Ubuntu Archive

What to expect from the first generation of Ubuntu smartphones

Thom Holwerda 2014-02-27 Ubuntu 21 Comments

The Ubuntu Touch smartphone OS has come a long way, but it still has further to plod before it's ready for market - all Canonical will tell us that it hopes to see an Ubuntu phone before the end of this year. Nevertheless, now that some phone manufacturers are on board with the project, we've been able to play with a couple of prototypes: One was just a non-functioning handset from a Spanish company called BQ, showing off plain but solid build quality reflective of a mid-tier device. The other was more interesting - a re-purposed Android handset from a second Ubuntu partner, Meizu, which makes light work of the operating system and interface.

It looks a bit choppy to me, but alas, it's a development build.

Canonical announces first partners to ship Ubuntu phones

Thom Holwerda 2014-02-19 Ubuntu 23 Comments

Canonical today announces it has signed agreements with mobile device manufacturers bq (Spain) and Meizu (China) to bring Ubuntu smartphones to consumers globally. Canonical is working with these partners to ship the first Ubuntu devices on the latest hardware in 2014. Ubuntu has also received significant support from the world's biggest carriers, some of which intend to work with OEM partners to bring phones to market this year.

Good news for Canonical.

Ubuntu Touch OS wins its first smartphone partner

Thom Holwerda 2013-12-10 Ubuntu 16 Comments

Canonical has just signed its first deal to supply a smartphone with its mobile operating system, Canonical founder and product strategy leader Mark Shuttleworth revealed in an interview here at the LeWeb conference. He wouldn't say which company has agreed to use the Linux-based OS, but said it will be offered on high-end phones in 2014.

Good news.

Submitted by Drumhellar 2013-10-17 Ubuntu 67 Comments

After the customary six months of incubation, Ubuntu 13.10 - codenamed Saucy Salamander - has hatched. The new version of the popular Linux distribution brings updated applications and several new features, including augmented search capabilities in the Unity desktop shell.

Although Saucy Salamander offers some useful improvements, it's a relatively thin update. XMir, the most noteworthy item on the 13.10 roadmap, was ultimately deferred for inclusion in a future release. Canonical's efforts during the Saucy development cycle were largely focused on the company's new display server and upcoming Unity overhaul, but neither is yet ready for the desktop.

It's also the first version available for phones. Well, for the Nexus 4.

Ubuntu’s X Window replacement ‘Mir’ coming in next OS version

Thom Holwerda 2013-07-11 Ubuntu 67 Comments

"Mir, Ubuntu's in-progress replacement for the X Window System, is being used internally at Ubuntu developer Canonical and will be available to all users in the next version of the operating system. Mir was announced in March, with Canonical saying that a new display server is needed to power the Unity interface across desktops, phones, and tablets." Anyone here experience with Mir? Is it any good? any downsides?

Ubuntu 13.04 released

Thom Holwerda 2013-04-25 Ubuntu 94 Comments

Ubuntu 13.04 has been released, with the Linux 3.8.8 kernel, a faster and less resource hungry Unity desktop, LibreOffice 4.0, and much more. Ubuntu users will know where to get it, and you're looking for a new installation, have fun. Also fun: UbuntuKylin.

Ubuntu to become ‘standard operating system’ for China

Thom Holwerda 2013-03-22 Ubuntu 81 Comments

This could potentially be quite big for Ubuntu and Linux in general. Canonical and the Chinese government have announced a collaboration to build a version of Ubuntu specifically for the Chinese market, which will become the reference architecture for standard operating systems in the country.

Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Support Ends in April

jackson 2013-03-21 Ubuntu 6 Comments

Oh no! Automatic updates for Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop stop in April (updates for 10.04 Server continue for two more years). Desktop users need to consider whether they'll upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which will receive updates for both Desktop and Server through 2017. This handy chart diagrams the situation. You can directly upgrade 10.04 (and 11.10) to 12.04, as explained here. Canonical's policy is that you get at least 18 months of updates for both Desktop and Server, and -- starting with 12.04 LTS -- 5 years of support for both desktop and server for LTS (Long Term Support) editions.

Celebrate Ubuntu (but keep an eye on what they’re up to…)

Guest post by Perry Helion 2013-03-15 Ubuntu 72 Comments

Ubuntu has come under a decent amount of flack over the past few months, particularly over their decision to use the 'Dash Search' to return results from Amazon by default in their most recent release.

Guest post by nej_simon 2013-03-13 Ubuntu 9 Comments

On his blog, Mark Shuttleworth has outlined a proposal to change how Canonical handles Ubuntu releases. In the proposal, future LTS releases will receive new kernels and software (something we've already seen in 12.04.2 which had a backported Xorg stack from Quantal) and interim releases will only be supported for 7 months instead of 18. Of course, the current situation where you often have to upgrade the whole OS just to get new software and drivers isn't great, so Canonical might be on to something here.

