"What's new in Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 5? Well, there are a few
interesting things... You had the pleasure to see some of them this
week, thanks to our hard working people who are monitoring every
change daily, here at the Softpedia Labs. Among the new features we
can notice a couple of new desktop effects. For example, when you
enter the GNOME session you will now notice a nice fade effect that
makes the transition from the login manager to the desktop. Also,
when you change your workspaces... the desktop will not slide
anymore, only the opened windows (this is the result of a
modification in Compiz's Desktop Wall plugin).
"And now, for the "hot stuff".... As you (probably) already
know, there is a new notification system implemented a week ago. It
is called Notify OSD and it can handle both keyboard actions, such
as volume and brightness, and application notifications. What does
this mean? Well... for example, when you change the volume or the
brightness of your monitor, when a network connection has been
established, when an application crash occurs, when someone sends
you a message on Pidgin, when a song is changed in Rhythmbox (other
media players are also supported)... a very nice and stylish
notification will be displayed for a few seconds in the top right
corner of the screen. The notifications are black, but if you
activate Compiz, they will be a little transparent... and they go
completely transparent when you hover the mouse pointer over them.
For more details, see the third screenshot on the first and fourth
rows."
