Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.



An update today finally sets Banshee as the default music player in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Since Banshee is now default, it has replaced Rhythmbox in the Ubuntu Sound Menu:

Banshee sound menu Ubuntu 11.04




Another change that came today is a new background color for the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal GRUB menu - and it's aubergine to match the new Ubuntu branding:

Ubuntu 11.04 grub menu aubergine





There have also been a lot of changes to the AppMenu (global menu) recently (I'm not really sure when this update occured):


Appmenu Ubuntu 11.04
(unmaximized, focused window)

Natty appmenu
(unmaximized, focused window - hovering the application name on the top panel displays the menu)

  • the menu is hidden in the application window even for unmaximized windows
  • only the application title is displayed on the top panel and the menu shows up when hovering it
  • when an application is not maximized but has the focus, when hovering its title on the top panel, only part of its title is displayed so you know to which application that menu belongs to (yet its title doesn't get in the way)


Since this is pretty hard to explain, I've recorded a video with the latest Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal daily build as of today (and all updates installed):



While these Appmenu changes seem a bit weird at first, they make sense from the usability point of view. What do you think?