Ubuntu 11.10, the latest stable release of the popular Linux distribution, sports two guest accounts, one in the login screen and the other accessible from an active user session. Both are tightly coupled to LightDM, the new display manager.

In Maverick we're adding the new Ayatana indicator for sound, Conor Curran's very classy implementation of MPT's very classy spec. It's a Category Indicator, like the messaging menu, so it allows apps to embed themselves into it in a standard and appropriate way.

While we can excuse developers for installing more than one application for the same computing task, there is no excuse for what Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is doing with the scrollbar.

Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical unveiled the new Ayatana work that has been happening. Unity is a new interface for Ubuntu Netbook Edition which targets the instant-on market. What does Unity look like on my netbook? Take a look.

I am, of course, referring to the overlay or Ayatana scrollbar. It is one of those “innovation” that nobody that I know want on their desktops, but which Mark Shuttleworth keeps trying to push. According to the project’s official page on Launchpad.net, the overlay scrollbar:

Mark Shuttleworth joins us for a video podcast to discuss the upcoming 9.04 release, Ubuntu history, Linux on the desktop, impacts of cloud computing, Ayatana, the community and Ubuntu, Ubuntu and Canonical, Google Summer of Code, Ubunet, and much more!

Mark Shuttleworth posted a suggestion he got from Pablo Quirós for the free space on the top right window corner (now that the button(s) will be placed on the left side of the Metacity), on the Ayatana mailing list.

The Ayatana Indicators work has given us a crisp, clean basis for indicators in the panel. We've said they will all look a particular way, and behave a particular way. And we've said they will be placed on the right of the panel.
But why limit indicators to the panel? Let's make it possible for applications to use indicators themselves, for all the things that indicators are good at...

Since Mark Shuttleworth said that moving the Metacity window buttons to the left "opens up the space on the right nicely", lots of button ideas came out. The most controverted one is probably Esfera, an idea which Mark forwarded to the Ayatana mailing list. A recent idea by Izo makes a lot more sense than all the previous ideas. Have a look (it's called "The Workflow Button")...