[Cialug] Ubuntu's changing look

[Matthew Nuzum]

I got to attend UDS in Orlando this year, my first in the 4+ years I've been
with Canonical. I heard there that one of the big changes in Ubuntu for the
next release is the plan to switch to Unity as the desktop shell (with a
GNOME backend still). This assumes that the installer detected a video card
capable of running Unity (3d support), otherwise it will be a classic GNOME
experience.

Mark stated that by releasing Unity on Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition that it
allowed collecting numerous practical bug reports from a relatively smaller
audience. He's not claiming it will be perfect for 11.04 (I think file
management is one big thing he expects to take longer), but he feels it will
be able to provide a superb desktop experience. I have to admit, I like what
I saw. I think it will make users far more productive.

I'm not sure if the above is good news, bad news or "meh" news, but there it
is.

One other interesting note is that everyone was talking about two things:
making it easier to develop software targeting Ubuntu and also improving the
way software is distributed for both open source and commercial (OSS or not)
software vendors. The hope is that software releases will no longer be tied
to Ubuntu releases (i.e. when FF5 comes out you can upgrade w/out waiting
for the next Ubuntu release).

I'm not sure what the time frame for either of these points is but many
people feel a sense of shame at how hard of a time developers are having and
are committed to correcting it.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -Benjamin Franklin
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://cialug.org/pipermail/cialug/attachments/20101102/9bf732df/attachment.htm