‘MyUnity’ Is a Small, Simple Unity Tweaking Tool

By Joey Sneddon, Published November 15, 2011

Customizing various parts of the Unity desktop isn’t exactly hard – most features can be adjusted using the ‘Compiz Config Settings Manager’ tool.

But CCSM can be an intimidating tool to play around with. It contains more than just basic Unity features, so the potential for the screwing up your system is ever-present.

MyUnity, a new application by Italian developer Fabio Colinelli, aims to take the fear our of tweaking Unity.

The app as a whole is less intimidating than accessing many of the same features from the Compiz-ConfigSettings manager.

It also groups together many areas of settings into the one window.

Amongst its features are: -

Change Dash, Launcher and Panel transparency
Adjust Dash blur
Display ‘home’, ‘trash’ and mounted drives on the desktop
Adjust launcher size, backlights and hiding preferences
Tweak font settings, including size, RGBA and hinting

Likely to prove especially useful is the ‘reset to default’ button. This is perfect for when you change something you didn’t mean to and want to revert.

Download

MyUnity is available for Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 (and 12.04 if you’re already on that bandwagon).

To get it, add ‘ppa:myunity/ppa’ to your Software Sources, update, then install ‘MyUnity’ from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Thanks to Dario

unity

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Anonymous
its a me mario………………..
but seriously though…………..this is one cool application, even though it is in italian……….

http://www.metallic-entertainment.com Florian Märkl
“even though it is in italian………” sounds a bit xenophobic
EDIT:
Whoops Sorry I did not see that the Application itself is in italian language
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_I32UYQJ2ZBOZ37UCAQPB56OVCE Luigi
Oh hey-a, Mario, it’s-a me Luigi…

Mihamina Rakotomandimby
https://code.launchpad.net/myunity where is the code source? In Italy? ;-)
http://twitter.com/openningia Daniele
I’m italian :) If you need to translate the strings in english, dump them here, i’ll provide
On a second thought, the string are a few, I just put them here:
Scrivania ==> Desktop
Nessuno ==> None
Scala di Grigi ==> Grey scale
Leggero ==> Light
Medio ==> Medium
Pieno ==> Full

http://twitter.com/eldoncantu Eldon Cantú
I can translate to spanish if you guys need help :D

Kostya Pakhomov
I can translate to russian and ukrainian if you need help :)

Anonymous
I can translate it to Portuguese-BR and English-US, just tell me how to and I will.
— edit:
I’m in love with this app
Anonymous
I can translate to Portuguese-PT :)

http://www.facebook.com/people/Mizuki-Oshiro/100001810655569 Mizuki Oshiro
Silly question, where is the source code? I had a look at
https://code.launchpad.net/myunity
But I see a
Launchpad does not know where MyUnity hosts its code.
http://www.corbindavenport.com/ Corbin Davenport
The only two ways this could be better is if it was in English and if it had a Ubuntu One-style toolbar :)

https://launchpad.net/~alci alci
Well, it would be better if it were in french I’d say :-)

Subhadip Ghosh
Yeah right, then I would have to take up French class just to use this app! And its all cannonical’s fault, they could have made Unity a little customizable :P

http://spamlara.myid.net/ spamlara
And why would I have to take english classes just to use this app ? Every one has the right to developp in the language he wants to. If he rather liked to make his interface in Italian first, he’s right. So long as he accepts translations, that’s fine.

Subhadip Ghosh
I agree with that!

Anonymous
dia aysa tia ouldwa eba etterba nia igpa atinla

Filippo Carnevali
hi, i’m italian too if you need any help with the translation.
http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
Something I don’t understand is…. why do people continually replicate what has already been done?!
As the Ubuntu Power Users team leader dude-thingy, we’ve already got a pretty dandy tool – it’s called Ubuntu Tweak, and the next version that isn’t released just yet (it’s not finished yet, but it’s getting close!) is more than capable of handling things.
Again I ask, why do we continually re-do work? :)
EDIT: Just to make it clear, I’m not saying that people are doing the wrong thing – I think that having multiple options is great – however, at the same time, I think it’s Not a Good Thing™ to have multiple tools that do the *same thing*. Apologies if I came across as a troll, or anything else like that.

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
I am (ex-troll) Roland Taylor, and I approve this message.

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
Is it against the law to smack ex-trolls? :P (thanks)

Anonymous
NO

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
Hurrah, time to play whack-troll!

