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Wikipedia

Unity (user interface)

January 01, 1970

Not to be confused with Unity (game engine) or Unity Operating System.

Unity is a graphical shell for the GNOME desktop environment originally developed by Canonical Ltd. for its Ubuntu operating system. It debuted in 2010 in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10 and was used until Ubuntu 17.10. Since 2017, its development was taken over by the Unity7 Maintainers (Unity7)[5] and UBports (Lomiri, formerly known as Unity8).

Unity
Unity 7.6, running on Ubuntu Unity 22.10
Original author(s)Canonical Ltd.
Developer(s)Unity7, UnityX: Unity7 Maintainers
Lomiri (Unity8): UBports
Initial release9 June 2010; 13 years ago (2010-06-09)[1]
Stable release
7.6[2]  / 30 June 2022
Repository
  • code.launchpad.net/unity
  • github.com/ubports/unity8
  • gitlab.com/ubuntu-unity/unity-x
Written inUnity 2D: C++, JavaScript, QML
2.0–7.4: C, C++, Python, Vala[3]
8: C++ and QML[4]
UnityX: Fish
Operating systemUbuntu Desktop, Ubuntu TV, Ubuntu Touch
TypeGraphical shell
LicenseGPL v3, LGPL v3
Websiteunityd.org 

Unity7 is the default desktop environment in Ubuntu Unity, an official flavor of Ubuntu since 2022. Ubuntu Unity and Unity7 Maintainers have started working on the successor of Unity7, UnityX.[6]

It was part of the Ayatana project, an initiative with the stated intention of improving the user experience within Ubuntu.[7] It was initially designed to make more efficient use of space given the limited screen size of netbooks, including, for example, a vertical application switcher called the launcher, and a space-saving horizontal multipurpose top menu bar.[8][9] Unlike GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, or LXDE, Unity is not a collection of applications. It is designed to use existing programs.[10]

Features edit

The Unity user interface consists of several components:[11]

  • Top menu bar: a multipurpose top bar, saving space, and containing:
    1. the menu bar of the active application
    2. the title bar of the main window of the active application, including the maximize, minimize and exit buttons
    3. the session menu,[12] including the global system settings, logout, and shut down
    4. the diverse global notification indicators including the time, weather, and the state of the underlying system.[11]
  • Launcher: a taskbar. Multiple instances of an application are grouped under the same icon, with an indicator showing how many instances are open.[13] The user has a choice whether or not to lock an application to the launcher. If it is not locked, an application may be started using the Dash or via a separately installed menu.[14]
  • Quicklist: the accessible menu of launcher items
  • Dash: a desktop search utility that enables searching for information both locally (e.g. installed applications, recent files, or bookmarks) and online (e.g. Twitter or Google Docs). It displays previews of the results.[15]
  • Head-up display (HUD): Allows hotkey searching for top menu bar items from the keyboard, without the need for using the mouse, by pressing and releasing the Alt key.[16]
  • Indicators: a notification area containing the clock, network status, battery status, and audio volume controls

Dash edit

 
Dash, searching applications in Ubuntu Unity 22.10

Dash is a desktop search utility with preview ability. It enables searching for applications and files. Dash supports search plug-ins, known as Scopes (formerly Lenses). Out of the box, it can query Google Docs, Ubuntu One Music Store, YouTube, Amazon, and social networks (for example, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+). Starting with Ubuntu 13.10, online search queries are sent to a Canonical web service which determines the type of query and directs them to the appropriate third-party web service. Pornographic results are filtered out.[4][17][18]

None of Ubuntu's official derivatives (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or Ubuntu GNOME) include this feature or any variation of it.

One of the new features of Unity in Ubuntu 12.10 is the shopping lens. As of October 2012, it sends (through a secure HTTPS connection) the user's queries from the home lens to productsearch.ubuntu.com,[18] which then polls Amazon.com to find relevant products; Amazon then sends product images directly to the user's computer (initially, through unsecured HTTP). If the user clicks on one of these results and then buys something, Canonical receives a small commission on the sale.[19]

Many reviewers criticized it: as the home lens is the natural means to search for content on the local machine, reviewers were concerned about the disclosure of queries that were intended to be local, creating a privacy problem.[18] The feature is active by default[18][19][20][21] (instead of opt-in) and many users could be unaware of it.

On 23 September 2012, Mark Shuttleworth defended the feature. He posted "the Home Lens of the Dash should let you find *anything* anywhere" and that the shopping lens is a step in that direction. He argued that anonymity is preserved because Canonical servers mediate the communication between Unity and Amazon and users could trust Ubuntu.[18][22] Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon posted "These features are neatly and unobtrusively integrated into the dash, and they not only provide a more useful and comprehensive dash in giving you visibility on this content, but it also generates revenue to help continue to grow and improve Ubuntu."[23] Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols from ZDNet said the feature does not bother him and wrote "If they can make some users happy and some revenue for the company at the same time, that's fine by me."[21] Ted Samson at InfoWorld reported the responses from Shuttleworth and Bacon, but he still criticized the feature.[20]

On 29 October 2012, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the problem. It argued that since product images were (as of October 2012) returned via insecure HTTP then a passive eavesdropper—such as someone on the same wireless network—could get a good idea of the queries. Also, Amazon could correlate the queries with IP addresses. It recommended Ubuntu developers make the feature opt-in and make Ubuntu's privacy settings more fine-grained. It noted that the Dash can be stopped from searching the Internet by switching off "Include online search results" in Ubuntu's privacy settings.[18][24]

On 7 December 2012, Richard Stallman claimed that Ubuntu contains spyware and should not be used by free software supporters. Jono Bacon rebuked him; he said that Ubuntu responded and implemented many of the requirements the community found important.[25][26][27]

Since September 2013, images are anonymized before being sent to the user's computer.[28]

A legal notice in the Dash informs users of the sharing of their data.[29] It states that unless the user has opted out, by turning the searches off, their queries and IP address will be sent to productsearch.ubuntu.com and "selected third parties"[19][30] for online search results. Ubuntu's Third Party Privacy Policies page informs all of the third parties that may receive users' queries and IP addresses, and states: "For information on how our selected third parties may use your information, please see their privacy policies."[18]

Soon after being introduced, doubts emerged on the conformance of the shopping lens with the European Data Protection Directive.[31][32] By late 2013, these doubts made the grounds for a formal complaint on the shopping lens filed with the Information Commissioner's Office (IOC), the UK data privacy office. Almost one year later the IOC ruled in favour of Canonical, considering the various improvements introduced to the feature in the meantime to render it conformal with the Data Protection Directive.[33] However, the ruling also made clear that at the time of introduction the feature was not legal, among other things, since it lacked a privacy policy statement.

In March 2014, Michael Hall speaking for Canonical Ltd, indicated that in Unity 8 users will have to opt-in for each search, which will be conducted by opening a special scope and then choosing where to search. These changes would address all criticisms leveled at Canonical and Unity in the past.[34] As of April 2016, with the release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, the setting is off by default.[35]

Variants edit

Unity for Ubuntu TV edit

 
Ubuntu TV showing Big Buck Bunny

Ubuntu TV, running a Unity variant, was introduced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.[36] Created for SmartTVs, Ubuntu TV provides access to popular Internet services and stream content to mobile devices running Android, iOS and Ubuntu.[37]

Unity for Ubuntu Touch edit

Main article: Ubuntu Touch § Design

On 2 January 2013, Canonical announced a smartphone variant of Unity running on the Mir display server.[38]

Unity 2D edit

Not to be confused with Unity (game engine).
 
Unity 2D showing the ability to run alongside different window managers and desktop environments

Initially Canonical maintained two discrete versions of Unity, which were visually almost indistinguishable but technically different.

Unity is written as a plugin for Compiz[39] and uses an uncommon OpenGL toolkit called Nux.[4] Being a plugin for Compiz gives Unity GPU-accelerated performance on compatible systems. It is written in the programming languages C++ and Vala.

Unity 2D was a set of individual applications[40] developed for environments that Compiz does not run on, such as when graphics card does not support OpenGL. They were written in the GUI building language QML from the widespread Qt framework.[41] By default Unity 2D used the Metacity window manager[40] but could also use accelerated window managers like Compiz or KWin. In Ubuntu 11.10, Unity 2D used Metacity's XRender-based compositor to achieve transparency effects.[citation needed] Starting with Ubuntu 11.10, Unity 2D replaced the classic GNOME Panel as the fall-back for users whose hardware could not run the Compiz version of Unity.[42]

Unity 2D was discontinued for the release of Ubuntu 12.10 in October 2012, as the 3D version became more capable of running on lower-powered hardware.[43]

Availability edit

As Unity and the supporting Ayatana projects[44] are developed primarily for Ubuntu and Ubuntu was the first to offer new versions.

