Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A Look a Dell's Custom User Interface

This video features Doug Anson, Dell's lead who worked with Canonical, going through some of the features of Dell's custom interface for the Mini Ubuntu operating system.



I still think that The Notebook Remix UI is better, with its darker colors, the launcher's smarter layout and the window picker applet.

I plan on deleting Dell's installed version of Ubuntu after tinkering with it and installing Ubuntu 8.10. I want to partition my drive and use the ume-launcher, window-picker-applet, and maximus.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I much prefer the original Ubuntu netbook desktop look. I haven't tried either so I base this on posted videos I have seen. So, I would get rid of Dell's version if only, if only I could buy one in Australia. Come on Dell, sell Ubuntu machines in Australia.

Kyle said...

Hello,

Thanks for the taking the time to create this blog and put up new information concerning Ubuntu for the Mini 9. I have a Mini on order with Dell ESD of 11/10/08.

Specs:
*Obsidian Black
*2GB RAM (upgrade from Crucial.com)
*32GB SSD (upgrade from MDD.com)
*XP Home
*1.3M Pixel Webcam
*Bluetooth built-in

I had planned on ordering the Ubuntu version but Dell was running a special until 10/14 for an additional 9% off the Mini plus free 2 day shipping so it only ended up costing me about $5 more to get the XP version with 8GB of SSD and 512MB RAM then I could have the bigger storage in case the upgrade ever fails and an XP Home license for free. Not a bad deal. The complete package ended up costing me around $580 so I'm really excited at all the awesome hacks I'll be able to get into once the unit arrives. I first began looking at the possibility of installing Mac OS X and have looked at the various ways to do that (uneasysilence method and insanelymac version with the boot123 CD). I'm not sure if I will go that route, there are conflicting reports of sound not working with the 10.5.5 upgrade and bluetooth being flaky. I wanted to get your opinion on what OS I should run and try out. I would like to explore the Mini OS from Dell Ubuntu 8.04 but can't find the download links anywhere for the .iso Do you think they will ever offer that to Mini owners or it will only be available through the system choice? On the other hand it looks like you have decided that you are going with Ubuntu 8.10 custom install after you play around with the pre-installed option. It would be great if you could give a review of 8.04 from Dell and your 8.10 custom install when you get the chance. Thanks and look forward to the updates.

Kyle

Anonymous said...

They did a pretty good job imho. Just a ligher layout that's more easy on the eyes.

pHreaksYcle said...

Right now we are working on a guide to install the original Ubuntu netbook window and look. Stay tuned!

Kyle said...

Look forward to reading your post about installing the Dell Mini OS on your netbook. I guess you saw the post on the dellmini website recently with the restore .iso posted for download by torrent. I created a new blog recently at http://macosxmini9.blogspot.com/ where I am going to document my install of Dell's OS first when I get the unit then Mac OS X. It seems like installing Ubuntu first is a must since the restore DVD will wipe the hard drive and start from scratch. I can't wait till my Mini 9 arrives so I can start the fun, I already received the upgraded RAM and 32GB SSD.

By the way, I typed up this post on my N800. It's a great little device to carry around and follow th updates.

Kyle said...

Look forward to reading your post about installing the Dell Mini OS on your netbook. I guess you saw the post on the dellmini website recently with the restore .iso posted for download by torrent. I created a new blog recently at http://macosxmini9.blogspot.com/ where I am going to document my install of Dell's OS first when I get the unit then Mac OS X. It seems like installing Ubuntu first is a must since the restore DVD will wipe the hard drive and start from scratch. I can't wait till my Mini 9 arrives so I can start the fun, I already received the upgraded RAM and 32GB SSD.

By the way, I typed up this post on my N800. It's a great little device to carry around and follow th updates.

shirtees.net said...

So how do I get that Dell Custom User Interface on my desktop?

Do I need the "ume-launcher", "window-picker-applet" and "maximus"? I was only able to find the last two in the repositories.

Thanks for any help!

redDEAD said...

You can't get the custom Dell user interface from the regular Ubuntu repositories.

This blog is not about Dell's Ubuntu, it's about installing an running the newest Ubuntu distro on the Dell Mini 9.