Akshat Jain
Trolland Taylor :>

http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha
That is the thing James. People want something immediately. Probably he did it in his spare time.
By the way unless the new version of Ubuntu tweak comes out, people will keep on asking for customization options

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
I haven’t found any bugs lately, so I think it’s about as read as its going to get – I’m going to email TualatriX later today to find out.
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
The new version is available for testing; and so far it has worked fine for me on two systems. The catch is that few people seem aware of the fact that there even is a new version on the way.
Fortunately, we’re (the community that is) working on that :).

http://adnan.quaium.com Adnan
Ubuntu Tweak is a great app. This is the first application that I always install after installing Ubuntu. I think it should be included in the default apps included with Ubuntu.

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
Yes, and this is something that is being worked on. :)

https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G
I’ve been using Ubuntu Tweak as well in the past, until I heard that it brought quite a risk of making your system unstable with it. Is the Ubuntu team aware of this?

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
At this point in time, the objectionably stuff has been almost removed from UT – it’s now no more dangerous then compizconfig-settings-manager (known as CCSM, which everyone recommends for Unity tweaking because it’s the only comprehensive tool out there right now), gnome-tweak-tool (which is the temporary solution for anything not directly related to unity config), or even synaptic package manager (and synaptic was installed by default for many years!).
So in short, it’s not as dangerous anymore – in fact, it’s probably safer than many of the other options out there.
http://twitter.com/tom_ankcorn Tom Ankcorn
ccsm is pretty nasty if you have no idea what your doing. This is the kinda thing you would give your mum to use.

Gabriel Rousseau
Probably one of the main problems of Ubuntu nowadays (and Unity and Gnome-Shell), is the lack of softwares for customization. I believe that we all know that sooner or latter there will be one official and powerful software for this, but until then, we use 10 others.

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
Agreed, but my point is, rather than duplicating work (and then having a dozen little projects that die), why don’t we go and build one tool that works, and does all the tweaking for the system?

Subhadip Ghosh
The same reason why we have more than 195 countries and yet people want more. They just can’t live all together.

Jason Willson
That’s probably the best response I’ve heard yet.

Anonymous
Three words: Freedom of choice.

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
I agree that freedom of choice is good, however, it doesn’t make sense to re-do the same work multiple times, and leave most things unfinished. :)
Not that i’m belittling anyones work, but it doesn’t make sense to me to have a good half-dozen tools that all do the same thing….

Anonymous
You might as well cancel your effort and join the Italians…
What’s really beyond me is why anyone thinks we need just one single app for everything. One single UI design (MyUnity is far better than TweakUI in that department, BTW). One single choice for everything.
Ubuntu Tweak was “unfinished” at some point.
Enjoy diversity and stop the whine.

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Please see my reply to James higher up. I think it’s a reasonable solution no?
Anonymous
No, I don’t think so. I welcome competition and I don’t think there’s such thing as “unhealthy competition”. Nobody has the right to claim their choice is THE choice.
If I happen to dislike UbuntuTweak (I don’t, but I’m not in love with it either), I have two choices:
1- Try to change it discussing in lists, forums, etc. with the current developers.
2- Start my own tweaking tool.
Both are legitimate and I happen to believe choice 1 is usually not successful. I’d rather start my own project than endless discussions, which are the norm in community driven projects.

Anonymous
Like a music players… :)

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
There is healthy competition, and there is unhealthy competition, and I’d say the Unity Tweaking tool market is getting a little too crowded for it’s health. :)
Anonymous
I think the need to create one more tweaking tool can be finished if there is really good Ubuntu Tweek tool. Until then…

Anonymous
One size *doesn’t* fit all, and the great thing about open source is that you can freely develop your own apps if something doesn’t suit you.
I haven’t used Ubuntu Tweak for a long time, so I really can’t say what the big difference is here, but I figure MyUnity is, as the name suggests, only focused on the interface, whereas Tweak also goes deeper under the hood of your distro.
Anyway, competition is good for both Tweak and MyUnity, since devs can learn from observing what others do.
Just look at the boom in browser development since the open source based Chrome took up competition with the open source Firefox. They do virtually the same thing, but competition drives them forward.
Just don’t get offended by competition. Welcome it, and learn from it.
Anonymous
you’re wrong here.
this tool has the potential to become default (or at least is what the unity customization tool should be), while ubuntu-tweak will always be more “extra official” because of all the stuff it wants to do.
patches and volunteers are welcome for an official unity customization tool, so why replicate more work when the devs already have their hands full this cycle?
i applaud the efforts place on this tool and is looking super user friendly.

