is all about – it’s a half-baked thing with the experiment in the recipe still ongoing.

      • Anonymous

        Jef – express dissatisfaction, but it is better channeled in bug reports and constructive suggestions for fixing those issues. I am more than happy to help if you want any suggestions for the best way to channel this dissatisfaction to help it effectively lead to results. :-)

        • https://launchpad.net/~flimm Flimm

          Please don’t express dissatisfaction in bug reports, people. Bugs reports are for recording specific, technical and non-controversial problems in software. Expressing opinions and emotions in a bug report just makes bug fixing more emotionally tiring than it already is.

          If you can convert your dissatisfaction into action, great! Post bug reports, develop for Ubuntu or even join another project with a different vision, like Elementary.

          • Anonymous

            What about bug 1?

          • Anonymous

            I think bug #1 is a joke and makes the community not understand what an OS is. It should be a tool for a job rather than people thinking an OS is outright better than another which simply isn’t true

          • http://omegax.mp/ Timothy Kross

            See Bug #1.

          • https://launchpad.net/~flimm Flimm

            The SABDFL can do as he pleases.

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

            I’ve always considered Bug #1 as Launchpad’s “Hello World” and nothing more.

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

            I hope for this bug to get squashed one day.

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

            So no one is allowed to express dissatisfaction unless they can code the solution?

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            I am not talking about dissatisfaction, but your opinion of how a thing should be. If the devs decide that they don’t agree with your idea, the bug can be marked as Invalid.

            I do agree that bug reports are not for flaming and cribbing. They are for constructive discussions and feedback which lead to decision.

        • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

          What component should I file a bug report for the contributor agreement?

          • Anonymous

            Interesting, I didn’t realize you were interested in contributing. Would you like to participate in Unity but the Contributor Agreement is preventing you from doing so?

            In terms of providing feedback on the Contributor Agreement. I think the best person to provide this input to is our legal team, led by Amanda Brock (amanda DOT brock AT canonical DOT com).

          • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

            Jono,
            I’m already involved in helping Adam get components past Fedora review so we can have Unity in the main Fedora repositories. I know a wild concept…having some of the most publicly vocal detractors of Canonical policy actually working on integrating Unity into another distribution. Adam has already done an impressive job of unstickying at least one upstream patch icejams in the packaging work.

            It’s almost make it look like we’ve be arguing our points in good faith all these months in anticipation of preventing problems we’ve anticipated happening on down the road.

            I fully expect that I’ll end up being a co-maintainer on those packages with him..which means in due course I will most likely be dealing with patches either submitted by other Fedora contributors into our bug system or be put into a position of writing my own patches to solve prpblems on Fedora distribution user behalf. In that role the contributor agreement as it stands is a real problem for me and for other Fedora users who will be picking up the Unity packages we provide and creating patches.

            -jef

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            I find that there is no reply button due to limit of nesting.

            “”having some of the most publicly vocal detractors of Canonical policy actually working on integrating Unity into another distribution”"
            Being a vocal detractor is not an issue. I don’t think people should judge by that. People should judge by the actions taken and proper reasoning. If you put forward correct points with evidence, there is no harm in being a “public detractor”

          • Anonymous

            Sorry Jef, for some reason I could not reply to your last comment – there is no Reply button! Figured I will reply here.

            I didn’t realize you are involved in the packaging effort of Unity in Fedora – that is wonderful news! I am delighted that you and Adam are keen to bring Unity to Fedora, and collaboration between Ubuntu / Fedora / Unity makes perfect sense.

            I can now see how you object to the CA given your interest in providing patches back to the Unity team. As I mentioned, I think you are best talking to Amanda Brock – feel free to copy me in to the email if you wish. I don’t think the landscape of the CA has changed, and I think you know the current status, but she would be a good contact.

            If there is anything I can help with re. your work with Unity in Fedora, just let me know. :-)

          • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

            the lack reply buttons is a limitation of this site or disqus moe generally. It seems nested replies are only supported up to a certain amount. Any back and forth _conversations_ (as compared to just people talking at each other) can appear very disjointed as a result. Not sure if the limitation is a feature or a bug.

            -jef

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

            @Jef:

            A layout feature, a functionality bug, I guess.

        • http://twitter.com/sect2k Mitja Pagon

          Hi Jono, I’m very interested in your proposal, I have my reservations with some of the “design” decisions taken in Unity and I would be very glad to find out, what is the best way to channel my dissatisfaction and help it effectively lead to result ;-)

        • http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2

          It’s really hard to say how firm any given design decision is that we see here, and it’s a complete waste of time to file a bug every time a piece of alpha software has an incarnation with one feature we don’t like.

