Ubuntu Unity Remix 20.04 - Linux Distro Review

In today's episode of Linux Distro Reviews, I'm taking a look at a very interesting distribution that I did not know about before researching different distributions, Ubuntu Unity Remix version 20.04 LTS! In my netbook article, I had previously mentioned that I decided to use Ubuntu 11.10 - 13.10 before exploring other distributions. One of my favourite features of Ubuntu at the time was the Unity desktop. This desktop experience provided me with a very modern feeling Ubuntu desktop and was definitely a welcome change from the default Gnome 2 desktop interface that shipped when I used Ubuntu 9.10-10.10 (although, I really loved Gnome 2.0 and still really love Ubuntu Mate, but that's a story for a potential later article). The desktop felt very fluid with smooth animations, a 3D interface, and well executed translucency effects and definitely made Ubuntu feel like a premium OS (which satisfied my craving for Windows Vista or literally any better edition than 7 Starter so I could get the Aero glass effects). Furthermore, Unity included a lot of excellent customization options. I was sad to see Unity go in favour of Gnome 3 for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I understand the move, however, and can't really argue that Gnome 3 is any better or worse out of the box, since both environments have a lot to offer and it really comes down to personal taste. Unity made its debut back in the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Remix (for those who don't know, Ubuntu labels each version of their operating system by its launch year and month, so 10.10 came out October 2010 and 20.04 released in April 2020).

Under the hood, Ubuntu Unity Remix is basically your standard official Ubuntu with the Unity desktop interface and other tweaks to alter the general aesthetic of the operating system. The installation process was straightforward, simple, and very much identical to a standard Ubuntu installation. Like Zorin OS, the installer lacked a slideshow (standard on Ubuntu and some other distros) and instead opted for a single image with a welcome screen for the installation dialog. Ubuntu Unity went with the standard Ubuntu splash and login screen, but those have been modified to say "Ubuntu Unity" with a custom logo on the splash screen and a custom Ubuntu Unity wallpaper on the login screen. Logging into Ubuntu Unity definitely brought back memories from using Ubuntu on my netbook back when Ubuntu started shipping with Unity as its standard interface. The interface is largely unchanged from what I remember (except for a different initial theme) and definitely still feels very modern and extremely refreshing in today's world of Flat-UI and getting rid of translucency/transparency. The general packages included in this distro are very similar to those included in Zorin OS, so for the sake of brevity, I'll just link that article here for you to read. LibreOffice is included by default, but unlike Zorin, LibreOffice in this distribution is not the Microsoft Office Ribbon theme by default (although, that can be changed very easily and is well documented in online tutorials). One of the most interesting things about Unity is that (similar to Mac OS), it keeps the menus for your active application up in the taskbar instead of pinned to the top of your active window. In addition, when a window is maximized, your close, minimize, and maximize buttons hide away in the taskbar and can be invoked by hovering over the taskbar. This in turn saves a substantial amount of real estate on your desktop, allowing you to view much more content than you otherwise would be able to if those menus and buttons were separate from the taskbar, which is a really nice touch!

The first thing I did with this distribution is I dived straight into the settings and turned up the visual effects in the settings to give me a nicer dash (windowed instead of fullscreen and with a translucent background!) as well as standard translucency effects for the dock and taskbar. After this, I headed for the Unity Tweak Tool (one of the things I love most about Unity). The Unity Tweak tool has several customization options including theme selection (where I chose my favourite Ambiance theme, which gives my titlebars a nice 3D appearance instead of the flatter Arc theme), translucency/transparency levels, in addition to a multitude of different customization options. One of the things I miss most about the old days of Ubuntu were being able to jump into CCSM (CompizConfig Settings Manager) and really deeply customize my desktop experience with a large number of really cool 3D tricks! Although CCSM can be implemented on most linux distributions, it is increasingly difficult and almost never works right out of the box (I had stability issues with Pop! OS after trying to change the Window Manager to activate CCSM and had to roll back all of my changes!) CCSM not only works naively with Ubuntu Unity out of the box, it even comes preinstalled! Some of my favourite things to do with CCSM include enabling Wobbly Windows (a really cool effect where your windows act like Jell-O and wobble/shake when you move, resize, or maximize them), 3D Cube (A very highly customizable 3D Desktop workspace switcher. You can have a cube, wheel, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, the sky is literally the limit to the level of customization in 3D Cube), the ability to turn your desktop into a virtual pool to create wave effects on your screen play using your mouse, and many other tweaks. I would have loved to see 3D Cube implemented in Windows, since I feel this would have been an incredible addition to the Windows 3D Flip from Vista/7, however, Microsoft decided to ditch their futuristic UI for a flat UI, to follow the latest smartphone trends. I finished up my experience with Ubuntu Unity by enabling the iconic Ubuntu Startup Sound that I really miss from earlier versions of Ubuntu (the startup sound isn't enabled by default on most modern Ubuntu distributions). I'm surprised to see so many mainstream operating systems (Mac OS, Windows, and lots of Linux distributions) ditching things like startup/shutdown, login/logoff, and lock/unlock sounds. I sincerely feel that a properly selected (and customizable) total sound scheme for an operating system is a crucial factor in making or breaking the presentation and experience of that operating system.

I am glad to see that Ubuntu Unity is still very much alive and actively supported and I sincerely hope that it will continue to receive updates for a very long time. This operating system is completely open source and entirely free for anyone to try out for themselves! I really love the look and feel of this distribution and likely will consider it strongly when it comes time to select a daily Linux distribution for my next laptop. In the meantime, I may re-structure my principal desktop, since I recently discovered that one of my oldest hard drives (a 2TB 5,400 RPM SATA HDD) is failing and has corrupted sectors, which is causing extreme system instability for operating systems on that disk. So, I will be sourcing a replacement for that Hard Drive eventually (although, it is not at the top of my priority list, since I still have other operating systems and SSDs/HDDs that I use daily and I really only use that disk for experimentation and setting up virtual machines for this blog). I may consider reducing this computer back down to a standard Dual Boot with Windows 10 Enterprise and Ubuntu Unity Remix, since I already have a Kali laptop. Then I could assign my replacement HDD/SSD to expand my existing m.2 SSD, so I can get more storage space for my principal OS and run more virtual machines in the future! Overall, Ubuntu Unity Remix is definitely one of my top Linux Distributions and I really look forward to revisiting this Operating System and being able to experience a modern 3D Unity in today's digital age where most UIs have gone completely flat! I would absolutely consider this OS to be a very good primary Operating System on a dual boot and can confirm from previous experience that Unity is an excellent UI for productivity, with things like the Desktop Cube making it really easy to navigate multiple desktops quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, the taskbar integration of the main application menus and control buttons frees up a lot more screen real estate to view more of a document at once, which can be especially helpful on smaller or lower resolution screens.

I hope you really enjoyed this article and as always, thanks for tuning in! Stay tuned for future posts if you enjoy this series, keep an eye on my News Feed on the Home Page for my latest posts!