Unicorn Desktop: Rhino Linux has a new desktop based on Xfce

The truth is that we are a little late to give this news, but it never is if the happiness is good. The developer known as http.llamaz presented in May a new update to the operating system on which it is working. This new version, currently numbered 2023.1-beta5, is still based on Ubuntu and its semi-original philosophy, but now uses its own desktop. Your name, Unicorn DesktopAnd you can't say it's not pretty.

The operating system in which it has been implemented is Rhino Linux, which is the name it received Ubuntu Rolling Release when it got bigger. Or rather, when its developer realized that it was attracting the attention of the community. It was already known that I would use Xfce as a graphical environment, but at that time it was not yet known that it would use Unicorn Desktop, which is based on it.

Unicorn Desktop is very reminiscent of GNOME

Unicorn Desktop me reminds a lot of GNOME. What we see after installing the operating system is what appears in the header screenshot: an upper panel, which has the date in the central part, on the right what would be the system tray and on the left for session management , and a dock that is on the left side as in previous versions of GNOME.

In that dock there are three buttons typical of Unicorn Desktop:

• The U is for the search bar. It's like KDE's KRunner or Apple's Spotlight, to give a few examples. It can also be accessed with GOAL + S.
• The 9 dots are for the app drawer. It can be accessed with the shortcut GOAL + A.
• The three overlapping rectangles are for the Desktop Switcher. The shortcut to open it with the keyboard is GOAL + D.

Not much else can be said about Unicorn Desktop without going fully into talking about Rhino Linux. http.llamaz wanted to use a light desktop, Xfce, but with a slightly more refined image. Once we dive into applications and such, the feeling that we are using GNOME fades away, and we find applications like Nemo or Xfce tweaks. But, as we just said, that's already more Rhino than Unicorn Desktop.

This is a new opportunity for the most critical so that they can talk about fragmentation and so on. For those who want options, Unicorn Desktop is one more. This desktop can be tested by downloading the Rhino Linux ISO, available from the button below. More information about the desk, here.