Just a few days ago, Unity 8 became available for Ubuntu 13.10. However, it is just an Alpha release and it’s not coming to the ‘stable city’ until Ubuntu 14.xx release.

Now, I am putting those ‘xx’ because it’s not clear if Canonical aim to launch their 14.04 LTS along with a hell-of-a-buggy desktop-environment like Unity 8. So, even if it’s available to install it in Ubuntu 13.10, please DO NOT because you are going to have a huge headache. Yes sir, Unity 8 is currently nothing more than an experimental view of QML phone shell. That has been told, it’s not meant for every-day standard use except for lunatics (like me) who aren’t afraid loosing their software mentality. Long live the Linux world!

My experience so far…

I used two systems:

– Intel Core Duo 2.4 GHz (dual core), with 1GB RAM DDR2

– Core i7 2600K overclocked up to 4.5 GHz with 32 GB RAM

I noticed Unity 8 is super-fast. Frankly speaking, I couldn’t believe how smoothly it slides pages and tabs, enters and exits from directories, shows folders and their properties and so much more. Just wow!

Well done to Canonical, I am truly impressed. My old Core Duo came back to life like if I was using an SSD disk. Literally, the difference in performance is like day and night for old systems. While I didn’t notice any improvement in particular with my i7 beast (well, maybe the HUD loads faster than before).

How to install

What did I tell you before? Do not play with Unity 8, it will crash your system, break your heart and install Windows 8. Lol, I’m just kidding. Seriously, it’s in alpha phase. Just do not try it.

Ok, so you don’t listen to me, ah?

$ sudo apt-get install unity8 unity8-fake-env unity8-private

And then type:

$ unity8