Ubuntu Software Center is seeing its second round of upgrades, this time changes are even more dramatic. Good to see Canonical putting so much thrust on Software Center which has the potential to become Ubuntu's major money spinner in the near future.
Ubuntu Software Center upgrades are happening right now, but we are probably not going to to see the revamped Software Center in action until at least Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release happens. But if you are using Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Alpha release, you can preview some of the changes now itself(simply run the command software-center-gtk3 from Terminal). Here is a quick sneak peak of new Ubuntu Software Center.
Slider has become kind of a norm lately, from Android Market to almost all popular blogs out there now has one. Taking a cue from popular web applications like Android Market, Amazon App Store for Android, Apple's App Store and such, new Ubuntu Software Center has a wide featured-content slider on top. And it look strikingly similar to the one you see on top of omgubuntu.co.uk, among the biggest proponents of Ubuntu in the blogosphere. Bottom line is, the slider looks great. Still no real content is included in the slider and everything looks very unfinished at the moment. It will take time.
The other highlights of the new software center are the 'Top Rated' and 'New' application tabs right on front page. There is also a very neat categorization of applications on the left side that make the searching and finding of apps very easy and intuitive. The feature list otherwise remains pretty much the same at the moment, albeit better looking.
Good things apart, the new Software Center is far from a finished job. Rough edges are in plenty and the whole look and feel needs a lot of polish before the final release. But one should appreciate Canonical's resolve and commitment to keep on improving Ubuntu. The last major Software Center overhaul was not very long ago and now they are completely revamping it all over again. When Shuttleworth talked about his goal of acquiring 200 million Ubuntu users in 4 years, no doubt he was serious. Some really exciting times ahead. Stay tuned.