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Ubuntu Unity has shown some good staying power, with Ubuntu Unity 21.04, its third release, out on 22 April, 2021. There’s a good core of people working on the project, led by Indian developer, Rudra Saraswat.
This relatively new distribution is basically mainstream Ubuntu, but with the Unity 7 user interface in place of Ubuntu’s modified Gnome desktop. The Linux distribution aims to continue the efficiencies and aesthetics of Unity, which was the official interface for Ubuntu from 2011 to 2017.
Ubuntu Unity 21.04 is a “standard” release, supported for nine months, until January, 2022. This is the second of three standard releases that mark the road to the next long term support release, Ubuntu Unity 22.04 LTS, expected in April 2022.
System Requirements
Ubuntu Unity 21.04 does not specify minimum system requirements, but it is probably reasonable to assume that it is the same as mainstream Ubuntu: a 2 GHz dual-core processor, 4 GiB of RAM, and 25 GB of hard-drive space.
Installation
I downloaded Ubuntu Unity 21.04 from the official website via bittorrent, carried out an MD5 sum check on the file to make sure I had a good download (MD5 is the only method provided), and then used UNetbootin to write it to a USB stick for testing.
Like all the Ubuntu 21.04 family of releases, Ubuntu Unity 21.04 now runs the automatic file integrity checker silently in the background. Presumably it will let you know if you have a bad write on the USB stick!
New
The previous release of Ubuntu Unity, which was 20.10, had quite a number of changes made to start off the development cycle towards the next LTS release. Ubuntu Unity 21.04 has far fewer changes, perhaps indicating that the development team feels it is getting close to where they want it to be for the LTS. We will see if the next release, Ubuntu Unity 21.10, due out on 14 October 2021, introduces more changes or just some small refinements.
Ubuntu Unity 21.04 brings a new set of Unity-specific Yaru themes, including a new default window theme, Yaru-unity-dark.
Other changes include a new transparent Ubuntu Unity launcher button designed by Muqtadir, a new Plymouth boot-up screen design, and 12 new wallpapers. The wallpapers were all designed by Allan Carvalho and are specific to 21.04. Most of them are Hippo-themed to go with the release name, “Hirsute Hippo”. This wallpaper collection replaces the 54 wallpapers included in the last release, Ubuntu Unity 20.10, which I believe was an Ubuntu record. The move to 12 release-specific wallpapers is probably an admission that the previous 54 were a bit of an “overkill”.
Otherwise, Ubuntu Unity 21.04 uses the Linux 5.11 kernel, with its support for some new hardware and the usual new application versions from the Ubuntu repositories.
Settings
This release includes 16 themes, 31 icon sets, plus the 12 wallpapers, so, once again, there are lots of choices for user customization. It is worth noting that, to get the full range of themes and icon sets, you need to use the included Unity Tweak Tool, as the normal menu choice of settings→ appearance→ theme offers only four of the theme choices.
I have to admit that when I first booted up Ubuntu Unity 21.04, my initial reaction to the default theme and wallpaper was that it must be a parody. I know that, these days, there are lots of fans of dark themes, but the default setup seems to be making fun of that trend. You get an almost black wallpaper and, when you open up a few application windows, the Yaru-unity-dark theme renders them all-black with black buttons, black borders and black decorations. Consider that the top panel is also black and the Unity launcher shows the black wallpaper through, and you have an almost unusable desktop, but it is really, really dark! Douglas Adams might have been describing this default theme (instead of a spaceship) in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, when he wrote, “Now that is really bad for the eyes. It’s so black – you can hardly even make out its shape. Light just falls into it.”
The good news, of course, is that, with 16 themes and 12 wallpapers to choose from, it is easy to “lighten it up” a bit to the point where you can at least discern what you have open. Even the classic Ambiance and Radiance themes which were the Ubuntu standards for many years are available.
Default dark-theme parody or not, Ubuntu Unity gives lots of user choices, allowing you to make it look pretty much how you want, and that is something that sets Ubuntu Unity apart from mainstream Ubuntu, which has very limited user choices in settings.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Ubuntu Unity 21.04 are: Archive Manager (File Roller) 3.38.1 webcam application Cheese 3.38.0 webcam application* CompizConfig Settings Manager 0.9.14.1 desktop effects CUPS 2.3.3 printing system* Document Viewer (Evince) 40.1 PDF viewer Document Scanner (Simple Scan) 3.38.1 optical scanner Firefox 87.0 web browser GDebi 0.9.5.7 .deb package installer* Gnome Calendar 3.38.2 desktop calendar Gnome Disks 40.0 disk manager Gnome System Monitor 40.0 system monitor Gnome Terminal 3.38.1 terminal emulator Gparted 1.1.0 partition editor Image Viewer (Eye of Gnome) 40.0 image viewer Kupfer 320-1 application launcher LibreOffice 7.1.2 office suite Nemo 4.8.6 file manager PulseAudio 14.2 audio controller Rhythmbox 3.4.4 music player* Shotwell 0.30.11 photo manager Text Editor (gedit) 3.38.1 text editor Thunderbird 78.8.1 email client Timeshift 20.11.1 system restore utility Transmission 3.00-1 bittorrent client* Ubuntu Software (Gnome Software) 3.38.1 package management system Unity 7.5.0 interface* Unity Tweak Tool 0.0.7 settings manager* Videos (Totem) 3.38.0 movie player* * indicates the same application version as used in Ubuntu Unity 20.10. Launchpad indicates the latest version available as 0.9.5.92 for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), so I am not certain where this version comes from.
Two applications have been removed from this release since last time, the Startup Disk Creator USB ISO writer, and the Remmina remote desktop client. Neither were mentioned in the release announcement, so it is not clear why they were dropped. In the case of the Startup Disk Creator, it probably makes sense to remove it, since it did not work for writing Ubuntu Unity to a USB stick anyway.
This release has two “software stores” installed, Ubuntu Software and Gnome Software, which is a bit odd since the former is really just a rebadging of the latter. Both of them continue to offer Snaps and .deb files, where available, giving users a choice of package types.
The default file manager is Nemo – the Nautilus (Gnome Files) fork that brings back the missing functionality that was removed from Nautilus some years ago. The only oddity is that Nemo is not on the Unity launcher by default, but it is easy to add, as the launcher is highly configurable.
As in the past, LibreOffice is supplied complete, lacking only LibreOffice Base, the database application. It is probably the least-used component of LibreOffice, but it can easily be installed from the repositories, if needed.
Ubuntu Unity 21.04 includes the Cheese webcam application but does not have a CD/DVD burning application, an image editor, or a video editor. These can all be installed from the repositories, if desired.
The user interface is, of course, Unity 7.5.0, which is the whole point of Ubuntu Unity! As always, it is a very efficient, keyboard-centric interface that still feels very modern and up to date. Work has started on a new release of Unity to replace Unity 7, but I personally wouldn’t be in a big hurry for it, as Unity 7 is an excellent desktop interface.
Conclusions
Ubuntu Unity 21.04 is another strong release from the development team. The focus of this development cycle has been on including more user “look and feel” choices, while providing the efficient Unity 7 interface and a good range of applications. It is a formula that seems to be working, as each release, so far, has accumulated improvements.
All of this bodes well for the next LTS, due out in April 2022. I have to admit, I am curious to see what the next standard release, Ubuntu Unity 21.10, will bring, as it is the last chance to refine things before the LTS comes out.