4 Cool New Features in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Alpha 3

Jim — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:54:49 +0000

UPDATE: Please read our updated post on the final release of Lucid Lynx!

iPhone & iPod Touch Support

Just last week, I was complaining about Ubuntu’s lack of built-in support for iPhones and newer iPods. Personally, I think this functionality is important if Ubuntu wants to grow in the consumer market. With the release of Lucid Alpha 3, I saw a couple of reports saying that iPhone and iPod Touch support was included out of the box. So, I plugged in my iPod Touch and was amazed to see it not only show up on my desktop, but also working inside Rhythmbox!

Rhythmbox now allows you to drag and drop music to and from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Now, the only time you would need iTunes is to do a firmware upgrade on your iPhone or iPod Touch. So, how long will it be before Apple moves to block Rhythmbox with an update?

Gwibber and the MeMenu

Ubuntu 10.04 brings social networking to the default desktop with Gwibber and the new MeMenu. This is part of Canonical’s “Social By Default” initiative for Lucid. Gwibber allows you to connect to multiple social networking sites and interact with them in a unified window within Ubuntu. Gwibber currently supports Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Status.net, Identi.ca, Qaiku, and FriendFeed. The MeMenu takes things even further, giving you an overview of all your social networks and chat accounts, even allowing you to set your status and post to your social networks right from the top panel.

There is still quite a bit of work to do on the MeMenu if it’s going to meet the blueprints that have been made for it, but it’s coming along nicely. Gwibber also seems to be quite buggy, but a quick look at Launchpad shows that the developers are busy fixing bugs and adding features. When 10.04 final hits the net in April, I think the “Social By Default” initiative will prove to be a huge success.

Facebook Chat

It’s only been two weeks since Facebook announced support for the XMPP/Jabber protocol, and Facebook chat support is already supported in Lucid Alpha 3. Empathy now includes Facebook chat along with the multitude of other chat protocols that it supports. With support for Facebook chat in Empathy and Facebook updates in Gwibber, you can now keep in touch with your Facebook contacts without ever visiting the site.

Improved Sound Controls

One thing that has really bugged me about the last two releases of Ubuntu is Pulse Audio. Ever since Ubuntu switched to Pulse Audio, I’ve had nothing but trouble with sound. Things seem a bit better in 9.10, but to get good control over sound you have to install the Pulse Audio Volume Control. Lucid Alpha 3 includes a new sound preference panel that’s available by default and right from the sound widget in the top panel.

This sound preferences panel is a unified place for controlling everything sound related in Ubuntu. You can set your sound theme, configure your sound hardware, choose and configure input and output devices, and also see and control how individual programs are interacting with your sound devices. This is especially useful for configuring applications like Skype.

Conclusion

Ubuntu 10.04 is shaping up to be a fine release. Alpha 3 is pretty stable and brings some great new features with it. There are still more features to come, such as the Ubuntu One Music Store and possibly a new theme. I look forward to tracking Lucid’s progress and installing it on all of my workstations when it is released in April.

Have you tried Ubuntu Lucid Lynx yet? What are your favorite new features? Leave your comments below!

Ubuntu MeMenu to Encourage Social Media Broadcasting

Jim — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:59:23 +0000

It seems that a huge segment of the world’s population has gone Twitter and Facebook crazy. People are busy updating their statuses, sending each other links, and trying to see how many “friends” and “followers” they can get. We are becoming social “broadcasters”, constantly bombarding our “friends” with 140 character chunks of information. In reality, these social networks are all about making “ME” feel good about myself, tricking us into thinking that people care about what we say … or maybe they really do care?

While sociologists are studying the effects of this social network phenomenon and what it means for society, there’s no doubt that social networks are big, really big! Not to be left out of the bit “ME” craze, the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 release will include the “MeMenu.” The MeMenu will be your one-stop spot for sending out all your social media broadcasts right from within Ubuntu.

Plans for the MeMenu have been posted on Ubuntu’s wiki. According to the wiki, the MeMenu should “let you broadcast to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, set your status for instant messaging, and access settings for instant messaging, microblogging, and Ubuntu One.” They include mockups of the interface, which honestly, looks pretty cool.

The latest daily builds of Ubuntu 10.04 show that substancial progress is being made on the MeMenu. It seems that Canonical and the Ubuntu community are serious about getting this done before the final release. Currently, you need to install the Gwibber package manually before the MeMenu “Broadcast Accounts” work. Once Gwibber is installed, you can post directly to Facebook, Twitter or Identi.ca from the MeMenu.

From a technical standpoint, this seems like a great idea. It also appears rather risky. Who will people blame when Facebook or Twitter change their APIs and the MeMenu stops working? They’ll blame Ubuntu, of course, even if it’s not their fault. If Canonical is going to include these social features as part of the core Ubuntu LTS release, I hope they’re ready to quickly fix bugs as social networks change APIs and break Gwibber and the MeMenu.

If executed well, these plans could turn into a great addition to the Ubuntu desktop. Perhaps Ubuntu will benefit by helping its users to become “Social Broadcasters” … hopefully they’ll be broadcasting about how great Ubuntu is and not posting things like “stupid MeMenu is not working again” or “No audio again in Ubuntu, need to reboot!”

What do you think about the MeMenu? Will you be using it? Leave your comments below.