Ubuntu is phasing out the notification area (a.k.a. “system tray”), because of its ineffectiveness at notifying people of things, and its inconsistent behavior. Many programs that previously used the notification area should use other notification mechanisms instead. Some notification area items will be replaced by various system status menus we’re introducing. For a few programs, it will be appropriate to use custom status menus.

WhatKey helps you know you’re pressing the correct key shown in a keyboard shortcut. By holding down option on your keyboard for a couple seconds you get a nice bezel that shows you it’s the ⌥ key. (Yeah, we don’t know what the hell that’s suppose to be either.) But now you too can know what ⌥, ⌘, ⇧, and even ⌃ is.