posted yesterday

Laptop Week Review: The Dell XPS 13 Developers Edition With Ubuntu

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Dude, you got a Linux-powered Dell! In all the years I’ve reviewed laptops I’ve never been as pleasantly surprised by an Ultrabook as I was with the Dell XPS 13 Developers Edition. This ultrathin, ultralight SSD laptop originally came in Windows flavor but, much to my surprise, I far prefer the Ubuntu edition of this device. It is solidly built, acceptably priced given the solid state drive, and… → Read More

March 22nd, 2013

Canonical Is Building A Standardized, Open-Source OS Specific To China

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Canonical announced via its blog yesterday that it will be building an Ubuntu-based open-source OS for China, in partnership with the Chinese government and members of the Chinese developer community. The joint-venture, which will produce a version of the Linux-based Ubuntu called “Ubuntu Kylin” for an April 2013 release date, is said to “go beyond localization,” and include specific features and… → Read More

February 19th, 2013

Canonical Unveils Ubuntu For Tablets, Developer Preview Available For Nexus Devices On Thursday

ubuntu-on-tablets

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Ubuntu on phones comes Canonical’s latest announcement: Ubuntu on tablets. This is, in many ways, a no-brainer: Android and iOS have already demonstrated that the same OS can work on both form factors. But the story is a little more interesting when you consider what Ubuntu offers. And developers can start playing with it on Thursday. → Read More

February 15th, 2013

Ubuntu Mobile Developer Preview Will Grace The Galaxy Nexus And Nexus 4 On February 21

Ubuntu Customized App Edge

After spotting it on video and briefly playing with it at CES, Canonical’s mobile-friendly version of Ubuntu will soon be available for the truly curious to muck around with. Starting on February 21, developers will be able to load the build onto their Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4 — on the off-chance that you’re attending MWC like we are, Canonical will be on hand to flash your compatible hardware… → Read More

February 6th, 2013

The First Ubuntu Smartphones Will Debut In October

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Ubuntu’s recently-announced mobile operating system certainly has some panache, which has prompted more than a few nerds (myself included) to become enamored with it. Thankfully, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth has just recently given us a clearer idea of when to expect it — he told the Wall Street Journal that the first Ubuntu-powered smartphone would see the light of day this October. → Read More

January 3rd, 2013

Canonical’s Ubuntu Phone OS Aims To Steal Everyone’s Customization-Loving Customers

Ubuntu Hardcore

The odds are stacked against Canonical’s late-comer Ubuntu phone OS. But by seducing hardcore mobile users who love to customize, it could could box out Microsoft and pull lucrative customers away from Android and iOS. Tinkerers buy high-end devices, pay for apps, and attract premium advertisers. So if Ubuntu mobile gains traction, it could earn solid revenue and win the mobile bronze medal. → Read More

January 2nd, 2013

The Ubuntu Phone OS Doesn’t Stand A Chance

dr-evil

Of course proponents will say that the mobile market is still in its infancy and there is a need for an open OS. While I agree, I am not convinced that Ubuntu will become a winner on the scale of Android, its Linux counterpart.

Years will pass before Ubuntu sees developer traction for an Ubuntu phone. The device does not yet have a manufacturer or an operator. → Read More

January 2nd, 2013

After Teasing Its Touch-Friendly Future, Canonical Officially Reveals The Ubuntu Phone OS

Ubuntu isn’t exactly a stranger to the mobile space — it started showing off its Ubuntu for Android project in early 2012, but it wasn’t about to stop there. Not long after teasing the prospect of a touch-friendly future for its peculiarly-named OS, Canonical has officially pulled back the curtains on its Ubuntu phone OS and it looks, well, great. → Read More

December 7th, 2012

Free Software Leader Richard Stallman: Amazon Search Integration In Ubuntu Amounts To Spyware

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Free software leader Richard Stallman claims Ubuntu amounts to spyware with Amazon search integrated into the “dash” of its Unity interface. He is calling for developers to shun the open-source operating system. → Read More

October 18th, 2012

Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth Tires Of Critics, Moves Key Ubuntu Developments Out Of Public Eye

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Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth says parts of Ubuntu 13.04 will be kept a secret, out of the public eye until its unveiling.

