Summary: Ubuntu GNOME is getting harder to maintain and alternatives emerge which are independent from Canonical

Softpedia's latest updates on GNOME Desktop development [1-4] show that GNOME is anything but dormant. As Phoronix shows, Fedora is all about GNOME (Red Hat's default), whereas Ubuntu neglects GNOME as well as other widely-used packages. "Mir Is Still Overwhelmingly A Canonical-Only Affair," says the headline of one very recent article from Phoronix. Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS Alpha 1 is out [5] and it is still using X.org [6]. Ubuntu, in terms of performance, does not vary widely from Red Hat [7] and Debian [8], it's just doing its marketing better [9,10]. For those who are fed up with the hype, or those who look for upstream proponents, there's always Kubuntu to turn to [11] if not the latest Mint Linux [12,13,14] (it has a KDE version) and older stable versions [15,16]. One can easily sense some bit of hostility towards Canonical at Phoronix these days, but it is cleverly disguised and perhaps it is even justified. The FSF has made its lack of support for Ubuntu well known (unlike Torvalds) and in his recent talks Stallman openly urges people not to use Ubuntu.

Ubuntu has been good in many ways, but if someone is eager to move to GNU/Linux, then perhaps it's better to name or recommend another distribution. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. GNOME Online Accounts 3.11.3 Adds Support for Facebook Photos





2. Epiphany 3.11.2 Web Browser Brings Lots of Goodies for Christmas

   The GNOME Project has announced recently that a new development release towards the Epiphany 3.12 web browser that will be part of the upcoming GNOME 3.12 desktop environment is now available for download and testing.

3. GNOME Boxes 3.11.3 Improves Detection of GNOME-Continuous Images





4. GNOME’s File Manager Will Be More User-Friendly

   Allan Day, a GNOME designer, posted a few days ago on his blog a very long article about what was coming next in the Nautilus (now known as Files) file manager for the GNOME desktop environment.
   
   What you will read in this article is a short summary of the new design features that will be implemented in upcoming releases of Nautilus, which will be part of the GNOME 3.12 desktop environment.





5. Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS Alpha 1 (Trusty Tahr) Officially Released – Screenshot Tour

   Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS Alpha 1 (Trusty Tahr) has been released and is now available for download and testing. We prepared a screenshot tour to get a sneak peek at the new operating system.
   
   The best news for the fans of Ubuntu GNOME is that the 14.04 will include a number of GNOME applications from the 3.10 stack.





6. Ubuntu GNOME Will Still Run On X.Org For A While





7. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Benchmarks

   Last week when Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Beta 1 was released I was already running RHEL7 benchmarks looking at the performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 over RHEL 6.5. In this article for some extra benchmarks to put out over the weekend is a quick comparison of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in its current development state against Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Beta 1.

8. SteamOS vs. Ubuntu 13.10 - Intel HD Graphics Performance





9. Ubuntu Linux, Edge, Desktop and the Wearable Computing Future

   One of most noteworthy open-source stories of 2013 was the audacious attempt by Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux, to crowdfund $32 million in 30 days to fund a next-generation Linux phone.
   
   It's an effort that did not reach its target. In a video interview with eWEEK, Shuttleworth described the Ubuntu Edge campaign as a "glorious defeat," but it's not the end of the road for Ubuntu's phone efforts.
   
   Though Shuttleworth was unable to raise $32 million in 30 days, the Ubuntu Edge campaign was able to raise $12.8 million, which is a non-trivial amount for a crowdfunding effort of any type. He pledged that his company was continuing to push forward in its efforts to build the best converged operating system for developers.

10. Will Ubuntu dominate tablets in 2014?

    Ubuntu's tablet may dominate the field in 2014. Plus: A SteamOS install guide, and a screenshot tour of Fedora 20 MATE





11. Kubuntu 13.10 - A great alternative to Ubuntu and Windows.





12. Linux Mint 16 KDE and Xfce released





13. Linux Mint 16 “Petra” KDE released!

    KDE is a vibrant, innovative, advanced, modern looking and full-featured desktop environment. This edition features all the improvements from the latest Linux Mint release on top of KDE 4.11.





14. Review: Linux Mint 16 "Petra" Cinnamon + MATE

    This is the second review that I'm doing at the moment. Linux Mint 16 "Petra" came out in MATE and Cinnamon guises recently, so as a fan of Linux Mint, I'll be reviewing those now. I tried each edition separately on a live USB made with UnetBootin. Follow the jump to see what each is like.





15. Petra backports available in Linux Mint 13

    The most significant improvements in Petra are being backported to Maya.
    
    Among other things, this gives Linux Mint 13 LTS users access to the following packages:
    
    MDM 1.4 Cinnamon 2.0 MATE 1.6 The latest versions of mintwelcome, mintstick, mintnanny, mintupload, mintupdate, mintinstall, mintsystem, mintmenu and mintdesktop.





16. Cinnamon 2.0 available for Linux Mint 13, LMDE to receive it soon

    Linux Mint 13 “Maya” users can now avail Cinnamon 2.0 goodness. Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) users will receive a major upgrade known as Update Pack 8, in January 2014.