Ubuntu has bid farewell to the Metacity window manager now that the Ubiquity installer has basic support for Compiz.
Ubuntu News Archives
1,651 Ubuntu open-source and Linux related news articles on Phoronix since 2006.
The Compiz 0.9.8.6 update soon coming to Ubuntu 12.10 will enable "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" by default in an effort to boost the OpenGL gaming performance of the Linux distribution when using the Unity desktop.
Splashtop for Ubuntu Linux is being released today and it claims to be 10x faster than VNC plus offering a host of other features.
For those curious about the state of Ubuntu 13.04's development, there is a convenient status page to reflect the overall condition of this forthcoming Ubuntu Linux that is codenamed the Raring Ringtail.
I realized this morning that this week marks two years since Mark Shuttleworth shared his plans for Ubuntu's Unity to run on Wayland. Even after two years, Ubuntu's engagement with Wayland hasn't advanced much and it's consummation of Wayland is still likely at a minimum another year out.
Through improving the publicly available Ubuntu Linux documentation and reaching out to new developers -- along with existing Windows developers that may now be thinking of targeting Ubuntu as their next supported platform -- the Linux OS hopes to increase its developer and application count.
Early in October I wrote that Ubuntu TV would be a focus for 13.04 as the TV-focused Ubuntu spin was still being ported to Unity 3D. This week in Copenhagen at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, new plans for Ubuntu TV were drawn.
At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Copenhagen today, developers discussed audio latency for gaming on the premise that "audio latency is relatively high on Linux and we need to be competitive with other platforms."
While Fedora has been using XZ-compressed packages for their RPMs for a while now with having a greater compression ratio than Gzip, Ubuntu developers remain unsure of switching to using XZ compression for the Ubuntu 13.04 release.
Hybrid graphics support for Ubuntu and Linux in general still leaves a lot to be desired. There's some improvements on the horizon, fortunately.
With Ubuntu 13.04 there will likely be an AArch64 (64-bit ARM) spin of the popular Linux distribution.
Ubuntu 13.04 will likely be shipping with the Linux 3.8 kernel. Plus other kernel changes were talked about during the Ubuntu Developers' Summit this week in Copenhagen.
Ubuntu developers will be looking to stick to "stable" GNOME components and not closely track the unstable GNOME development releases within the Ubuntu 13.04 cycle. There's several reasons why Ubuntu will be distancing itself from the latest upstream GNOME packages.
Aside from new lenses and other features coming to the Unity desktop during the Ubuntu 13.04 development cycle, Canonical will also be making a push for widgets to happen on Ubuntu's Unity desktop.
Discussions were held this morning in Copenhagen at the Ubuntu Developer Summit about improving audio and graphics support for Ubuntu Linux in order to propel the distribution as a first-rate gaming platform.
Ubuntu developers are hoping to redesign Wubi, the Ubuntu Windows Installer, for the Ubuntu 13.04 release in April.
For Ubuntu 12.10 Canonical decided to abandon the Unity 2D desktop and just only support the standard Unity desktop with Compiz. When there isn't a proper OpenGL/3D driver available, LLVMpipe is used for running the GL commands on the CPU. This move caused lots of upset Ubuntu Linux users and the developers are now looking at what to do for a desktop that doesn't require 3D support.
As I wrote over the weekend, Canonical is planning to eventually ship its own SDK (Software Development Kit) for Ubuntu Linux to ease software development on the open-source platform. The Ubuntu SDK won't happen for the Ubuntu 13.04 release, but work is being planned about what to include in this Ubuntu-specific SDK.
Canonical and the Ubuntu development community hope to improve application development for developers targeting Ubuntu 13.04.
Ubuntu developers will be discussing this week about how they can rapidly bring-up support for new hardware within the Linux distribution.
Canonical has successfully ported Ubuntu Linux to Google's Nexus 7 tablet.
Some features of Ubuntu 13.04 won't be openly developed by the Ubuntu Linux community but rather in a more covert approach by Canonical and select Ubuntu developers. Mark Shuttleworth calls these new features "some sexy 13.04 surprises" but he was sure to reinforce that the overall Ubuntu Linux development approach isn't changing.
