Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal alpha 3 has just been released . We've already posted all the changes so if you're reading WebUpd8 daily you already know what's new, but as usual we'll do a recap of all the changes in Ubuntu 11.04 since alpha 2.





Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 video



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Changes in Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 (since alpha 2)

Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 comes with Linux Kernel 2.6.38 RC6, Python 2.7, GNOME 2.32.1, LibreOffice 3.3.1, Nautilus 2.32.2.1, Banshee 1.9.4, Firefox 4 beta 12 and Evolution 2.32.2.





Most of the changes in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal alpha 3 have been made to Dash and the Unity launcher, the rest of Ubuntu-specific applications (AppMenu, Ubuntu Software Center, AppIndicators, Ubuntu One and so on) getting only minor changes. But there's also a cool new Ubuntu live CD installer feature. Read on!

Unity panel new features: transparency, respects current GTK theme style

The top Unity panel (which is not a regular Gnome panel!) got transparency support and further more, it now respects the GTK theme style:









Keyboard shortcuts

Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 displays an overlay over the Unity launcher with all the available keyboard shortcuts - to do this you must press and hold the Super key:





There are some new keyboard shortcuts to open the first panel menu as well as a shortcut to put keyboard focus on the panel:





Habemus notification area (systray). Almost.

There were news all over the web that Unity will not have a notification area. Actually, Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 3 comes with a notification area, but not a regular one. Only Java and Wine applications can use the new systray. Besides these apps, Skype can also use it thanks to a request by Mark Shuttleworth:





Dash, Unity Places Applications / Files changes

There were also a lot of changes to Dash since alpha 2: Dash has a new design and is now full-screen on netbooks but not on a desktop. However, you can now maximize Dash on a desktop (notice the icon on the lower right corner). Further more, Unity applications / file places can now sort the applications / files by type:

















Hide animations, autohide

The Unity launcher supports some nice hide animations: fade and slide, slide and fade only:





A while back, the Ubuntu 11.04 Unity launcher lost its normal autohide behavior and only allowed intellihide. Well, the old autohide behavior is back. Also, you can now chose to either dodge windows or dodge the active window only:





2 music stores!

Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 comes with two music stores: Ubuntu One Music Store and Amazon Mp3 Store. There was a great debate regarding this. The Banshee developers donate all the money made using the Amazon Store to GNOME but Ubuntu has its own music store so initially the Amazon Store was supposed to be disabled by default.



In the end the decision was to ship with both Amazon and Ubuntu One Music store enabled by default, but the money will be split like this: Ubuntu will take a 75% cut of the affiliate fees from purchases made through Amazon Mp3 Store; the other 25% would go to the GNOME Foundation but Ubuntu will also donate 25% of the revenue from the Banshee Ubuntu One store and the Rhythmbox Ubuntu one store to the GNOME Foundation.





Upgrade support for the Ubuntu Live CD installer

The Ubuntu 11.04 live cd installer finally got upgrade support so you'll be able to upgrade from older Ubuntu versions using the CD (very useful for those with bad or no internet connection). Besides this cool new feature, the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal alpha 3 partitioner got a new design:





Unity 2D (Qt)

Unity 2D will not be included on the Ubuntu 11.04 Live CD, however I'm guessing a lot of people will want to use it because it's faster and doesn't require a modern graphics card / proprietary drivers.









Unity 2D advanced quite a lot since Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 2 and got to a point where some features seem better polished then in the regular Unity (but it still lacks some, most importantly a GUI to configure it). I didn't take screenshots for Unity 2D but I've created a new video so you can see it in action:



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Up next

Download Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 3

This time I'm going to start by showing you a video with the latest Ubuntu 11.04 alpha 3 and then the screenshots.Also, pressing the Super key (without holding) will open Dash.For some reason the launcher icons had a white background in my test, that might be a bug, I'm not really sure.March 31st - BetaApril 14th - Beta 2 Download Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal alpha 3 - remember, this is an alpha version so do not use it on production machines. Use it at your own risk!