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
you’re wrong here.
this tool has the potential to become default (or at least is what the unity customization tool should be), while ubuntu-tweak will always be more “extra official” because of all the stuff it wants to do.
patches and volunteers are welcome for an official unity customization tool, so why replicate more work when the devs already have their hands full this cycle?
i applaud the efforts place on this tool and is looking super user friendly. On the contrary, Ubuntu Tweak is the current leading choice for a Ubuntu Tweak tool – note I said Ubuntu, not Unity.
There are many Unity tweaking tools out there – however, currently, if you want to change the fonts, or anything like that, you have to install `gnome-tweak-tool`, which requires the installation of gnome-shell – and if a tweaking tool is going to be installed by default, then it can’t have dependencies on things that can’t be installed due to disk space (yes, I know 12.04 is possibly going to be upped to 750MB, but that still doesn’t solve the problem, since there are things other than gnome-shell that need to be installed by default).

Anonymous
many unity tweaking tools ?
i’ve only seen one for unity 2d, but only has like 3 options.
this is probably the first one that doesnt need ccsm.
this doesnt need GS either. So i still think that with some cleanup, logo change and translation, it could become default.

Anonymous
Most probably is because of:
1. it is just fun to do all the work one more time
2. it isn’t available at the moment and why not do it in spare time
3. lack of communication
Actually it isn’t replicated at the moment, because Ubuntu Tweek isn’t released yet. Maybe also a problem to try to release one big version of a lot of features instead of releasing more often with less features.
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Don’t let the negative flood get you down.
Here’s what I think should happen with this app:
1. Let it live. Some people will just want the Unity stuff, and nothing more; but give it some translations.
2. Make it an Ubuntu-Tweak plugin, because we need this stuff in Ubuntu-Tweak.
3. Make it available in the repos.
4. Have the developer work together with other developers of similar projects, make a concise decision, and merge miscellaneous and duplicative efforts.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GHOU3EMVPYRAQOGROWEYXZHVDE Doctor
“Something I don’t understand is…. why do people continually replicate what has already been done?!”
Exactly. Why build Unity when there’s already Gnome, KDE, XFCE etc. already out there. And they actually work!

http://jamesrgifford.com James Gifford
In that situation, diversity is good – however, for tweaking something that only has a few options (at least for now) anyway, having one tool makes much more sense.
Please note that I’m in favor of diversity, just that in **this situation**, I think it’s be smarter to only have one option – it provides a more unified experience for the user (btw, I hated writing that last part)

seamus williams
Get multi lang support defualt for 12:04/12:10 :) looks awsome
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Joey – is fot Italian? :D
Carlos Felipe Pessoa de Araújo
I’m brazilian and I understand. I did Language Arts (Portuguese-Spanish) and I know Latin too hahah

Conscious User
Can you brag in all those languages too?

Satchit Bhogle
We need these settings as a plug in System Settings.
Andrea Colangelo
We are working on localization and translation of MyUnity, it will be available soon. Source code too will be uploaded ASAP on LP. Stay tuned!

https://launchpad.net/~davidraid David Raid
Can you add the option to change the Desktop font in the font section please? It’s the same problem Gnome Tweak Tool has. You can change every font but the one for files and folders on the desktop, which breaks consistency.
The option is in Dconf, under org->gnome->nautilus->desktop.

Fabio Colinelli
Of course, be a characteristic of the new versions.

aperson
A small thing that could be helpful: Put a * next to the default options. You already have a reset for all the options, but sometimes it’d be nice to know what the defaults were at a glance.

http://twitter.com/andrea1816 Andrea
I’m willing to translate, but have read somewhere a translated version is going to be released soon :D
Anyway, code’s here http://www.uielinux.org/lab/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=10:applicazioni-gnulinux&Itemid=120
http://twitter.com/Zta77 Stephan Henningsen
I don’t understand why people don’t write their applications in English to start with. I know I always do even though I’m Danish. I think in English when I design and code. But maybe he wrote the app for his girlfriend… =)

Anonymous
More like his grand mother :)
http://profiles.google.com/pabloalmeidaff9 Pablo Almeida
Or maybe he doesn’t speak english.

Georgi Karavasilev
ABBA MENTION!