Outside of Ubuntu, other Linux distributors have tried to pick up Ayatana, with varying success. The Ayatana components require modification of other applications, which increases the complexity for adoption by others.

  • Arch Linux offers many Ayatana components, including Unity and Unity 2D, via an unofficial repository or through AUR.[45]
  • Fedora does not offer Unity in its default repositories because Unity requires unsupported patches to GTK.[46] However Unity 6 has been ported to Fedora 17 and can be installed through a branch in the openSUSE repositories where the patches are applied.[47] Newer Fedora and Unity versions are not supported.[48]
  • Frugalware had adopted Ayatana, including Unity and Unity 2D, as part of the development branch for an upcoming Frugalware release but the project is no longer maintained.[49]
  • openSUSE offers many Ayatana components for GNOME.[50] After the packager abandoned the project because of problems with the then-current version of Compiz,[51] new developers picked up the task and provide packages for openSUSE 12.2 (along with versions for Arch Linux and Fedora 17). Newer openSUSE and Unity versions are not supported.[48]
  • Manjaro has a Unity version of its distribution.[52]
  • Ubuntu Unity uses the Unity 7 desktop.[53][54]

Development edit

Unity was originally unveiled on 10 May 2010 during Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth's keynote at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Brussels.[55] It was announced as the new interface of both Ubuntu Netbook Edition and a then-planned OEM platform called Ubuntu Light.[56] The new interface was also made available for download during the keynote and visitors of the summit could try it out on a Dell Mini 10v.[57]

Ubuntu originally used the full GNOME desktop environment; Shuttleworth cited philosophical differences with the GNOME team over the user experience to explain why Ubuntu would use Unity as the default user interface instead of GNOME Shell, beginning April 2011, with Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal).[58]

In November 2010, Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon explained that Ubuntu will continue to ship the GNOME stack, GNOME applications, and optimize Ubuntu for GNOME. The only difference, he wrote, would be that Unity is a different shell for GNOME.[59]

Canonical announced it had engineered Unity for desktop computers as well and would make Unity the default shell for Ubuntu in version 11.04.[60] GNOME Shell was not included in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal because work on it was not completed at the time 11.04 was frozen, but was available from a PPA,[61] and was available in Ubuntu 11.10 and later releases, through the official repositories.[62]

In November 2010, Mark Shuttleworth announced the intention to eventually run Unity on Wayland instead of the currently used X Window System,[63] although this plan has since been dropped, replacing Wayland with Mir for Unity 8.[64]

In December 2010, some users requested that the Unity launcher (or dock) be movable from the left to other sides of the screen, but Mark Shuttleworth stated in reply, "I'm afraid that won't work with our broader design goals, so we won't implement that. We want the launcher always close to the Ubuntu button."[65] However, with Ubuntu 11.10, the Ubuntu button was moved into the launcher. A third-party plugin that moved Unity 3D's launcher to the bottom was available.[66] An option to move the launcher to the bottom of the screen was officially implemented in Ubuntu 16.04.[67]

As of 2010, the Unity shell interface developers use a toolkit called Nux instead of Clutter.[68] Unity is a plugin of the Compiz window manager,[4] which Canonical states is faster than Mutter,[69] the window manager for which GNOME Shell is a plugin.

On 14 January 2011, Canonical also released a technical preview of a "2D" version of Unity based on Qt and written in QML.[41] Unity-2D was not shipped on the Ubuntu 11.04 CD, instead the classic GNOME desktop was the fall-back for hardware that could not run Unity.[70][71]

In March 2011, public indications emerged of friction between Canonical (and its development of Unity) and the GNOME developers. As part of Unity development Ubuntu developers had submitted API coding for inclusion in Gnome as an external dependency. According to Dave Neary, "... an external dependency is a non-GNOME module which is a dependency of a package contained in one of the GNOME module sets," and the reasons why libappindicator was not accepted as an external dependency are that "... it does not fit that definition," it has "... duplicate functionality with libnotify," (the current Gnome Shell default) and its CLA does not meet current GNOME policy.[72] Mark Shuttleworth responded,

This is a critical juncture for the leadership of Gnome. I'll state plainly that I feel the long tail of good-hearted contributors to Gnome and Gnome applications are being let down by a decision-making process that has let competitive dynamics diminish the scope of Gnome itself. Ideas that are not generated 'at the core' have to fight incredibly and unnecessarily hard to get oxygen... getting room for ideas to be explored should not feel like a frontal assault on a machine gun post. This is no way to lead a project. This is a recipe for a project that loses great people to environments that are more open to different ways of seeing the world ... Embracing those other ideas and allowing them to compete happily and healthily is the only way to keep the innovation they bring inside your brand. Otherwise, you're doomed to watching them innovate and then having to "relayout" your own efforts to keep up, badmouthing them in the process. We started this with a strong, clear statement: Unity is a shell for Gnome. Now Gnome leadership have to decide if they want the fruit of that competition to be an asset to Gnome, or not.[73][74][75]

In April 2011, Mark Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot would not include the classic GNOME desktop as a fall-back to Unity, unlike Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Instead Ubuntu 11.10 used the Qt-based Unity 2D for users whose hardware cannot support the 3D version.[42][76] However, the classic GNOME desktop (GNOME Panel) can be installed separately in Ubuntu 11.10 and later versions through gnome-panel, a package in the Ubuntu repositories.[77]

At the November 2011 Ubuntu Developer Summit, it was announced that Unity for Ubuntu 12.04 would not re-enable the systray, and would have better application integration, and the ability to drag lenses onto the launcher, and that the 2D version of Unity would use the same decoration buttons as the 3D version.[78]

During the planning conference for Ubuntu 12.10 it was announced that Unity 2D would probably be dropped in favour of making Unity 3D run better on lower-end hardware.[43]

In July 2012, at OSCON, Shuttleworth explained some of the historical reasoning behind Unity's development. The initial decision to develop a new interface in 2008 was driven by a desire to innovate and to pass Microsoft and Apple in user experience. This meant a family of unified interfaces that could be used across many device form factors, including desktop, laptop, tablet, smart phones and TV. Shuttleworth said "‘The old desktop would force your tablet or your phone into all kinds of crazy of funny postures. So we said: Screw it. We’re going to move the desktop to where it needs to be for the future. [This] turned out to be a deeply unpopular process."[79]

Initial testing of Unity during development was done in a laboratory setting and showed the success of the interface, despite public opposition. Real world shipping return rates also indicated acceptance. Shuttleworth explained, "ASUS ran an experiment where they shipped half a million [Unity netbooks and laptops] to Germany. Not an easy market. And the return rates on Ubuntu were exactly the same as the return rates on Windows. Which is the key indicator for OEMs who are looking to do this."[79]

Microsoft's development of Windows 8 and its Metro interface became an additional incentive for Unity development, as Shuttleworth explained, "we [had to move] our desktop because if we didn’t we’d end up where Windows 8 is. [In Windows 8] you have this shiny tablet interface, and you sit and you use then you press the wrong button then it slaps you in the face and Windows 7 is back. And then you think OK, this is familiar, so you’re kind of getting into it and whack [Windows 8 is back]."[79]

In March 2013 the plan to use the Mir display server was announced for future development of Unity, in place of the previously announced Wayland/Weston.[64][80][81][82]

In April 2015 it was announced that Unity 8 would ship as part of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, or possibly later. It was also noted that this version of Unity would not visually differ much from Unity 7.[83]

In April 2016 Ubuntu 16.04 was released with Unity 7, not Unity 8, as the default user interface, though Unity 8 could be installed through the Ubuntu software repositories as an optional, preview package.[84] During an Ubuntu Online Summit, Canonical employees said that their goal is to ship Unity 8 as the default interface for Ubuntu 16.10, to be released in October 2016.[85] These plans are now changed and for now Unity 8 will come preinstalled with 16.10 but not as default.[86][needs update]

On 5 April 2017, Mark Shuttleworth announced that Canonical's work on Unity would end. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, a year away from release at the time, would abandon the Unity desktop and employ the GNOME 3 desktop instead.[87] Development of Unity 7 was taken over by the Unity7 Maintainers team. They released version 7.6 on 30 June 2022 as the first new version in 6 years.[88]

Upon hearing the news, multiple teams forked the Unity 8 repository, including Unity8org and UBports. Unity8org later renamed themselves as Yunit, declaring its focus on desktop development.[89][90][91] However, this fork was shortly abandoned in favor of UBports' version.

