03.05.14

Ubuntu Rising: Desktops, Servers, Phones, and Beyond

Posted in News Roundup at 9:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Success Story

• Greek kindergarten switched to Ubuntu Linux

  One kindergarten in Heliopolis, a suburb of the Greek capital Athens, has successfully made the switch to free and open source. Following a break-in and the theft of four PCs last summer, a parent of one of the children attending the kindergarten donated two refurbished PCs, running Ubuntu Linux. The two PCs are now used by the staff, mostly for emailing with the Ministry of Education. They are also used in the classrooms for playing music, showing photos and playing videos as part of every day activities.

Ed: Some clients of ours at work, large businesses in fact, are moving to Ubuntu as well, ditching Windows XP before April. Stories like the above are no longer rare. One thing they explicitly request, however, is removal of Amazon spyware.

Desktop/Mainline

• Canonical Unveils Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS Beta 1

• Linux Top 3: Linux from Scratch, Ubuntu 14.01 Beta and Arch Updates

• Beta 1 downloads released for Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME 14.04

  OMG! Ubuntu! reports that beta 1 of Kubuntu 14.04, Lubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 and Xubuntu 14.04 are available for download. Each Ubuntu spin has tweaks and new features in this release.

• Ubuntu Developers overhaul ‘Scopes’ feature

  The Ubuntu developers are overhauling the ‘Scopes’ feature in Ubuntu. Scopes are used in Ubuntu by the Dash to get information for the user based on what the user searches. The most common of which are scopes to get lists of programs, music, videos etc. Canonical famously attracted some controversy when they introduced an Amazon scope that sent users search queries from the Dash to the Amazon site to get related products. Many users weren’t happy with their searches going to a third party site.

• The first Ubuntu 14.04 ‘Trusty Tahr’ beta

• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ‘Trusty Tahr’, Beta 1 preview: Convergence deferred

  Both Mir and Unity 8, (formerly known as Unity Next), are required components for convergence and for Touch apps to run on the desktop. When Canonical’s plans for convergence were first announced, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS was to use the Mir display server and the Unity 8 shell. With plans for a fully converged Ubuntu now put back to 15.04 or later, the 14.04 release will be sticking with X window server and Unity 7 for the time being.

• Qemu 2.0 Might Arrive in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Testers Wanted

• 14.04 LTS Now in Feature Freeze

  The archive is now in Feature Freeze as we preprare the release of 14.04 LTS in April.

• 8 Things We Expect from Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)

  Ubuntu 13.10 was not a spectacular release as far as Ubuntu’s history of major eye-popping changes is concerned. There were many things that could have been added to Saucy. Mir, for example, was one change many Ubuntu fanatics were waiting for. But, in favor of stability, the only thing new that the release brought to the table was Smart Scopes. Also, there were a few changes here and there, but for those who were looking for a complete ‘upgrade,’ Saucy was disappointing at its best. That’s not to say that the release was bad. In fact, it set a solid foundation for the next big release, and that is Ubuntu 14.04.

• How to Avoid Breaking Ubuntu

  One of the things that always surprises me is how careless some folks can be when it comes to installing Ubuntu, or any distro for that matter. Usually this happens more to newer users, however this also challenges more experienced users as well.

Desktop Graphics

• Ubuntu Will Not Enable Open-Source VDPAU Support

  This morning I wrote about Mesa 10.1 likely going into Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, but if you were hoping this means Ubuntu will enable VDPAU driver support for open-source hardware-accelerated video decoding, that improvement to video playback isn’t going to happen with the official Ubuntu Mesa/Gallium3D driver packages.

• Ubuntu Wallpapers, Fedora 20 Tour, and Linux Rules!

  What started out as quite the slow news day turned out to be deceptively interesting. OMG!Ubuntu! has picked out five of the best community submissions for Ubuntu 14.04 wallpapers and Chema Martin posted a “visual tour” of Fedora 20. Bruce Byfield looks at why proprietary software isn’t ported to Linux. Jack Wallen says Linux rules because it behaves “exactly how the user wants.” Tonight’s news also includes an announcement from the Free Software Foundation, Red Hat world’s records, and the games to look forward to in 2014!

Local Menus

• Ubuntu Unity to bring back local menus

  When Canonical introduced its new Ubuntu Unity interface, a major design element was a global, universal menu that all apps would use. Things have changhed. Canonical is switching back to local app menus.

