Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr has been recently released, using a rewritten version of Unity 7 (Unity 7.2) and the good old X.org as the default display server.
While a bunch of interesting new features (like the local integrated menus, minimizing on click, or window filtering by title) have been added to Unity 7, Canonical has focused on Unity 8 and Mir, their next generation desktop environment and display server.
For now Unity 8 and Mir are available only on Ubuntu Touch, the mobile version of Ubuntu, but a preview version of the two is available via the default repositories of Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr.
If you want to toy around with Unity 8 and Mir, on Ubuntu 14.04, do:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install unity8-desktop-session-mir
After the installation of Unity8 + Mir has been successfully done, log out and select Unity 8 + Mir for the LightDM Greeter.
Due to the fact that this is only a preview version of Unity 8 running over Mir, the two will receive a lot of changes until the final versions will be released. Unity 8 will be used by default on Ubuntu 14.10, while Mir will be already usable by then, despite the fact it will be implemented by default only on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Also, a demo video of both Unity 8 (Mir) and Unity 7 (X11) running on Ubuntu 14.04 is available.
While Unity 8 for Ubuntu Touch has a lot of tablet/phone applications (Adress Book App, WebBrowser App, Camera App, Friends App, Gallery App, Notes App and Share App), they can be installed Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr with Unity 7.
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install address-book-app webbrowser-app camera-app friends-app gallery-app notes-app share-app
All this apps can be started from the Unity Dash.
Due to the fact that Canonical works hard in order to make Ubuntu the first converged system, it makes sense to make the Ubuntu Touch apps work on the desktop versions of Ubuntu. For those who don’t know, the idea of convergence is to create an unique system, capable of running on both a desktop and mobile device. Ubuntu’s convergence has been demoed by Jono Bacon, Ubuntu’s Community Manager, via the Weather App and the Karma Machine.
Also, the Ubuntu Touch Core Apps, a project created by third party developers under the supervision of the Ubuntu developers, can be installed on Ubuntu 14.04, via a third party PPA. All you have to do is add the PPAs to your system, update the local repository index and install the ubuntu-sdk and touch-coreapps packages. Like this:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-touch-coreapps-drivers/daily
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-sdk touch-coreapps
Or, you can install only some certain apps from the Ubuntu Touch Core Apps, by replacing touch-coreapps with the app’s name:
- ubuntu-calculator-app
- calendar-app
- ubuntu-clock-app
- ubuntu-weather-app
- ubuntu-docviewer-app
- ubuntu-emailclient-app
- ubuntu-filemanager-app
- ubuntu-rssreader-app
- ubuntu-terminal-app
- stock-ticker-mobile-app
- dropping-letters
- sudoku-app
- music-app
