Hello blog, it's been a while!
I recently upgraded to the latest Ubuntu version, 12.04, and (as with all other previous upgrades) found that quite a few things changed. Some of these things annoyed me to no end, some of them I'm still getting used to, and others I really liked.
First off, if you have dual monitors, it's worth a mention that the Unity 3d interface puts the task bar along both monitor screens in Twinview. I don't know why it does this, but I prefer to have the bar on the left screen with all of my available real estate wide open on my right screen. I also didn't like the fact that my mouse wouldn't move into the second screen without getting "stuck" regardless if the second bar was there or not.
Luckily, it's relatively easy to change. If you go to System Settings -> All Settings -> Displays, you can set the launcher placement to your screen of choice. You can also then turn off the "Sticky Edges" which will remove the mouse sticking when moving to other screens.
Also, as of this posting, VMware Workstation 8.x does NOT support 12.04 as a host OS for the product. As such, there are a couple of ways to get around this. Some folks have found OPC (other people's code) out there and applied it to their system and have gotten it to work. Personally, I recommend using the VMware Workstation Tech Preview 2012, available in the VMware Communities. You can find the tech preview here: http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/beta/workstationtp2012
Please note that you will have to remove any traces of previous workstation versions as indicated in this KB article: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=38
Once you have removed it, downloaded the Tech Preview bundle, installation is easy. Just chmod +x the bundle in the location you downloaded it to and execute it by typing sudo ./ (Period Slash) in front of the name of the file. You have to be root to install the bundle.
Once you have installed the Tech Preivew, you can also test out Windows 8. All existing VM's should function fine, just note that not all of the vmware drivers are signed in the tech preview so your guest OS may complain about it from time to time. You will also have to upgrade tools in the guest VM.
That's it for now.
