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This release uses a new interface font, which is the first major OS (that I know of, anyways) to not use a Helvetica-like font for their GUI. Mark Shuttleworth

This release uses a new interface font, which is the first major OS (that I know of, anyways) to not use a Helvetica-like font for their GUI. Mark Shuttleworth talks about the decision and impact on his blog: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/537 http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/537

retube 16y ago
screenshots: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-beta-has.html http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-...
- bruceD 16y ago
  Release candidate screenshots: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-release.html http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-...
- cpach 16y ago
  Oh, nice to see a light, pale theme, like in Mac OS. It's much easier on the eyes, at least for me.
  - ithkuil 16y ago
    it was already there in the 10.04, albeit not default
    - cpach 16y ago
      Hm. Seems like they tweaked it tough? The theme in the screenshot looks much lighter than the Radiance theme in my 10.04 install.
  - nailer 16y ago
    Anybody else think this is the first ever professional looking Linux distro they've ever seen? Congrats to the Ubuntu team.
    - dkarl 16y ago
      You must be a graphic designer :-) I thought, "What does attractive have to do with professional?" and then realized you meant designed by professionals, not designed for professionals. Professionals' tools tend to look beautiful to them and ugly to everyone else. Maybe this is a step toward changing that, at least for Linux. (Except I'll still have emacs taking up at least half my screen space, with its functional but butt-ugly syntax colorization....)
      - nailer 16y ago
        Nope, I'm a programmer. I just don't like brightly colored notification icons all over my GNOME taskbar. They're distracting - looks (and discoverability, and other UI aspects) directly affect usability, I'm surprised you say you don't get that. As a counterpoint to your argument, I'd say OS X has more professional UI designers than Windows or the Linux OSs and is generally regarded as being more usable too.
        dkarl 16y ago
        I'm surprised you say you don't get that. Thanks for reading my comment so charitably ;-) What I'm saying is that beauty to the professional user and beauty to an innocent bystander are different things. A professional actually cares more about usability and certainly cares about aesthetics as they apply to usability. The way a professional perceives a desktop will be very different from the way a casual user does. But some people are self-conscious about that; they don't want their professional exposure to change the way they perceive things, or at least they don't want anybody else to notice. So they want a plastic consumer case for their Hole Hawg[1]. Not that OS X doesn't have a lot going for it on the desktop, but a major part of the appeal for developers is that they can have a great desktop they love without non-geeks thinking they must be a little weird to love it. [1] http://www.team.net/mjb/hawg.html http://www.team.net/mjb/hawg.html
        randallsquared 16y ago
        but a major part of the appeal for developers is that they can have a great desktop they love without non-geeks thinking they must be a little weird to love it. Most developers (and sysadmins) I know positively delight in their reputation of being a little weird. I know that given two options I like as well otherwise, I'll usually pick the less common one. I still use OS X, though, having switched from Gentoo in 2003, and having tried Ubuntu and Arch for 6-7 months within the last year.
- thvdburgt 16y ago
  The asymmetrical upper case T annoys me.
bruceD 16y ago
The font is available on the CD, but it has not been set as default (and it might not be default in the final release either).
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- mgunes 16y ago
  It will most likely be default for everything other than monospace and document fonts. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-artwork/+bug/649616 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-artwork/+bu...
dchest 16y ago
How's Lucida Grande Helvetica-like?
fluidcruft 16y ago
Macintosh prior to OSX used Chicago and Charcoal. These are fairly distinctive and aren't really "Helvetica-like" in my mind. Chicago in particular was pretty much synonymous with "Macintosh" and was used in early iPods. Pre-MacOS machines used fixed-width bitmapped fonts that fall more in the range of "programmer fonts" than Helvetica.
- someone_here 16y ago
  Nifty. I would have been 9 at the time :)
LoonyPandora 16y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by "Helvetica-like". OS X Uses Lucida Grande as a system font, which is quite different to Helvetica (Lucida Grande == Humanist, Helvetica == Neo Grotesque) I can't vouch for Windows, but if memory serves it's system font is also a humanist style.
jdub 16y ago
Practically every Linux distro uses DejaVu Sans (previously Bitstream Vera Sans), which is not Helvetica-like. Windows and OS X don't use Helvetica-like fonts either. I think you might be smoking an Arial hash pipe... because Helvetica is clearly too good for you! :-)
Mizza 16y ago
My friend made this: Compare: Ubuntu font overlaid on Verdana and LiberationSans: http://i.imgur.com/51jao.png http://i.imgur.com/51jao.png

retube 16y ago

screenshots: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-beta-has.html http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-...

