Posted by Manuel Jose on Monday, May 16, 2011

It's time for another important Ubuntu release cycle. The upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 codenamed Oneiric Ocelot won't be bombarded with the kind of sweeping changes that its predecessor had to deal with. But in terms of the importance, Oneiric Ocelot might be an even bigger release. A quick peek into the important changes for upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot - What's New?
As we have seen from the reactions already, a number of long time Ubuntu users are not really happy with the latest Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, mostly because of the unfinished nature of Unity interface. Canonical will try to mitigate the rough edges and usability issues of Unity interface by fine tuning Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Here are some of the important decisions on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot taken during Ubuntu Developer Summit 2011.

The Goal is 200 Million Ubuntu Users in 4 Years!

Probably for the first time ever since Ubuntu was formed way back in 2004, Mark Shuttleworth laid out an ambitious goal to achieve, 200 Million Ubuntu users in 4 years, that's pretty steep! But hey, everyone pooh poohed at the very idea of Android few years back and look where it is now. Anyways, this can't be characterized as a 'decision' as such and cannot be included in the list of changes that is going to affect Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Though it was an interesting move by Mark Shuttleworth and one the highlights of Ubuntu Developer Summit 2011.

LightDM to Replace GDM as Ubuntu's Default Display Manager

No More Classic Gnome Desktop, Unity 2D Will Switch from Metacity to Compiz
Default Ubuntu CD will not be shipped with classic GNOME desktop anymore and instead, Unity 2D will become the fall back desktop. This is not news since it was decided so, much earlier. But there was another major decision. Unity 2D will run on Compiz instead of Metacity! Until now, I had no clue on Compiz's ability to run on non accelerated hardwares.

Even More Improved Ubuntu Software Center
Gone are the days when Ubuntu Software Center(USC) was just another default application in Ubuntu which nobody used. USC got maximum attention during last two Ubuntu release cycles and Ubuntu's very own application store has been completely transformed now. But Canonical is not yet done with the changes. Here are some of the proposed Ubuntu Software Center improvements for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release cycle.

* Ubuntu Software Center startup performance is not good enough at the moment and a performance boost is ideal.

* Larger icons of applications for a more touch friendly GUI.

* Enhanced Unity launcher integration.

* Further simplification of the UI - Completely remove the left navigation pane, expander is tiny and often unnoticed, should expand by default especially Get Software and so on.

*
Improved offline behavior, currently USC prohibit any install/remove actions to take place when no network connection is available. Better approach would be to add actions to a queue and offer to action when an internet connection is established.

* More such suggestions can be found here.

PiTiVi, Computer Janitor out, Deja Dup in
Computer Janitor and PiTiVi Video Editor will not find its place in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. At the same time, there is an useful inclusion too. Deja Dup is a simple desktop backup tool which most probably will find its way into Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

Mozilla Thunderbird Might Make it Too
Another highly recommended application to be made default in Ubuntu is none other than Mozilla Thunderbird. There are no confirmations yet though. The key issue is the CD size. Everything has to be fit into a limited 700MB space. Stay tuned for future updates on this.
[Ocelot image credits: felineconservationtrust]

http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/05/6-important-changes-in-next-ubuntu-1110.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techdrivein+%28Tech+Drive-in%29

Ubuntu not using Gnome is a real let down. As I stated in a previous post. I do not like the KDE desk top let alone the trashy thing Ubuntu has come up with now.
Make ya kind of wonder if Bill Gates spread some money around at Ubuntu.

I hear ya. Have you tried Zorin OS 5, yet? I just love it. It has the Ubuntu grub2, Unity with a Windows XP look, 11.4 updates of Ubuntu 11.4 without the weird look, and best of all Fedora 10 loader. I almost died from laughing when Fedora was updating Ubuntu. Its the best Fedora remix of Ubuntu I have found even counting Fusion 14 and Fuduntu 14.9. It gives you three options with the Nvidia driver. The 173 legacy driver, The current Nvidia driver and the experimental driver that I was afraid to try. It uses the Gnome that Ubuntu 10.10 had. I loaded it with my Mint 10 Julia and let me import my stuff. An Ubuntu logo still goes with it. It is actually updating Fedora files and Ubuntu files on the same OS. I think it is incredible.

I can deal with this way that Unity behaves on Zorin 5. Programs load a lot faster with Gnome than they did on Maverick but you can still find them with ease better than Natty. I noticed a major difference especially when running Streamtuner2 because it loads up with python. It makes me wonder if this is the pygnome I was seeing before on a different distro.

We are proud to announce today, June 2nd, that the first Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system is now available for download. As usual, we've grabbed a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 11.10 development.

While all Ubuntu are still discovering and enjoy the brand-new Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system, somewhere deep in the Ubuntu headquarters, the Canonical developers are working on the next major update for their popular Linux distribution.

What's new in Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 1? Well, the big news is that the GNOME 3 desktop environment has been finally implemented in the Ubuntu operating system, so users can grab a copy of it and test it deeply. Just remember that it's a development release and not all things work as expected!

Also new in Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) is Linux kernel 2.6.39, which brings lots of new drivers and support for the latest hardware components. As you can see from the screenshot below, if you don't have 3D video drivers, Ubuntu 11.10 will fallback to Unity 2D.

I will get 3D video drivers. There is no reason to blackmail me. Anything but Unity 2D.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-11-10-Alpha-1-Has-GNOME-3-Firefox-5-Linux-Kernel-2-6-39-203976.shtml

I need some enlightenment-

Ubunto offers unity as a default desktop. Oh, so many dumdums are up in arms about it. Is that the only gui they offer? Are there no other desktops/ gui managers in their repos?
I know it's silly, but it still peeves me when I read that crap. What in the world is stopping all these idiots from installing any dang desktop they want?

I am glad you asked. Many different Ubuntu 11.4 derivatives are trying to compensate for Mark Shuttleworth's change to Unity. Zorin's rendition is my favourite. You are right though. I think it operator ignorance. I would say many want to order up what they want and somebody else build it that way. What I am reading is the different flavours Linux distros are saying through community input is that we will tailor it meet your expectations through the developers. Without getting too religious they are looked up to as Gods of Distros. Ubuntu evidently is trying to get out of making one version as laptop and one version as desktop. Mint has its version. Pinguy has its version. And there is this version trying to keep it Gnome without the Unity. Clem from Mint said that you don't have to upgrade if you like Mint the way it is in Mint 10.