UBports founder Marius Gripsgård announced on 7 April 2017, that the organization would continue Unity8 development.[92] On 27 February 2020, UBports announced that it renamed Unity8 to Lomiri.[93] Development of this fork is still active as of 2022.

In May 2020, Ubuntu Unity, a new unofficial Ubuntu version was first released, using the Unity7 desktop as its default environment.[53][54][94] It became an official Ubuntu flavor starting with version 22.10.[95]

Reception edit

Early versions of Unity received mixed reviews and generated controversy. Some reviewers found fault with the implementation and limitations, while other reviewers found Unity an improvement over GNOME 2 with the further potential to improve over time.[57][96][97][98][99]

With Ubuntu 12.04, Unity received good reviews. Jack Wallen described it as an "incredible advancement". Jesse Smith described it as "attractive" and said it had grown to maturity. Ryan Paul said Unity was responsive, robust and had the reliability expected from a mature desktop shell.[100][101][102]

The Dash feature of Unity in Ubuntu 12.10 generated a privacy controversy.[103]

Ubuntu 10.10 edit

In reviewing an alpha version of Unity, shortly after it was unveiled in the summer of 2010, Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted problems figuring out how to launch additional applications that were not on the dock bar. He also mentioned a number of bugs, including the inability to track which applications were open and other window management difficulties. He remarked that many of these were probably due to the early stage in the development process and expected them to be resolved with time. Paul concluded positively, "Our test of the Unity prototype leads us to believe that the project has considerable potential and could bring a lot of value to the Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Its unique visual style melds beautifully with Ubuntu's new default theme and its underlying interaction model seems compelling and well-suited for small screens."[57][96] In an extensive review of Ubuntu 10.10 shortly after its release in October 2010, Paul made further observations on Unity, noting that "Unity is highly ambitious and offers a substantially different computing experience than the conventional Ubuntu desktop." He concluded that "The [application] selectors are visually appealing, but they are easily the weakest part of the Unity user experience. The poor performance significantly detracts from their value in day-to-day use and the lack of actual file management functionality largely renders the file selector useless. The underlying concepts behind their design are good, however, and they have the potential to be much more valuable in the future as unity matures."[97][98]

Ubuntu 11.04 edit

In March 2011, writer Benjamin Humphrey of OMG Ubuntu criticized the development version of Unity then being tested for Ubuntu 11.04 on a number of grounds, including a development process that is divorced from user experiences, the lack of response to user feedback, "the seemingly unbelievable lack of communication the design team has," and a user interface he described as "cluttered and inconsistent". Overall, however, he concluded that "Unity is not all bad... While a number of the concepts in Unity may be flawed from a design point of view, the actual idea itself is not, and Canonical deserve applause for trying to jump start the stagnant open source desktop with Unity when the alternatives do not evoke confidence."[96]

On 14 April 2011 Ryan Paul reviewed Unity as implemented in Ubuntu 11.04 beta, just two weeks before its stable release. He reported that Unity was on track for inclusion in Natty Narwhal, despite the ambitious development schedule. He indicated, "close attention to detail shines through in many aspects of Unity. The menubar is clean and highly functional. The sidebar dock is visually appealing and has excellent default behaviors for automatic hiding." He noted that the interface still had some weak points, especially difficulties browsing for applications not on the dock, as well as switching between application categories. He noted that, in particular, "random packages from the repositories, which are presented as applications that are available for installation in the launcher, are distracting and largely superfluous". Paul concluded, "There is still a lot of room for improvement, but Unity is arguably a strong improvement over the conventional GNOME 2.x environment for day-to-day use. The breadth of the changes may be disorienting for some users, but most will like what they see when Unity lands on their desktop at the end of the month."[98] Two weeks later he added the lack of configurability to his criticisms.[104] In a very detailed assessment of Ubuntu 11.04 and Unity published on 12 May 2011, Paul further concluded Unity was a positive development for Ubuntu, but that more development had to be invested to make it work right. He wrote, "They have done some incredibly impressive work so far and have delivered a desktop that is suitable for day-to-day use, but it is still very far from fulfilling its full potential."[105]

On 25 April 2011, the eve of the release of Ubuntu 11.04, reviewer Matt Hartley of IT Management criticized Unity, saying that the "dumbing down of the Linux desktop environment is bordering on insane".[106]

Reviewer Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu was more positive about Unity in his review of Ubuntu 11.04, encouraging users, "Sure it's different—but different doesn't mean bad; the best thing to do is to give it a chance." He concluded that Unity on the desktop makes "better use of screen space, intuitive interface layouts and, most importantly, making a desktop that works for the user and not in spite of them."[107]

Following the release of Ubuntu 11.04 Canonical Ltd. founder Mark Shuttleworth indicated that, while he was generally happy with the implementation of Unity, he felt that there was room for improvement. Shuttleworth said, "I recognise there are issues, and I would not be satisfied unless we fixed many of them in 11.10 ... Unity was the best option for the average user upgrading or installing. There are LOTS of people for whom it isn't the best, but we had to choose a default position ... It's by no means perfect, and it would be egotistical to suggest otherwise... I think the bulk of it has worked out fantastically—both at an engineering level (Compiz, Nux) and in the user experience."[108]

In reviewing Unity in Ubuntu 11.04 on 9 May 2011, Jesse Smith of DistroWatch criticized its lack of customization, menu handling and Unity hardware requirements, saying, "There's really nothing here which should demand 3D acceleration." He also noted that "The layout doesn't translate well to large screens or multiple-screen systems."[109] Jack M. Germain of Linux Insider reviewed Unity on 11 May 2011, indicating strong dislike for it, saying, "Put me in the Hate It category" and indicating that as development has proceeded he likes it less and less.[110]

Ubuntu 11.10 edit

 
Unity desktop in Ubuntu 11.10

More criticism appeared after the release of Ubuntu 11.10. In November 2011 Robert Storey writing in DistroWatch noted that developer work on Unity is now taking up so much time that little is getting done on outstanding Ubuntu bugs, resulting in a distribution that is not as stable or as fast as it should be. Storey concluded "Perhaps it would be worth putting up with the bugs if Unity was the greatest thing since sliced bread — something wonderful that is going to revolutionize desktop computing. But it's not. I tried Unity, and it's kind of cute, but nothing to write home about."[111]

In November 2011 OMG! Ubuntu! conducted a non-scientific poll that asked its readers "which Desktop Environment Are You Using in Ubuntu 11.10?". Of the 15,988 votes cast 46.78% indicated that they were using Unity over GNOME Shell (28.42%), Xfce (7.58%), KDE (6.92%) and LXDE (2.7%).[112]

Developers of Linux distributions based upon Ubuntu have also weighed in on the introduction of Unity in early 2011, when Unity was in its infancy. Some have been critical, including two distributions who base their criticism on usability testing. Marco Ghirlanda, the lead developer of the audio- and video-centric ArtistX, stated, "When I tried Unity on computer illiterates, they were less productive and took ages to understand the concepts behind it. When I show them how to use it, they said that it is pretty to see but hard to use." Stephen Ewen, the lead developer for UberStudent, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for higher education and college-bound high school students, stated, "Unity's design decreases both visual and functional accessibility, which tabulates to decreased productivity." Ewen also criticized Unity's menu scheme as much less accessible than on GNOME 2, which he said, "means that the brain cannot map as quickly to program categories and subcategories, which again means further decreased productivity."[113]

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS edit

 
Unity keyboard shortcuts in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Jesse Smith of DistroWatch said that many people, like him, had questioned Ubuntu's direction, including Unity. But with Ubuntu 12.04 he felt that the puzzle pieces, which individually may have been underwhelming, had come together to form a whole, clear picture. He said "Unity, though a step away from the traditional desktop, has several features which make it attractive, such as reducing mouse travel. The HUD means that newcomers can find application functionality with a quick search and more advanced users can use the HUD to quickly run menu commands from the keyboard." He wrote that Unity had grown to maturity, but said he was bothered by its lack of flexibility.[101]

Jack Wallen of TechRepublic—who had strongly criticized early versions of Unity—said "Since Ubuntu 12.04 was released, and I migrated over from Linux Mint, I’m working much more efficiently. This isn’t really so much a surprise to me, but to many of the detractors who assume Unity a very unproductive desktop... well, I can officially say they are wrong. [...] I realize that many people out there have spurned Unity (I was one of them for a long time), but the more I use it, the more I realize that Canonical really did their homework on how to help end users more efficiently interact with their computers. Change is hard – period. For many, the idea of change is such a painful notion they wind up missing out on some incredible advancements. Unity is one such advancement."[100]

