intertwingly

Ubuntu: Ubuntu Netbook is a simple, secure and reliable way to use your netbook. It gives you instant access to all the free applications you’ll need, wherever you are.

I’ve installed both Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Netbook.  Ubuntu Desktop is a typical, evolutionary improvement, generally giving you access to upgraded stable but not necessarily the latest versions of everything.  Installing Ruby gets you Ruby 1.8.7 patch level 299 (vintage June).  Attempting to install Ruby1.9 can’t decide whether to install Ruby 1.9.1 or Ruby 1.9.2, and ends up installing neither.

Ubuntu Netbook introduces a new interface, named Unity.  The documentation for that interface is either missing or at least well hidden.

One of the first things I do when I install a new version of Ubuntu is to add a weather applet to the panel and add a launcher for a gnome terminal.  With Unity, the bar across the top appears to be locked, so I can do neither.  Adding a gnome terminal to the launcher on the left is a simple matter of launching it once, and then selecting “Keep in Launcher” from the menu on that icon.  Once there, the icon can be used to quickly bring up a display of all of the running terminals, which is a huge win.

The concept of an application shifts from being something you launch to something you install.  Despite the organizational similarities between the Ubuntu Software Center application and the Main Menu application (a.k.a. alacarte) which confusingly is still present, the Main Menu application edits a menu that is no longer part of the interface for Netbooks.

As an example, I have a small script which enables me to run thunderbird remotely.  I can use alacarte to create a launcher for it, and then add that launcher to the Unity launcher via:

gconftool --type string --set /desktop/unity/launcher/favorites/tbird.desktop/desktop_file /home/rubys/.local/share/applications/alacarte-made.desktop
gconftool --type list --list-type=string --set /desktop/unity/launcher/favorites/favorites_list $(gconftool --get /desktop/unity/launcher/favorites/favorites_list| sed "s/]//g"),tbird.desktop]

Oddly, this doesn’t get me the icon I selected (I suspect, but haven’t investigated yet, that only “installed” icons can be shown), but pleasingly does take effect immediately.  Clicking on the icon does launch the application — which eventually results in a second icon to be shown.

All in all, I get the feeling that there is some unnecessary duplication between app-ubiquity.desktop [sic] and app-ubuntu-software-center.desktop (the former being what is launched when you click on the Ubuntu icon on the top left, the latter being what is launched when you click on the application with an icon that contains a triangle drawing instrument and scissors).  One of them should be replaced with something that launches the Main Menu.