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Ubuntu 4.11 "Natty Narwhal" Alpha 3: The desktop is beautiful

The release of Alpha 3 marks another important step closer to what will be the release of Ubuntu 4.11. Get the historic Rhythmbox was finally abandoned in favor of Banshee, OpenOffice has been replaced by LibreOffice, Firefox has been updated to version 4.0 RC. Unity begins to be sufficiently stable and begins to show its potential. We see everything in detail.

The August 17, 2010, straight from the pages of your blog , the guru of Canonical announced that Ubuntu 11.04 will be called "Natty Narwhal", or "Elegant narwhal."

Between saying and doing ...

Mark Shuttleworth's intention, with the release NN, is to make Ubuntu beautiful and elegant just like the narwhal, an animal that lives in the Arctic, a whale that, thanks to its long front horn seems to come out a book of mythology.
The dream of the father of Ubuntu, therefore, blends myth and reality: to make this new release "perfect" and "the most beautiful ever" among those released to date .

roadmap

The lineup of new release of Ubuntu is as follows (source Ubuntu Wiki ):

• 03/03/2011 - Alpha 3
• 31/03/2011 - 21/04/2011
• Beta - Release Candidate
• 28/04/2011 - 11:04

Ubuntu after installing the Alpha 3 is now recommended that all proposed updates, in order to benefit of all the latest fixes and improvements taken.

All ' Ubuntu Developer Summit, Shuttleworth has surprised all those present with his statements: the new version of Ubuntu will see the adoption of Unity interface as the default desktop instead of GNOME.

Shuttleworth explained its choice in regard to the new interface on the grounds that, in his words, " users want Unity as the main desktop. In an interview after his presentation, the same added that Dell is ready to support the initiative, and that there are agreements to this effect with other large companies PC manufacturers like Lenovo and Acer.

Furthermore, it seems that the decision to make this change by the next release, was dictated by the increasingly divergent views between the GNOME developers and the team at Canonical on how it should be and how it should operate desktop interface.
Shuttleworth was however promised that, despite their differences, users of desktop editions of Ubuntu should have few problems with the new interface: many elements of GNOME and Unity will continue to be used should allow the execution of all GNOME applications without changing them.
Operation Unity, is also based on OpenGL. This could initially create problems for users with PCs equipped with scarce resources hardware, which must wait for the next planned development with the release of Ubuntu 11.10 for a 2D version, certainly more light .

Operation Unity Unity is already available as a default desktop manager by Alpha 1, but in this release have been made many changes. The system is remarkably stable and incredibly responsive and powerful, a sign that the programmers at Canonical are doing an excellent job.
The desktop is based on two fundamental components that characterize the look deeply and usability: the classic top bar is flanked by a launch bar on the left side of the screen.

The top bar on the right of this bar are the classic icons of the recent versions of Ubuntu, including wireless network, volume, time and the off button. But do not be fooled, the new features are notable: the bar, In fact, acquires the properties of the active window by showing its menu, just like on Mac OS X

clicking on the Ubuntu logo in the upper left hand, now there is a large window with shortcuts .

up you will find a search bar intelligent typed text can, for example, to search for installed applications and not on our PC. For example, typing gimp we can find and start the program, or install it using the Ubuntu Software Center that will open automatically. Unfortunately, at least in my case, the 'application crashed.

the bottom right of that window there is also a button to expand it to all the available screen.

The new launch bar

The launch bar on the left has anything of interest. In it there is already some pitchers default, allowing you to launch applications with the click of a mouse, for example, the file manager and Firefox.
Its operation is very similar to the bottom bar of Windows 7: opening a program is loading and displaying the icon, which can be maintained clicking above with the right mouse and selecting Keep in Launcher.

open programs are identified by a small arrow icon on the left, the arrows will turn 2, a left and a right, if the active program window open.

Clicking the right mouse button on some pitchers will open a context menu with more shortcuts as in the case of files and folders .

Pitchers may finally be dragged to the bar and moved in any order.

Window Management

Another feature borrowed from Windows 7 is automatic resizing of windows open: a dragging to the right side of the screen, this will occupy exactly half of the desktop by dragging it to the left will be exactly the same thing Furthermore, by hiding the launch bar, dragging the window up, finally, this will be maximized and will occupy the entire desktop.

When a window, then, occupies the space for launch bar, this can be invoked by moving the cursor over the Ubuntu logo at the top left.

This Ubuntu release brings more news, I hope, will change the habits of users. We see the most significant.

A new default audio player

Banshee will be the new default audio player. Version 2.0 of this program should be released on April 6, 2011 , just in time to be included in the final distribution. In this we still find the Alpha 3 version 1.9.5 .

The program integrates seamlessly with the desktop and beyond to serve as audio and video player, you can handle podcasts and sync the iPod and devices using Android. To learn more read
Banshee is the next-generation multimedia player for Ubuntu .

Farewell to the X.org X server

The current server graph of Ubuntu, X.org known, will be replaced by Wayland as stated by Shuttleworth. The new display system based on OpenGL, " will be able to manage a newly developed graphics than the heaviest X.org and dated, with an image generating much smoother, flicker-free and with even more advanced effects " . The proposal
Shuttleworth's, unfortunately, it seems that NVIDIA has responded to have no intention of making drivers that support Wayland. The same house is also the only one not having released the hardware specifications open to create a driver that supports 3D. Users must then satisfy the Nouveau driver , which are realized through the technique of reverse engineering , and to date only support 2D.

Firefox is already updated

Another new feature included in this release Alpha 3 refers to the Firefox browser, which is to be updated to version 4.0 RC .

vs OpenOffice. LibreOffice

The recent differences between OpenOffice programmers and Oracle, the new owners found that Sun Microsystems, have in fact led to the birth of the new project LibreOffice . Canonical is not married and had to wait in full because of the new suite, replacing it with OpenOffice already starting from this version of Ubuntu.

Impressions of use and conclusions

The boot is so fairly quickly, in line with the last two previous versions of Ubuntu and, overall, the system operating proves to be very responsive when opening programs and folders.
effects graphs are automatically activated. Clicking on the workspace selector to the left or by pressing the key combination [WIN + E] , in fact, it is possible to preview all 4 desktops available, typical of Compiz.

This release of Ubuntu 4.11, I was impressed. The potential offered by Unity slowly starting to be appreciated, even if the window manager may leave some 'crippled.
In fact when a window is maximized or when more than one window is open in the same area I found work in unnatural to have to go in search of the Ubuntu logo to bring up the launch bar that, in fact, is the focal point of the system and desktop management.
point out that, however, you can use the classic desktop mode, selecting from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the login window, after clicking on our user.
remember, finally, that this version Alpha 3 is a highly unstable and therefore not suitable installation for everyday use.
The appointment is for next 31/03/2011 with the release of version Beta.

source: Megalab