It's release day today for Ubuntu 12.10, which was developed under the animal codename of "Quantal Quetzal", and boasts many new features.
Mark Shuttleworth has revealed the codename for UDS-R, a.k.a. the Ubuntu 13.04 release.
With Unity 2D having been dropped from Ubuntu 12.10, another consequence of this controversial decision is that the Ubuntu TV work must be ported to Unity (3D).
There's an independently maintained "low-jitter" version of the Linux kernel targeting Ubuntu, which claims to be faster, but is that really the case?
Another interesting topic for the Ubuntu 13.04 Developer Summit later this month is about using XZ compression by default for its packages, which would lead to a reduction in file-size.
Aside from looking at ways to make Ubuntu Linux a better gaming platform and possibly removing dependencies on GNOME fallback code, another discussion item for later this month in Copenhagen at UDS concerns the Ubuntu TV initiative.
Here's a look at how the open-source Intel Linux graphics performance has changed in Ubuntu 12.10 when comparing benchmarks results of Ubuntu Quantal development snapshots from the end of August to the beginning of October.
Just a few weeks after Canonical integrated Amazon product results into Unity's Dash in an effort to generate more money through affiliate/referral revenue, they have taken another step today to try to increase their cash flow.
An update was provided today concerning the state of X.Org and related packages for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.10 release.
Version 6.8 of the Unity desktop was pushed today into the Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" repository.
Here's an early look at some Bootchart numbers for two systems running Ubuntu 12.10 development snapshots compared to earlier releases.
The second beta release for the forthcoming Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" Linux distribution is now available for testing.
Canonical has reversed their stance on the boot-loader to use for Ubuntu Linux when dealing with UEFI SecureBoot.
Changes coming to the Ubuntu 12.10 Unity desktop, namely to its Dash launcher component, are trying to generate Canonical more affiliate revenue through promoting more online purchases.
Ubuntu developers are working on improving the performance of Unity and Compiz, but it may take a while that will almost certainly extend past the Ubuntu 12.10 release. As part of this, support for un-redirecting full-screen windows has been improved.
With Unity 2D being abandoned and only providing Unity + Compiz in Ubuntu 12.10 as the default desktop, the out-of-the-box experience for low-powered ARM hardware on the stock Ubuntu desktop is a mess.
Developers working on Ubuntu 12.10 are now past feature-freeze and the beta has already shipped, but they are hoping to pull in the official release of the GRUB 2.00 boot-loader prior to the October debut of the Quantal Quetzal.
The "Quantal Quetzal" has reached beta state.
Besides the Unity desktop and Compiz window manager in Ubuntu impairing the Linux OpenGL performance, the 2D performance is also dramatically affected by this desktop configuration.
Steve Langasek has laid out plans to drop Ubuntu alternate CDs beginning already with the forthcoming Ubuntu 12.10 release.
The first point release for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" was released on Thursday evening.
With the Unity 4.0 game engine gaining native Linux support, Canonical is sponsoring a session at this week's Unite game development conference to promote their Ubuntu Software Center to game developers of this Mono-powered proprietary game engine.
Jason Warner, the Ubuntu Desktop Manager at Canonical, acknowledges that dropping Unity 2D and going with Unity-Over-LLVMpipe may lead to some regressions and that some users will want to stick to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or switch to another desktop environment.
As expected, Ubuntu developers have done away with the Unity 2D desktop environment spin for the forthcoming Ubuntu 12.10 release.
Ubuntu developers are looking at using the name "GNObuntu" their GNOME flavor of Ubuntu Linux.
If you're sad about Ubuntu delaying their Wayland System Compositor and want to take Wayland/Weston for a spin, there's another alternative for playing with this next-generation Linux desktop technology.
Ubuntu developers will be meeting in Copenhagen later this year to hash out their plans for Ubuntu 13.04.
The third alpha release of Ubuntu 12.10, the Quantal Quetzal, is now available.
1651 Ubuntu news articles published on Phoronix.