Ubuntu releases are always eagerly awaited, generating feverish debate on the blogosphere, but Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal has received an unprecedented amount of attention because it's different - in more than one sense of the word. This release is about the one area that's often overlooked in the Linux ecosphere, the desktop. Linux has struggled with the desktop; compositing window managers such as Compiz Fusion allowed you to play around with it but it still looked the same. But if you think the Gnome 3 Shell is different, wait till you experience Unity - and there's a lot more to it than glitter.