oneiric ocelot

Application switcher "Alt+Tab" is Ubuntu 11.10's handy way to switch to your particular app/window with a fast, clear and gorgeous interface.

Its behavior have just been slightly modified towards an 1-hand maneuver, now when you "Alt+Tab"-ing, for triggering window's preview mode you only need to press "`" key (located above "Tab" key), and, press "Tab" again for reverting to "normal" mode.
If there is a group of windows (such as two instances of terminal) use the same "`" to navigate between them.

This week is like a rain of beauty over the head of Oneiric Ocelot (August 25th, User Interface Freeze), all the app have receiveD their "fair share" of glamor.

The new Gwibber makes no exception, and, after its complete transformation (from an UI point-of-view and also ported to GTK+3), still continues to gain more and more polish, one could easily name it a full-fledged good-looking social app.

Ubuntu 11.10 is based on GNOME 3/GTK+3, meaning numerous applications have been ported to GNOME 3.

Ubuntu Software Center makes no exception and, in the last weeks, we have seen an accelerated process towards this goal with a two-sided approach (the default Ubuntu Software Center was the "old" GTK+2 version, but the GTK+3 version was available only by typing "software-center-gtk3" into a terminal).

Ubuntu Software Center 4.1.19 (just now updated to 4.1.20) comes with the GTK+3 UI by default, exposing quite a polished, modern, fancy interface.

It seems that Oneiric Ocelot is heading towards an easy-to-use but full-fledged, feature-full experience.

Starting months ago, the indicators have been put into a continuous work/rework (the Me Menu has been integrated into an enhanced Messaging Menu, new "Clear" option, middle-click on the Sound Indicator to mute it ON/OFF, etc).

August 25th, User Interface Freeze, so, today's Unity 3D 4.10 is Unity at its peak from an UI point-of-view (of course, other small UI improvements could land in the future).

What is new in Unity 3D 4.10?

• Home Button/Dash home/BFB's icon has been redesigned, the orange color was dropped in favor of a white Ubuntu logo "surrounded" by a black-ish squared icon

Yesterday, Oneiric's System Settings received new interesting features, "Online Accounts" and "Color" (yet to be developed and integrated into various apps), but, there have been, since Oneiric's early beginning, numerous concerns about: "How do we change the GTK+ theme?".

GNOME Control Center/System Settings is a "global" place that allows one to easily configure/adjust/check important options, such as drivers, keyboard properties, software sources, accessibility configuration, etc categorized in "Personal", "Hardware" and "System".

New additions have just landed in Oneiric Ocelot, and now System Settings finally includes:

Oneiric Ocelot's default display manager, LightDM, has "suffered" a new redesign weeks ago, receiving an Unity-like theming.

Just now, new updates have landed in Oneiric adding more fancy-ness and polish to LightDM (Unity Greeter), transforming the login screen into an enjoyable experience that clearly aims towards consistency (same colors, textures, transparency, icons as the overall Unity look and feel).

What is new in LightDM 0.9.3?

This is a period of time when visible things are happening in Ubuntu 11.10, and, after the arrival of the new "stuff" (good-looking Unity, gorgeous Gwibber, fancy LightDM, polished Ayatana Overlay Scrollbars, etc) it is this cycle that Ubuntu's installer will start to feature the ability to take a picture with your webcam when Ubuntu is installed.

Just after few days since Firefox 6 final landed in Ubuntu 11.10 ALPHA 3, the developers have just pushed Mozilla Firefox 7 BETA 1 in Oneiric Ocelot.

As we have seen on previous Firefox versions (5, 6), there aren't important visible changes in this new release, but, nevertheless Firefox 7 is speedier and comes with bug fixes.