          I can’t say if the software is going to actually end up like that; whether or not there is or will be something bug-worth here. All I have to say most of the time is that I sincerely hope something will or will not end up being a certain way, after which point I’ll go around filing stuff.

          • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

            Yes but Ubuntu alphas aren’t like other alphas (e.g Firefox), they go from zero to release in six months, less really. Hoping that it might change before final is silly, as in Ubuntu once it is done, it is done, then onto the next six month cycle quick smart.

            Ubuntu seems to be taking a turn many people are not happy with, waiting until after release to voice displeasure is foolhardy. Just take a look at this bug, which came about when the ‘Do Nothing’ option was removed from the power management settings in Jaunty, and not replaced,meaning that those with external monitors had to keep the lids open.

            https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/416236

            Three releases later (four with Natty), nothing has changed, I doubt it ever will now. Too late.

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

            This phenomenon is an expected consequence for an unreasonable system. Any package-based system that upgrades programs only with the entire OS, instead of existing in self-contained folders (like in Windows and every other model that makes sense), will be plagued by a perpetual barrage of regressions and fixes and regressions again, often lasting years, and often forever. It’s an impossible task to ensure that every single program will work with every release every six months. This is now the sole reason why Linux will not get off the ground for desktop use. It’s an absurd system that turns users into guinea pigs with no possible goal in sight. Usability suffers tremendously. I’ve been waiting for very basic bug fixes for years. They will never come. For example, gnome-panel cannot handle very simple changes to the default layout without moving applets around at boot or any time the resolution changes. Years of bug reports led to no action whatsoever, so people just gave up. Now the developers are moving on to new shells. It is not at all strange that there should remain festering trust issues. Every new release invariably means driver regressions so such an extent that upgrading genuinely feels like an attack on your system. They allow some of the most popular open-source software into the repositories even when it doesn’t work in the new release. Inkscape in Maverick, for example, has crippling graphical bugs present for *everyone*. The issue affects all vector graphics programs, even Xara. No patch in sight. Maverick will be depreciated before we even get a logical response in the bug report. Knowledge as to the fundamental cause is very rarely shared. Gnome SoundConverter hasn’t been able to convert to a playable WAV for at least three years. Speaking of codecs, the Ubuntu Software Center offers the Fluendo Codecs “For Purchase” legally in the United States, Japan, etc. That’s all well and good. You buy it. It installs. Works great, until…. As soon as you try to install another gstreamer media player besides the default, and with no warning at all from the Software Center, it pulls in the illegal codecs and purges your system of the Fluendo codecs, whether the Multiverse Repository is checked off or not. Maddening! No consistency whatsoever, even within the Software Center. Indeed, there can be no consistency, since the whole package-based dependency system is absurd. Mainstream software doesn’t want to go anywhere near that dependency mess, requiring often fundamental upgrades on Ubuntu’s schedule instead of their own. It’s unfixable and unsustainable.

            Rant over. But everything I said is true. I can’t see how it can last.

          • http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2

            There’s always going to be “many” people dissatisfied with anything, because there are many people.

            Unity is every modification I’ve been making to my Ubuntu installs for years, wrapped up into one solid elegant ball of awesome.

          • http://thealphanerd.wordpress.com/ Calvin

            Johann, when you said Windows, folder, making sense all in the same sentence positively I couldn’t take your comment seriously. I stopped reading, also out of tl;dr

        • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

          Ok, here are some suggestions:
          - The size of the dock launcher icons should be customizable
          - The location of the dock should be customizable
          - The top panel should be able to autohide (I want to be able to run xbmc or mythtv in fullscreen mode, with full access to the underlying desktop by the mouse and without any visible panel, like I do now)

          I believe that all of these are “won’t fix” for the moment. I can only try and hack into unity in order to achieve them.

          • http://twitter.com/Stewie2kill Stewie2kill

            I too would, at least in the future, like to choose the location of the dock. I know it messes with the whole concept of unity, but the left side of my screen causes screen real-estate to drop for me.

            It might be a clever solution though to have the dock remain persistent when a window is not in full screen mode but to have it auto-hide when a window wants to full use screen mode. The idea would be similar to other docks (see docky) ‘intellihide’ feature.

            That alone is almost the only concern I’ve had with unity for now. The launcher just seems to waste a lot of space, but a compromise could easily be reached via hiding options and other size configurations. Of course Unity is still an infant for the most part so I would not expect to see this until later, but if it hasn’t been considered for future releases it might be worth the consideration.

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NJBDEH5QRZXGWYPU7RTWAAHOZU Eli

            Pretty sure it already does that matey :). Unless I misunderstood you, it’s in the unity settings in ccsm.

          • Anonymous

            just to let you know, all of those feature requests have been put in.

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

        That’s one of the great things about Ubuntu. Whatever you don’t like… You. Can. Change.