The move, which he writes about on his blog, will sure to create a firestorm in the Ubuntu community, → Read More

October 12th, 2012

Canonical’s Ubuntu One Cloud Storage Service Comes To The Mac

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Canonical isn’t just the company behind the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, but with Ubuntu One, it also offers a cloud storage service with 5GB of free storage space, as well as a music locker, and support for Android, iOS, Windows and, starting today, OS X. → Read More

October 10th, 2012

Ubuntu Users: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Screen Shot 2012-10-09 at 1.27.12 PM

The Ubuntu Linux distribution has always been free. It’s also always welcomed donations from users. Historically, though, the donation page hasn’t been featured prominently on the Ubuntu website. As of yesterday, users who download Ubuntu are now invited to donate to Ubuntu.

It’s important to note two things. First, donations are completely voluntary. Ubuntu is still free to download and use. → Read More

September 13th, 2012

Canonical Releases Updated Enterprise Management Solution for Ubuntu Linux

Landscape Compliance Reporting Screenshot

Ubuntu Linux, which started with the tagline “Linux for human beings,” was originally an easy-to-use Linux distribution for desktop users. Canonical picked what they considered to be the best of breed applications from the many thousands available in the Debian Linux distribution, put on a healthy dose of polish, and released their own version. They then repeated this release process every six… → Read More

July 19th, 2012

Ubuntu Web Apps Aim To Bridge Browser/Desktop Divide

ubuntu-web-apps

Most days I have only three or four browser tabs open: GMail, Twitter, Google Reader, and whatever link I’ve clicked through from one of the previous three. I know folks, though, who regularly have two dozen or more tabs open. All day. Every day. They struggle to remember which tab has their GMail, only to find no new mail when they get there. Pausing a Last.fm stream requires an inordinate number… → Read More

July 18th, 2012

Dell Gives Linux Laptops Another Chance

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Today Dell announced its official re-entry into the Linux laptop market. Project Sputnik, first announced in May, is graduating from Dell’s internal incubator program into a real product. According to project lead Barton Geroge, Dell will sell a special “developer edition” of its XPS13 Ultrabook starting this fall. → Read More

May 10th, 2012

Mark Shuttleworth is Passionate About Canonical, Patents, and Space

Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth is the founder and former CEO of Canonical, the commercial company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Today he holds the position “Lead Product Design”, a role in which he shapes desktop and cloud product strategy. I spoke with him recently by phone about the increasing role of Linux in the enterprise, and the shift from traditional enterprise computing to cloud… → Read More

April 4th, 2012

Canonical Metal-as-a-Service: Not Quite As Cool As It Sounds

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Canonical, the corporate sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, has been doing a lot of interesting development work across a number of different computing segments: their on-going work with the Unity interface for Ubuntu, Ubuntu TV, Ubuntu for Android, and a whole lot more. Ubuntu, according to Canonical, is the world’s most popular OS for public, private, and hybrid clouds. Not content with… → Read More

February 21st, 2012

Canonical Announces Ubuntu for Android

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Canonical’s Ubuntu TV, unveiled earlier this year, was the first in a series of announcements about “Ubuntu on devices”. The next device in Canonical’s multi-screen strategy for world domination is being unveiled next week at Mobile World Congress 2012, and it’s an Android-powered smartphone. It’s not entirely what you might think, though.

This is not an Ubuntu app running atop Android. Nor is… → Read More

January 25th, 2012

Mark Shuttleworth Unveils New Head-Up Display for Ubuntu 12.04

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Every time I write about Ubuntu and its (not-so) new Unity interface, I see lots and lots of comments decrying it as useless, an abomination, the worst thing to ever happen to computers, etc. Personally, I’m not so flummoxed by it, but there’s no denying that Unity has been a divisive addition to Canonical’s flagship Linux distribution. The choice to move application menus up to the global bar at… → Read More

January 9th, 2012

I Want My Ubuntu TV!

