Think Digit - your technology navigator

Soumya Deb

Discuss on thinkdigit forum

Posted on 05-03-2010

Comment on article

Tweet

• Feature overview - Ubuntu 'Lucid Lynx' 10.04 Beta 1
• Canonical unveils the Ubuntu Software Store
• 3D video production now possible with a normal film camera......

Being inspired by the "Light" theme, Ubuntu is on the edge of getting a completely new makeover in terms of look and feel. The upcoming 10.04 LTS release of Ubuntu i.e. Lucid Lynx and its successors will have the brownish 'Human' theme interface no more.

As per the screenshots posted, the base style have got a much sleeker polish all over, with a set of two Gtk color schemes (a light and a dark variant) and the background is very Mac OSX-like. Quite amazingly, the window buttons are aligned to the left of the window, just like they are in Mac OS, though keeping the relative positions as is (i.e. Minimize at left most and Close at right). While all the icon sets remain the same, the all new boot splash now have a progress-bar makeover. It's claimed to have 'simplified' aesthetics (old users may disagree) with an expectation of shorter 'playback time'. The main focus of the new branding is to be more usability centered, and ensure that it runs well and with efficient resource utilization, on netbooks, desktops, and servers alike.

The Dark Theme	The Light Theme

The new redesign will span across all the derivative releases - Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc. Not only the OS themes, but also the branding concerned - all the logos, cd covers and even the website is getting redesigned. If you are a die-hard Ubuntu fan having a 'thing' for collecting all the goodies from Canonical, then good news for you - you have a whole new set to geek out on, from t-shirts to pens and stickers (check out the image gallery for an early preview screenshots).

But no matter how sleek it might look to a regular fan / user, critics are not much happy with this new paint-over as it seems. Where some of them are complaining about the little design mistakes some other came up with the obvious comparison with Apple and Mac when in terms of the website redesign to the OS interface itself. Ubuntu was always known for simplifying Linux adoption even for newbies; now it seems they are following their older radical (Apple). The question is, will it start becoming follower instead of being a leader?