A new option will be implemented in Unity Control Center

Jan 12, 2017 00:42 GMT  ·  By

Canonical's Eleni Maria Stea is reporting today on the upcoming availability of a new option that would allow users to easily enable the low graphics mode for the Unity 7 desktop environment in Ubuntu Linux.

Last year in September, we told you that Canonical was working on improving the low graphics mode of the Unity 7 user interface, which the company behind one of the most popular Linux-based operating systems on the market is currently using on all supported Ubuntu releases.

The low graphics mode makes it possible to have an extremely fast and responsive Unity 7 session when using Ubuntu Linux on a virtual machine, such as those created with VirtualBox. These new improvements reduce many of the animations for various desktop elements, as well as the window shadows, fade in/out and blur effects.

Ubuntu's Unity 7 low graphics mode is also good for remote computing, when using the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) or RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) protocols, but it wasn't easy to enable the setting. Both Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) and Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) are bundled with these Unity 7 low graphics mode enhancements.

To make it easier for user to enable the Unity 7 low graphics mode on their Ubuntu systems, Canonical will soon implement an option in the Unity Control Center, as you can see in the video attached below, which will be located in the Appearance panel.

"If you can’t select 'Switch to low graphics mode' it means that you still have the old lower-performance lowgfx and you can only switch to it from ccsm->unityshell->low gfx," said Eleni Maria Stea, Software Engineer at Canonical, in a blog announcement. Check out the video below for more details!

Update (19/01/17): Canonical's Eleni Maria Stea has informed us about an update to the upcoming settings in the Unity Control Center to allow users to enable low graphics on Ubuntu Linux more easily. The updated video and screenshot is attached below for your viewing pleasure.

The newer version of the low graphics mode setting
The newer version of the low graphics mode setting

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Enabling Unity 7 low graphics mode in Ubuntu
The newer version of the low graphics mode setting
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