• Introducing Locally Integrated Menus to Unity 7

  In fact, while in the last months most of the Canonical commitment to Ubuntu has been directed to the Touch form factors, the “classic” desktop has not been forgotten at all and, we’re still working hard on it, to give our users the best experience and to approach smoothly to the convergence vision that we’ll get with Unity 8.

• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Adds Support For Local Menus

• Ubuntu 14.04 Gets Locally Integrated Menus (LIM)

• Ubuntu’s ditching Unity’s global menu, returning to in-app menus

  The move is a return of sorts to Ubuntu’s pre-Unity existence, when the Gnome desktop was Ubuntu’s primary interface. This will be the first time, however, that application menus inside the window are officially a part of Unity.

Server

• Ubuntu 12.04 vs. 14.04 LTS Benchmarks On Amazon’s EC2 Cloud

• ‘Sons of Solaris’ Joyent welcome Ubuntu into their cloud

  The deal was announced on Thursday and means that developers who want to run Ubuntu on Joyent’s advanced SmartOS-based infrastructure can now do with greater confidence in getting regular updates from Canonical, and performance guarantees.

• When it comes to cloud and scale out, Ubuntu has the winning model

  So, the basic values of of Ubuntu Server: freely available, provide developers access to the latest technology through a regular cadence of releases and optimise for cloud and scale out have been in place for years. Both adoption and revenue confirm it is the right strategy long term. Enterprises are evolving and starting to adopt Ubuntu and the model of restricting access to bits unless money is paid is now drawing to a close. Others are begrudgingly starting to accept this and trying to evolve their business models to compete with the momentum of Ubuntu.

• Shuttleworth and MySQL

  Oracle has done plenty to hurt the FLOSS community.

• Shuttleworth says Ubuntu is sticking with MySQL

  One major reason why Ubuntu is sticking with Oracle’s MySQL is that Oracle made the effort to get MySQL 5.6 to work properly with Debian and Ubuntu. Yngve Svendsen, Oracle’s Director of MySQL Engineering Services, apologized in a blog posting for Oracle’s neglect of some Linux distributions in the past. Svendsen wrote, “We closed a gaping hole in our distribution on Linux.”

• Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Receives Yet Another Kernel Update

  Canonical has released an important kernel update for its still supported Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Server operating system, fixing five vulnerabilities discovered in the upstream Linux kernel 2.6.32 packages by various developers and kernel hackers.

Mobile Hardware

• Ubuntu Mobile hands-on review

  CANONICAL ANNOUNCED earlier this year that the first Ubuntu smartphones will be made by BQ and Meizu. That created a wave of interest in how the open source Linux operating system (OS) distribution will look and work on a smartphone or tablet.

• First Ubuntu Phones Revealed at MWC 2014

  Canonical announced last week that the forthcoming Ubuntu-powered phones will be manufactured by Chinese company Meizu and a Spanish phone designer and manufacturer named BQ.

  The names of the two Ubuntu phones have been revealed today at MWC 2014, the BQ Aquaris and the Meizu MX3. Unfortunately, the prototype phones displayed at the Ubuntu booth in Barcelona have no operating system.

• With Ubuntu in the Mix, 2014 is the Year of the Open Source Phone

  We’ve only hit February, and it already looks like 2014 is going to be the year of the open source phone. Not only is Android continuing to dominate the smartphone space in terms of market share, but Mozilla is widening its Firefox OS phone strategy and Canonical announced this week that Spain’s bq and China’s Meizu will be the first companies to bring Ubuntu smartphones to global users.

• The Ubuntu Phone is official: Let the madness begin!

  Jack Wallen responds to the Canonical announcement for the upcoming Ubuntu Phone.

• Canonical promises new Linux OS Ubuntu smartphones this year

  A little more than a year after Canonical introduced its Ubuntu Touch platform for smartphones, the free, open-source software developer announced the first signed agreements with handset-makers to ship devices running the Linux-based operating system.

• Canonical partners up with Meizu and BQ to make Ubuntu Mobile phones a reality

• First Ubuntu phones revealed (pictures)

  The first Ubuntu phones are the Meizu MX3 and BQ Aquaris. Check out our photos of Ubuntu software in action, as well as prototypes of the forthcoming phones.

• First Ubuntu phones go on sale in fall, Mark Shuttleworth reveals

• Hands On With Ubuntu for Phones

  Mark Shuttleworth’s ambitious IndieGoGo project may have failed, but that’s not stopping Canonical from bringing its touch-friendly flavor of Linux Ubuntu to smartphones in the near future.