Ryan Paul said Unity was responsive, robust and had the reliability expected from a mature desktop shell. He considered the HUD as one of several excellent improvements that had helped to make Unity "even better in Ubuntu 12.04". Yet he also wrote: "Although Unity's quality has grown to the point where it fulfills our expectations, the user experience still falls short in a number of ways. We identified several key weaknesses in our last two Ubuntu reviews, some of which still haven't been addressed yet. These issues still detract from Unity's predictability and ease of use."[102]

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS edit

 
Unity desktop in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Jack Wallen of TechRepublic, in reviewing the changes scheduled for Unity in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, concluded, "Ubuntu Unity is not the desktop pariah you once thought it was. This desktop environment has evolved into a beautiful, efficient interface that does not deserve the scorn and derision heaped upon it by so many."[114]

See also edit

References edit

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  2. ^ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
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  5. ^ "Unity7 Maintainers Team in Launchpad". Launchpad. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Restarting Unity development in 2021 - Progress Report". Ubuntu Community Hub. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Ayatana – Ubuntu Wiki". Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  8. ^ Proffitt, Brian (10 May 2010). . ITWorld. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
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  10. ^ Jackson, Joab (25 October 2010). . PC World Business Center. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
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  14. ^ "ClassicMenu Indicator". Retrieved 8 August 2015.
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  20. ^ a b Samson, Ted (25 September 2012). "Canonical wants to shill for Amazon on Ubuntu users' desktops". InfoWorld. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
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  23. ^ Bacon, Jono (23 September 2012). . jonobacon@home (blog). Archived from the original on 27 October 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
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  25. ^ . jonobacon@home (blog). 7 December 2012. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  26. ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. (9 December 2012). "Free software father declared Ubuntu Linux to contain spyware". ZDNet. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
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  28. ^ "The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10". Slashdot. 22 September 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
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External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unity (desktop environment).
  • Official website  
  • Official wiki
  • Official Unity hardware requirements
  • Bugs of Unity in Ubuntu
  • Ubuntu Third Party Privacy Policies page

