Hello fellow dawgies .... just a heads up for those interested ....

The Linux based Ubuntu operating system was released yesterday. This release is notable in that it is the first long term support that includes the Unity desktop environment (DTE). Unity is a divergence from the popular GNOME 2.x DTE (2.x is no longer supported). Canonical decided upon Unity rather than the direction that GNOME 3 was taking. Unity is ironically titled considering it has received it's fair share of criticism from those who are accustomed to a certain workflow, but I am impressed with this iteration and am looking forward to the possibilities of future development. It was first introduced in Canonical's netbook remix.

The "HUD" is it's newest feature and it is likely the greatest step towards intuitive use. From the Ubuntu wiki:

"The HUD is a way for you to express your intent and have the application respond appropriately. We think of it as “beyond interface”, it’s the “intenterface”. This concept of “intent-driven interface” has been a primary theme of our work in the Unity shell, with dash search as a first class experience pioneered in Unity. Now we are bringing the same vision to the application, in a way which is completely compatible with existing applications and menus."

I spent some time yesterday installing 12.04 on one of my desktops and on my laptop. I used wubi which installs Ubuntu within MS Windows as a program. I haven't noticed any real hit to system resources by running it in this manner and if I happen to break Ubuntu, then I simply uninstall it via Windows' Add / Remove Programs. I plan to eventually do an actual dual boot later.

Speaking of breaking Ubuntu I did try to get some of the experimental Compiz plugins installed and running last night with no success. At one point Compiz crashed and I lost not only the sound panel applet, but also all of my sound settings. I did manage to get the sound back though .... google is a wonderful tool.

I regularly recommend Linux based operating systems to friends and I owe a debt of gratitude to several fellow dawgies here who pointed me towards the ever developing world of open sourced, GPL'd software. I have Ubuntu 10.10 bootable on several USB sticks and it has come in handy, both enabling me to take my OS with me and also as a tool to save files on an otherwise borked Windows install.

A few notes:

* The first Ubuntu link is to their home page and you can actually get a feel for Unity by selecting "Take the tour".

* Canonical offers both a 32 and 64 bit version

* You can run Ubuntu without installing to your HDD by burning to CD or by installing to USB. You can install as program in Windows or create a partition without having to wipe your HDD. VirtualBox or similar software is also another option.

* This a fair write up from TheRegister

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