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GNOME 3, after more than two years of development, has been released into the wild. GNOME 3 is not merely the logical successor of GNOME 2: it is an entirely new project, started from scratch, to create a "completely new, modern desktop designed for today's users and technologies."

The best way to check out GNOME 3's new features -- and it has lots of new features -- is to run a live version of openSUSE or Fedora, or simply head over to the GNOME 3 website and watch the (rather pretty) introductory videos. If you want a synopsis, though, here it is: GNOME 3 looks a lot like Mac OS X, with a healthy dollop of iOSesqueness for good measure, but yet it still somehow retains an underlying feel of Linux.

The overall aesthetic is very simple, very elegant, and despite being slightly out of fashion, there are plenty of rounded corners, too. The main addition, workflow-wise, is the addition of an app-launcher-cum-alt-tab screen, where you can launch apps, or flip through your open windows. For a complete list of the new features and changes, check the GNOME 3 release notes.

Despite GNOME 3 being officially launched, there aren't actually any releases for existing, stable Linux distros -- it's the live CD/USB images, or Ubuntu users will have to wait for the launch of 11.04 for a GNOME 3 PPA, but it will break Unity in the process. Fedora users will have to wait for for the May 24 release of Fedora 15. Of course, if you're feeling crazy, you can always build GNOME 3 from source.

A few moments ago, version 2 of the Banshee music player for Linux was released, bringing with it a whole slew of new features, and the addition of an official -- but alpha-quality -- Windows build. The Mac OS X build of version 2 is due later today.

The most notable new feature is support for the Amazon MP3 store -- you can buy and download music from within Banshee -- but unfortunately it's only available in the Linux build at the moment (OS X and Windows support are planned, however). There have also been some significant improvements to artist, album, and queue interactions -- and yes, you can finally right click a track, album or artist and select 'play after' to insert it into the queue.

Beyond actual playback, the user interface has been tidied up -- it now looks a whole lot smarter -- and the Ubuntu One Music Store and SoundMenu extensions have been made official. For a complete list of changes, additions and bug fixes, check the change log.

When Windows support initially appeared in February, we found it rough around the edges and fraught with stability issues. With version 2, Banshee for Windows is still a bit unstable, but it's shaping up to be a good alternative to Winamp, iTunes, or whatever other music library manager you use. It's almost as attractive as its GNOMEish brother, too!

Download Banshee 2 for Linux and Windows (Mac OS X coming soon)

Sure, installing and removing applications in Ubuntu is a breeze -- tools like Synaptic, apt-get, and the Ubuntu Software Center are all very easy to use. Canonical thinks there's room for improvement, however, and it's delivering an interesting new feature to the Software Center: application test drives.

Find a program you'd like to try out -- but don't necessarily want to install just yet -- and click the test drive button. With the qtnx package installed and your Internet connection at the ready, the program will "buffer" and then launch, giving you an install-free look at what it can do.

Check the video after the break to see Software Center test drives of AbiWord and Chromium in action -- it really is quite slick. This feature, incidentally, will make its debut in Ubuntu 11.04, which is due to be released next month.

Canonical, proving yet again that its idea of prime bed time reading is leafing through a thesaurus, has officially named Ubuntu 11.10 as 'Oneiric Ocelot'. Feature-wise, there is nothing new to report: 11.10 will introduce Qt support, and the Unity 2D window manager for low-power devices.

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, has a fantastic blog post that discusses how the developers of Ubuntu arrived at Oneiric Ocelot. Oddball Octopus was almost chosen, because it has been eight years since Ubuntu was first conceived. Osculant Orangutan was mooted too, due to the welcoming nature of the Ubuntu community.

The ocelot, which is a cute wild cat, was eventually chosen -- apparently because it represents the "discipline" that will be needed to drive innovation in Ubuntu 11.10. Oneiric, if you're wondering (leave a comment if you've ever used 'oneiric' in conversation), means 'dreamy.'

In other news, Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, which is due to be released in April, recently reached Alpha 3.

Ubuntu's new Unity interface already drew some raised eyebrows because of its looks, which are arguably similar to the Windows 7 taskbar. Now, the Ask Ubuntu site has posted a list of Unity keyboard shortcuts -- and those take a cue from Windows 7 as well.

