Hands-on: Ubuntu goes social, gains Me Menu in 10.04 alpha 3

“Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is
planning to overhaul the desktop panel and integrate social
networking features in Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx. One of
the key components of this effort is the Me Menu, which shipped in
the Lucid alpha 3 last week.

“The Me Menu, which Canonical unveiled in December, provides a
unified interface for managing your presence on instant messaging
and social networking services. A text box that is embedded in the
menu allows users to publish status messages to all of their
accounts. The menu also provides easy access to the standard
account and identity configuration tools.

“The Me Menu expands on the concept of Ubuntu’s existing
presence menu, which was included in the panel session applet in
Ubuntu 9.04. Like the original presence menu, the new Me Menu is
designed to work with GNOME’s Empathy instant messaging client.
When you post a status message in the menu, it will be propagated
to all of your Empathy accounts. The social networking
functionality in the new Me Menu is powered by Gwibber, my open
source microblogging client.”

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