LibreOffice, Firefox 4, Banshee - New Default Applications for Ubuntu 11.04

Ubuntu Developer Summit(UDS) is finally over and one of the major decisions taken was the adoption of Unity for both desktop and netbook interfaces of Ubuntu for the future. Default applications for next major Ubuntu release has also been chosen.

[image via canonical]

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and the Future of Ubuntu
Ubuntu Developer Summit 2010 announced *the* major decision they has ever took. Ubuntu is moving away from GNOME and its next generation desktop environment, GNOME Shell.

Instead, Ubuntu 11.04 will be having a new desktop interface in the form of Unity. Unity is already the default desktop environment for Ubuntu 10.10 netbook edition. Mark Shuttleworth consider this shift to Unity as the most significant change ever for Ubuntu.

New Default Applications in Ubuntu 11.04
No big surprises here. Mark Shuttleworth himself has made it clear that future Ubuntu releases will be shipped with LibreOffice. Now, UDS has made the decision to include LibreOffice as default office suite in Ubuntu 11.04 if it's ready by then.

Firefox 4 will be the default web browser for Ubuntu 11.04 release. Chromium was also considered but was later discarded. They concluded that, Chromium needs integration and translation is not ready yet. [Learn how Chromium is different from Google Chrome]

Banshee will replace Rythmbox as the default music player for Ubuntu 11.04, provided that the banshee team should resolve the issue with regard to cd space.

Another important change seriously considered was the inclusion of Nautilus Elementary hack into the default Ubuntu installation. It was later rejected on the grounds that "patches were considered hacks". Default or not, installing Nautilus Elementary will continue to be among the first things I do after installing Ubuntu.