menuunity
Is it known whether or not Unity will have the option to act like the current custom gnome menus (Applications, Places, System)? From what I've seen they've designed it to take up the whole desktop when the menu is opened.
Also, the File, View, Edit menus, will it be possible to have them stay within the application itself rather than be displayed within the top panel?
Unity is a desktop shell for GNOME. This is not the same as a totally new desktop environment. A desktop shell is the interface that you use. Unity will still use the same GNOME apps and libraries that the current desktop does. GNOME shell is an example of another shell for GNOME.
Unity is developed by Canonical for Ubuntu. It is dual licensed under the GPL and LGPL (version 3). It was originally developed for the netbook edition but is going to be modified to be suitable for the desktop.
Currently, it is not suitable for desktops.
It consists of a top bar, similar to the normal gnome-panel but not the same. Instead of the Applications/Places/System menus is an Ubuntu icon that opens up an overlay called the dash which allows launching of files, folders and applications. It also has a global menu, that embeds the File, Edit etc. menubar from applications into the panel. It shows the menu of the currently focussed window. When windows are maximised, their controls (close, minimise, restore) are embedded into the panel as well. These are space saving features. The desktop edition is planned to not have the global menu because on a large screen it would move the menu far away from the windows being used and so the user would have to move their mouse all the way to the top to get to the menus.
There is a launcher and dock on the left hand side of the screen. This can't be moved. It is planned that for the desktop edition it will be detachable and be able to go on any side of the screen. It is also likely to have an autohide feature.
The expose style feature is like the scale plugin for compiz. It gives you an overview of your windows and allows you to switch between them.
Unity for the netbook edition currently used the mutter window manager. This has had some performance problems so it is being replaced with compiz for better performance. It is planned that it should gracefully degrade if 3D accelerated hardware is not available.
Unity netbook interface:
The interface for the desktop is currently being discussed: Launchpad Blueprint
In 11.04, you'll be able to remove the home screen shortcuts, and of course add them back.
Best Answer
It is already known that you can choose whenever start your session using Unity or the 'good old' Gnome Desktop.
This is possible ( at least in the 11.04 Alpha 1 ) by selecting the Gnome Desktop in the session dropdown on the login screen.
(In case your system has not graphic acceleration enabled ( i.e. compiz ) then the default session will be the old Gnome one.)
Also it is possible to remove the global menu behavior by removing the package
indicator-appmenu( there is not graphical settings up to now )Also they assert that Unity launcher won't be moveable. ( http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/12/ubuntu-unity-launcher-wont-be-moveable/ )