Canonical/Ubuntu News for November
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2013-11-13 11:14:24 UTC
- Modified: 2013-11-13 11:14:24 UTC
-
Ubuntu 13.10's new Scopes feature is fed by heuristics to offer matches to your accumulated browsing and search requests gleaned from Github, reddit, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google News, The Weather Channel and Yelp. I find this level of search invasion too intrusive. If I wanted that approach to marketing, I would just bypass Ubuntu completely and grab a Kindle or rely more fully on the Google search engine.
-
The most new-user friendly of all Linux desktop distributions, Ubuntu has a new, better release: Ubuntu 13.10, Saucy Salamander.
-
Looking back on my time with Kubuntu 13.10 the thing which stood out the most was that not much stood out. Apart from having some network issues which slowed things down during my first installation attempt, my time with the distribution was quite good. The installer is nicely laid out, the KDE 4.11 desktop is quite polished, providing a clean, feature-rich environment. I like that Kubuntu comes with a guest account for those odd times people wish to borrow my computer. I'm also happy to see there is an option in the KDE System Settings panel to turn off the guest account for people who see the guest account as a security concern. The new user account manager is slick and easy to use, I'm quite happy to see it included in this release. So far I'm tentatively happy with the new Discover software manager. It looks pretty and it seems to work well enough. The software manager's interface is a little busy for my taste, but otherwise I have no complaints. I think most people will take to it and those who don't can fall back on the older package manager. Overall, Kubuntu 13.10 feels like a stable, mature release that has some nice new features, but nothing ground shaking that would put off existing users. I'm actually sorry this version is not a long-term support release and will only receive security updates for nine months, the short support cycle seems to be the only weak point in an otherwise excellent desktop operating system.
-
I try to write articles for the readers on this site that I hope they will find useful and so I agreed to write the review on the basis that if it is a great book then I can share that knowledge and if it isn't then I can also share that knowledge.
-
Today in Open Source: SteamOS will not be based on Ubuntu. Plus: Metro Last Light out for Linux, and the Tuxmachines site has been sold
[...]
Tuxmachines Site Sold
Foss Force is reporting that the Tuxmachines site has been sold. Here it is in case you missed it last month.
One of the most popular Linux sites, Tuxmachines.org, announced on October 28th that it has been tentatively sold for $1,000.
When Ms. Linton, who has also been involved with DistroWatch, started Tuxmachines it quickly grew to be an important destination on news about Linux and other open source projects.
More at Foss Force
It's sad that the site is changing hands, but hopefully the new owner will keep it going for a long, long time.
-
A USB key or thumb drive or USB stick is the best device to use in installing your favorite Linux distribution. It’s not just because it’s reusable forever (unless you mess it up), but the system runs much faster than if you used a CD or DVD disc for installation.
-
grsync is a graphical rsync tool in ubuntu linux. It provides a graphical user interface to backup or sync important files & directories to remote machine or in local machine using rsync. It currently supports only a limited set of the most important rsync features, but can be used effectively for local directory synchronization.
-
Flavours and Variants
-
The highly anticipated Pear OS 8 Linux distribution has been officially released today, November 9, by David Tavares, the father of the Pear Linux Project.
There's no official announcement for Pear OS 8, but we can tell you that the distribution boasts a new iOS 7 design, created by Ivan Matias Suarez. Moreover, the brand-new Pear OS 8 distribution features a set of pre-installed applications, including Pear Cloud, Clean My Pear 2, MyPear 6, as well as more than 3,000 downloadable packages from its generous software repository.
-
David Tavares, father of the Pear Linux project, has just announced that he started a crowdfunding campaign for a new project, called Pear OS 8 Tablet Edition, a version of the Pear OS 8 Linux operating system for the Microsoft Surface tablet.
-
So we found ourselves on unsure footing. While I am sure that the developers of Mint and Zorin are confident in their longevity within the the community.....
It's simply a risk we cannot take. They are both some of the best examples of what Linux is and should be on the desktop. Both of these distributions will be used in our Reglue computers, as each of them has a specified purpose, depending on the power and size of the computer being installed.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Dances With Wolves, Wakes Up With Fleas
- Small minds say "td;dr" whereas the rest say, "give me information, give me time to study it"...
- Garrett Does Not Just Try to Cover Up for Himself, He's Clearly Covering Up for His Mates From Microsoft (and Admits Third Parties Fund His Litigation, With Their Legal Bills Estimates Already Approaching $1,000,000)
- They have already sent us about 75 KG of legal papers. How is any judge supposed to keep up?