January 01, 1970
unity, user, interface, confused, with, unity, game, engine, unity, operating, system, unity, graphical, shell, gnome, desktop, environment, originally, developed, canonical, ubuntu, operating, system, debuted, 2010, netbook, edition, ubuntu, used, until, ubun. Not to be confused with Unity game engine or Unity Operating System Unity is a graphical shell for the GNOME desktop environment originally developed by Canonical Ltd for its Ubuntu operating system It debuted in 2010 in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10 10 and was used until Ubuntu 17 10 Since 2017 its development was taken over by the Unity7 Maintainers Unity7 5 and UBports Lomiri formerly known as Unity8 UnityUnity 7 6 running on Ubuntu Unity 22 10Original author s Canonical Ltd Developer s Unity7 UnityX Unity7 MaintainersLomiri Unity8 UBportsInitial release9 June 2010 13 years ago 2010 06 09 1 Stable release7 6 2 30 June 2022Repositorycode wbr launchpad wbr net wbr unitygithub wbr com wbr ubports wbr unity8gitlab wbr com wbr ubuntu unity wbr unity xWritten inUnity 2D C JavaScript QML2 0 7 4 C C Python Vala 3 8 C and QML 4 UnityX FishOperating systemUbuntu Desktop Ubuntu TV Ubuntu TouchTypeGraphical shellLicenseGPL v3 LGPL v3Websiteunityd wbr org Unity7 is the default desktop environment in Ubuntu Unity an official flavor of Ubuntu since 2022 Ubuntu Unity and Unity7 Maintainers have started working on the successor of Unity7 UnityX 6 It was part of the Ayatana project an initiative with the stated intention of improving the user experience within Ubuntu 7 It was initially designed to make more efficient use of space given the limited screen size of netbooks including for example a vertical application switcher called the launcher and a space saving horizontal multipurpose top menu bar 8 9 Unlike GNOME KDE Plasma Xfce or LXDE Unity is not a collection of applications It is designed to use existing programs 10 Contents 1 Features 1 1 Dash 2 Variants 2 1 Unity for Ubuntu TV 2 2 Unity for Ubuntu Touch 2 3 Unity 2D 3 Availability 4 Development 5 Reception 5 1 Ubuntu 10 10 5 2 Ubuntu 11 04 5 3 Ubuntu 11 10 5 4 Ubuntu 12 04 LTS 5 5 Ubuntu 16 04 LTS 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksFeatures editThe Unity user interface consists of several components 11 Top menu bar a multipurpose top bar saving space and containing the menu bar of the active application the title bar of the main window of the active application including the maximize minimize and exit buttons the session menu 12 including the global system settings logout and shut down the diverse global notification indicators including the time weather and the state of the underlying system 11 Launcher a taskbar Multiple instances of an application are grouped under the same icon with an indicator showing how many instances are open 13 The user has a choice whether or not to lock an application to the launcher If it is not locked an application may be started using the Dash or via a separately installed menu 14 Quicklist the accessible menu of launcher items Dash a desktop search utility that enables searching for information both locally e g installed applications recent files or bookmarks and online e g Twitter or Google Docs It displays previews of the results 15 Head up display HUD Allows hotkey searching for top menu bar items from the keyboard without the need for using the mouse by pressing and releasing the Alt key 16 Indicators a notification area containing the clock network status battery status and audio volume controls Dash edit nbsp Dash searching applications in Ubuntu Unity 22 10 Dash is a desktop search utility with preview ability It enables searching for applications and files Dash supports search plug ins known as Scopes formerly Lenses Out of the box it can query Google Docs Ubuntu One Music Store YouTube Amazon and social networks for example Twitter Facebook and Google Starting with Ubuntu 13 10 online search queries are sent to a Canonical web service which determines the type of query and directs them to the appropriate third party web service Pornographic results are filtered out 4 17 18 None of Ubuntu s official derivatives Kubuntu Xubuntu Lubuntu or Ubuntu GNOME include this feature or any variation of it One of the new features of Unity in Ubuntu 12 10 is the shopping lens As of October 2012 it sends through a secure HTTPS connection the user s queries from the home lens to productsearch ubuntu com 18 which then polls Amazon com to find relevant products Amazon then sends product images directly to the user s computer initially through unsecured HTTP If the user clicks on one of these results and then buys something Canonical receives a small commission on the sale 19 Many reviewers criticized it as the home lens is the natural means to search for content on the local machine reviewers were concerned about the disclosure of queries that were intended to be local creating a privacy problem 18 The feature is active by default 18 19 20 21 instead of opt in and many users could be unaware of it On 23 September 2012 Mark Shuttleworth defended the feature He posted the Home Lens of the Dash should let you find anything anywhere and that the shopping lens is a step in that direction He argued that anonymity is preserved because Canonical servers mediate the communication between Unity and Amazon and users could trust Ubuntu 18 22 Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon posted These features are neatly and unobtrusively integrated into the dash and they not only provide a more useful and comprehensive dash in giving you visibility on this content but it also generates revenue to help continue to grow and improve Ubuntu 23 Steven J Vaughan Nichols from ZDNet said the feature does not bother him and wrote If they can make some users happy and some revenue for the company at the same time that s fine by me 21 Ted Samson at InfoWorld reported the responses from Shuttleworth and Bacon but he still criticized the feature 20 On 29 October 2012 the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the problem It argued that since product images were as of October 2012 returned via insecure HTTP then a passive eavesdropper such as someone on the same wireless network could get a good idea of the queries Also Amazon could correlate the queries with IP addresses It recommended Ubuntu developers make the feature opt in and make Ubuntu s privacy settings more fine grained It noted that the Dash can be stopped from searching the Internet by switching off Include online search results in Ubuntu s privacy settings 18 24 On 7 December 2012 Richard Stallman claimed that Ubuntu contains spyware and should not be used by free software supporters Jono Bacon rebuked him he said that Ubuntu responded and implemented many of the requirements the community found important 25 26 27 Since September 2013 images are anonymized before being sent to the user s computer 28 A legal notice in the Dash informs users of the sharing of their data 29 It states that unless the user has opted out by turning the searches off their queries and IP address will be sent to productsearch ubuntu com and selected third parties 19 30 for online search results Ubuntu s Third Party Privacy Policies page informs all of the third parties that may receive users queries and IP addresses and states For information on how our selected third parties may use your information please see their privacy policies 18 Soon after being introduced doubts emerged on the conformance of the shopping lens with the European Data Protection Directive 31 32 By late 2013 these doubts made the grounds for a formal complaint on the shopping lens filed with the Information Commissioner s Office IOC the UK data privacy office Almost one year later the IOC ruled in favour of Canonical considering the various improvements introduced to the feature in the meantime to render it conformal with the Data Protection Directive 33 However the ruling also made clear that at the time of introduction the feature was not legal among other things since it lacked a privacy policy statement In March 2014 Michael Hall speaking for Canonical Ltd indicated that in Unity 8 users will have to opt in for each search which will be conducted by opening a special scope and then choosing where to search These changes would address all criticisms leveled at Canonical and Unity in the past 34 As of April 2016 with the release of Ubuntu 16 04 LTS the setting is off by default 35 Variants editUnity for Ubuntu TV edit nbsp Ubuntu TV showing Big Buck Bunny Ubuntu TV running a Unity variant was introduced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show 36 Created for SmartTVs Ubuntu TV provides access to popular Internet services and stream content to mobile devices running Android iOS and Ubuntu 37 Unity for Ubuntu Touch edit Main article Ubuntu Touch Design On 2 January 2013 Canonical announced a smartphone variant of Unity running on the Mir display server 38 Unity 2D edit Not to be confused with Unity game engine nbsp Unity 2D showing the ability to run alongside different window managers and desktop environments Initially Canonical maintained two discrete versions of Unity which were visually almost indistinguishable but technically different Unity is written as a plugin for Compiz 39 and uses an uncommon OpenGL toolkit called Nux 4 Being a plugin for Compiz gives Unity GPU accelerated performance on compatible systems It is written in the programming languages C and Vala Unity 2D was a set of individual applications 40 developed for environments that Compiz does not run on such as when graphics card does not support OpenGL They were written in the GUI building language QML from the widespread Qt framework 41 By default Unity 2D used the Metacity window manager 40 but could also use accelerated window managers like Compiz or KWin In Ubuntu 11 10 Unity 2D used Metacity s XRender based compositor to achieve transparency effects citation needed Starting with Ubuntu 11 10 Unity 2D replaced the classic GNOME Panel as the fall back for users whose hardware could not run the Compiz version of Unity 42 Unity 2D was discontinued for the release of Ubuntu 12 10 in October 2012 as the 3D version became more capable of running on lower powered hardware 43 Availability editAs Unity and the supporting Ayatana projects 44 are developed primarily for Ubuntu and Ubuntu was the first to offer new versions Outside of Ubuntu other Linux distributors have tried to pick up Ayatana with varying success The Ayatana components require modification of other applications which increases the complexity for adoption by others Arch Linux offers many Ayatana components including Unity and Unity 2D via an unofficial repository or through AUR 45 Fedora does not offer Unity in its default repositories because Unity requires unsupported patches to GTK 46 However Unity 6 has been ported to Fedora 17 and can be installed through a branch in the openSUSE repositories where the patches are applied 47 Newer Fedora and Unity versions are not supported 48 Frugalware had adopted Ayatana including Unity and Unity 2D as part of the development branch for an upcoming Frugalware release but the project is no longer maintained 49 openSUSE offers many