• The super key, which typically refers to the Windows key on most standard keyboards, invokes the Unity Launcher -- on Windows, this would call up the Start Menu
• Super + 1/2/3, etc. launches the app in that position on the Unity dockbar -- much like the Windows 7 feature
• Super + D minimizes and restores all windows -- a hotkey combo in Windows since XP

So why the similarities? If you're trying to steal away desktop market share from the dominant operating system, it's not going to hurt if you make it easy for power users to get comfortable on your alternative OS. By implementing familiar keyboard shortcuts in Unity, Canonical is no doubt giving Windows users an Eric Idle style nudge in the ribs and saying, "C'mon, give us a try!"

With WUBI making it so easy to install and dual-boot Ubuntu from within Windows and an easy profile data import tool offered during setup, Canonical is doing its best to entice defectors.

Canonical demonstrated Ubuntu 10.10's multitouch functionality a few months back. If you haven't felt compelled to play with it before, a new app called Touchégg might provide a little extra incentive. It's an open source project which lets you define custom actions and execute them with a touch gesture. Canonical's uTouch gesture library is required, but it should already be installed if you're using Ubuntu 10.10 or a derivative.

Configuring Touchégg requires doing a little text hacking in its config file, but the process is fairly straightforward (as you can see in the video after the break). If you've got a laptop with a multitouch-capable touchpad or a USB input device like Apple's Magic Trackpad hooked up to your Linux box, Touchégg will have you switching workspaces and apps with the flick of a finger (or two or three) in no time.

Check out the screencast after the break -- it's pretty slick, even if you can't see that the gestures are actually being performed.

Qt, come the end of 2011, is to become a standard component of Ubuntu 11.10. Ubuntu currently, and in the upcoming 11.04 Natty Narwhal distribution, uses Gtk+, a competing toolkit maintained by the GNOME Foundation.

When Canonical announced Ubuntu's shift away from the GNOME desktop manager in 11.04, the switch to Qt was almost a foregone conclusion; GNOME requires Gtk+, but Unity doesn't -- so why stick around? A better question to ask, though, is why Qt?

The odd, but overwhelmingly likely truth seems to be that Ubuntu is moving into the mobile sector. Unity was originally designed as a netbook or small-screen interface; and there's no denying that Unity 2D, without its shiny bells and whistles, is designed for very low-powered devices, like cheap tablets and smartphones.

Qt

That's where Qt enters the equation: Qt is the application framework used on Nokia's Symbian and Maemo phones. Qt is also fully cross-platform, with support for Windows, Mac and Linux. With Qt, developers could write a single program for Ubuntu, and have it run on desktops, laptops, tablets, and even smartphones.

But why oh why does Canonical even want to go into the mobile market? Has someone at the top lost their marbles?

New, clean-and-simple HTML5 websites are obviously in this week: GNOME, one of the most popular desktop environments for Linux, has just released a new website to celebrate the features of version 3, which will be released in April.

With phrases like "SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL" and "DISTRACTION-FREE COMPUTING" plastered all over the site it's obvious that GNOME not only likes capital letters, but that it's also trying to capitalize on the recent movement towards simpler, less-shiny interfaces. GNOME 3 now has a slogan, too -- "made of easy" -- which, to be honest, feels like it's trying a bit too hard to be cool.

As to GNOME 3's actual features, there's built-in messaging (which presumably works with most IM protocols), and a new notifications system. The system settings panel has been overhauled, and the Windows key has been commandeered to provide quick access to your system: just hit the Windows key and start typing -- like Windows 7 or Vista.

Before we finish, does anyone else think that GNOME 3 looks a lot like Canonical's new Unity? There's side-by-side images of them after the break. GNOME 3's release coincides with Ubuntu 11.04, incidentally -- but, just to reiterate, while Unity will be the default desktop environment in Ubuntu, users will be free to switch to either GNOME or Unity 2D.

If you can't wait until its stable release in April, and you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can build an alpha version of GNOME 3 with JHBuild.

