Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
The Desktop
The new desktop theme is called Ambiance and it’s quite attractive. Gone is the icky orange and brown of previous releases and who among us will miss it? Not I.
The Ubuntu Linux desktop has finally come of age as far as design goes. It is – dare I say it – very Mac-like in some respects. The default wallpaper is purplish and the maximize/minimize/close buttons are now on the left.
Moving these buttons was a bold move on Canonical’s part but one that doesn’t bother me in the least. I own Macs and I use Mac OS X frequently so having the buttons on the left is second nature to me and I’m very happy to see Ubuntu go in this direction. I know that some people will hate this but, trust me, you’ll get used to it very quickly and if you have to use Windows at some point, you’ll wonder why the buttons are on right instead of on the left. Having them on the left just feels so natural once you get used to it.
Canonical seems to have used Mac OS X as a template of sorts for Ubuntu Linux and my hat is off to them for doing so. Apple, love them or hate them, has done a great job with Mac OS X’s interface and I’m thrilled to see Linux taking a page from Apple’s book and perhaps moving away from some conventions used by Microsoft in Windows.
Themes
As I noted above, Ambiance is the default theme. If you dislike it you can use a lighter theme called Radiance. I tried Radiance but went right back to Ambiance, I prefer the darker theme much more. If Radiance doesn’t float your boat you can choose Clearlooks, Dust, Dust Sand, New Wave, High Contrast Inverse or High Contrast Large Print Inverse. If none of these themes pleases you then click the Get More Themes link on the themes menu and download additional themes to choose from.
Wallpaper
There are 18 different wallpaper options to choose from and you can opt to click the Get More Backgrounds link on the Background menu if you want more. I think the default, purplish Ubuntu theme looks very good and I decided to stick with that until I finally get bored with it. At some point I’ll probably take some of my World of Warcraft screenshots and use those as my wallpaper in Ubuntu 10.04.
The Appearance Preferences menu also lets you change your font settings and adjust visual effects. My desktop defaulted to having visual effects off, which wasn’t surprising since I was running Ubuntu in a VM at the time. I tried to turn on the Extra option but, alas, it didn’t work as Ubuntu didn’t seem able to find the proper driver.
The Ubuntu 10.04 desktop using the Ambiance theme.
(31 votes, average: 3.45 out of 5)
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Hi,
Good review. But you mention that is is not possible to cycle through desktop wallpaper. Is that really true? Cause I am now using Ubuntu 9.10 and there it is possible. In the background menu there is one directory (cosmos) already included and optionally, you can add new ones to /usr/share/backgrounds. You can even add a xml file containing the durations that a certain file should stay on the background. It would surprise me if that option is not there anymore??
Regards, Joost
Another nail in Windows Coffin. I normally hate Ubuntu but this is gooood!!! Now have it on my EeePC suffer Microsoft. Steve and Bill you’d better start crying your days are numbered!
What is Steam? I gonna have to Google it.
I think Ubuntu 10.04 has shaped up nicely. I am on currently Ubuntu 8.04 and this is the first release where I might upgrade before the end-of-life of my current version.
Morning guys,
Glad you enjoyed the review.
Joost, I checked the controls on the Appearance Preferences menu (where you change your background) and there seemed to be no way to automatically cycle through wallpaper.
Perhaps there’s another way to do it though, I’m not sure. It seems like that’s the obvious place to put controls that are similar to the ones in Mac OS X.
Zac, Steam is Valve’s gaming service. It’s not out for Linux yet but rumors are flying that it may be coming soon. It’s scheduled to arrive for Mac OS X very soon. But a Linux version might also be in the works.
I have my fingers crossed!
Mozilla is said to be already working with Google in an open video codec. Flash (and its closed source model) is past now.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/04/google-planning-to-open-the-vp8-video-codec.ars
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/13/reports_says_google_will_open_source_on2_codec_in_may/
“Maybe Canonical could cut some kind of deal with Adobe”
Have you not been paying attention to the idiotic decisions Canonical has been making in the past 2 years? They are completely destroying Ubuntu. At the rate they are going they wont even be ON Distrowatch’s Top 100 list, let alone #1 in the next year.
“I was also unhappy to note that the Screensaver menu is separate from the Appearances menu where you change your desktop background. These two things are combined in Mac OS X on one menu (you choose one or the other from the same menu) so it’s easy to make changes. Canonical might want to give some thought to combining these two menus, it just makes a lot of sense to have them both in one place.”
That is a Linux/Gnome thing, and has NOTHING to do with Canonical. Canonical develops Ubuntu, Canonical does not develop Gnome. I would suggest you actually study up on Linux for a bit before you write reviews about it.
I have installed a program called “Desktop Drapes” which will automatically change the wallpaper at times you define, as well as the location of the folder that holds your pics. It’s an okay program, does what it supposed to. My only fault with it, it crashed a couple of times and once didn’t start on reboot. Other than that, it worked okay. It’s in the Software Center!
Actually, it doesn’t have “the latest version of gnome.”
10.04 comes with gnome 2 for stability. Gnome 3 has been released, install gnome-shell to get it.