Another Ubuntu Hidden Gem

I was happily browsing along today, when my hand slipped on the keyboard and I saw an interesting dialog that I've never seen before. It was a dialog that showed the sound level. At that point I remembered... I have multimedia keys! I had generally accepted that they didn't work in Linux, because the programs that can use them really don't appeal to me. But now, I've discovered that some of the extra keys on my keyboard work. The volume wheel, the mute button, the calculator button, the email button, and the play/stop/FF/RW (in totem) all work under Ubuntu, without any configuration or anything.

This is yet another thing that Ubuntu has done, all by itself, that has never worked in any other distribution. And take a look at the screenshot. Damn, that sure beats the Windows one!

Ubuntu continues to amaze me.

Now I'm going to experiment and try to get some other keys to work.