Anonymous
I was going to comment on that!
You must be a happy man!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JQYHNQPB3PRRNE3UYNEAJY2IPY uci
Yet I can’t still make my unity launcher to be on top of windows, everytime I get my cursor to the edge of the screen nothing happens, the launcher won’t show up but if I do a “click” the app does open, same goes to dash.
satish gupta
At the bottom i saw this logo OHSO and got curious what is it? and when i opened OHSO there were 6 sites. One of them was thenewubuntu.com, to tell you the truth it’s far more beautiful and great looking website compare to the orignal just one complement “GREAT WORK”, and I am looking forward to omgchrome.com.
http://garhuy.blogspot.com/ Garhuy
Error in running on Ubuntu Natty:
“Main.?.0: #6: Type mismatch: wanted Float, got String instead”
http://www.facebook.com/hein.hanssen Hein Hanssen
Nice logo: you could easily read ‘M utiny’. Nonetheless very good job: this is really missing: a simple tool to tweak Unity. Although I would like to see it integrated with Ubuntu Tweak: better to have one app to tweak them all.
Anonymous
See, this is why it bugs me when people miss and moan about not being able to configure Unity. Someone’s going to come up with a nifty way to do it. If not Canonical, then someone independent. That the nifty thing about the Linux community: creative development.

http://mark-y-a.myopenid.com/ Marky
Yeah then somebody else whines why another tool is being made to configure/customize Unity when there is already another tool that does the same thing. ROFL! “Open-source. Better than any freaking roller coaster ride.”

http://profiles.google.com/travis.deshazo Travis DeShazo
Everyone knows that Mark Shuttleworth kills a kitten every time you change settings from their defaults.
Anonymous
will the unity devs adopt this tool officially?
i hope they do, because they already have their hands full and then they keep posting here on OMG that they need volunteers and stuff.. but when a nice contributor writes a tool for em they usually dont want to include it and no one knows why..
then they replicate the same work (a year after) and write a crappier tool.
Anonymous
Those softpedia screens will make me buy you a coffee for sure
Kushal Sharma
I’ve noticed that when you tweak anything related to Unity or other stuff in compiz-config settings manager, window borders begin to disappear when using a couple of apps in the full-screen mode. Will this tweak tool follow the same process for making the changes that the Compiz app does? If so, I’m afraid this might create problems for me again…

Jason Willson
I suspect as much, Kushal. I have the same problem when I tweak Unity & Compiz. :(

Kushal Sharma
I did open up a bug about this issue and added some details, but I’m not sure if there has been any activity… Let’s see if things improve in Precise. I would do something about it myself, but I’m afraid I’m no programmer!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4557FPHHY6PFZVQ3YMQUDJY26A James S.
Why would someone go through all this trouble, and NOT release it in English? Seriously, most of the world’s second languages are English, if not first.

Jason Willson
Considering he wrote this in his free time, and decided to share it with everyone, I’d say it’s pretty ungrateful to bite the hand that feeds us. Localizations will come, it’s not a big deal.
http://spamlara.myid.net/ spamlara
I find this kind of remark pretty disrespectful : he got to use his mothertongue if he prefers, period.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TOAP2YXEUL6HBNSCRICYVVMKSY Teg
Isn’t this functionality already in Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 Alpha? https://launchpad.net/~tualatrix/+archive/next
Anonymous
Very nice.
http://www.icedrake.co.cc Icedrake
This is quite brilliant. I’ll test it out as soon as a version in English is released.
http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
ya… that’s useless to me
http://www.facebook.com/jbumaat Julius Ybañez Buma-at
One thing I don’t like about Ubuntu’s Unity DE is you cannot minimize/maximize the programs from the launcher. The only use of the launcher is just for opening commands for the programs you want to use and no other else. You cannot even customized it. It’s not as par as Docky or Cairo dock. Also the menu is annoying. There are programs that the menu may come and get lost during opening the program especially when you are opening several programs you want to use. Also there are programs based on KDE software that cannot run properly on Unity unlike the old GNOME 2.x DE where it can manage to run KDE programs. So I switched to KDE 4 even though it is a bit resource hog. I just need additional RAM on my PC to make Kubuntu run a bit faster.
Yogotiss .
Looks like Ubuntu-Tweak my have a little comp… I’d recommend this to the newbies I convert to Ubuntu!
http://www.FreezingMoon.org/ Dread Knight
Capisci? :D
Ambati Srinivas
How to launch MyUnity after installation is complete? I am banging my head to understand and launch MyUnity Unity Tweaking Tool.
Many thanks
AMS
Aaron Honeycutt
I’m having issues with the public key of the PPA, but with the command “sudo apt-get install myunity” it gives you the power to by pass it.
aperson
I’m having flashbacks of my windows days and using windows tweaking programs…
Anton Mr. Was
italian… so not usefull at all. I need english or russian.
Indunil vithanage
Same here …
Error in running on Ubuntu Natty:
“Main.?.0: #6: Type mismatch: wanted Float, got String instead”
Saša Batistič
i did the translation for slovene :)
http://twitter.com/ED_Updates Dramatica AG
Oh good it’s finally in Engrish.
Mohan
This app should be included out of the box and placed in the Gnome System Settings like Ubuntu One preferences.

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