- Richard Stallman in the United States - Part IV - Back to Switzerland
- The "cancel mob" tried to "finish off" RMS 5 years ago
- Dr. Richard Stallman in Ada Lovelace Lecture Series 20 Hours From Now in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology (Rotkreuz)
- Well-connected and affluent corporations want everything to be controlled by them, ranging from culture to words and news
- GNU/Linux Seen as Rising to 20% in Eritrea, But That's statCounter Identifying "Unknown" as GNU/Linux
- What if statCounter managed to figure out what all those "unknowns" are?
-
- Under IBM, Some Fedora Blog Posts Have Become LLM Slop! (Red Hat is Doomed by Slop Fanaticism)
- Who would even bother reading such trash?
- Lots of People Leaving IBM Today
- IBM cannot be trusted
- LLM Slop Rare and Scarce This Friday
- We still hope that by the end of this year slop will become nearly extinct
- Defending British Democracy From American Predators
- We stand united and strong in the face of predators
- Links 06/03/2026: LLM Prompt-injection Vulnerability in Microsoft's Proprietary GitHub, "260,000 Federal Jobs Lost"
- Links for the day
- It's Friday and Many People Publicly Announce Leaving IBM (Which is Engineering 'Willful' Departures to Mask RAs' Scale)
- We understand from whistleblowers that IBM already destroyed Red Hat's culture
- Dr. Richard Stallman (RMS), the Man Whose Mind Scares GAFAM et al, Began Speaking in Switzerland
- His ideas and ideals are not obscene
- Gemini Links 06/03/2026: "Setting up the Feed" and Using Molly Brown
- Links for the day
- Links 06/03/2026: Can't Copyright Slop in US, Microsoft Became Slop Provider for Militarism
- Links for the day
- Threats Issued to Daniel Pocock Having Launched the JuristGate Web Site Which Covers Financial Fraud in "Legal Insurance" Clothing
- Is our world governed by laws or by rich corporations (or nations/superpowers) with well-connected lawyers/politicians?
- International Women's Day: At the EPO, for Women to Become Managers They Need to Sleep With Well-connected Men and Mingle With Corrupt Men
- Sunday is International Women's Day
- Dr. Richard Stallman Starts His Talks in Switzerland in 8 Hours
- They try to assess how many people plan to attend to ensure everyone gets a seat (without compromising the privacy/identity of those attending)
- IBM Red Hat Layoffs: It's Not About "AI"
- "Automation" is not "AI", it's just a generic term which can describe jobs left for machines to do, sometimes computers
- Microsoft Windows Used to be Identified on Over 99% of Web Requests From Benin. Now It's Around 50%.
- Or a lot less
- Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Has Severe Financial Problems, Version Inflation ("GPT-5.4") is Mindless Hype and a Misleading Distraction
- In practice, both users and sponsors of ChaffGPT are fleeing
- The Techrights Static Site Generator (SSG) Turns 5 Next Year
- It's still under active development in our Git servers
- New XBox Boss (Sharma) Implicitly Confirmed XBox (the Console) is Now Dead
- Vista 11 is now also known as "XBox"
- Murder as a 'Joke' to GAFAM People (Sociopathy)
- When it comes to Microsoft and Salesforce, they profit from this mentality
- Microsoft ‘Project Helix’ is Just a Tweet in MElon's "X"
- Some "tweet" is easy, as words are cheap
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 4 Out of 200: Rianne’s Version of Events and Narrative
- today we tell Rianne's experience
- EPO Staff to 'Meet' This Coming Tuesday to Plan Industrial Actions Including Upcoming Strikes
- using Microsoft spyware to organise this can be an own goal because Microsoft serves the dictators, not the union that tries to topple them
- Thousands of EPO Workers Rally Against EPO Management
- The staff is furious to see what became of the EPC and the EPO. This is not sustainable.
- In Argentina Firefox is Measured at Only 1%, Google Chrome (Proprietary) at About 90%
- And it has long been that way
- IBM's March 2026 Layoffs Already Happening (to Accelerate Soon in Europe and America)
- We're probably seeing some of the last years of IBM and it's anything but certain that IBM can survive the coming decade
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, March 05, 2026
- Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Industrial Panettone, Cancel, and LLMs
- Links for the day
- It's Not "AI", IBM is Collapsing Due to Financial Difficulties, "All Small Country Offices Will Close"
- IBM is in trouble. Insiders know it.
- "AI Companies" Running Out of Money, GAFAM Layoffs Are Signs of Weakness, Not "AI Efficiency" or Novelty
- In the past, this term ("AI") had another meaning and connotation
- Libel/Defamation Law Does Not Exist to Cover up Crimes
- The projection tactics are nothing new
- Myanmar/Burma: Growing Acceptance of GNU/Linux, Big Losses for Windows
- GNU/Linux has come close to 5% there
- Without IBM, Microsoft Would Not Have Taken Off. Both Companies Need to be 'Taken Down'.
- Maybe it's time to boycott IBM as well
- 'Former' Red Hat Staff Upset That Techrights Covers IBM Accounting Problems
- Are we touching a sensitive subject at IBM?