        Gnome panel has been the default Ubuntu look since the beginning, how many people have kept it? How many immediately install and use a dock?

        You don’t HAVE to use Unity, that’s what the Classic session is for.

        • Anonymous

          Well, and unscientific survey using popcon

          by_vote:

          n_vote = 191553 #1
          gnome-panel_installs = 155620 = 80%
          docky-installs_vote = 6728 = 3%
          awn-installs = 6584 = 3%

          by_installs:
          n_installs = 1852518 #1
          gnome-panel_installs = 1630540 = 88%
          docky_installs = 24928 = 1%
          awn_installs = 107391 = 6%

          • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

            Just a little fyi,
            I would not trust the install numbers from Ubuntu’s popcon. I’ve been tracking the numbers for months now and I’ve come to the conclusion that they aren’t running their instance of the popcon report processing scripts in the manner intended, in that they are failing to prune stale UUIDs from the install aggregates. This greatly impacts the meaning of the “installs” category. You can not take it to mean what was intended when originally crafted and as used by Debian. The “votes” stats appear reasonable to me.

            -jef

          • Anonymous

            Good to know. Thanks.

        • Anonymous

          Well, and unscientific survey using popcon

          by_vote:

          n_vote = 191553 #1
          gnome-panel_installs = 155620 = 80%
          docky-installs_vote = 6728 = 3%
          awn-installs = 6584 = 3%

          by_installs:
          n_installs = 1852518 #1
          gnome-panel_installs = 1630540 = 88%
          docky_installs = 24928 = 1%
          awn_installs = 107391 = 6%

        • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

          Actually.. you can’t change everything. Getting a version of GNOME 2.x as conceived and implemented by the GNOME project on recent releases of Ubuntu is not as easy as you would think. Stracciatella was an attempt to provide just that,
          http://www.piware.de/2009/02/the-stracciatella-gnome-session/

          and its not clear it was a success.

          http://blogs.gnome.org/sudaltsov/2010/09/13/stracciatella/

          But that was the past.

          Now moving forward, its unclear what Canonical means when they refer to “Classic Gnome” in the context of a fallback from Unity 3-D as it will appear in Natty. Will that classic look use the Canonical built changes such as the altnerative notification system or will it use the GNOME notification daemon? Will the “classic GNOME” include the global menu and appindicator system work or will it use the stock GNOME panel menus?

          Will it be possible at all to have a stock GNOME 2.x desktop experience on Natty? Or will the vendor-specific UI functionality that Canonical has built and introduced into the default Ubuntu UI over the last 2ish years be un-removable?

          -jef

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            I think the fallback would be the session which we have on Maverick or before. As I heard there is no space of Unity2D, so gnome-panel will be the fallback

          • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

            Even the gnome UI as presented on Maverick is not “classic gnome” as some would understand it because of the Canonical specific modifications

            -jef

          • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

            Yes, that’s what I am saying :)

      • http://twitter.com/therickstone Rick Stone

        So, don’t use Unity. No one is forcing anyone to use it. Anyone is free to use the Gnome desktop even after Unity is the default. There seems to be an awful lot of misunderstanding about this.

      • Anonymous

        I’d say at least a month after release day, it’s had time to settle then. just my opinion though

      • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

        Jef, Here is a sincere answer.
        Cribbing about moves of Canonical over here doesn’t help. If someone is unhappy with Canonical moves, contact them directly.

        Same holds with copyright assignment policy. Dissatisfied? Contact their PR or Legal, or relevant department. I don’t think people responsible for copyright assignment are reading each and every comment out here.

        Don’t like a design of something. Expressing dissatisfaction is your right. For making sure that your dissatisfacction are addressed, you need to contact the devs. Talk to them that how are they dealing an issue which might come up due to their decision of doing something a special way.

        Second attempt? It isn’t an attempt. They know what to do. Since the underlying WM has changed and the API has changed, work needs to be done again.

        Lastly as Jono said, file bug reports. Have discussion there. Search for relevant discussions on ayatana mailing list. If they don’t exist, start one.
        You know omgubuntu is not a bug tracker. Not everyone who comes over here is of technical background. Many just come for updates and “stupid-looking-yet-useful” tips from Joey.

      • Anonymous

        Criticizing the design of a UI that isn’t close to looking as intended is pointless bickering.

        • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

          That’s the point though, we don’t know how close it is to looking as intended. Moreover criticising a UI that is completed and shipped, is redundant and pointless.

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

        I think the point is not about expressing dissatisfaction or not, but expressing dissatisfaction about things that are obviously temporary, like complaining that clicking on a Dash item opens Nautilus or that the text field does nothing.

    • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

      Completely sincere question.
      At what point in time will it be appropriate to express dissatisfaction? Beta? Release day? Should the people who are expressing concern right now about this second attempt at writing a codebase named Unity bite their tongues now and make their opinions known on release day? Will you give them the floor to air their grievances then?

