Along with Ubuntu 11.04, Xubuntu, Kubuntu and Lubuntu were also release. In this post I'll try to cover the changes in Xubuntu 11.04 - a very interesting Ubuntu flavor based on Xfce.

Xubuntu 11.04 is truly lightweight, using only 184 MB of RAM on startup (I've only tested it in VirtualBox though). It's not as lightweight as Lubuntu, but it has a lot more features and if you don't like Unity or GNOME Shell, you should really consider it.

A note before reading this post: before giving up on Unity without giving it a try... don't. Try Unity for a few days - yes, it's not a finished product but it's actually quite interesting - and if you don't like it then switch.

If you've just upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, there are probably a few things you'll miss, so here is how to get them back as well as some other things you may find useful.

After the usual 6 months of development, Ubuntu 11.04 has finally been released. I usually start these posts with "there haven't been any major or ground-breaking changes" but this time pretty much everything is new with the introduction of Unity as the default interface. Since we've been writing about the new features in Ubuntu 11.04 constantly, in this post we'll only talk about the major new features. Read on!

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal beta 2 has just been released, this being the last beta. Up next: Ubuntu 11.04 final which will be released on April 28th.

Last week, a message on the Ubuntu Devel mailing list pointed out that Unity may not be default in Ubuntu 11.04 after all. After a long discussion, it was decided that Unity will be default, despite the split reactions towards Unity.

The reasons why it was considered to ship the Classic GNOME Desktop instead of Unity were various regressions but most importantly instability and frequently crashes. But it seems most of the crashes have stopped in the recent Unity versions and the remaining bugs will be fixed soon; and the regressions can be avoided: applications can still use the Systray if they are whitelisted and the Classic desktop is still available for everything else (remember: you can login to the classic GNOME desktop by selecting it in the login window!).

I've skipped the last Unity update but with today's update I decided to make a post with the most interesting (though minor) changes in the latest Unity.

A message on the Ubuntu devel mailing list mentions that the current state of Unity will be brought up for discussion and if needed, the Classic GNOME Desktop may be default after all in Ubuntu 11.04:

Since a lot of people want to upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal already, I though you'd like to see a video (well actually 2) on how to upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04. Remember that starting with Ubuntu 11.04, you can upgrade using the Live CD too.

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal beta 1 has just been released! As usual, we'll do a recap of all the new features and changes since the previous milestone (Alpha 3) which of course you already know if you read WebUpd8 daily. But even so, maybe there are some things you've missed so read on to see what's new in Ubuntu 11.04 beta 1 since alpha 3!

sudo apt-get install qtnx

Then when you open Ubuntu Software Center you should see a new "Test drive" button next to the application screenshot. The applications run on a remote server so you must have a decent Internet connection and also, this is not available for all the applications in the Ubuntu Software Center, but nevertheless, this feature sounds awesome. Here's a video I've just recorded so you can see exactly how it works:

The Ubuntu Font Family package has just been updated in Ubuntu 11.04 and it now includes 2 new variants - light and medium:

The Board is a place for quick access to notes, photos, videos, audio and more. It's really hard to describe what The Board really is so take a look at the video below:

Because The Board is still experimental, it was quite hard to try it out but installing it in Ubuntu just got a whole lot easier thanks to the packaging done by Robert Ancell and a PPA set up Lucas Rocha (The Board developer).

Frederico Araújo Mendes has created a very interesting Unity mockup (video) in which he proposes better menus and a social networking widget layer.

In Frederico's Unity, you have a regular dock with some fixed icons and an area for items you open / pin. Clicking the Ubuntu logo in the top left corner will flip the "dock" (just like it was in the "2 sided dock" mockups) and here you'll have basically all the regular menu categories, but displayed on the dock.

Remember Ozone, the theme proposed to become default in Lubuntu 11.04? Well, the theme got some improvements and it's now a lot faster so it was made default starting today. Here's how Ozone looks now:

Neil J Patel posted an Unity video demoing resizing Dash and properly collapsing homeview, which you can watch below (this is not yet available in Natty):

Ubuntu 11.04 lacks a way to manage multiple workspaces. Sure, there is a workspace switcher, but no easy way to add or delete workspaces and doing this from CCSM is not easy to find and it can't be used to add/remove workspaces on the fly.

A while back, there was a very interesting mockup that was rejected for Unity but something similar was then added in Gnome Shell. But maybe something simpler has a better chance.

WebUpd8 reader Georgi came up with a very simple way of adding or removing workspaces which you can see below (this is just a mockup!):

The banners use an image that's automatically updated so it can be inserted on any website (including wordpress.com, etc.). And what's even cooler is that the banners come in various sizes - you can see the Ubuntu 11.04 banners in action below: