Unity 7 Improvements Backported from Ubuntu 15.04 to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

The modifications are still being tested

Every once in a while Ubuntu developers made improvements to the Unity desktop environment, but that usually happens for new Ubuntu releases, like 15.04 for example. That doesn't stop them from porting those improvements to older releases, such as Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

The next-generation Unity 8 desktop environment is still under construction and it will be a while until it is ready for deployment on PCs, which means that Canonical needs to make the best of the current Unity 7. Even if it's been around for quite some time, it doesn't mean that there is no room for improvement. In fact, Ubuntu devs push fixes for Unity all the time, but it's mostly under the hood stuff.

When enough cool stuff gets implemented in an upcoming Ubuntu release, like it happened for the 15.04 branch that is scheduled to be released on April 23, Canonical decides to port those changes to older versions of Ubuntu that are still supported, in this case the 14.04 LTS branch. In case you weren't aware, LTS versions are supported for five years and everything else in between just for nine months.

Unity 7 improvements will land soon in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

The changes are still in the proposed channel, and they will remain there for a while until they have been properly tested. It's quite possible for those modifications to cause issues in an older version of Ubuntu, so the devs need to be careful.

According to the changelog, running potentially dangerous code paths when the screen is locked is now avoided, pointer barriers are now disabled during lock screen, Dash, Hud, and session dialogs can now be opened over full-screen windows, and menus are always shown when mouse is over them or when the always-show-menus option is on.

This last modification is probably the most interesting. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS has a feature called Locally Integrated Menus, which are the apps menus integrated in the title bar of the window, which save a lot of space. Until now, users need to hover in order to activate the menus, but they will always be displayed.

If you want to get the improvements, you will need to check the proposed repositories in the Software & Updates utility.