I just created a new subcategory for discussions around Ubuntu Unity. Feel free to continue the good conversations and collaboration there:
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Thank you so much Aaron. 
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If i’m not mistaken the ISO’s are being automatically generated and tested with no human interaction.
There is no automated testing for flavors right now. Images are built daily.
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I’ve been a user of Ubuntu for quite some time and would love to help out wherever I can. I’ve been a software engineer for over 25 years and have developed on many different operating systems (both GUI and terminal/CLI apps) in C, C++, and other languages. I’ve also got a few years of Armbian/Debian experience on embedded devices and building OS images and app packages. Where is a good place to start so I can also help? I’ll continue looking through this thread for tips and advice on where to start.
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Unless we get tips where to start I will probably start by installing minimal Ubuntu 25.10 on my new ThinkPad T61 then try to install whole Unity desktop and try to fix all issues I find during installation (if there are any). I have an experience from the past that many bugs are easier to find on slower systems. And I will keep all packages (source code and .deb build instructions) in my own GitLab repository until we get information where are upstream repositories.
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We are still working on outlining everything and gather as much information we need to point you all in the right direction. This will take a few days so we ask kindly to be patient.
We will post about it once everything is in place.
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Let’s be frank: Unity has a heavy legacy code load, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain (as we see today). Wouldn’t it be more prudent to “abandon” the current project and create a “new generation Unity” simply by creating graphical customization plugins for the current Gnome? There’s a huge range of plugins for Gnome and KDE that allow you to create an experience exactly like Unity’s, while maintaining more modern code and without the burden of maintaining extremely legacy code like Unity’s.
There’s simply no need to maintain a legacy code load like the current Unity project does. How about combining these efforts and relaunching a new Unity, built only as a plugin layer on top of the current Gnome? The effort from all teams would be drastically reduced, and you would deliver releases on time and with better quality.
One example is the KDE Latte-dock package (I believe this is now integrated into KDE, no longer as a separate project), plus kvantum which had a simple theme that recreated the Unity interface with fidelity in KDE Plasma. This is just one example. I transformed my KDE Plasma into Unity in less than 5 minutes.
It would be much more prudent to abandon the Unity project and focus on a project based on themes and plugins for Gnome. The current state of Unity is a code “workaround” to make a legacy project work on top of modern kernels and libraries. If you are having difficulty maintaining the schedule today, expect this to evolve into something exponentially worse in the future with the current Unity.
I’m not wishing for the end of the project, I’m just expressing my point of view because I think the path you are following is not ideal for the future of Unity.
Let’s not get sidetracked here.
This topic is about recruiting folks who want to get involved and help.
Let’s please stay on topic.
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6 posts were split to a new topic: Codebase and Unity 8
Hello everyone,
My name is Benjamin, I’m a computer science student and a self-taught Linux enthusiast.
I’d like to offer my assistance in response to the recent call for help. While I haven’t used Ubuntu Unity before, I’ve been an Ubuntu user since the release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
I’m still learning and not entirely sure where to start, but I have some experience working with ISO files in my home labs and I’m eager to research and contribute.
With some orientation and beginner guidance, I’m available and ready to help however I can.
Best regards,
Benjamin.
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Hi,
Which competences are asked / needed ?
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Hello and welcome,
As i mentioned in a previous reply we are currently working on gathering as much information as we can to work on the infrastructure and outline everything so we can point the kind people who want to get involved the way.
However, it takes us longer than expected because our current project lead has no time at the moment to show us where everything is and how everything works. We ask for a little more pacience.
Once we have all the information I’ll post a comment or open a new topic.
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That would be nice, but i don’t know of a concerted effort to replace unity 7 yet. I’m also involved with UBPorts.
Perhaps it would be good to outline what we would need to actually replace unity 7 with Lomiri.
From feedback i’ve gathered so far:
- global menu
- the HUD (the ability to search through the menu bar using a shortcut)
- wallpaper based launcher color (the launcher changing color based on the wallpaper)
- display settings (resolution, refresh rate, scaling, multi-monitor arrangement etc)
- frosted glass theming (lomiri’s theming is rather flat in comparison)
- lenses (the ability to not only search for applications but also files and filter for file types)
These are point i could gather feedback on, but don’t consider this list to be comprehensive. Instead see this from this perspective, anything that replaces unity should have a minimal impact on the user experience. People chose ubuntu unity instead of xfce or kde customized to look like unity for a reason. If we can reach the point that the above issues are resolved by 28.04 that would be great.
Meanwhile we’ll continue to patch up unity 7 so it remains a solid choice for 26.04
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A post was split to a new topic: Is it possible to use old Unity (Desktop) on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Hey guys, I would love to contribute as well, specially on gathering and documenting how to get started for newcomers.
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I’m sorry to hear about the problems with UU. UU is still my favorite distro. Although I’m a technology and IT enthusiast, my skills unfortunately end when it comes to coding. I can’t help you there. I also only have a very rudimentary understanding of the details of how an operating system is structured.
However, anything that involves “regular” IT procedures would work well. Depending on the situation, I would just have to learn a little more.
I’m a professionally video editor. That means creating videos (trailers, animations (Blender), tutorials, etc.) wouldn’t be a problem for me.
Hope this helps.
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thanks for the pointers Jeremy, we are still getting our bearings, as communication with rudra is currently a tad strained
I have tried to tackle the beginner bug and tagged you, if you don’t mind, i’m looking forward to feedback
Thanks! i have tried to look if there are such unbuildables for resolute i think they are currently building fine, but love to have some pointers
which repos are these? I would like organize an effort to convert them. Unfortunately it seems ubuntu unity’s packages a tad scattered across launchpad so i having trouble finding them all, i’ve been attempting to gather a list of them so we can document what (potential) contributors can and should do and where. For some we don’t have upload rights as we are not ubuntu developers yet, so we are looking for a sponsor to help us with uploading changes
thanks very much for listing the packages we need to work on, we’ll look into it and fix these as learn along the way
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@tomekdev the above are the current points, as noted above we are still working on gathering a list of all the upstream repositories.
considering you mentioned gitlab, I’d like to reveal that we are of the mind to mirror to gitlab.com/ubuntu-unity and import changes to launchpad. In part of how scattered the packages appears to be but also to help ease the learning curve for people wanting to contribute. We are also gathering what we find on https://gitlab.com/ubuntu-unity/ubuntu-unity-issues to have one place to point to.
If you or anybody else reading and wanting to jump are on telegram or matrix please join us there so we can easier communicate about which repos we need to find
The development discussions are currently also happening on telegram.
if it wasn’t clear, both Maik and I are beginners when it comes to doing what rudra did all these years. We’ve both been community moderators during that time. Maik and I will be learning the launchpad side of things, others who like to join us on that journey, are of course also welcome
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Wayland and Mir should be one of if not the top priority after bug fixes and the like. X is just so antiquated now.
After 26.04 is released we’ll have a look about what we’ll do next. First we need people onboard who are as committed, passionated and dedicated to the project as we are.
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