bruceD 16y ago
Release candidate screenshots: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-release.html http://www.webupd8.org/2010/09/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-...
cpach 16y ago
Oh, nice to see a light, pale theme, like in Mac OS. It's much easier on the eyes, at least for me.
- ithkuil 16y ago
  it was already there in the 10.04, albeit not default
  - cpach 16y ago
    Hm. Seems like they tweaked it tough? The theme in the screenshot looks much lighter than the Radiance theme in my 10.04 install.
- nailer 16y ago
  Anybody else think this is the first ever professional looking Linux distro they've ever seen? Congrats to the Ubuntu team.
  - dkarl 16y ago
    You must be a graphic designer :-) I thought, "What does attractive have to do with professional?" and then realized you meant designed by professionals, not designed for professionals. Professionals' tools tend to look beautiful to them and ugly to everyone else. Maybe this is a step toward changing that, at least for Linux. (Except I'll still have emacs taking up at least half my screen space, with its functional but butt-ugly syntax colorization....)
    - nailer 16y ago
      Nope, I'm a programmer. I just don't like brightly colored notification icons all over my GNOME taskbar. They're distracting - looks (and discoverability, and other UI aspects) directly affect usability, I'm surprised you say you don't get that. As a counterpoint to your argument, I'd say OS X has more professional UI designers than Windows or the Linux OSs and is generally regarded as being more usable too.
      - dkarl 16y ago
        I'm surprised you say you don't get that. Thanks for reading my comment so charitably ;-) What I'm saying is that beauty to the professional user and beauty to an innocent bystander are different things. A professional actually cares more about usability and certainly cares about aesthetics as they apply to usability. The way a professional perceives a desktop will be very different from the way a casual user does. But some people are self-conscious about that; they don't want their professional exposure to change the way they perceive things, or at least they don't want anybody else to notice. So they want a plastic consumer case for their Hole Hawg[1]. Not that OS X doesn't have a lot going for it on the desktop, but a major part of the appeal for developers is that they can have a great desktop they love without non-geeks thinking they must be a little weird to love it. [1] http://www.team.net/mjb/hawg.html http://www.team.net/mjb/hawg.html
        randallsquared 16y ago
        but a major part of the appeal for developers is that they can have a great desktop they love without non-geeks thinking they must be a little weird to love it. Most developers (and sysadmins) I know positively delight in their reputation of being a little weird. I know that given two options I like as well otherwise, I'll usually pick the less common one. I still use OS X, though, having switched from Gentoo in 2003, and having tried Ubuntu and Arch for 6-7 months within the last year.
thvdburgt 16y ago
The asymmetrical upper case T annoys me.

bruceD 16y ago

The font is available on the CD, but it has not been set as default (and it might not be default in the final release either).

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
mgunes 16y ago
It will most likely be default for everything other than monospace and document fonts. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-artwork/+bug/649616 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-artwork/+bu...

dchest 16y ago

How's Lucida Grande Helvetica-like?

fluidcruft 16y ago

Macintosh prior to OSX used Chicago and Charcoal. These are fairly distinctive and aren't really "Helvetica-like" in my mind. Chicago in particular was pretty much synonymous with "Macintosh" and was used in early iPods. Pre-MacOS machines used fixed-width bitmapped fonts that fall more in the range of "programmer fonts" than Helvetica.

someone_here 16y ago
Nifty. I would have been 9 at the time :)

LoonyPandora 16y ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "Helvetica-like". OS X Uses Lucida Grande as a system font, which is quite different to Helvetica (Lucida Grande == Humanist, Helvetica == Neo Grotesque) I can't vouch for Windows, but if memory serves it's system font is also a humanist style.

jdub 16y ago

Practically every Linux distro uses DejaVu Sans (previously Bitstream Vera Sans), which is not Helvetica-like. Windows and OS X don't use Helvetica-like fonts either. I think you might be smoking an Arial hash pipe... because Helvetica is clearly too good for you! :-)

Mizza 16y ago

My friend made this: Compare: Ubuntu font overlaid on Verdana and LiberationSans: http://i.imgur.com/51jao.png http://i.imgur.com/51jao.png