Rhino Linux’s – Rhino Linux is testing a new Lomiri desktop built around “convergence,” echoing Canonical’s old Unity push to blur the line between phones and desktops. But this current snapshot isn’t ready for daily use—apps glitch, menus barely work, and even basic desktop
The minute I booted Rhino Linux’s latest snapshot with Lomiri, I felt that old, familiar jolt—like the Unity era had been pulled from a dusty back room and set back on the desk.
This build is meant to preview a major shift for the distribution: a new UI centered on convergence, the idea that bridges desktop computing and mobile devices. Developers are aiming to pick up where Canonical’s convergence plan stalled, and the snapshot is the first tangible step toward that goal.
Convergence isn’t a new word in Linux circles. Years ago. Canonical—behind Ubuntu—pursued a version of the dream it called “convergence. ” trying to bring desktop and mobile together. The concept was straightforward: plug your phone into a monitor. keyboard. and mouse. and the mobile interface would appear on the connected screen in a desktop-friendly form. Canonical backed that vision by migrating Ubuntu from the GNOME desktop to Canonical’s in-house Unity desktop. It looked promising, and for a while it felt like the future had finally arrived.
Then hardware reality stepped in. Canonical’s convergence push. as the testing experience described here. ran into a familiar wall: the devices available from the OEMs willing to bet on Unity and convergence were largely low-end. and the result was rough—slow performance. bugs. and a mobile take on Unity that failed to land.
Canonical eventually dropped the convergence idea, returned to the GNOME desktop, and moved forward along a safer path.
Now, Rhino Linux developers are trying again—with Lomiri.
Lomiri is Rhino Linux’s take on Unity. The developers have refashioned the Rhino Linux desktop after Unity, with the stated goal of continuing the convergence story. Recently, they released a snapshot of the latest iteration of Rhino Linux featuring the Lomiri desktop.
When the snapshot starts, the resemblance to Unity is immediate. After booting into the live instance, the testing writer installed the distribution just to see how it held up.
And the answer, at least in this version, is complicated.
The Lomiri snapshot is, by design, unfinished and buggy. The apps can open, but they don’t stay stable. They resize themselves repeatedly until it becomes impossible to access or use them. Titlebars don’t behave like you’d expect—accessing them to move windows doesn’t work—so apps end up trapped as small black boxes that can’t be used properly.
Some software is still workable. The snapshot allowed access and use of System Settings and Mugshot, and LibreOffice Writer could open. But even there, something is missing: a portion of the toolbars doesn’t appear, making the app effectively unusable.
App menus also barely function.
System Settings itself shows the direction of travel. The focus is clearly aimed at mobile behavior, with an Airplane Mode and a Rotation Lock placed front and center—settings that don’t make sense on a traditional desktop.
But that same early-stage roughness doesn’t erase the good parts.
Lomiri, visually, lands close to what Unity users recognized. What you see matches the broader Ubuntu desktop feel: a side panel and a top bar. The Lomiri menu is simpler too—more like a mobile app drawer than a full desktop menu.
The comparison is sharp. Unity’s menu was highly configurable and came with a powerful search feature. Lomiri’s menu, in contrast, doesn’t offer options. You open it, find your app, and launch it.
For some users, that tradeoff could be refreshing. The testing writer notes that the original Unity menu may have been too advanced for the average user, and Lomiri’s straightforward approach reflects that.
The desktop theme also shows intention. Rhino Linux’s current Xfce look is described as gorgeous. and Lomiri carries over that aesthetic direction. though not as elegantly. There’s an example in how dark mode can be disabled through System Settings > Background & Appearance. The preference here is for light mode—but even that isn’t fully smoothed out yet. because the overview icon (top left) doesn’t switch with the theme.
Still, the biggest story is what’s missing.
Because this is a snapshot, problems were expected. Even so, it’s clear Lomiri has a long road before it’s ready for general release. There’s no obvious way to set up peripherals like printers. Customization is limited. And basic desktop behavior is incomplete—right-clicking on the desktop does nothing.
So the promise is real, but so is the current frustration.
The heart of the question now isn’t whether Lomiri looks like Unity—it does. It’s whether Rhino Linux can make the convergence experiment work on hardware that users can actually buy and rely on.
That is where Canonical once ran out of luck. If Rhino Linux ends up limited to low-end mobile hardware the way Canonical’s convergence hardware availability was, the convergence experiment would likely repeat the same failure.
But the testing writer also lays out the other possibility: if Rhino Linux can get the operating system, and the Lomiri UI, running on modern, mid-to-high-end mobile devices—examples given include Pixel phones or Samsung phones—this could become a major hit.
For now, the recommendation is clear. If you want to try the Lomiri version of Rhino Linux, treat it as a test, not a finished product. The suggested path is to download the ISO, create a live USB drive, boot it, and see what’s there.
Rhino Linux Lomiri Unity convergence desktop mobile Ubuntu Linux UI snapshot XFCE System Settings LibreOffice Writer