Ubuntu TV 2 Channel Guide

CES is upon us, and is no doubt chock full of the usual suspects of consumer electronics OEMs, ODMs, and more. One interesting new attendee this year is Canonical, the folks behind the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution. Canonical is making a big push to get Ubuntu onto more than just desktops and laptops, and have been busy building relationships with CE companies to get it onto tablets, phones, and… → Read More

October 31st, 2011

Ubuntu Developer Summit Kicks Off, Mark Shuttleworth Shares Plans for Ubuntu 12.04 and Beyond

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The Ubuntu Developer Summit, starting today in Florida, is a gathering of Canonical employees, industry partners and Ubuntu community members to “define the focus and plans for [the] up-coming version of Ubuntu”. That version, 12.04 codenamed “Precise Pangolin”, will be released in April of 2012 and will be the next Long Term Support (LTS) release of the distribution. The changes scheduled for… → Read More

October 18th, 2011

Vodafone and Canonical Release a Webbook in South Africa

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Vodaphone and Canonical today announced the Vodacom “Webbook”, the fruit of a joint effort to develop a low-cost mobile computing solution for South Africa. Most of the specs are about what you’d expect for such a device, with one extremely interesting twist: it’s powered by a Freescale IMX 51 processor (Cortex A8) CPU in order to lower cost and power consumption. This represents the first… → Read More

October 10th, 2011

The World Welcomes Oneiric Ocelot: Ubuntu 11.10

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The Ubuntu Linux distribution has come a long way since it’s first release in 2004. It started out as a nicely packaged Linux desktop, built from a specific set of packages cultivated from the nearly thirty thousand packages available in the Debian distribution. Regular six-month releases ensured that Ubuntu would always be close to the cutting edge of Linux and free software development. Every… → Read More

September 30th, 2011

Canonical Releases Windows Version of Ubuntu One

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Canonical, the commercial backer behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, have been hosting a file synchronization service called Ubuntu One for a couple years now. A free account gets you 5GB of storage, and the client side controls have been baked into the last couple of releases of the Ubuntu distribution. It works pretty much like Dropbox or similar services, but has been — until today … → Read More

August 21st, 2011

LinuxCon: Open Source is an Ecosystem, not a Zero Sum Game

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Linux and open source development is not a zero sum game. This was the explicit message from Ubuntu Technical Architect Allison Randal’s keynote speech at LinuxCon, but the sentiment had been articulated in a number of ways all week long from everyone here. The processes by which a company makes great open source software improve the world for everyone.

“Free software is a fundamentally… → Read More

September 11th, 2010

Don’t Waste Money on a New Computer for College

Heading off to college? Here’s my suggestion: buy a used laptop from Craigslist and install Ubuntu onto it. Seriously. You don’t need a new computer for college. If you’re pursuing a liberal arts degree, you really don’t need a brand new computer just to write all the papers you’ll write. If you’re pursuing an engineering degree, the chances are high that your department’s computer labs are better… → Read More

August 27th, 2010

Whither the Ubuntu Tablets?

The iPod revolutionized the portable media player market. The iPhone shook up the smart phone market. The iPad is setting the standard for the revived tablet market. What is it about Apple that makes these products so great? In part it’s Apple’s dedication to user experience; but I’d argue that the larger factor in their success is Apple’s end-to-end control of the product. They make the hardware… → Read More

May 14th, 2010

The New Browser Wars: Will Ubuntu drop Firefox for Google Chrome?

Potentially big news in the world of open source software, friends. Apparently Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution, is considering dropping Firefox for Chrome. Well, maybe for Chrome, or maybe for Chromium, the open source project that Chrome is based upon. Therein lies the rub, I do believe. What’s going on is that Ubergizmo, a fine site, hears that Canonical (the company behind… → Read More

February 17th, 2010

Run Ubuntu Hardy Heron on your Sony Ericsson Xperia

Oh my god, are you serious? Are these guys serious!? They ported Ubuntu 8.04 to the X1 ARE THEY SERIOUS?!? → Read More

October 2nd, 2009

FOWA 2009: Simon Wardley on what cloud computing standards mean for tech startups

Looking at the Twitter stream of Day 2 at FOWA 2009, it’s clear that Canonical’s Simon Wardley hit all the right buttons with his levelheaded and wryly humourous take on the ongoing evolution of cloud computing, and what it means for the future of innovation in the tech space. He gave a tip of the hat to Ubuntu’s Enterprise Cloud, which supports the emerging EC2 standard, and… → Read More