UMix 20.04 (Ubuntu Remix)

Edit 4/26: Updated screenshots. New ISOs available.

UMix 20.04 is now available.

UMix 20.04 – Unity 7 Desktop
UMix 20.04 – Unity 7 Desktop
UMix 20.04 – MATE Desktop

What’s New

New Base

UMix 20.04 is based on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). This is a LTS release that will receive updates till April, 2025. It comes with Linux Kernel 5.4.

Ubuntu 20.04 is yet to be released as of this writing, but it is not expected to very different from the version that is currently available. You can simply update your system packages when Ubuntu 20.04 is released on April 23rd.

File Manager

Caja is now the default file manager.

Nautilus has been losing features with every new release. The UI has become more and more minimalistic – down to a point where it is barely usable. GNOME’s client-side decorations (CSD) are more suitable for tablets and touchscreens than they are for desktops.

Nautilus – Height of minimalism – One of these buttons in the overflow menu is for adding bookmarks

I took this opportunity to swap out Unity’s Appearance app with MATE’s Appearance app. Unity’s Appearance app has been partially broken for a long time and MATE’s app is much more functional.

All popular Caja extensions are installed by default. This provides some useful actions in the right-click context menu, and in File Properties tab.

Images can be resized from the right-click menu

Wallpapers

UMix 20.04 includes a beautiful set of wallpapers from unsplash.com.

Default Wallpaper – Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash

Umix Welcome

The Umix Welcome tool now has a sidebar for easier navigation between pages. New pages were added for installing common software.

Terminal

Pressing F1 will open a terminal drop-down window. This is a terminal that is always running in the background. You can bring it to the front with F1 key and it will hide when it loses focus. If you don’t want to use this feature you can simply ignore it, or remap the F1 key to something else.

The default prompt for bash, fish, zsh and other shells is now a 2-line prompt.

First line displays current time, user name, host name and current directory.

Second line displays status of the last command (green or red) and accepts user input.

Default shell is bash. You can switch to other shells when needed. Current shell name and process ID is displayed on the right side for fish and zsh.

Default monospace font is Cascadia Code.

ISO Boot Menu

The ISO boot menu includes 2 new entries. Selecting the “Debug Mode” entry will display boot messages when live system boots up. This is useful for troubleshooting issues. Selecting the normal entries will display the boot animation.


Booting in Debug Mode
Boot animation

Software Selections

The ISO now includes SMPlayer with support for skins. This is in addition to VLC which is the default video player.

Foliate was added as the default ebook reader.

SMPlayer with the Black skin

Improved VirtualBox Support

Running UMix in a VirtualBox VM is now better than before. The guest display will resize to fit the host display, instead of starting in 800×600 mode.

Shared folders that are mounted in VM will be accessible in Live session.

Copy and paste works out-of-the-box if you have it enabled it in VirtualBox settings.

ISO Editions

There are 2 ISO editions available – One based on Unity 7 and one based on MATE.

The MATE edition has a classic light theme and is suitable for people who prefer the MATE desktop. It provides an alternative for the future, should Unity desktop get removed from Ubuntu repos, or any other reason.

These ISOs include popular applications like GIMP, Shutter, and LibreOffice. You can do a minimal install by selecting the “Minimal installation” option during installation.

The minimal install is really minimal and not recommended for most users.

Minimal install option

You can use the Umix Welcome app to remove extra applications after doing a full installation.

Download

Downloading UMix requires a one-time payment of $15. You will be added to an email distribution list. Download links for the current release (and all future releases) will be sent by email to all people on the mailing list.

This fee pays for servers where downloads are hosted, and for time spent in creating these images.

You can purchase a subscription from the link below:

If you have already subscribed, please check your emails.

This Post Has 17 Comments

  1. kirbythestar9

    Ok, this is a Linux distro, not a Windows OS so I shouldn’t have to pay for a subscription just to download an iso for this and I don’t have time to just recreate this distro and I know you want to be supported for doing this but if you need to be supported and get money then get a real job!

    1. Tony George

      I already have a real job. I do this for a hobby. I still see no reason why you should feel entitled to have my work for free.

      1. kirbythestar9

        It’s just a saying and I don’t really mean it all the time and also I really want it but I don’t want to have to pay for a subscription

      2. Peter

        Fair enough but then you should share the money with Linux, GNU, Debian and Canonical

        1. Tony George

          They are choosing to make their work available for free. I’m choosing to charge for my work. If you don’t think it’s worth the money you can start with Debian/Ubuntu and create your own distro.

          The GNU foundation encourages people to charge for free software.
          https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html

          This idea that software should not cost money is unique to the Linux community and the reason why most developers prefer to develop for Windows and Mac.

  2. Tony George

    Try downloading the Ubuntu ISO and install Unity on it. There’s nothing in this distro that you can’t do yourself if you have the time.

  3. Izaic

    Would you be able to replace the unity notification system with mate’s new one that has do not disturb?

    It would also be nice to have a new 20.10 build

    1. Tony George

      Do you mean this one? You can install it with the indicator-notifications package
      https://imgur.com/a/XmKQ0ss

      20.10 build will be available by end of this month

  4. freddie

    I am a fan of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.. does your version of unity support compiz config ?
    Thanks

    1. Tony George

      You can install Compiz Config Settings Manager from Ubuntu repositories, but I find it to be very buggy with recent versions of Ubuntu. Compiz Config worked best with Ubuntu 16.04. I don’t think it is being developed anymore.

      1. freddie

        Ok thanks, i will only be using one feature that I find very useful. I will be paying for a download of UMix Unity shortly.

Comments are closed.