Ayatana components for GNOME 50 After the packager abandoned the project because of problems with the then current version of Compiz 51 new developers picked up the task and provide packages for openSUSE 12 2 along with versions for Arch Linux and Fedora 17 Newer openSUSE and Unity versions are not supported 48 Manjaro has a Unity version of its distribution 52 Ubuntu Unity uses the Unity 7 desktop 53 54 Development editUnity was originally unveiled on 10 May 2010 during Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth s keynote at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Brussels 55 It was announced as the new interface of both Ubuntu Netbook Edition and a then planned OEM platform called Ubuntu Light 56 The new interface was also made available for download during the keynote and visitors of the summit could try it out on a Dell Mini 10v 57 Ubuntu originally used the full GNOME desktop environment Shuttleworth cited philosophical differences with the GNOME team over the user experience to explain why Ubuntu would use Unity as the default user interface instead of GNOME Shell beginning April 2011 with Ubuntu 11 04 Natty Narwhal 58 In November 2010 Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon explained that Ubuntu will continue to ship the GNOME stack GNOME applications and optimize Ubuntu for GNOME The only difference he wrote would be that Unity is a different shell for GNOME 59 Canonical announced it had engineered Unity for desktop computers as well and would make Unity the default shell for Ubuntu in version 11 04 60 GNOME Shell was not included in Ubuntu 11 04 Natty Narwhal because work on it was not completed at the time 11 04 was frozen but was available from a PPA 61 and was available in Ubuntu 11 10 and later releases through the official repositories 62 In November 2010 Mark Shuttleworth announced the intention to eventually run Unity on Wayland instead of the currently used X Window System 63 although this plan has since been dropped replacing Wayland with Mir for Unity 8 64 In December 2010 some users requested that the Unity launcher or dock be movable from the left to other sides of the screen but Mark Shuttleworth stated in reply I m afraid that won t work with our broader design goals so we won t implement that We want the launcher always close to the Ubuntu button 65 However with Ubuntu 11 10 the Ubuntu button was moved into the launcher A third party plugin that moved Unity 3D s launcher to the bottom was available 66 An option to move the launcher to the bottom of the screen was officially implemented in Ubuntu 16 04 67 As of 2010 update the Unity shell interface developers use a toolkit called Nux instead of Clutter 68 Unity is a plugin of the Compiz window manager 4 which Canonical states is faster than Mutter 69 the window manager for which GNOME Shell is a plugin On 14 January 2011 Canonical also released a technical preview of a 2D version of Unity based on Qt and written in QML 41 Unity 2D was not shipped on the Ubuntu 11 04 CD instead the classic GNOME desktop was the fall back for hardware that could not run Unity 70 71 In March 2011 public indications emerged of friction between Canonical and its development of Unity and the GNOME developers As part of Unity development Ubuntu developers had submitted API coding for inclusion in Gnome as an external dependency According to Dave Neary an external dependency is a non GNOME module which is a dependency of a package contained in one of the GNOME module sets and the reasons why libappindicator was not accepted as an external dependency are that it does not fit that definition it has duplicate functionality with libnotify the current Gnome Shell default and its CLA does not meet current GNOME policy 72 Mark Shuttleworth responded This is a critical juncture for the leadership of Gnome I ll state plainly that I feel the long tail of good hearted contributors to Gnome and Gnome applications are being let down by a decision making process that has let competitive dynamics diminish the scope of Gnome itself Ideas that are not generated at the core have to fight incredibly and unnecessarily hard to get oxygen getting room for ideas to be explored should not feel like a frontal assault on a machine gun post This is no way to lead a project This is a recipe for a project that loses great people to environments that are more open to different ways of seeing the world Embracing those other ideas and allowing them to compete happily and healthily is the only way to keep the innovation they bring inside your brand Otherwise you re doomed to watching them innovate and then having to relayout your own efforts to keep up badmouthing them in the process We started this with a strong clear statement Unity is a shell for Gnome Now Gnome leadership have to decide if they want the fruit of that competition to be an asset to Gnome or not 73 74 75 In April 2011 Mark Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 11 10 Oneiric Ocelot would not include the classic GNOME desktop as a fall back to Unity unlike Ubuntu 11 04 Natty Narwhal Instead Ubuntu 11 10 used the Qt based Unity 2D for users whose hardware cannot support the 3D version 42 76 However the classic GNOME desktop GNOME Panel can be installed separately in Ubuntu 11 10 and later versions through gnome panel a package in the Ubuntu repositories 77 At the November 2011 Ubuntu Developer Summit it was announced that Unity for Ubuntu 12 04 would not re enable the systray and would have better application integration and the ability to drag lenses onto the launcher and that the 2D version of Unity would use the same decoration buttons as the 3D version 78 During the planning conference for Ubuntu 12 10 it was announced that Unity 2D would probably be dropped in favour of making Unity 3D run better on lower end hardware 43 In July 2012 at OSCON Shuttleworth explained some of the historical reasoning behind Unity s development The initial decision to develop a new interface in 2008 was driven by a desire to innovate and to pass Microsoft and Apple in user experience This meant a family of unified interfaces that could be used across many device form factors including desktop laptop tablet smart phones and TV Shuttleworth said The old desktop would force your tablet or your phone into all kinds of crazy of funny postures So we said Screw it We re going to move the desktop to where it needs to be for the future This turned out to be a deeply unpopular process 79 Initial testing of Unity during development was done in a laboratory setting and showed the success of the interface despite public opposition Real world shipping return rates also indicated acceptance Shuttleworth explained ASUS ran an experiment where they shipped half a million Unity netbooks and laptops to Germany Not an easy market And the return rates on Ubuntu were exactly the same as the return rates on Windows Which is the key indicator for OEMs who are looking to do this 79 Microsoft s development of Windows 8 and its Metro interface became an additional incentive for Unity development as Shuttleworth explained we had to move our desktop because if we didn t we d end up where Windows 8 is In Windows 8 you have this shiny tablet interface and you sit and you use then you press the wrong button then it slaps you in the face and Windows 7 is back And then you think OK this is familiar so you re kind of getting into it and whack Windows 8 is back 79 In March 2013 the plan to use the Mir display server was announced for future development of Unity in place of the previously announced Wayland Weston 64 80 81 82 In April 2015 it was announced that Unity 8 would ship as part of Ubuntu 16 04 LTS or possibly later It was also noted that this version of Unity would not visually differ much from Unity 7 83 In April 2016 Ubuntu 16 04 was released with Unity 7 not Unity 8 as the default user interface though Unity 8 could be installed through the Ubuntu software repositories as an optional preview package 84 During an Ubuntu Online Summit Canonical employees said that their goal is to ship Unity 8 as the default interface for Ubuntu 16 10 to be released in October 2016 85 These plans are now changed and for now Unity 8 will come preinstalled with 16 10 but not as default 86 needs update On 5 April 2017 Mark Shuttleworth announced that Canonical s work on Unity would end Ubuntu 18 04 LTS a year away from release at the time would abandon the Unity desktop and employ the GNOME 3 desktop instead 87 Development of Unity 7 was taken over by the Unity7 Maintainers team They released version 7 6 on 30 June 2022 as the first new version in 6 years 88 Upon hearing the news multiple teams forked the Unity 8 repository including Unity8org and UBports Unity8org later renamed themselves as Yunit declaring its focus on desktop development 89 90 91 However this fork was shortly abandoned in favor of UBports version UBports founder Marius Gripsgard announced on 7 April 2017 that the organization would continue Unity8 development 92 On 27 February 2020 UBports announced that it renamed Unity8 to Lomiri 93 Development of this fork is still active as of 2022 In May 2020 Ubuntu Unity a new unofficial Ubuntu version was first released using the Unity7 desktop as its default environment 53 54 94 It became an official Ubuntu flavor starting with version 22 10 95 Reception editEarly versions of Unity received mixed reviews and generated controversy Some reviewers found fault with the implementation and limitations while other reviewers found Unity an improvement over GNOME 2 with the further potential to improve over time 57 96 97 98 99 With Ubuntu 12 04 Unity received good reviews Jack Wallen described it as an incredible advancement Jesse Smith described it as attractive and said it had grown to maturity Ryan Paul said Unity was responsive robust and had the reliability expected from a mature desktop shell 100 101 102 The Dash feature of Unity in Ubuntu 12 10 generated a privacy controversy 103 Ubuntu 10 10 edit In reviewing an alpha version of Unity shortly after it was unveiled in the summer of 2010 Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted problems figuring out how to launch additional applications that were not on the dock bar He also mentioned a number of bugs including the inability to track which applications were open and other window management difficulties He remarked that many of these were probably due to the early stage in the development process and expected them to be resolved with time Paul concluded positively Our test of the Unity prototype leads us to believe that the project has considerable potential and could bring a lot of value to the Ubuntu Netbook Edition Its unique visual style melds beautifully with Ubuntu s new default theme and its underlying interaction model seems compelling and well suited for small screens 57 96 In an extensive review of Ubuntu 10 10 shortly after its release in October 2010 Paul made further observations on Unity noting that Unity is highly ambitious and offers a substantially different computing experience than the conventional Ubuntu desktop He concluded that The application selectors are visually appealing but they are easily the weakest part of the Unity user experience