News, tips and features on the Unity desktop environment, the default shell in Ubuntu.
Firefox may be Ubuntu's default browser but it doesn't take full advantage of Ubuntu's Unity desktop features by default. And whilst it does come pre-packed with App Menu, HUD, and Quicklist support, it doesn't support Unity's 'on launcher' progress bars and counter badges for downloads. But by installing just one extension - 'Unityfox' - you can add these features.
Want to rid the Unity Dash of its thick grey border? Well you can - and here's how.
We've all been there: you recognise the face if that guy in that movie - but you can't recall his name; or you're 3 names short of listing all the states in America. These are pretty rubbish examples of what Wikipedia - the world famous collaboratively maintained encyclopedia - is useful for, but they are, nevertheless, real-world instances of Wiki scratching an intellectual itch. And in Ubuntu you can scratch this itch even quicker by adding the 'Wikipedia Lens' to the Unity Dash.
Over the weekend Unity 5.10, the last major update to the Unity interface before the release of Ubuntu 12.04, landed in Precise. Primarily a bug-fix and stability update, Unity 5.10 brought with it a couple of notable 'new' things - including the final version of the 'Application Installation Animation'. This, developers hope, will assist new users in quickly locating apps installed through the Ubuntu Software Centre.
Unity is said to make your workflow faster and easier. But is that true? Ubuntu contributor Jo-Erlend Schinstad decided to see how much time he would save using Unity compared to Gnome Panel (Classic) when performing a set of simple tasks.
"I want to minimise apps to the Unity launcher by clicking on them." Well the patched version of Unity that lets you do just that is now available to install in Ubuntu 11.10.
A new GNOME extension aims to bring Unity Dash-like features to the GNOME Shell desktop. "I love GNOME Shell but miss the application categories from Gnome 2, dislike the visual interruption when searching for an application and don't use the overview to manage any of my windows," the developer of the extension, Zac Barton, told us. The result of his work is 'Launchy'.
So you want to change the size of the icons on the Unity-2D launcher? We've previously looked at a way of achieving this, but this involved the manual editing of system files - something that scared a lot of people away from finally having a solution to oversized launcher icons. Well, at least until now.
The second beta release of Ubuntu 12.04 is now available to download.
The Unity Launcher and Panel can't be themed directly - not without recreating and then replacing each of the tiny .png files it uses - but the illusion of a themed top-panel and Unity launcher can be created quickly and easily by way of special custom wallpapers. Click on in to learn more.
Unity 5.8 landed in Ubuntu 12.04 this weekend - but what's new and what's improved? Let's take a quick gander...
Many first time users of Ubuntu’s Unity interface become slightly confusing by one aspect of the Launcher’s behaviour: minimising app windows. Coming from Windows, KDE, or other similar desktop environment, the first expectation of the […]