December 25, 2011

Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 with GNOME Classic interface

Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10
Introducing Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Without Unity
Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 is an unofficial remix of the Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system and it was created by Jan Hoffmann. The OS is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. This distro uses the latest Ubuntu 11.10 and uses the Gnome Shell desktop and ditched the unity desktop. Hooray ! You can add the Gnome Shell yourself (the how to is posted below). But why fool around when you can have it right out of the box during install.  
This has now become my default Ubuntu installed distro and is very stable.

Overall it is very quick. Web pages seem to appear quickly probably due to the inclusion of Firefox v7.01 which is very fast. The title bar buttons have been moved back to the right as in traditional Gnome 2.x. There is only one theme installed called Adwaita, an Elementary inspired clean silver theme. There are about a dozen wallpapers included. It has Banshee music player, Nautilus, LibreOffice, and Gnome shell 3.x  But Gnome Shell 3.x is what the rest of the linux distros will be moving towards. You have to add the Synaptic package manager, but the Ubuntu Software Center is included. It is a DVD size ISO file.
I expect this is going to be a big deal to many Ubuntu Gnome users who have been waiting for a non-unity build.
Below are my screen shots and more info on what is included:







Now that Ubuntu 11.10 was released, we are proud to announced today, October 18th, the immediate availability for download of a new Linux operating system based on the newly released Ubuntu 11.10 distribution.

The new Ubuntu-based operating system introduced here is called Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix and it’s build on top of the Oneiric Ocelot release, but without the Unity shell.
As a desktop environment, the Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 uses the GNOME Shell interface. However, Ubuntu 11.10 features the Unity interface, but on top of the new GNOME 3.2 desktop environment…

Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 is an unofficial remix of the Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system and it was created by Jan Hoffmann. The OS is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 includes the following applications:
  • New boot splash screen;
  • Mozilla Firefox web browser;
  • Empathy instant messenger client;
  • LibreOffice open source office and productivity suite;
  • Shotwell photo manager;
  • Banshee music player and organizer;
  • Totem video player;
  • Evolution e-mail and calendar;
  • GNOME Contacts tool;
  • Cheese webcam viewer;
  • A collection of GNOME games including gbrainy, Tali, Aisleriot Solitaire and many more!
As you can see, Mozilla Thunderbird has been removed from Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10, which also offers access to the official Ubuntu 11.10 software repositories from were you can install thousands of more apps, via Ubuntu Software Center.


Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 with GNOME Shell interface

Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10 with GNOME Classic interface

You can download it here: http://ubuntu-gs-remix.sourceforge.net/p/download/

Users who want to download the source code used for creating the Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix images and detailed instruction to install it from the Alternate CD (minimal installation), please have a look at its official Launchpad PPA page.
There are also some known bugs for this release of the Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix distribution, which can be viewed here.

Source: http://www.ants-network.com/news/248/introducing-ubuntu-11-10-oneiric-ocelot-without-unity.ant 











Back on 11-05-11 and today did a full install and below are my results which produced a workable Ubuntu 11.10 Gnome build. You need to install the Gnome Advanced Tweak utility and the Dconf Editor which open up the settings we were all used to under Gnome 2.x. Added the Synaptic Package Manager, Chromium browser, Deluge, Pidgin IM, Picasa, Audacious, and Avant launcher.  From Synaptic, found the Elementary theme with Evolve metacity title bars, which brightens up things nicely. I'll continue tweaking this. Performance seems a little sluggish on my Pentium 4 3.2 ghz. They even colored the Grub boot menu a baby blue color to dress things up there.  So far it has been very stable and a good ride so far. Below are my screen shots.





















You can add the Elementary and Evolve PPA repositories below:
Then just search for Elementary theme from the Synaptic package manager.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install evolve-gtk-theme