The poor performance significantly detracts from their value in day to day use and the lack of actual file management functionality largely renders the file selector useless The underlying concepts behind their design are good however and they have the potential to be much more valuable in the future as unity matures 97 98 Ubuntu 11 04 edit In March 2011 writer Benjamin Humphrey of OMG Ubuntu criticized the development version of Unity then being tested for Ubuntu 11 04 on a number of grounds including a development process that is divorced from user experiences the lack of response to user feedback the seemingly unbelievable lack of communication the design team has and a user interface he described as cluttered and inconsistent Overall however he concluded that Unity is not all bad While a number of the concepts in Unity may be flawed from a design point of view the actual idea itself is not and Canonical deserve applause for trying to jump start the stagnant open source desktop with Unity when the alternatives do not evoke confidence 96 On 14 April 2011 Ryan Paul reviewed Unity as implemented in Ubuntu 11 04 beta just two weeks before its stable release He reported that Unity was on track for inclusion in Natty Narwhal despite the ambitious development schedule He indicated close attention to detail shines through in many aspects of Unity The menubar is clean and highly functional The sidebar dock is visually appealing and has excellent default behaviors for automatic hiding He noted that the interface still had some weak points especially difficulties browsing for applications not on the dock as well as switching between application categories He noted that in particular random packages from the repositories which are presented as applications that are available for installation in the launcher are distracting and largely superfluous Paul concluded There is still a lot of room for improvement but Unity is arguably a strong improvement over the conventional GNOME 2 x environment for day to day use The breadth of the changes may be disorienting for some users but most will like what they see when Unity lands on their desktop at the end of the month 98 Two weeks later he added the lack of configurability to his criticisms 104 In a very detailed assessment of Ubuntu 11 04 and Unity published on 12 May 2011 Paul further concluded Unity was a positive development for Ubuntu but that more development had to be invested to make it work right He wrote They have done some incredibly impressive work so far and have delivered a desktop that is suitable for day to day use but it is still very far from fulfilling its full potential 105 On 25 April 2011 the eve of the release of Ubuntu 11 04 reviewer Matt Hartley of IT Management criticized Unity saying that the dumbing down of the Linux desktop environment is bordering on insane 106 Reviewer Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu was more positive about Unity in his review of Ubuntu 11 04 encouraging users Sure it s different but different doesn t mean bad the best thing to do is to give it a chance He concluded that Unity on the desktop makes better use of screen space intuitive interface layouts and most importantly making a desktop that works for the user and not in spite of them 107 Following the release of Ubuntu 11 04 Canonical Ltd founder Mark Shuttleworth indicated that while he was generally happy with the implementation of Unity he felt that there was room for improvement Shuttleworth said I recognise there are issues and I would not be satisfied unless we fixed many of them in 11 10 Unity was the best option for the average user upgrading or installing There are LOTS of people for whom it isn t the best but we had to choose a default position It s by no means perfect and it would be egotistical to suggest otherwise I think the bulk of it has worked out fantastically both at an engineering level Compiz Nux and in the user experience 108 In reviewing Unity in Ubuntu 11 04 on 9 May 2011 Jesse Smith of DistroWatch criticized its lack of customization menu handling and Unity hardware requirements saying There s really nothing here which should demand 3D acceleration He also noted that The layout doesn t translate well to large screens or multiple screen systems 109 Jack M Germain of Linux Insider reviewed Unity on 11 May 2011 indicating strong dislike for it saying Put me in the Hate It category and indicating that as development has proceeded he likes it less and less 110 Ubuntu 11 10 edit nbsp Unity desktop in Ubuntu 11 10 More criticism appeared after the release of Ubuntu 11 10 In November 2011 Robert Storey writing in DistroWatch noted that developer work on Unity is now taking up so much time that little is getting done on outstanding Ubuntu bugs resulting in a distribution that is not as stable or as fast as it should be Storey concluded Perhaps it would be worth putting up with the bugs if Unity was the greatest thing since sliced bread something wonderful that is going to revolutionize desktop computing But it s not I tried Unity and it s kind of cute but nothing to write home about 111 In November 2011 OMG Ubuntu conducted a non scientific poll that asked its readers which Desktop Environment Are You Using in Ubuntu 11 10 Of the 15 988 votes cast 46 78 indicated that they were using Unity over GNOME Shell 28 42 Xfce 7 58 KDE 6 92 and LXDE 2 7 112 Developers of Linux distributions based upon Ubuntu have also weighed in on the introduction of Unity in early 2011 when Unity was in its infancy Some have been critical including two distributions who base their criticism on usability testing Marco Ghirlanda the lead developer of the audio and video centric ArtistX stated When I tried Unity on computer illiterates they were less productive and took ages to understand the concepts behind it When I show them how to use it they said that it is pretty to see but hard to use Stephen Ewen the lead developer for UberStudent an Ubuntu based Linux distribution for higher education and college bound high school students stated Unity s design decreases both visual and functional accessibility which tabulates to decreased productivity Ewen also criticized Unity s menu scheme as much less accessible than on GNOME 2 which he said means that the brain cannot map as quickly to program categories and subcategories which again means further decreased productivity 113 Ubuntu 12 04 LTS edit nbsp Unity keyboard shortcuts in Ubuntu 12 04 LTS Jesse Smith of DistroWatch said that many people like him had questioned Ubuntu s direction including Unity But with Ubuntu 12 04 he felt that the puzzle pieces which individually may have been underwhelming had come together to form a whole clear picture He said Unity though a step away from the traditional desktop has several features which make it attractive such as reducing mouse travel The HUD means that newcomers can find application functionality with a quick search and more advanced users can use the HUD to quickly run menu commands from the keyboard He wrote that Unity had grown to maturity but said he was bothered by its lack of flexibility 101 Jack Wallen of TechRepublic who had strongly criticized early versions of Unity said Since Ubuntu 12 04 was released and I migrated over from Linux Mint I m working much more efficiently This isn t really so much a surprise to me but to many of the detractors who assume Unity a very unproductive desktop well I can officially say they are wrong I realize that many people out there have spurned Unity I was one of them for a long time but the more I use it the more I realize that Canonical really did their homework on how to help end users more efficiently interact with their computers Change is hard period For many the idea of change is such a painful notion they wind up missing out on some incredible advancements Unity is one such advancement 100 Ryan Paul said Unity was responsive robust and had the reliability expected from a mature desktop shell He considered the HUD as one of several excellent improvements that had helped to make Unity even better in Ubuntu 12 04 Yet he also wrote Although Unity s quality has grown to the point where it fulfills our expectations the user experience still falls short in a number of ways We identified several key weaknesses in our last two Ubuntu reviews some of which still haven t been addressed yet These issues still detract from Unity s predictability and ease of use 102 Ubuntu 16 04 LTS edit nbsp Unity desktop in Ubuntu 16 04 LTS Jack Wallen of TechRepublic in reviewing the changes scheduled for Unity in Ubuntu 16 04 LTS concluded Ubuntu Unity is not the desktop pariah you once thought it was This desktop environment has evolved into a beautiful efficient interface that does not deserve the scorn and derision heaped upon it by so many 114 See also editComparison of X Window System desktop environments Comparison of X window managers Ubuntu Unity Portals nbsp Free and open source software nbsp LinuxReferences edit Canonical Ltd December 2010 Publishing history of unity package in Ubuntu Retrieved 9 December 2010 Error Unable to display the reference properly See the documentation for details Jagdish Patel Neil November 2010 unity team unity trunk 4105 Retrieved 24 April 2014 a b c d Paul Ryan 17 October 2013 Ubuntu 13 10 review The Linux OS of the future remains a year away Ars Technica Retrieved 2 November 2013 Unity7 Maintainers Team in Launchpad Launchpad Retrieved 15 March 2021 Restarting Unity development in 2021 Progress Report Ubuntu Community Hub 6 January 2021 Retrieved 15 January 2021 Ayatana Ubuntu Wiki Retrieved 11 October 2012 Proffitt Brian 10 May 2010 Ubuntu Unity Interface Tailored for Netbook Screens ITWorld Archived from the original on 31 October 2010 Retrieved 28 October 2010 Welcome to Ubuntu 11 04 Ubuntu Official Documentation Ubuntu documentation team Archived from the original on 13 August 2011 Retrieved 13 June 2011 Jackson Joab 25 October 2010 Software Services Oct 25 2010 1 20 pm Canonical Ubuntu Splits From GNOME Over Design Issues PC World Business Center Archived from the original on 29 November 2010 Retrieved 28 October 2010 a b Terminology for Unity UI elements as of Ubuntu 11 04 this is the official terminology linked form https wiki ubuntu com Unity a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a External link in code class cs1 code type code help SessionMenu Ubuntu Wiki wiki ubuntu com Retrieved 26 August 2015 Unity s launcher groups windows belonging to one application in the same icon Ask Ubuntu ClassicMenu Indicator Retrieved 8 August 2015 Unity lenses and scopes Archived from the original on 19 June 2013 Retrieved 29 December 2012 Unity HUD Ubuntu Wiki Ubuntu Parrino Cristian 12 October 2012 Searching in the Dash in Ubuntu 12 10 an Update Canonical Blog Retrieved 29 October 2013 a b c d e f g Lee Micah 29 October 2012 Privacy in Ubuntu 12 10 Amazon Ads and Data Leaks Electronic Frontier Foundation Retrieved 29 October 2013 a b c Gilbertson Scott 18 October 2012 Ay caramba Ubuntu 12 10 Get it right on Amazon The Register Retrieved 29 October 2013 a b Samson Ted 25 September 2012 Canonical wants to shill for Amazon on Ubuntu users desktops InfoWorld Retrieved 30 October 2013 a b Shuttleworth