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.

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 [...]

While this new version doesn’t offer a lot of new features, it has done a nice job of cleaning and speeding up the ones it had. In particular, I noticed how this works on a review system, a 2008-vintage Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor, has 6GBs [...]

My initial impressions are good, in that it installs relatively easily and runs well, and some particularly troubling problems from the pre-releases have been fixed in the final release. However, my overall opinion is still the same: if you liked Ubuntu before, your are probably going to like this release even more.

Ubuntu 13.04 is an upgrade that’s a downer. Not that Raring Ringtail is a total failure — it’s just that it lacks any real electricity. Yes, it is easy to use and comes preloaded with lots of apps. However, hardcore Linux enthusiasts will give this distro a pass and wait for the next long-term release

Finally, earlier this week I decided that I was going to go back to Ubuntu. So I shut down, saved all of my open work and rebooted. I fired up Ubuntu and was pleasantly reminded how quickly it booted. Once up and running, I quickly updated any available updates, and then got to work.

GIVEN the lukewarm press that accompanied the launch of Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail), I had very few expectations when I upgraded my PC from Version 12.10. I am happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised and suitably impressed with the latest version of the popular Linux-based operating system.

‘Raring Ringtail’ is the new Update of the Ubuntu Linux which was released by Canonical this week. The Linux Kernel has been totally updated and new applications have been pre-installed.

Despite having cut back on the milestone releases, the Beta 1 release for Ubuntu 13.04, codenamed Raring Ringtail, has appeared on schedule. As yet, though, there’s not a great deal new to report.

In this article, I will be offering a unique comparison between Ubuntu 12.10 and OS X Mountain Lion. Since I have access to both operating systems in my home office, I was able to take the time to narrow down where each operating system excels and where improvement is still needed. I have also attempted [...]

As with the most recent versions of Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu for phones uses the Unity interface, designed to give over more space to applications and removing a lot of the clutter that usually dominates an OS.

So, now that Canonical has thrown down the gauntlet, let’s take a closer look at Ubuntu 12.10 to see how it compares with Windows 8 from a business user’s perspective.

It’s not just Windows 8 that’s been criticised for expecting users to swallow an unpopular and ill-suited new interface. When Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, moved its default desktop OS interface to Unity in April 2012, it also alienated many loyal followers.

Write this down: Ubuntu 12.10, the late-year arrival from Canonical’s six-month standard release factory, marks the first new release within the company’s current long-term support cycle. Got it? Good, because it may be the best takeaway from the latest Ubuntu release, codenamed Quantal Quetzal. After that, it’s a bit of a rocky ride.

A STUBBORN streak led me to try installing Ubuntu 12.10 (a.k.a. Quantal Quetzal) on my home PC again, after an anti-climactic failure last week to get past the “Preparing to Install” screen the first time around.

As always, the latest edition of Ubuntu was released on schedule. Ubuntu 12.10, code-named Quantal Quetzal, was released on October 18. What’s different about this release, is that it is the first October release that I can recall in a long time that comes with new features that are at once cool and controversial. End-to-end [...]

The Unity Launcher shows a hefty finessing — this is the icon bar that is hard-wired to the left edge of the screen for launching frequently used applications. Its displayed icons are more appealing visually with their rounded, uniform appearance. The ability to hide the Launcher bar until the mouse pointer touches the left screen [...]

No Ubuntu release would be the same, either, without spending a little time at the beginning just wearing the release in, updating it, ticking all the right boxes (literally) that suit you, the user. It would be unfair for me to begin reviewing a system that I hadn’t given the time to optimise to work [...]

We thought we had the holy grail on our hands. Open, OpenGL ES accelerated, true Linux with a Linux userland, and armed with NVIDIA’s Tegra 3. It was supposed to be the last mile between Android and total Linux bliss. It isn’t any of that.

The latest version of [Ubuntu] Linux has become far more user friendly than its earlier iterations and there are a variety of ways that users can try out the OS.

Term Support (LTS) version of the OS (Ubuntu 12.04) before it moves towards the next LTS version. That usually means focussing on a specific area and this time around, it’s cloud and web integration.

Ubuntu’s biannual release schedule tends to mean only small, evolutionary improvements between versions, and Ubuntu 12.10 – the “Quantal Quetzal”, to give it its friendly codename – looks and behaves similarly to April’s 12.04 release.

et’s cut right to the chase: Ubuntu 12.10 is a totally, 100%, utterly, completely acceptable release. It has some new features. It has some bug fixes. In almost every way, it is very, very similar to Ubuntu 12.04 – which makes a great deal of sense, considering that the two releases are only six months [...]

For this release, Canonical has loaded its Dash desktop search interface with additional online capabilities. Now during a search, the software will return not only a list of all the system’s applications and documents that match that search term, but also some results from the Internet.

Those are all noteworthy issues, but they are also beside the main point: This is a new release of Ubuntu. What’s new in it? How good it is? I’ve been using Ubuntu 12.10, aka “Quantal Quetzal, since its first beta and, hours before it’s official release, I can safely say that this is a newer, [...]

Today, Canonical has released version 12.10 of its Ubuntu Linux distribution, codenamed “Quantal Quetzal” after a ridiculously awesome-looking bird. Quantal represents the start of a new two-year development cycle and lays the groundwork for what Ubuntu will evolve into by 2014. As such, the release is focused on figuring out what users are primarily doing [...]

After reviewing the last version of Ubuntu 12 a few months ago I wasn’t too impressed with the OS in general. Ubuntu kept loyal to its obscure following by not dipping its toes into the real reason Windows and OSX are popular. And I’m happy to say that it has finally broken out of that [...]

Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) is shaping up to be a controversial release, with a solution for dual-booting with Windows 8 and a new online scope for Dash search providing Amazon shopping suggestions.

This article compares the new openSUSE 12.2 release to Ubuntu 12.10. Realize that at the time of this article, the 12.10 release of Ubuntu hasn’t been released yet and is still in beta. Despite the beta status, I was still able to successfully run through the existing features and functionality in the beta release.

Forget colourful foliage and dropping temperatures, nothing says autumn for Linux nerds like the arrival of an Ubuntu beta. This season includes twice the fun, with Canonical plotting not one, but two betas for the coming Quantal Quetzal, or Ubuntu 12.10. The first arrived on Thursday.