      -jef

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Fingers crossed it works this time! :P

      • Anonymous

        Nah. That will work only if you remove disqus :D. Its not that bad IMO. Ppl have opinion and let them express it. The only problem is comments like “It sucks because it is crashing”.

    • Anonymous

      Similar caveats were not present in the announcements on OMG of the 10.10 Alpha-1/Alpha-2/Beta.

      I don’t know what this means.

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

        It means “lesson learned”

    • Anonymous

      PLACES dash looks OUT OF PLACE
      and…design not matching either

      • Anonymous

        omg i by mistake posted dis a reply sory dude

    • Anonymous

      It’s definitely alpha allright :P Everything freezes all the time…
      But I will not make an opinion before april. I love Ubuntu and this release it definitely bringing a lot of nice improvements. Especially, I love the Unity, Dock, and the global-menu.. I also love that Plymouth is perfect without any tweaking :):)

  • Anonymous

    I’ll never get used to Unity, (in it’s present form), although I’ve tried

    • Anonymous

      It is in an alpha sate at its present form.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LXW65JKI4EXEJVQQFN3AZRIOAA Joe

        Unity is in release state in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix, which is where I currently hate Unity. I’ll start hating Unity in 11.04 once it’s released.

        IMHO, a dock is a usability nightmare, especially when it comes to managing multiple instances of a single app. Unity’s version doesn’t even let you add dock icons (tried dragging, right-clicking, configuration windows, all for nought). And rather than using the GNOME file manager, Unity has its own skinned version that runs like molasses on netbook-class CPUs. And instead of a proper application tree, there’s some sort of full-screen drill down apparatus. Why, when I click the Ubuntu button to show the application list, do I have to choose Games (or similar) before I can get into System Preferences?

  • Anonymous

    I’ll never get used to Unity, (in it’s present form), although I’ve tried

  • Anonymous

    … for some reason, ubuntu does not convince me this time. i find elementary and gnome shell more interesting. although canonical is working hard.

    • Anonymous

      I am pretty sure gnome shell can be installed in Ubuntu 11.04

      • Anonymous

        From PPA only. It will be interesting to see how well this works out.

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

          It might work out better, since it won’t be tied to Ubuntu’s release cycle.

      • Anonymous

        That will depend on how much of GNOME 3 will be integrated in this cycle. It might be possible that GNOME Shell will be available only for 11.10 in the official repos…

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

          You could always build from source. If you’re a fan of GNOME Shell you’re probably doing that now anyway.

    • Anonymous

      I thought this when Maverick was in the same stages that Natty is in now and that turned out to be the best release yet.

      I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve used it for a few weeks after it’s been fully released in April.

  • Anonymous

    … for some reason, ubuntu does not convince me this time. i find elementary and gnome shell more interesting. although canonical is working hard.

  • Anonymous

    You have just summarized one months post on natty updates :). Good to know that we are up to date.

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

    Will btrfs be the default file system in 11.04?

    • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

      Wondering the same thing?

    • Anonymous

      I seriously doubt btrfs will be default in 11.04. Is it even stable?

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

        For 10.10 the considered to use btrfs as standard file system – but it was drooped cause fsck was not working and grub 2 did not support it.

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

          Probably a wise choice. btrfs is the only Linux filesystem I’ve had go completely corrupt on Linux sans hardware failure in many years. I’m looking forward to using it, but making it the default in a distro like Ubuntu is asking for trouble.

          Let the Fedora folks break it in for us ;-)

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

    Ok, out of curiosity I played and installed it in a spare partition (that had the alpha1). Unity3D crashed, unity2D crashed, classic desktop (with compiz) crashed, “Banshee.exe” crashed… I’ve tried all the alphas and betas in the past. I was even working normally on them sometimes but I never ever had so many crashes. Back to my *not productive gnome 2d system*.

    • http://twitter.com/uri_herrera Uri Herrera

      banshee.exe you didn’t actually mean banshee.exe lol,right?..right?..lol…besides it’s an alpha build i can’t even get to install it hahaha, compiz keeps crashing the desktop,

      *back to my uber-modified-panel-less-unity-less-no-compiz-crashing-totally-usable-desktop*

      • http://twitter.com/DarthScape Kyle B

        Remember: Banshee uses Mono.

      • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ dylan-m

        File extensions are technically meaningless here, remember. (The only place they make any sense is silly Windows). We just use them to add context from time to time. .exe means “executable,” and Mono likes to make things explicit ;)

        • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

          When software-center crashed, a dialog informed me that “Ubuntu Software Center” has crashed (note the title). But when banshee crashed the message was “Banshee.exe” has crashed. More than th crash, I despised the message…

        • Anonymous

          This is Linux;

          +x means executable…

      • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

        .exe doesnt mean anything

        Write a hello world program in C and compile it this way
        $ gcc helloworld.c -o helloworld.exe

        and run it
        $ ./helloworld.exe

        Your linux box is now Windows :)

    • Anonymous

      What do you not understand about “alpha”?
      Its not even a beta yet.

      • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

        I’m a dev myself; I completely understand the alpha status and from tomorrow I’ll start sending crash reports and filing bugs. I’m just saying that I could not experience the new features because of constant changes.

  • Anonymous

    This turning out to be my favorite Ubuntu release since I started using Ubuntu on 7.04! Even if Unity doesn’t pan out to be as great as it (currently) looks, there’s always 11.10 or failing that, I’m sure “classic” Gnome will be around for quite a while yet.

  • Anonymous

    I’ll remember ‘Alpha’ as long as the developers remember ‘Clasic’ in clasic desktop.

    • Anonymous

      Im holding onto ‘classic’ desktop for as long as possible. I’m not much of a dock fan, never have been. My 1 panel + compiz config > any dock and global menu.

      • http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2

        I’ve been using gnome2-globalmenu with Docky for years.

        If you don’t want the global menu in your ‘classic’ desktop, remove the applet.

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

      You mean the GNOME developers right? THEY are the ones that will kill the ‘classic’ desktop you hold so dear

  • Anonymous

    Alpha indeed. I went and burned this to a disk, and booted it up.

    My computer is apparently too archaic to run Unity. :(
    Something or another crashed as it was loading an alternative desktop. So at this point, none of the windows had borders and there were no panels.
    The crash report app popped up, then crashed.
    The crash report app for the crashed crash report app crashed.
    The crash report for something else that crashed opened up Mozilla so I could fill out some form or another in order to submit it. Mozilla crashed.

    I wish I could say it’s coming along (which, as I can see from all of the screenshots posted, it is), but I have always had problems with bugs that lingered even through the stable releases. I had to skip 10.10 because the resolution was way too small, and didn’t want to adjust even after lots of fiddling around and Googling.

    • http://twitter.com/rad_sci_guy rad_sci_guy

      This is the same thing happening to me. I installed it on my Asus netbook. I’ve had alpha 2 running for 20 minutes and in that time i’ve had almost 20 crashes and I can’t even select an application because the application icon brings up a big black box that has no application icons. I can’t file a bug report because of the multiple crashes keep preventing me from completing the current bug i’m working on. In stead of bickering about what we are allowed to post about why don’t you read why people are having so much trouble. This “Unitiy” thing started off on a netbook release and now it doesn’t even run on a netbook which runs every other distro (regular ubuntu included) i’ve ever installed on it. This thing will not be ready in 2 months.

  • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

    Out of all these things, the relatively small things like the larger window resize grip thingy and the aero-like snap are by far the most important changes to me. I’ve been relying on a compiz hack for the latter for what feels like years now.

    • Anonymous

      Same. Well, minus the hack. I’ve used aero snap in windows and I must say it’s intuitive. Can’t wait to have it on Ubuntu.

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

      You have a compiz hack for the corner grip? Do share.

      • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

        No, I have a compiz hack for the aero-like snap feature.

  • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

    Got to say, I don’t like it. Had a problem with my external monitor and it took me a couple of minutes to find Monitors when there is no Applications, Places or System Menu. What genius thought that making a menu look like a folder was a good idea? It took me a while to realise that it wasn’t a proper folder. Worse rather than a menu, just sticking everything in one ‘folder’ and then have everyone scroll around looking for it.

    Also the File Edit etc that appears the bar, but doesn’t merge with the bar like a Mac, so nothing is gained save confusion. Is proper maximised planned or is this it?

    Not impressed with Unity itself either a poor dock that doesn’t have any preferences, like auto-hide, that I could find. Might stay with Lucid for quite a while.

    • Anonymous

      Dude, read from my lips… IT’S ALPHA release. Got it? Ok. Now go and read what Alpha release is for. You shouldn’t even see it. It’s for testers.

      • Anonymous

        When are we allowed to complain?

      • Anonymous

        When are we allowed to complain?

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

          Go to your room.

          • Anonymous

            Lesson learned indeed. No complaining allowed, at any time, about Unity.

      • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

        Er, thank you but I am well aware of what an alpha is, having used just about every Ubuntu alpha since Breezy Badger not to mention other software alphas. Ordinarily I’d agree with you, however as I said, Ubuntu alphas are not like normal alphas, to use your analogy an Ubuntu alpha is a cake that has been cooked, removed from the oven and suitably cooled, merely awaiting decoration (beta) before being served at the table (final). There are very rarely any sweeping changes going from alpha to final, normally merely aesthetic changes, i.e. the cake will pretty much taste the same in alpha as in final, except for maybe some icing or marzipan. If it tastes bad an alpha, too late, the ingredients are already in, mixed and cooked. You’d have to start again, and who’s going to do that so close to the party? ;)

        So yes, things are pretty much as they will be. Sure, certain animations may change, but the general UI is pretty much set. The folder replacement of the menu’s is already decided on, Unity is staying, and it is not a good dock. Besides which, if I waited until final release to voice my concerns, who would care? Can you really see the developers going ‘Well, we totally went down the wrong street there, let’s go back and correct that?’ No, they will just tweak what they have already released and the user will either have to like it, or lump it.

        Believe me after nearly 30 years of using software, I know not to wait until the software is released to complain, only to have the programmers/analyst say ‘It’s too late now, why didn’t you say anything earlier?’

        • http://twitter.com/jspaleta Jef Spaleta

          The issue here is that Unity as a project is tied to a specific Ubuntu release schedule instead of being its own separate upstream project roadmap and release schedule. I think Jeff Waugh’s OMG interview audio has some great insights into the problems associated with doing such new development inside of a distribution release process. Too bad I’m not allowed to re-post the audio that I downloaded when it was briefly available here on OMG.

          Given the chosen update policies for Ubuntu, doing _new_ experimental work inside the main repositories as a release day deliverable cuts against the strengths of the repository policies Ubuntu uses. For whatever reason Canonical feels it needs to push its own new developments into an Ubuntu release quickly even if they aren’t necessarily mature enough to fit well with the established repository conservative update rules.

          What I continue to have a problem with wrapping my head around is the inconsistency in how Ubuntu(as a community project) is treating the alpha-quality GNOME 3.. being very cautious on integrating the GNOME 3 experience by keeping it in a PPA for an extended period of time. But Unity (both the previous Mutter based and now the new Compiz based), is being expedited into the mainline repositories of the distribution without the same level of caution with regard to taking the time to make sure things are integrated.

          And I’m not arguing one choice is better than another. What I am arguing is that the _inconsistency_ in approach is difficult to make sense of from a community distribution policy perspective. If Ubuntu was acting consistently and treating both new UI development efforts cautiously things would make more sense to me.

          -jef

    • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

      If case you new to software development methodology, you can read this to know why you are so disappointed
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha

  • http://twitter.com/edfu Eduardo Carrillo

    Ubuntu 11.04 is going to be really cool. How do I know that? my brightness keys work in the new alpha! But seriously, why hasn’t Canonical replaced Firefox with Chrome/Chromium yet?

    • Anonymous

      Because Firefox is better. More customisability, more extensions, and after FF4, the speed advantage that Chromium enjoyed is also gone.

  • http://www.fspressonline.org Trinae Ross

    To quote current WWE Champion The Miz, “Really….no, I mean….really?”
    If I am not mistaken, Alpha software is released to developers, bug squashers and those who know how to resurrect a borked system should the poop hit the fan. End users are more than welcome to test and to submit bugs, but Canonical clears tells everyone for whom the release is intended.

    So folks get their boxers in a bunch because a feature isn’t implemented or that Canonical isn’t following “their” vision of what Ubuntu should be. Here’s an idea, build your own *buntu implementing what you want in your release and enjoy your computer your way.

    Getting all agro over an alpha release is akin to complaining about how the bread tastes before it’s even placed in the oven. The name of this thread really should be OMG! Who’s Going to Complain Now.

  • http://www.fspressonline.org Trinae Ross

    To quote current WWE Champion The Miz, “Really….no, I mean….really?”
    If I am not mistaken, Alpha software is released to developers, bug squashers and those who know how to resurrect a borked system should the poop hit the fan. End users are more than welcome to test and to submit bugs, but Canonical clears tells everyone for whom the release is intended.

    So folks get their boxers in a bunch because a feature isn’t implemented or that Canonical isn’t following “their” vision of what Ubuntu should be. Here’s an idea, build your own *buntu implementing what you want in your release and enjoy your computer your way.

    Getting all agro over an alpha release is akin to complaining about how the bread tastes before it’s even placed in the oven. The name of this thread really should be OMG! Who’s Going to Complain Now.

    • Anonymous

      When is complaining allowed? Beta?

      • Anonymous

        The idea isn’t that you ‘complain’ about bugs in an Alpha stage since this adds exactly zero, we already know there are bugs and we know about the most annoying ones, if you are participating in an alpha release you should use the appropriate bug tracker to test and report as many bugs as you can to help improve Ubuntu.

        If you don’t like the bugs in the alpha and feel all you can contribute is a complaint then I have to recommend you stick with stable releases.

  • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

    Anyone with dual or triple monitor already tried it? There were promises of things being fixed for dual screens. I am really interested in this, because as of Alpha1 Global menus and few other bugs made work on two screens a nightmare.

    • http://twitter.com/psypher246 psypher246

      I’m desperately trying to install Natty and get unity working for this very reason. Can’t get 3D gfx working at all due to completely broken nvidia drivers and nouveau not detecting my card. Will keep trying and will log bugs for the issues I expect to encounter.

    • http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2

      I’ve got dual monitor, but I can’t get any nVidia driver working..

      Evidently even Nouveau 3d is currently hosed..

  • http://twitter.com/TheChrisHackett Chris Hackett

    Who is the big Student*Rick fan at OMG!Ubuntu? I tip my hat to thee.

  • http://twitter.com/artemeas _artem_

    I always knew… Ubuntu is made by retarded morons…
    Have you tried to install alpha 2 on latest virtual box, on Ubuntu 10.10 x86_64 ????
    On the very last step I always get same error: http://www.imagebanana.com/view/mcsp6ebe/Selection_019.png

    My last try… I haven’t clicked the finish button, until it said: “Ready when you are…”
    Push the button. And installation crashes. RESPECT UBUNTU.

    So it won’t show me info about OS right after I enter my name, login and password and click Next or Install don’t know anymore.. it fails

    • Anonymous

      Dear sir,

      Alphas are released buggy so that developers and dedicated testers can test and fix bleeding edge software so that by the time release rolls around there is relatively minimal bugs.

      I understand you feel “Ubuntu is made by retarded morons…” but I have to question the intelligence of someone using an alpha release and then not only being surprised but also complaining about bugs.

      It’s like someone going out into the rain without an umbrella and then complaining when they get wet.

      Best of luck with your adventures.

    • Anonymous

      Dear sir,

      Alphas are released buggy so that developers and dedicated testers can test and fix bleeding edge software so that by the time release rolls around there is relatively minimal bugs.

      I understand you feel “Ubuntu is made by retarded morons…” but I have to question the intelligence of someone using an alpha release and then not only being surprised but also complaining about bugs.

      It’s like someone going out into the rain without an umbrella and then complaining when they get wet.

      Best of luck with your adventures.

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

      Per the release notes, which are available at: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2

      On the amd64 images the installer crashes after the “Who are you?” step. To work around this, open a Terminal window with Ctrl+Alt+T and do sudo apt-get purge ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu before starting the installer. This will cause the installation progress window to become very small, but avoid the crash. (710582). Similar behavior is seen in other ubuntu flavors on amd64 hardware, but different workarounds may be needed, see individual flavors.

      Please bear in mind that this is an alpha release. Bugs are expected. Things are not finished. An alpha release is not a finished product and should be used only for testing by people who are willing to find (and report) bugs.

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

      Per the release notes, which are available at: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2

      On the amd64 images the installer crashes after the “Who are you?” step. To work around this, open a Terminal window with Ctrl+Alt+T and do sudo apt-get purge ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu before starting the installer. This will cause the installation progress window to become very small, but avoid the crash. (710582). Similar behavior is seen in other ubuntu flavors on amd64 hardware, but different workarounds may be needed, see individual flavors.

      Please bear in mind that this is an alpha release. Bugs are expected. Things are not finished. An alpha release is not a finished product and should be used only for testing by people who are willing to find (and report) bugs.

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

      Per the release notes, which are available at: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/alpha2

      On the amd64 images the installer crashes after the “Who are you?” step. To work around this, open a Terminal window with Ctrl+Alt+T and do sudo apt-get purge ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu before starting the installer. This will cause the installation progress window to become very small, but avoid the crash. (710582). Similar behavior is seen in other ubuntu flavors on amd64 hardware, but different workarounds may be needed, see individual flavors.

      Please bear in mind that this is an alpha release. Bugs are expected. Things are not finished. An alpha release is not a finished product and should be used only for testing by people who are willing to find (and report) bugs.

    • Jonathan

      It’s an alpha. Make your own if you don’t like it.

  • Anonymous

    i dont care if people like or not unity, canonical is doing a really god job, they are working so hard.

    instead of ” unity ” it should be ” division ” because everybody is divided….

  • Anonymous

    I’m in a wait-and-see mode, but from how it looks now, both Unity and GNOME Shell appear to be interfaces made for tablets and touch-screen computing. I don’t use Ubuntu on a tablet (yet, anyway).

    I generally dislike windows covered with large grids of icons, and favor menus as being a much more productive paradigm. Therefore, I hope that someone will keep the regular GNOME UI as an option in both GNOME and Ubuntu (since Ubuntu seems to be intent on making a “better GNOME Shell than GNOME Shell”) going forward.