After only hinting at its existence this morning, it is now possible to install Unity 2D on both the latest stable version of Ubuntu (10.10 Maverick Meerkat), and the upcoming 11.04 (Natty Narwhal).

Unity 2D takes the form of a normal Personal Package Archive (PPA) that goes by the name 'Unity-Qt'. You can get it by simply adding the the Unity 2D repository, updating apt-get, and then installing it. WebUpd8 reports that the PPA is broken at the moment, resulting in some additional steps to get it working -- but just follow their guide, and you'll be running Unity 2D in no time!

Initial reactions suggest that Unity 2D is pretty darn slick, and a viable alternative if you can't run, or don't want to run, the 3D version. There's a video of it in action after the break.

It's amazing it took this long for Canonical to confirm, but it seems that Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal will ship with both a fancy, OpenGL-accelerated version of Unity, and a flatter, slightly more sedate 2D version for older, unaccelerated hardware. A couple more images of the 2D UI are available after the break.

Given the fact that one of the most common targets for Linux installations is on older, 'reclaimed' hardware, it would have been surprising if Ubuntu didn't ship with a 2D window manager. Canonical's Bill Filler also mentions that "many ARM platforms fall into this category," though we're not quite sure which ARM devices he has in mind. Most low-power devices are either netbooks or smartphones -- and netbooks are Atom x86, not ARM (at least for now), and a lot of smartphones have hardware acceleration via OpenGL ES (and who puts Ubuntu on a smartphone, anyway?)

Basically, this is great news for people that want to put Ubuntu 11.04 on old laptops, netbooks and desktops with awful integrated graphics -- or simply those that don't like the 3D version of Unity! It's also great news for those that virtualize their Ubuntu installations under VMWare or VirtualBox, both of which have a hard time with 3D acceleration.

[It seems, at the time of publishing, that Bill Filler's blog post has vanished. Maybe he was jumping the gun; or perhaps something else is afoot...]

One of the biggest changes in the upcoming release of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal is a change away from much-loved GNOME Shell to Canonical's Unity. Such a big change has garnered a lot of commentary on both sides of the fence, but the truth is, you'll be able to switch back to Shell if you don't like Unity!

Still, if you're interested in hearing the reasoning behind the change to Unity, you should watch community manager Jono Bacon and Desktop Experience Team manager David Barth discuss it (video after the break). You probably won't appreciate the depth of the conversation unless you're an avid Ubuntu user or hacker, though. Basically, Unity is replacing Shell because Canonical wants more control over user experience. GNOME is moving in one direction, and Ubuntu is moving in another -- and Unity bridges that gap.

What's important, though, is that Ubuntu will still be a GNOME-based operating system. Unity is an alternative to Shell, much in the same way as MeeGo; it isn't a replacement. Ultimately, Unity simply gives Ubuntu users another option; an option that Canonical thinks is better for desktop and notebook users.

Ever wondered if your $249 e-book reader was able to run a full-fledged desktop operating system? Wonder no more, for the wizards over at XDA-Developers have managed to port Ubuntu to Barnes and Noble's tablet slash e-book reader.

First off, you'll obviously need to have rooted your Nook Color. The Ubuntu install boots off of the SD card, and as such won't replace the Android OS the Nook Color ships with. To run Ubuntu on your Nook Color, you use an Android VNC app. It's all detailed over on this forum thread, and make sure you follow the instructions precisely if you'd like to see how everyone's favorite flavor of Linux performs on the Nook Color. Do keep in mind that the user who posted the hack does mention that it's rather slow at the moment -- so don't expect stellar performance just yet. It'll be interesting to see what kind of improvements can be made in future releases.

The interface may still be a bit spartan, but the Ubuntu One app for iOS has added an important new feature in its latest update. If you're running iOS 4.2 you can now take advantage of AirPlay to pump tunes to compatible devices like an Apple TV box. At last you can blast your cloud-synced tunes out of the home theater system as you wander around the house, controlling playback from your pocketable touchscreen!

Canonical reminds users that the Ubuntu One app will stream all your music -- not just tracks purchased through their store. While the app is free, a $3.99 per month mobile subscription is required to use the app.

Ubuntu One for iOS [iTunes Link]