Unity (user interface)

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Unity

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Screenshot of Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" with Unity 7.4
Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" with Unity 7.4
Basic data

developer Canonical
Publishing year 2010
Current  version 7.5
(May 25, 2016)
Current preliminary version 8.16.1
operating system Linux
programming language Vala , C ++ , QML
category Desktop environment
License GPL 3 , LGPL 3 ( Free Software )
German speaking Yes
unity.ubuntu.com (former)

Unity is a desktop environment for Linux operating systems that is designed to be particularly economical with screen space. Unity was developed by Canonical and was first used in 2010 on its own Ubuntu . In 2017 Ubuntu switched back to Gnome . Since then, Unity has been developed by the UBports community, which has also taken over the development of Ubuntu Touch .

In contrast to Gnome , KDE SC 4 or Xfce , Unity is not a program collection and should primarily be used with existing GTK + programs. Unity is released as free software under the terms of the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

In February 2020, Unity8 was renamed Lomiri .

history

Ubuntu used Gnome  2 as the standard desktop environment in the version for desktop PCs until version 10.10 was released in October 2010 . Since the Gnome project does not offer a special surface for netbooks with their small screens and the netbook surface developed by Moblin / MeeGo for the same reason was not considered suitable, Canonical developed its own surface for this type of device. This first appeared with Ubuntu 10.10. Work on this desktop version of Unity began at the Ubuntu Developer Summit 2010 , during which the switch from Gnome to Unity in Ubuntu was announced.

From Ubuntu 11.04 to Ubuntu 17.04, Unity is used as the standard interface. The previously existing netbook version with Unity was therefore discontinued. With version 11.10, Gnome 2 was removed as an alternative and a 2D version of Unity was used for lower-performance PCs, which was deleted without replacement from Ubuntu 12.10.

The Gnome Project and Canonical have had alignment differences in the past. For example, Canonical adapted a new protocol developed by KDE to control notification fields on Gnome 2, but this was rejected by the Gnome project due to a lack of compatibility with Gnome 3 and - according to Gnome - the Canonical developers' lack of willingness to communicate. According to Canonical owner Mark Shuttleworth, the Gnome project also rejects the global menu bar known from Mac OS . As a result of these differences, Canonical decided not to use the new Gnome 3 interface on Ubuntu for desktop PCs either, and to offer the old Gnome 2 interface only as an alternative in the event of incompatibility with the installed graphics. Hardware.

On April 5, 2017, Mark Shuttleworth announced that work on Unity would be discontinued and that Gnome would again be the standard desktop environment for Ubuntu from Ubuntu 18.04. Ultimately, Gnome was used again as the standard desktop with Ubuntu 17.10.

After Canonical stopped developing Unity, the UBports community took over development of Unity8. First alpha versions for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS are available for testing.

On February 27, 2020, UBports announced that Unity8 had been renamed Lomiri, mainly to avoid future confusion with the Unity game engine .

Ayatana project

Unity is part of the Ayatana project, an initiative to improve the so-called user experience within Ubuntu. In addition to Unity, this also includes , for example, the MeMenu projects , the NotifyOSD notification system and the Application Indicators . Outside of Ubuntu, Ayatana has also received support from the openSUSE project so far .

technical basics

The Unity version that came with Ubuntu 10.10 is in the programming language Vala written and uses of Intel originating program library Clutter for the surface . However, since Ubuntu 11.04, Unity has been based on Compiz . This version replaces a large part of the Vala code with C ++ and uses a program library called Nux instead of Clutter . Unity requires a compatible 3D accelerator .

Unity uses Gnome applications, builds on libraries of Gnome and middleware from the Freedesktop.org environment (including D-Bus , UPower , Udisks , ConsoleKit ) and other frameworks such as Zeitgeist .

In addition, Canonical developed a "2D" version based on Qt and QML , which was published on January 14, 2011 in a development version. No 3D acceleration is required for this version. Unity 2D works together with Metacity . In the meantime, the 2D variant has been discarded in favor of the classic 3D variant after the main Unity 2D programmer had left Canonical and the software renderer LLVMpipe, which was primarily developed by Red Hat for Gnome-Shell , was fast enough to display work surfaces.

From Unity 8 onwards , X11 is no longer used as a display server by default , but Canonical's in-house development Mir . Unity 8 has been running on Ubuntu Touch since 2013 , and since Ubuntu 16.10 it can optionally also be used in the desktop version.

