Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 317 for the week May 13 – 19, 2013.

May 21st, 2013 by cj2003

Even when you’ve figured out how to do it, you’ll likely begin to question whether it was worth the trouble. I came to the conclusion, after spending the last 72 hours trying to set up such a system between Windows 8 Pro and Ubuntu 12.10 on real hardware, that running a dual-boot system in UEFI [...]

May 21st, 2013 by cj2003

If you haven’t installed Ubuntu on something in a little while, you may be in for a bit of a surprise when you see the Unity interface. Canonical has done quite a bit to make things user friendly, but some adventurous Linux fans may be interested in exploring new options.

May 21st, 2013 by cj2003

Here’s how you can change your network adapter name in Ubuntu via the terminal.

May 21st, 2013 by cj2003

Unity Tweak Tool is a relatively new application that allows you to configure Unity, providing access to settings buried deep in Dconf-Tools or CCSM. The tool developed by the freyja-dev team is now available in the Ubuntu Software Center for Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail

May 20th, 2013 by cj2003

Our very first keypress after turning on the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (running Ubuntu 12.04) drew no response from the Unity desktop. And with that we thought our test of Dell’s Ubuntu Ultrabook for developers was set to go the way of most Linux laptop tests – Linux kind of works, but not really.

May 20th, 2013 by cj2003

So you are on the lookout for a new laptop, and since you are pretty much down and out where cold, hard cash is concerned, what are you to do? Fret not, as the folks over at Asus do have a heart on the contrary to allegations that huge corporations are all about profit and [...]

May 20th, 2013 by cj2003

Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, is planning a change to how it supports its operating system that will see each major release updated for just nine months after release.

May 19th, 2013 by cj2003

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has selected Ubuntu as the basis of a new reference architecture for operating systems.

May 19th, 2013 by cj2003

I’m among the first to admit that when I find a Linux distribution that I like, it takes a lot for me to be impressed with any of the alternatives. I’ve looked into countless distros, such as Arch, Fedora and Linux Mint, among others. Yet at the end of the day, I kept finding myself [...]

May 19th, 2013 by cj2003

After some really fantastic help & support from potyl I got Gtk3::WebKit to pass it’s installation tests on Ubuntu 12.04 (precise, LTS).

May 18th, 2013 by cj2003

Ubuntu Linux installs just fine on many laptops. The fingerprint scanners on those laptops, though, are built for custom Windows security applications. There is, however, a relatively easy way to enroll your fingers and log in with them in Ubuntu.

May 18th, 2013 by cj2003

Installing the Windows 7 theme pack and doing some tweaks is not yet the end of transforming your Linux Ubuntu. The next thing you need to do is select a different environment for your operating system’s login screen.

May 18th, 2013 by cj2003

If you’d like to run an Ubuntu virtual machine on your PC, you’ll need to weigh a series of considerations. To be sure, the use of virtualization is commonplace in the IT industry these days. Still, before you decide to run an Ubuntu virtual machine, you must consider whether you fully understand the benefits of [...]

May 18th, 2013 by cj2003

The Ubuntu kernel developers plan to provide security fixes and minor improvements for version 3.8 of the Linux kernel until August 2014; version 3.8 was released in February. The announcement by Canonical employee Kamal Mostafa came just days after Greg Kroah-Hartman had discontinued the maintenance of Linux 3.8

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

About a month ago, Intel released a tool that allows Linux users to easily upgrade to the latest Intel graphics drivers. The tool comes with a repository used for the driver updates and it’s available for Ubuntu (12.10 and 12.04) and Fedora (17 and 18). The repository had some multi-arch issues on Ubuntu 64bit, but [...]

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

Hadoop distributor MapR Technologies has announced a new partnership with Canonical to package the MapR M3 Edition for Apache Hadoop with Ubuntu.

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

In our benchmarks of Microsoft Windows 8, we have found that Intel’s Windows OpenGL driver is generally superior to that of their open-source Linux graphics driver. Some progress has been made, but in today’s testing of an ASUS Ultrabook bearing an Ivy Bridge processor, Linux has a ways to go for some games in matching [...]

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

There’s nothing like digging into your first Linux distribution, whether you’re a tech-savvy user looking to branch out or whether you’re installing it on a friend’s computer. But which distribution is actually better for beginners? Here, we’ll delve into the differences between Ubuntu and Mint, the two most popular beginner distros, and perform a little [...]

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

It has been a busy couple days, and we’ve seen a lot so far at Google‘s I/O event, including quite a bit of Glass news. Earlier today, the Internet giant held a Voiding your Warranty session detailing the process of putting Ubuntu on Glass, showing the process with a screencast from the device beneath the [...]

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

Yesterday evening I mentioned Ubuntu Linux developers would be discussing replacing Mozilla Firefox with Google Chromium as the default web-browser in Ubuntu 13.10. After the discussion today, it looks like this may very well happen.

May 17th, 2013 by cj2003

Arch Linux replaced MySQL with MariaDB, openSUSE gutted MySQL, Fedora replaced MySQL, and now Ubuntu Linux is looking to continue the trend.

May 16th, 2013 by cj2003

Martin Gräßlin, the maintainer of KDE’s KWin window manager, has been vocal against Canonical’s Mir Display Server from the beginning. He’s now written another blog post on the matter in which he makes it rather clear there is little hope of seeing KDE running on the Ubuntu Wayland-competitor.

May 16th, 2013 by cj2003

The rocky release of Windows 8 has left some users wondering about alternatives. Apple’s OS X, though an obvious choice, is an expensive and dramatic switch. Linux is less intimidating – because it’s free. However, users haven’t flocked to the penguin in droves because of its fractured ecosystem, lack of familiar software, and steep learning [...]

May 16th, 2013 by cj2003

Setting up various methods for Ubuntu file sharing has become easier over the years. In this article, I’ll highlight several of the available Ubuntu file sharing options. I’ll also point out where to find them and provide links for downloads.

May 16th, 2013 by cj2003

Most Linux distributions come without support for MP3 audio, H.264 video, Flash content, and even commercial video DVDs. Patents, closed-source software, and even laws that make certain types of software illegal restrict what can be included in a Linux distribution.

May 16th, 2013 by cj2003

Ubuntu Phone is finally here, thanks to the recent launch of the developer preview. Although it runs on Android hardware, this new software is an entirely different operating system, offering a gesture-based menu, a totally unique layout and – possibly most exciting of all – full PC functionality when docked to a monitor, keyboard and [...]

May 16th, 2013 by cj2003

According to Dell, the Ubuntu build of its Alienware X51 gaming rig has a starting price of $599 and spans across four base configurations, each featuring a third-generation Intel Core CPU and Nvidia GeForce graphics. The system comes with supported Ubuntu drivers from Nvidia right out of the box, Dell said.

May 15th, 2013 by cj2003

FREE SOFTWARE PIONEER Richard Stallman has asked a South American free software association not to promote Ubuntu Linux at its events because it “spies on its users” by collecting its users’ desktop search activity and selling the data to Amazon.

May 15th, 2013 by cj2003

Sometimes, the symbolism of an act becomes more important than its actual consequences. A case in point is the repositioning of the link to the community page on the Ubuntu home page, which has reopened the divide between Canonical, Ubuntu’s commercial face, and parts of the Ubuntu community. Not only has that divide reappeared, but [...]

May 15th, 2013 by cj2003