This past week I installed Ubuntu 11.04 ‘Natty Narwhal’ alpha 3 on both of my machines (my desktop and my netbook). While it is a little buggy- being pre-release version- I am happy to say that I fully believe that it’s polished enough to give it a good go-around.
I submit to you an idea, and I hope to clarify and elaborate on it in the next few paragraphs: this is a defining release for Ubuntu. One of the common arguments in the open-source community is whether FLOSS drives innovation or simply copies proprietary software. This is one of those instances where I am amazed at what all the brilliant guys at Canonical were able to push out and innovate.
Unity, the big feature this release, certainly isn’t new, but darned if it doesn’t feel like it. I was not a fan when it was introduced to the Ubuntu Netbook Remix in 10.04, but my opinion has completely reversed. It was ported to Compiz and given some much-needed TLC to make it snappy and powerful. Being open-source, developers have the SDK needed to do all kinds of fancy goodness, including having unique right-click options and using built-in counters and progress bars.
I posed the question for the Maverick release whether or not it was a leap forward for the Linux desktop, and my honest answer was no.
This is that leap forward.
Unity redefines how intimately you interact with your desktop. It makes the entire experience smoother, simpler, and much more consistent. And I just love that.
Other great features for this release include:
- An integrated menu bar that shows the options when you hover over it.
- Banshee replaced Rhythmbox as the default music app (review coming soon).
- New Ubuntu One client, bug fixes, and redesign (review coming soon-ish).
- New calendar/appointment applet.
- Redesigned sound menu buttons.
- A control center for managing system applications and settings
- LibreOffice replaced OpenOffice
- Redesign of Dash in Unity
- Unity Places
- New GRUB
- Fresh Kernels
And remember, this is still early in the game. All these are subject to change, and even more goodness could be one the way. I just wanted to give a quick heads up and say not only is it an revolutionary refresh, but it’s also stable enough* to test right now (if you don’t mind a little bugginess).
*enough for me, your mileage may vary