Ubuntu SDK applications are coming

Thom Holwerda 2013-03-13 Ubuntu 5 Comments

"The Ubuntu SDK preview is just over 2 months old, but we've already seen a lot of development starting with it. Read below for a high-level look at some of the apps that are currently being written." Looks like a good start.

Shuttleworth: ‘Linux is supposed to be hard so it’s exclusive’ is “dumb”

Thom Holwerda 2013-03-08 Ubuntu 115 Comments

Mark Shuttleworth: "I simply have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be different. Leet. 'Linux is supposed to be hard so it's exclusive' is just the dumbest thing that a smart person could say." He's right. Lots of interesting insights in this blog post - I may not agree with everything Ubuntu does, but at least it's doing something.

Submitted by Nth_Man 2013-03-05 Ubuntu 25 Comments

"HP, the worlds biggest PC vendor as of 2012, has today launched a brand new all-in-one PC running Ubuntu. But the real 'wow' factor comes from its pricing. At just GBP 349 HP have pitched the PC well within the reach of your average consumer. A similar, though not identical, model is also available with Windows 8 priced at GBP 499."

Canonical announce custom display server ‘Mir’

Thom Holwerda 2013-03-04 Ubuntu 54 Comments

"Canonical has today publicly confirmed that they are working on a new cross-platform displayer server for Ubuntu. Called 'Mir', the X Window Server replacement is tasked with 'enabling development of the next generation Unity'. Which, in yet another about-turn, is to be rebuilt in Qt/QML." It'll be used for all Ubuntu variants (phone, tablet, desktop), and the first version will be released come May.

Ubuntu Touch Preview coming to Nexus tablets this week

Thom Holwerda 2013-02-19 Ubuntu 75 Comments

After desktops and phones, Ubuntu is now bringing its Linux distribution to tablets. Coming Thursday, preview images for Google's Nexus tablets will be released, so we can all get a good long look at what Canonical is cooking up. They've published a YouTube video which details all that Ubuntu has to offer for tablets, and to be honest, it's looking quite good.

Developer preview of Ubuntu Phone for 21 February

Thom Holwerda 2013-02-15 Ubuntu 38 Comments

"Images and open source code for the Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu will be published on Thursday 21st February, supporting the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones. They are intended for enthusiasts and developers, to familiarise themselves with Ubuntu's smartphone experience and develop applications on spare handsets. Tools that manage the flashing of the phone will be available on the same day in the Ubuntu archives, making it easy to keep a device up to date with the latest version of the Touch Developer Preview." Cool. Too bad it's only for Nexus phones, and not for more popular ones.

Canonical considers rolling release model for Ubuntu

Submitted by Anonymous 2013-01-23 Ubuntu 24 Comments

"For the longest time Canonical has slapped an LTS moniker on some of their Ubuntu releases. Currently, a new major release of the operating system happens every six months, and is supported for 18 months after release. Whereas in the past when LTS versions received two years support or more, the current model - starting with 12.04 - supports new LTS releases for five years. However, a recent public Google Hangouts session revealed that Canonical has been thinking about switching from the venerable LTS model to a rolling release, starting with version 14.04."

Guest post by the_randymon 2013-01-21 Ubuntu 40 Comments

"The first computers were gigantic, filling rooms and requiring constant care and maintenance. The computer stayed on the desk until the laptop computer, a smaller, more portable, but just as powerful machine, made it nearly obsolete. And then, the iPhone was released, followed shortly after by Android and the Palm WebOS, and the next step in computing was clear. What we did not immediately understand was if mobile computing was an accessory, or a replacement, for the traditional desktop machines." Jon-Buys at Ostatic believes the phone-becomes-computer paradigm is the next step.

Ubuntu abandons search privacy

jackson 2013-01-03 Ubuntu 33 Comments

Proprietary software like Windows often includes surveillance code to track user behavior and send this information to vendor servers. Linux has traditionally been immune to such privacy violation. Ubuntu 12.10 now includes code that, by default, collects data on Dash searches. The code integrates Amazon products into search results and can even integrate with Facebook, Twitter, BBC and others as per Ubuntu's Third Party Privacy Policies. This article at the EFF tells how it all works and how to opt out of information sharing, while Richard Stallman himself comments here.

Canonical unveils Ubuntu for phones

Thom Holwerda 2013-01-02 Ubuntu 120 Comments

Expected, but still insanely cool: Canonical has just announced Ubuntu for phones. This is a new mobile phone operating system, with its own user interface and development platform. It's built around Qt5 and QML, and the interface reminds me of MeeGo on the N9. It's supposed to be on the shelves in early 2014, but the developer preview is out today.