Since Unity was initially developed exclusively by the Linux distributor Canonical , only Linux is officially supported at the moment. Versions for other Unix-like operating systems are currently not available.

criticism

Canonicals' decision to develop Unity as a Compiz plug-in was met with controversy. For example, Canonical's Compiz developer Sam Spilsbury greeted them. Others criticized her for various reasons, e.g. B. because the required computing power is high.

Canonical's requirement that volunteers to work on canonical projects must assign their own copyright in order to enable proprietary relicensing has also been criticized.

Problems with data protection have been known since Ubuntu version 12.10 in connection with Unity. These refer to the preset online forwarding of search terms when using the "Dash" function. Starting with Ubuntu 16.04, the online search in the Dash is deactivated by default.

Web links

Commons : Unity  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Unity in Launchpad. Retrieved November 5, 2014 .
  2. ↑ GitHub ubports / Unity8 Aconvergent desktop environment. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  3. ↑ ~ unity-team / unity / trunk. Retrieved November 5, 2014 .
  4. ↑ a b Alin Andrei: 2D Unity To Be Available As An Option In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. January 14, 2011, accessed November 5, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Unity8Desktop - Ubuntu Wiki. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Unity8 - The convergent desktop environment. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  7. ↑ About Ubuntu Touch - UBports. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  8. ^ Jono Bacon: Rocking The Application Indicators. August 25, 2010, accessed November 5, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Vincent Untz: New module decisions for 3.0. June 2, 2010, accessed November 5, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Ryan Paul: Shuttleworth: Unity shell will be default desktop in Ubuntu 11.04. arstechnica , October 25, 2010, accessed November 5, 2014 .
  11. ^ A b Jono Bacon: Unity: Some Further Clarification Points. October 31, 2010, accessed November 5, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Mark Shuttleworth: Growing Ubuntu for cloud and IoT, rather than phone and convergence. April 5, 2017, accessed April 6, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Canonical hires Unity and Mir and switches back to GNOME. Pro-Linux , April 6, 2017, accessed April 6, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Unity8 - The convergent desktop environment. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  15. ↑ GitHub-ubports / unity8-desktop-install-tools. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Lomiri: New Name, Same Great Unity8. February 27, 2020, accessed June 11, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Project page of the Ayatana project. Ubuntu , accessed January 8, 2010 .
  18. ↑ Jörg Thoma: openSUSE takes over Ayatana project from Ubuntu. Golem.de , January 2, 2011, accessed November 6, 2011 .
  19. ↑ Jono Bacon: Ubuntu 11.04 To Ship Unity. October 25, 2010, accessed November 6, 2014 .
  20. ↑ Dr. Oliver Diedrich: The week: Ubuntu and the five percent. Heise online , May 11, 2012, accessed on November 5, 2014 .
  21. ↑ Alin Andrei: How To Install Unity 2D (Qt) In Ubuntu 11.04 / 10.10. January 14, 2011, accessed November 26, 2013 .
  22. ^ Aurélien Gâteau: Into the blue. In: Aurélien's Room. April 11, 2012, accessed November 26, 2013 .
  23. ^ Joey-Elijah Sneddon: UDS-Q Summary: Bye-Bye Unity 2D, Hello GNOME-Shell Spin. OMG! Ubuntu, May 12, 2012, accessed December 2, 2014 .
  24. ↑ Michael Larabel: GNOME Shell Now Works With Software Rendering! Phoronix, November 3, 2011, accessed December 2, 2014 .
  25. ↑ Ubuntu OnAir: Mark Shuttleworth's Q&A. (Video) May 4, 2016, accessed November 27, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Matthew Garrett: mjg59: Fun facts. October 6, 2010, accessed December 2, 2014 .
  27. ↑ Sam Spilsbury: A bright new future for Compiz. October 25, 2010, accessed November 6, 2014 .
  28. ↑ Michael Larabel: There's Little Love For Ubuntu's Unity Desktop. Phoronix, October 25, 2010, accessed November 6, 2014 .
  29. ^ Bradley M. Kuhn: Canonical, Ltd. Finally On Record: Seeking Open Core. October 17, 2010, accessed November 6, 2014 .
  30. ↑ Micah Lee : Fix Ubuntu. Retrieved November 6, 2014 .
  31. ↑ Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Is Now Available to Download. In: OMG! Ubuntu! Retrieved April 21, 2016 (American English).