natty narwhal

It's been a while since Ubuntu 11.04 made the transition from OpenOffice to LibreOffice, and, while in the Dash LibreOffice icon was looking great with a fresh branded look, the various office files (".odt", ".odp", etc) were misrepresented in Nautilus because its mimes were using the "old" icons.

A surprising update has landed in Natty, bringing LibreOffice branded icons to be used for "ODF" (Open Document Format) files that clearly unify the office experience.

With less than two weeks until Natty Narwhal sees the final release, Unity has just reached yet another milestone, 3.8.8.

What is new in Unity 3.8.8?

• the dash scrollbar doesn't have a different on-click state anymore (it has the same bright white-ish look on click, hold or "normal" state)

Ubuntu 11.04 BETA 2 (the second and last BETA) is out.

What's new in Natty Narwhal BETA 2 since BETA 1?

• Ambiance&Radiance, the light themes, suffered few changes (Ambiance's white border has been darkened, menu item distances have been optimized, Ambiance's gnome-terminal has black scrollbars now)

An update brought, weeks ago, border-less Ambiance&Radiance in Natty Narwhal, and, shortly after, the developers changed back to bordered Ambiance&Radiance.

Yes, but, why?
There were problem with Unity 2D (Unity 3D's less-3D brother) and border-less themes.

All was great in Unity 3D, and, the developers proposed a "trick" :the testers/users should continue to use bordered themes, and, when the devs can fix the Unity-2D-related bug, the border-less themes to be reintroduced.

At the moment, the problem still hasn't been fixed.

Unity panel received weeks ago the option to change its transparency and an awesome drop shadow.

This is one nice combination, but, there are people who prefer to have a 100% opacity (fully transparent) panel and the shadow is in their way.

Another week full of bling in Natty Narwhal, and, Ambiance and Radiance, the light themes, are no exceptions.

This gorgeous default themes have been pimped (version 0.8.11).

What is new?

• menu item distances have been adjusted and are more consistent now
  
• Ambiance's terminal scrollbar follow the theme (the scrollbar are black)

With less than three weeks until Natty is released, Unity is making the last steps in terms of adjustments, improvements and bug fixing.

Just now, Unity 3.8.6 has been released.

So, what's new in Unity 3.8.6?

Ubuntu 11.04 will be launched in less than three weeks (April 28th) and, as usual, artists, bloggers, designers sent their creations to Ubuntu in order to be selected as the official countdown timers (valid until Natty Narwhal is released).

The winners have been chosen and the results are quite lovely:

As we all have witnessed, the Compiz's Desktop Cube has brought a great deal of popularity to Ubuntu, and, with the introduction and implementation of Unity-shell 3D, Desktop Cube could't anymore be used in Natty.
Yes, but, why?
Unity was depending on "Desktop Wall" and, by simply selecting "Desktop Cube", Unity was disabled.

Many we-want-the-cube-back related complains have been expressed, "forcing" developers to find a simply, yet smart trick, to allow the cube to be functional under Unity.

Couple of weeks ago, we announced the availability of Weblive, the "test-drive" platform usable in Ubuntu Software Center, meaningful and handy for people eager to test an application without actually install that respective app.

The real "problem" with "Test-drive" was its limit in terms of available apps (almost 50).