Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

The Ubuntu factor
Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.

While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept.

However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac.

Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.

Link

Xfce 4.10 tour

This tour will introduce you to new major features of Xfce 4.10. It only covers the visual part of what has been done; for the full list of changes, see the changelogs.

Link

Linus Torvalds May 8, 2012 - Public Here's a big shout-out to "ISO Master" and Andrew Smith.

I had an old Mac Mini that simply absolutely would not install any of the newer Linux distributions, because they now support that abomination called EFI - and while EFI tries to be a "better BIOS", it's actually worse in just about all respects.

(Honesty in advertising: EFI does have one improvement in the form of support for GPT. But it would have been so infinitely much better if it had just done so with the old odd - but tested - BIOS interfaces rather than making up its own complicated interfaces that nobody seems to get right).

In particular, it's worse because it's totally untested - and thus generally doesn't work. Apple has been using it the longest, and has the oddest bugs as a result. So try to insert an EFI-enabled CD into old Apple machines, and it will just confuse the machine and not work.

However, the BIOS emulation in bootcamp still does work, and doesn't have the infinite bugs that EFI implementations tends to have.

Link