- Ubuntu is Controlled by a Youngster From the British Army (Background in Mass Surveillance), So One Can Expect Ubuntu to Not Respect Privacy
- "Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel"
- IBM Hates Computer Freedom. This Means Red Hat Too is an Enemy of Software Freedom.
- A summary of Fedora's position when it comes to "attestation"
- IBM Union Says Many IBM Layoffs in Europe, With Netherlands and Belgium Confirmed, Allegedly Italy Soon (200 Layoffs)
- IBM's demise will harm Red Hat and already harms Red Hat, according to whistleblowers
- Microsoft and Microsoft's 'Open' 'AI' Seeking Bailout From the Pentagon Means Brand Erosion
- Microsoft and its offshoots growing more and more dependent on military ("defence"; "Department of War") budget
- Another EPO Strike a Fortnight From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Shares 127-Page Document Explaining How Policies Impact EPO Staff
- The Office is circling down the drain
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 3 Out of 200: A More In-Depth Breakdown
- presents the narrative in a less chronological and more logically coherent fashion
- 2026 Seems Like (Potentially) the Last Year of Slop Drowning News Sites
- Sites that do so perish [...] It's getting hard to find slop in news sites which cover "Linux" because many gave up
- Links 05/03/2026: New LexisNexis Data Breach Confirmed, "Goldman Sachs Head During Financial Crisis Says He “Smells” a Similar Crash Coming"
- Links for the day
- "Silent Layoffs" or "Forever Layoffs" at IBM and Red Hat (After Bluewashing)
- Like every day (all day long) we can see people who leave IBM and say something that's based on a 'script'
- Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Others Promoting String of RMS Talks, Starting Tomorrow in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology
- Well done, FSF!
- Links 05/03/2026: A Bet Against Substack, American Government Openly Hostile Towards Environment
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Greed and Sentiments Shifting Against Slop
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 04, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, March 04, 2026
- FSF Promoting Richard M. Stallman (RMS) Talk in Switzerland in Just Over a Day From Now
- RMS may have more talks on the way
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part IV - We've Seen the End of It
- Some years ago they insisted blockchains would revolutionise everything
- Android is Proprietary 'Linux' and It Becomes More Malicious Over Time, Google Only Delayed What It Planned All Along
- Google is a proprietary software giant, GSoC is only a distraction and confusion
- Links 04/03/2026: Scam Altman Causes Chatbot Sub Numbers to Plunge, "Stocks Drop as Inflation Risk Emerges"
- Links for the day
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part III - Our Relationship With Slop (and Yours)
- I never - except inadvertently - "used" an LLM-based chatbot
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part II - Devil in the Details
- News sites or social control media sites which tolerate slop are digging their own grave
- Simpler Means Faster
- Do you know your bottlenecks?
- Gemini Links 04/03/2026: About a Missing Symbol and "Good Manners"
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Takes Money From Chinese Surveillance Threat to Promote a Ponzi Scheme
- "Sponsored by Huawei."
- Nicaragua's GNU/Linux Usage Measured at Over 8% by statCounter
- Nicaragua is a poor country, but it also has rich culture
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part I - Slop Fatigue Prevalent
- See, sooner or later people (audiences of colleagues) find out and as soon as they find out you are slopping, they will lose interest
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 2 Out of 200: Detailed Timeline From 2012 (Attack on Reporters That Question Restricted Boot) to 2024 (Lawsuit Against Reporter and His Wife in Another Continent)
- we reproduce a document produced 2 years ago to give people more context and more facts
- Links 04/03/2026: "The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling" and a call to "Nationalize Amazon"
- Links for the day
- Coming Soon: Evidence of Abuse in Our IRC Network
- IRC's freedom can sometimes be its 'weakness' if not properly guarded
- High GNU/Linux Adoption in Brunei Darussalam
- It's worth noting (or at least noticing) that Microsoft loses ground in some of the countries where the government contracts paid the most
- Media Blackout Reducing or Preventing Press Coverage of Microsoft Layoffs in 2026
- Worse yet, there will be gaslighting and deceit
- GNU/Linux in Laptops/Desktops Still Matters, It's Likely the Only Way to Achieve Software Freedom
- Software Freedom requires all sorts of things at the "OS level"
- Gemini Links 04/03/2026: The Garnet Star, The Hunt, The SYN Attacks
- Links for the day
- The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Discussion Illuminates How Much Worse Things Have Gotten ("on Strike and Participated in the 'Meeting'")
- a videoconference - not a physical meeting - discussed EPO policies
- Free Software Foundation Supports Its Founder, Advertises His Talks in Switzerland
- When you suppress voices, assuming the reasons for suppression are bunk, it is always bound to backfire very badly
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 03, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, March 03, 2026
