Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix Lockdown
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, codenamed "Lucid Lynx", was released in April 2010. One exciting new feature in Ubuntu 10.04 was a reworked interface designed specifically for netbooks. This interface had been introduced earlier, but was supposedly improved for the current release. I had been meaning to try it out from a fresh install and just recently had the chance to do so. Unfortunately, it seems that we all have varying definitions of exactly what constitutes an improvement, and it isn't just Microsoft who sees fit to equate backward movement with "making improvements".
A major issue with the Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix interface, indeed the first issue I noticed, was that the sole top panel is no longer configurable. A bug was opened to have this addressed, but that bug has been marked as "Closed, Won't Fix". You see, the design specification for Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix states that the intention was always to include both the previously-excellent netbook interface and a standard Ubuntu desktop interface. Unfortunately, the GNOME project does not support having multiple GNOME sessions configured using user-specific settings. Thus, instead of deciding to install only the netbook interface, or to have the netbook interface (which is the default interface by the way) configurable, the choice was made to have the netbook interface locked to pre-defined settings and leave the non-default standard desktop interface open for configuration. Note that this doesn't apply to settings like time and date format, screensaver, and so on; this is specific to the panel layouts. For some, this may not be a big deal, but for a lot of people this poses a problem. I, for instance, like to include both the Tomboy applet and the System Monitor applet in my top panel, but I cannot do so in the Ubuntu 10.04 netbook interface. Based on the comments on the bug I linked to above, the majority opinion seems to be that this was a Bad Idea(tm).
There is a fix, however I classify it as more of a hack than a fix. Essentially, you tell the default GNOME session to run the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface instead of the standard desktop. The downside is that you completely lose the ability to switch to a standard desktop interface, but you regain the ability to configure your panel applets.
In my opinion, Canonical is treating the netbook platform as a secondary platform. In reality, there are a number of people who are using a netbook as their primary system. Not everyone needs the power of a full-size desktop or laptop system. A large benefit of Ubuntu, and Linux in general, was always that you can do things "your way", not "my way or too bad". The latter is somewhat reminiscent of certain large multinational software corporations.