  The company recently announced partnerships with the Chinese company Meizu and the Spanish company BQ to bring hardware devices running Ubuntu for phones. We got a quick demo of Ubuntu running on a Nexus 4 at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

• Canonical announces third edition of Ubuntu App Showdown contest

• Meet the first Ubuntu phones: BQ Aquaris, Meizu MX3

• This is the dawning of the age of Aquaris — and Ubuntu, too

• The Meizu MX3 guns for Android as one of the first Ubuntu phones

• Ubuntu Linux Mobile Phones Arriving Soon In China

  Canonical, the developer of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, has signed an agreement with a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer to soon ship Ubuntu phones to Chinese consumers.

• Ubuntu phones on track for 2014 after all

• Canonical reveals its first hardware partners for Ubuntu Touch OS

• First look at the first two Ubuntu handsets [written by a Microsoft booster]

• The first Ubuntu phones will launch as the leaves start to fall

• With Ubuntu in the Mix, 2014 is the Year of the Open Source Phone

  We’ve only hit February, and it already looks like 2014 is going to be the year of the open source phone. Not only is Android continuing to dominate the smartphone space in terms of market share, but Mozilla is widening its Firefox OS phone strategy and Canonical announced this week that Spain’s bq and China’s Meizu will be the first companies to bring Ubuntu smartphones to global users.

• First Ubuntu phones

• Ubuntu Development Update Presentation

Maps

• Ubuntu mobile maps: open maps on an open platform

  Today at Mobile World Congress we showed off Mapbox support for Ubuntu Mobile with direct Mapbox.js integration into any HTML5 Ubuntu Mobile app. Developers can design totally custom maps and integrate them into their apps in minutes and even get access to native features like the camera and the accelerometer using Cordova (previously known as PhoneGap). Across all web, mobile and desktop experiences on Ubuntu an app will look exactly the same. If you have ever added a Mapbox map to a website, you’re ready to start developing for Ubuntu Mobile using HTML5.

• AND brings its mapping and location services to Ubuntu

  AND brings its mapping and location services to Ubuntu with an easy to use mobile application providing detailed local information and high granular map data. For the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona AND developed a map viewer with the proprietary AND navigation maps of Europe to start to showing the capabilities of AND for Ubuntu on phones.

Not Just Phones

• Ubuntu’s Booth at MWC 2014 Looks Spectacular

  The highly anticipated Mobile World Congress (MWC) event will start tomorrow, February 24, in Barcelona, Spain. As expected, Canonical will be there to showcase the latest version of its Ubuntu operating system for mobile devices, dubbed “Ubuntu – the human touch.”

• Canonical Will Present Ubuntu Touch Running On Both Phone And Tablet, At The MWC 2014

• Canonical to show off Mir enabled Ubuntu Touch at MWC

  With just a few days left for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event at Barcelona, Canonical is pulling out all stops to show off Ubuntu Touch to the world. MWC takes place every year in February and is the world’s largest exhibition and conference congregation for the mobile industry.

• Ubuntu smartphones, wearables and going into space: Mark Shuttleworth talks to TNW

  That’s the response of Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and Ubuntu, when quizzed over whether it’s scarier to go into space or try to launch a unified OS platform. As the first citizen of an independent African country to travel to space and the public face of ensuring the Ubuntu OS makes it onto smartphones and tablets, he should know.

• Ubuntu chief Shuttleworth on how the smartphone OS will jump the ‘app gap’

• Mark Shuttleworth wants you in space, with Ubuntu

• Canonical CEO: Ubuntu wants to power everything from smartphones to the cloud

  While you may not recognize the name Canonical, chances are you’ve heard of its Debian-based Linux OS called Ubuntu. We spoke to Jane Silber, CEO of the privately held UK-based company, about her transition to CEO, the company’s past, and its plans for spreading Ubuntu everywhere from the cloud to tablets to smartphones.

• Ubuntu OS Running Smoothly on Google Nexus 4: Hands-on

  Canonical just announced that the first two Ubuntu phones will be coming this year thanks to Meizu and bq. Though these phones won’t be available until later this year, the company was on hand at MWC to show off its operating system and give folks a chance to get to grips with the software that will ship on upcoming hardware from its partners. We stopped by Canonical to check it out for ourselves.

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