defends Ubuntu Linux integrating Amazon ZDnet 23 September 2012 Retrieved 29 October 2013 Amazon search results in the Dash markshuttleworth com 23 September 2012 Retrieved 29 October 2013 Bacon Jono 23 September 2012 On The Recent Dash Improvements jonobacon home blog Archived from the original on 27 October 2012 Retrieved 30 October 2013 Goodin Dan 30 October 2012 EFF calls Ubuntu s Amazon search result feature a major privacy problem Ars Technica Retrieved 30 October 2013 On Richard Stallman and Ubuntu jonobacon home blog 7 December 2012 Archived from the original on 1 November 2013 Retrieved 30 October 2013 Vaughan Nichols Steven J 9 December 2012 Free software father declared Ubuntu Linux to contain spyware ZDNet Retrieved 30 October 2013 Farrell Nick 18 February 2013 Open source community wades into Ubuntu phone TechEye Archived from the original on 22 February 2013 Retrieved 30 October 2013 The Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13 10 Slashdot 22 September 2013 Retrieved 30 October 2013 Sneddon Joey Elijah 12 October 2012 Ubuntu Add Legal Disclaimer to Unity Dash OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 29 October 2013 Smith Jesse 29 October 2012 Ubuntu 12 10 Desktop DistroWatch Retrieved 29 October 2013 Ubuntu s Shopping Lens Might Be Illegal in Europe Sofpedia com 9 October 2012 Retrieved 24 February 2016 Blogger Claims Ubuntu s New Shopping Lens Breaks EU Law OMGUbuntu co uk 10 October 2012 Retrieved 24 February 2016 de Sousa Luis 6 August 2014 Ubuntu Shopping Lens deemed legal by UK data privacy office AtTheEdgeOfTime Blogspot com Retrieved 24 February 2016 Sneddon Joey 30 March 2014 Ubuntu To Make Amazon Product Results Opt In OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 31 March 2014 Scott Gilbertson 10 May 2016 Ubuntu 16 04 proves even an LTS release can live at Linux s bleeding edge Ubuntu TV readies for battle with Google and Apple Retrieved 11 February 2012 Features and Specs Canonical Ltd Archived from the original on 14 August 2012 Retrieved 21 August 2012 Vlad Savov 16 November 2012 Ubuntu phone OS announced first devices shipping in early 2014 The Verge Retrieved 2 January 2013 fluteflute 13 November 2010 Is unity just a plugin of compiz The version of Unity that will be released in 11 04 is definitely implemented as plugin s in Compiz a b File Unity 2D Natty png a b Canonical building Unity 2D on QML and Qt Qt DevNet forums Qt Developer Network Archived from the original on 14 March 2011 Retrieved 25 February 2011 a b Sneddon Joey May 2011 Unity 2D lands in Oneiric daily build OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 27 May 2011 a b UDS Q Summary Bye Bye Unity 2D Hello GNOME Shell Spin Omgubuntu co uk 12 May 2012 Retrieved 7 July 2012 The Ayatana Project Canonical Ltd 2011 Retrieved 31 October 2011 The Ayatana Project is the collective project that houses user interface design and interaction projects started by Canonical Ayatana Arch Linux Wiki Unity For Fedora As in OpenSUSE or Arch Lists fedoraproject org 26 January 2012 Retrieved 22 September 2012 Unity Desktop Available for Fedora OMG Ubuntu 19 July 2012 a b Ayatana Project for openSUSE Archived from the original on 22 January 2013 Retrieved 2 January 2013 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Ayatana Project Portage Frugalware Linux Wiki Archived from the original on 29 September 2011 Retrieved 26 November 2011 GNOME Ayatana openSUSE Wiki Nelson Marques GNOME Ayatana openSUSE Manjaro Unity Softpedia 31 March 2015 a b Ubuntu Unity 20 June 2020 Ubuntu Unity Unity os Power ubuntuunity org Archived from the original on 20 June 2020 Retrieved 20 June 2020 a b Saraswat Rudra 7 May 2020 Ubuntu Unity Remix 20 04 discourse ubuntu com Archived from the original on 20 June 2020 Retrieved 20 June 2020 Humphrey Benjamin 10 May 2010 Ubuntu Developer Summit Maverick plenary and keynote New Ubuntu instant on netbook shell more OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 22 October 2022 Parfeni Lucian 11 May 2010 Canonical Unveils Unity Interface for Netbooks and Ubuntu Light softpedia Retrieved 22 October 2022 a b c Paul Ryan July 2010 Hands on with Ubuntu s new Unity netbook shell Ars Technica Retrieved 1 April 2011 Canonical Ubuntu Splits From GNOME Over Design Issues Archived from the original on 29 November 2010 Retrieved 17 September 2017 Jono Bacon 25 October 2010 Ubuntu 11 04 to ship unity Archived from the original on 25 August 2011 Retrieved 21 December 2010 Noyes Katherine 26 October 2010 Is Unity the Right Interface for Desktop Ubuntu PC World Archived from the original on 13 June 2011 Retrieved 28 October 2010 Ubuntu GNOME 3 Team Retrieved 2 March 2011 Andrew 13 October 2011 Things To Tweak After Installing Ubuntu 11 10 Oneiric Ocelot Web Upd8 Ubuntu Linux blog webupd8 org Retrieved 13 October 2011 Mark Shuttleworth 4 November 2010 Unity on Wayland The next major transition for Unity will be to deliver it on Wayland a b MirSpec Ubuntu com Archived from the original on 6 March 2013 Retrieved 6 March 2013 2013 Mark Shuttleworth 30 October 2010 Movement of Unity launcher Andrew 29 November 2011 Install Ubuntu Unity Bottom Launcher Via PPA Web Upd8 Ubuntu Linux blog webupd8 org Retrieved 13 October 2011 Ubuntu 16 04 LTS will let you move Unity 7 s launcher to the bottom of your screen pcworld com Retrieved 26 July 2016 Jay Taoko 8 December 2010 Nux and Unity Archived from the original on 11 June 2011 Unity To Use Compiz instead of Mutter Ubuntu 11 04 Natty Narwhal News Web Upd8 Ubuntu Linux blog Canonical Says Unity 2D Not Part Of The Ubuntu 11 04 Plan 18 January 2011 Comment 8 for bug 730588 Waugh Jeff March 2011 Timeline The Greatest Show on Earth Dave Neary comment Archived from the original on 17 May 2011 Retrieved 1 April 2011 Graner Amber March 2011 Has GNOME Rejected Canonical help Shuttleworth Responds Ubuntu User Retrieved 19 March 2011 Shuttleworth Mark March 2011 Internal competition is healthy but depends on strong and mature leadership Retrieved 19 March 2011 Shuttleworth Mark March 2011 All the other guys are not wrong Retrieved 19 March 2011 Sneddon Joey April 2011 Ubuntu 11 10 will not ship with classic GNOME desktop OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 6 April 2011 Andrew 24 August 2011 Installing Using Classic GNOME Desktop In Ubuntu 11 10 Oneiric Ocelot Web Upd8 Ubuntu Linux blog Webupd8 org Retrieved 22 April 2012 Andrew 5 November 2011 Expected Changes In Ubuntu 12 04 Precise Pangolin UDS P In Brief Web Upd8 Retrieved 5 November 2014 a b c Sneddon Joey 20 July 2012 Mark Shuttleworth We Didn t Want Ubuntu To End up Like Windows 8 OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 21 July 2012 Canonical announces Mir a custom display server that will serve up future versions of Unity engadget com 4 March 2013 Canonical reveals plans to launch Mir display server Update H online com 24 February 2013 Archived from the original on 6 March 2013 Retrieved 6 March 2013 Brodkin Jon 17 May 2012 Ubuntu dumps X window system creates replacement for PC and mobile Ars Technica Retrieved 6 March 2013 Stahie Silviu 6 April 2015 Unity 8 Won t Be Very Different Visually from Unity 7 News Organization Retrieved 7 April 2015 Joey Elijah Sneddon 3 April 2016 Unity 8 Takes Shape Here s How To Install It on Ubuntu 16 04 OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 30 April 2016 Silviu Stahie 18 November 2015 Ubuntu 16 10 to Have Unity 8 Mir and Snappy Personal as Default softpedia Retrieved 30 April 2016 Ubuntu 16 10 Won t Use Unity 8 By Default 3 May 2016 Ubuntu To Abandon Unity 8 Switch Back To GNOME Phoronix com Retrieved 6 April 2017 Nestor Marius 30 June 2022 Unity 7 6 Released as the First Major Update to Ubuntu s Unity7 Desktop in 6 Years 9to5Linux Retrieved 22 October 2022 Unity 8 Fork is Now Known as Yunit May Collaborate with UBports Retrieved 22 October 2022 UBports Fork Of Unity 8 Plans To Eventually Get On Wayland www phoronix com Retrieved 22 October 2022 Nestor Marius 12 July 2017 Unity 8 Fork Yunit Now Available as an Overlay Repository for Ubuntu 16 04 LTS softpedia Retrieved 22 October 2022 Nestor Marius 7 April 2017 Unity 8 Now Has a New Home Over at UBports Development Will Start Very Soon Softpedia Retrieved 8 April 2017 Lomiri New Name Same Great Unity8 UBports Foundation 27 February 2020 Retrieved 14 May 2021 Evangelho Jason 12 May 2020 A Surprising New Remix Of Ubuntu 20 04 Brings Unity Back To Life Forbes Archived from the original on 20 June 2020 Retrieved 20 June 2020 Ubuntu Unity Becoming An Official Flavor With 22 10 Release www phoronix com Retrieved 22 October 2022 a b c Humphrey Benjamin March 2011 What s wrong with Unity amp how we can fix it OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 14 March 2011 a b Paul Ryan November 2010 Blessed Unity Ars reviews Ubuntu 10 10 Ars Technica Retrieved 1 April 2011 a b c Paul Ryan April 2011 Unity environment in good shape on track for Ubuntu 11 04 Ars Technica Retrieved 19 April 2011 Lynch Jim May 2011 Ubuntu 11 04 Desktop Linux Reviews Archived from the original on 5 May 2011 Retrieved 2 May 2011 a b Wallen Jack 25 June 2012 Ubuntu Unity Making the desktop seriously efficient again TechRepublic Archived from the original on 20 May 2013 Retrieved 1 November 2013 a b Smith Jesse 7 May 2012 Review of Ubuntu 12 04 DistroWatch Retrieved 1 November 2013 a b Paul Ryan 28 May 2012 Precision and purpose Ubuntu 12 04 and the Unity HUD reviewed Ars Technica Retrieved 12 August 2012 Sneddon Joey 29 October 2012 EFF Ubuntu Shopping Lens A Major Privacy Problem OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 22 October 2022 Paul Ryan April 2011 Ubuntu 11 04 released a Natty Narwhal rises from the depths Ars Technica Retrieved 30 April 2011 Paul Ryan May 2011 Riding the Narwhal Ars reviews Unity in Ubuntu 11 04 Ars Technica Retrieved 12 May 2011 Hartley Matt April 2011 Why Is Ubuntu s Unity Squeezing out GNOME 3 IT Management Retrieved 29 April 2011 Sneddon Joey May 2011 Ubuntu 11 04 released reviewed OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 3 May 2011 Sneddon Joey May 2011 Mark Shuttleworth talks Windicators changes for Unity in Oneiric and whole lot more OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 5 May 2011 Smith Jesse May 2011 A look at Ubuntu 11 04 Distrowatch Retrieved 10 May 2011 Germain Jack M May 2011 Natty Narwhal Offers Unity but No Clarity Linux News Retrieved 12 May 2011 Storey Robert 7 November 2011 Disunity DistroWatch Retrieved 8 November 2011 Sneddon Joey 20 November 2011 Poll Result 15 900 votes Cast Unity Named Most Popular Desktop OMG Ubuntu Retrieved 18 December 2011 Byfield Bruce 17 May 2011 Other Linux Distros View of Ubuntu s Unity It Ain t Pretty Datamation Jack Wallen 1 March 2016 10 reasons why you should stop picking on Ubuntu Unity TechRepublic Retrieved 1 March 2016 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unity desktop environment Official website nbsp Official wiki Official Unity hardware requirements Bugs of Unity in Ubuntu Ubuntu Third Party Privacy Policies page Yunit a fork of Unity Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Unity user interface amp oldid 1217861727 Dash, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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