Budgie desktop can be installed with a PPA since a few days. It is still a beta so expect bugs and non-functional features.

Budgie is the flagship desktop of the Evolve OS Linux Distribution, and is an Evolve OS project. Designed with the modern user in mind, it focuses on simplicity and elegance. A huge advantage for the Budgie desktop is that it is not a fork of another project, but rather one written from scratch with integration in mind.

The Budgie Desktop tightly integrates with the GNOME stack, employing underlying technologies to offer an alternative desktop experience. In the spirit of open source, the project is compatible with and available for other Linux distributions.

Also note that Budgie can now emulate the look and feel of the GNOME 2 desktop, optionally, via a setting in the panel preferences. An example of this is shown in a screenshot further down.

Features in the 0.8 release

IconTasklist: Add pinning support

IconTasklist: Use .desktop files for quicklists

IconTasklist: Use .desktop files for icon resolution

IconTasklist: Support “attention” hint (blue blink)

Panel: Support dark theme (used by default)

Add Menubar applet

Panel: Initial autohide support (manual, not automatic)

Panel: Support shadow onall screen edges

Panel: Dynamic support for gnome panel theming

RunDialog: Complete visual refresh (bootiful)

BudgieMenu: Add compact mode, use by default

BudgieMenu: Sort items by usage

BudgieMenu: Remove old power option

Editor: Add all menu options to UI

Support from GNOME 3.10 up to 3.16 (unreleased, git)

wm: Kill workspace animation (resolve after v8)

wm: Better animations for changing of wallpapers

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:evolve-os/ppa

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install budgie-desktop

Important information

• Budgie released version 0.8 so it is still in development and a beta.

  
  



• No nnative network management; can be fixed by using Ubuntu's applet.

  
  



• Budgie is intended for the Evolve OS so even with this PPA it might be buggy.

  
  



• GNOME themes work better than the native Ubuntu themes.

  
  



• Ubuntu’s overlay scrollbars are not working.

  
  



• If you want to read more visit the Evolve OS website.