Hello, Unity

Monday, May 10th, 2010

This is an early version of Unity, what will hopefully become the new interface for Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10:

Unity on an especially small screen

Unity running on a very small screen

Unity comprises:

  • A launcher that makes opening and switching between applications delightful.
  • A panel where indicators behave uniformly.
  • A view of your installed applications, with Ubuntu Software Center integration.
  • A view of your files, with quick access to favorite folders, recent files, downloads, and simple browsing.
  • A search field, enabling pervasive use of find-as-you-type search so you can find applications, files, and settings with a few keystrokes. (This is not the search field pictured above.)

Some pieces of Unity will be defined further this week at the Ubuntu Developer Summit. Other pieces are available now for testing. Neil Patel, the engineering lead for Unity, has written a nice summary of the features we’ve started to implement, or plan to implement (or plan to plan to implement this week at UDS) for Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10, along with instructions for how to test Unity on your computer. You might also be interested in Mark Shuttleworth’s account of why Unity was created and what it will be used for.

I will discuss each piece of Unity separately and in great detail; this is only the opening remark in a long and exciting conversation!

12 comments

  1. Barra wrote,

    “A search field, enabling pervasive use of find-as-you-type search so you can find applications, files, and settings with a few keystrokes. (This is not the search field pictured above.)”

    Gnome-DO fully integrated in DE?

  2. devnet wrote,

    On behalf of Unity Linux:

    Oh hai!

  3. Knef wrote,

    Looks great.

  4. boblefrag wrote,

    damn ! is’t a revamp of gnome-shell or what ?

  5. shazzner wrote,

    So is the UNE launcher being removed?

  6. Jimbo wrote,

    I’ve yet to see anyone comment on the new texture on the dock/tool tip anywhere in the blogosphere. This could be a pretty big hint of where the Ubuntu theme is going!

  7. gabriele vidali wrote,

    tried installing it but it ends up with a blank background and docky
    do i miss some packages ?

  8. paurullan wrote,

    @gabriele_vidali try to reset mutter; maybe a:
    «pkill metacity; mutter» or a «mutter –replace» will do the trick.

  9. Ralf wrote,

    Interesting how little of the default apps are used by the actual developers of Ubuntu.

    It does explain why some of them are as crappy as unusable as it is. Even the ubuntu developers don’t use it.

    I really do think you guys should drink your own koolaid.

    So why not use firefox, evolution for your email (ouch, that’s gonna hurt), rhythmbox and empathy.

    And if you really don’t like those programs: aren’t you guys the best ones to argue that the default apps need to be changed?

  10. David wrote,

    Ralf, it’s just a screenshot. I use Firefox, Evolution, Rhythmbox, and Empathy daily.

  11. Ἀλήθεια wrote,

    I don’t see how the menu bar content will fit into the top panel. Even if you remove the search bar, space is pretty limited.

  12. Meins321 wrote,

    Please add a CPU Frequency Scaling its a pain in current Ubuntu 10 that i can’t change the gnome panel nor add any gnome applet
    arg!