Ubuntu: Why the Buttons Were Moved in 10.04

When Canonical decided to move the close, minimize, and maximize buttons in 10.04 to the left side of the window, Mark Shuttleworth simply said that something very exciting was going to go on the right side.

Now we know what that is.  Window Indicators, or “Windicators” are going to go in their place.

This area will be used similar to the indicators near the clock in ubuntu.  Small buttons will provide volume control per application (using features that pulseaudio already provides), online/offline status, and status messages (such as saving, etc).  This will allow the status bar of many applications to be moved to be removed, and those buttons placed at the top of the window.

Issues?

I have mixed feelings on this.  One part of me celebrates a change like this, with Ubuntu blazing their own path, but another part of me absolutely hates this change.  Most people are intuitively used to clicking in the top right corner to open/maximize/close a window.  Now this fundamental design choice has been changed, which will take some getting used to.

Also, as far as I can tell, this is going to require developers to modify their programs to support this (hopefully I am wrong though).  If Ubuntu is the only distro that does this, how many developers will do this.  What about KDE?

Mark goes into a lot more detail on his blog:

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/333

Ubuntu Backup Software

Backing up files can be useful in case you suffer hard drive issues, but it can also be helpful in case of “messing up” a file, and needing a backup of it.  There are many different backup options available for ubuntu.  Some backup to the internet, where your files exist in “the cloud,” and allow you to easily share the files with others, while other simply allow backing up to another hard drive, directory, or remote computer.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these approaches that I will be detailing as I analyze different peices of software available for backup.

All software packages that I will be mentioning in this post are available for other distributions of linux, but I am mainly going to focus on the installation and configuration for ubuntu.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of my favorite pieces of software.  In addition to dropbox backing up files, it is also great for sharing files between computers, and friends.  Their software works on Macs, PCs, and Linux operating systems.  In this review, I am going to be focusing on the ubuntu linux operating system.

After you download the software for your computer, and create an account, a folder is created in your home folder (or wherever you chose to put it) labeled dropbox.  This folder initially comes with a few files in it to show you how it works.  There is also a photos folder in here by default (you can delete it) that you can add folders and images to, and then share via the web.  To do this, you place all of the files you want to share into a folder, and then right click on the folder, and select dropbox/copy public gallery link.  You can send this link to any friends, or share it on the web.  Here is an example of one of my dropbox albums that I made:

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Ubuntu Jaunty Review: part 2

Ubuntu Jaunty was officially released today, and I have decided to write a continuation of my previous post with some fast download mirror links, and a screenshot tour of the install process. Feel free to post any fast download mirrors that you find in the comments section.

Download Mirrors:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/jaunty/ (torrent links recommended)

I have removed my links to the dropbox files that I had because the official mirrors appear to be just as fast now that they have recovered from the initial traffic.

I also went through the install process again, and took some screenshots to show how it went.  The overall process is very similar to previous ubuntu installs.

Part 1

Ubuntu Jaunty Review

I recently have been trying out the new ubuntu 9.04 beta. Normally, I have waited until the actual release to install the newest version of ubuntu, but in this case, I decided to go ahead and update early because I really wanted to try out the new notifications system and ext4 in Jaunty, and I had broken the networking in my current 8.10 install.

Install:

The install was easy enough.  The main difference that I noticed while installing the Ubuntu Jaunty was the change in the startup bar.  It has become a bit thinner and sleeker looking.

The install process is very much the same as it was in intrepid (see the screenshot tour of the install in part 2 of this review for more information).

New Desktop:

After the install, I rebooted the machine, and was quite pleased by the startup speed (they have made some definite improvements there).  Part of this could be due to my switch to the new ext4 filesystem (a custom option during the install, but not the default).  They have changed the login screen to a new, darker theme.  In my opinion, it looks much cleaner and nicer than previous versions.

Login Screen

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