New Unity Tweak Tool Unleashed for Power Users

by Ostatic Staff - Jan. 10, 2013

Tweaking tools are often very popular software. Since Unity became the desktop on Ubuntu, a few different tweaking tools have surfaced. While some have faded, a new contender has emerged "to expose all the most needed Unity, Compiz, Appearance and Desktop settings in one interface."

In an recent interview with OMG!Ubuntu!, the development team said, "We wanted something immensely useful for both technical and non-technical users who were looking for a one-stop configuration tool that was light on dependencies and simple to use." Their goal is to release a stable version by the end of the month, but today Barneedhar Vigneshwar, project lead, announced a "release for wider consumption."

The Freyja Team, the Unity Tweak Tool developers, hopes Unity Tweak Tool will be officially accepted into the mainline Ubuntu distribution, but more testing is required. So, to add the tool archive to your software manager and install it cast the following spell:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freyja-dev/unity-tweak-tool-daily

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

As you can see, it resembles Ubuntu Tweak and even KDE System Settings with configurations for Unity, Window Manager, general Appearance, and Sytem.

Under Unity in the Launcher tab one can find settings for auto-hide, location, transparency, color, and animations. The panels settings allow users to set the menu visibility time, transparency, and indicators.

The Window Manager tab features setting such as desktop magnification, window snapping settings, and hotcorner designations. Appearance sets themes, colors, and fonts while System settings include Desktop icons options, few security checkboxes, and scrolling behavior.