    Who knows? This UI change could be a very good thing for KDE.

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

    This seems to go for all software…

    Don’t judge it yet it’s an Alpha
    Don’t judge it yet it’s a Beta
    It’s too late to judge it now, it’s released

    • Anonymous

      You need to know what to criticize and when. There is no point criticizing something for looking bad when it doesn’t look the way it’s supposed to, or for having bugs when it’s not yet supposed to be stable. Once they get Unity to look similar to the final product is supposed to be, or if you know where it’s going in advance, then your criticism is relevant.

  • http://twitter.com/SamiadjiFR Samiadji Falahanif R

    sweeet!

  • Anonymous

    Did you notice that you can run Banshee now while installing 11.04? Or maybe it’s been like that and I didn’t notice until now… Either way, pretty cool way to pass the time other than watching the slideshow!

  • http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka

    From now on i will punish everybody that calls it “Aero Snap”. It’s NOT Aero, thats the Windows GUI, if anything it’s “Compiz Snap” or just “Window Snap(ping)”, if we don’t stop porting every feature mentally we will never be seen as anything but “Those guys that use those computers that kinda look like a PC with some Features copied from the real Computers”

  • http://twitter.com/rpdtweet Richard Dickinson

    Ubuntu 11.04 already (well nearly!)? Excellent!
    It would be even better if 10.10 MaverickMeerkat bugs were fixed. I have had a bad time with installing 10.10 to dualboot with Vista & have had to go back to Ubuntu 10.04 LucidLynx (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1678124&page=3).
    Keep the developing going strong!

  • http://twitter.com/CORN_ta CORN_ta

    Need to check how’s Empathy aKa “crippled IM”.

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

    Does any one know anything about the statues of the new starup sounds?

  • http://twitter.com/appleseedhuman Appleseed Humanity

    Unity makes Ubuntu look like it’s running on some curious contrivance from Fisher Price. I foresee a lot of users fleeing to Mint if it can’t be easily tamed.

  • http://twitter.com/appleseedhuman Appleseed Humanity

    Unity makes Ubuntu look like it’s running on some curious contrivance from Fisher Price. I foresee a lot of users fleeing to Mint if it can’t be easily tamed.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UI4ZIYNL2RFUDN4PT5A3LXN2UU PhÆ°Æ¡ng

    LOL! Love the aero-snap-like very much! Love Unity very much! Love Ubuntu Very Much! And… LOVE CANONICAL VERY MUCH!

  • Anonymous

    Really, i think this is going to be fantastic and utterly cool!

  • Anonymous

    It is time to answer once and for all the usual (and always revitalized) rant about the”linux is not ready for desktop and nor it will, it is insane” that is expressed here by Johhan popper.The reply is valid for everyone claims similar stance.

    1)To generalize a biased experience is not a valid opinion, rather it is a way to insult and show that you are a biased person.

    2)In fact (and at last for me and millions others) windows is not ready for the desktop. Providing only one workspace, primitive effects, poor file managers, NOT out of the box support, prone to virus and rest of malware, asking for money and not allowing the copy, the modification the research of code is indeed the worst option for our computers and this is a fact that wont change in the future.Windows are commercial whereas Linux is Free.

    3)Ubuntu as well kubuntu, fedora etc all are based on Linux kernel. This kernel is estimated to cost more than a billion dollars, it gets a new version every 3 months each version adding a whole lot of new drivers, better support for GPUs, better file systems, better sound support, faster optimizations, better energy usage etc
    For this kernel, the best brains write code.My dream as a programmer is to contribute code for the kernel.Yet, only the best can.

    4)Kubuntu, pardus and other quality distros are based on KDE. The most advanced, customizable, amazing Graphical User Interface ever created.
    A GUI that empowers you with the ability to have different workspaces each with its own set of wallpapers, globes, slideshows, widgets etc and also empowers you with the capability to have different activities each with its own set of these amazing distinct workspaces.It has the most gorgeous set of screen edges, the further ability to tab apps in the same window and other fantastical things that in the closed,restrictive world of windows are pure science fiction.
    The last version of KDE(4.6) fixed 25.000 bugs.there are KDE programmers that fix alone 100 bugs a week.

    Hence the Linux Desktop not only provides by far the best desktop experience but it is honestly the only desktop.
    Windows is a joke that no one is laughing anymore…

    Windows are like Mubarak of Egypt.
    30 years of domination for the world to realize that there are much better solutions.

    • Anonymous

      The Linux kernel does not provide file managers but file systems. File managers are apps that usually run on graphical user interfaces and use the features and the functions of the file systems.

  • http://twitter.com/dtechsoftware D-TECH software

    This is the most buggy Ubuntu Alpha 2 EVER released! Good luck fixing al those bugs before April.

 
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