Wednesday, November 2, 2011

What's new in Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)? [Screenshots & Video]

Ubuntu 11.10 was released on October 13th, and that very day I promptly received a notification from the update manager asking if I would like to update. Two hours later, the downloading and installation was complete. Once I opened it up I found that the user interface had changed completely. 
Below I've listed what really stood out:
Skip to the end to see a video I made demonstrating the UI of ubuntu 11.10



New desktop.
Ubuntu 11.10 now runs on the Unity graphical interface. Which in my opinion is more like Mac.
Ubuntu 11.10 Unity Desktop

A launcher is now displayed on your left side. It looks and functions like the taskbar for windows 7. You can pin applications in the launcher and it hides when you open up an app in full-screen - it reappears by moving your mouse to the left side of the screen.
Dash Home

 At the top of the launcher is dash. It displays all the apps & files in your computer. I especially love its search function; it's quick. It also has a search bar for music files, which also searches for music available for purchase in the Ubuntu One online Store.

The title bar for applications (where you'd typically find File, Edit .. ) is now displayed in the upper panel.
Title Bar merged into Panel

Ubuntu Software Center
Completely new look. Now has sections for top rated & new apps.

Desktop backgrounds
Now offers 15 new backgrounds. Each one more amazing than the other.

Estimates Battery Time:
In Ubuntu 11.04, we could not see the battery time remaining nor the percentage of battery. This has been fixed. It shows the time, while discharging & the percentage while charging.
Battery Charging
Battery Discharging









Workspace Switcher
New look. You can now preview all the workspaces at once.

Login Screen
Login Screen

Other
Once you've upgraded your ubuntu, you'll have to reinstall all the codecs for mp3, avi, java, flash, etc. So rather than doing them all individually, go to the software center and search for codec. The first option that comes up is a package. Download that.

Another thing that I noticed was that Synaptic manager has been completely removed. You can also download that again from the Ubuntu software center if you need it.

If you're not happy with Unity, you can always go back to GNOME. Once again the software center will take care of that.

Here's a video I made demonstrating the user interface of Ubuntu 11.10:



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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's nice intro to the new version of Ubuntu. I am looking forward to install it. :)

And about the blog which is a nice effort to give new updates about technology, and to give idea and some tutorial about computer related knowledge for the ones who use their PC's all the time but don't get to know much about these things... And i would suggest to have an article about a good piece of Antivirus.

greenfridge said...

Thank you for your kind comment. I'll surely write about anti-viruses. Do come & check again :)