Tag: CANONICAL

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 -- ...

Back in September 2010, when Google, Novell and others announced the LibreOffice fork of OpenOffice, Canonical frontman Mark Shuttleworth said "The Ubuntu Project will be pleased to ship LibreOffice from The Document Foundation in future releases." In recent 11.04 Natty Narwhal daily builds, the change has finally taken place. Download yourself a new Ubuntu 11.04 daily build .ISO, and you'll ...

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 ...

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 ...

Among the changes slated for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal was the replacement of another long-time default application. With recent releases, we've seen Empathy take over instant messaging duties and Shotwell inserted to handle photo management. It's also been discussed for quite some time that Canonical should, perhaps, pull the pin on the Rhythmbox audio player. That's finally happened, as ...

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 ...

One knock against Canonical's Ubuntu One sync service is the fact that clients for other operating systems aren't available. That gives Dropbox a pretty big edge at the moment -- though Canonical has taken one huge step toward leveling the playing field with the release of a beta Ubuntu One app for Windows. OMG! Ubuntu has gotten beta access already and shared a handful of screenshots. ...

We're getting used to software developers releasing early and iterating often. Web browsers are perhaps the best example, with Google, Mozilla, and Opera dropping bleeding-edge snapshots like so many quarters into a one-armed bandit. Operating systems, however, are another story. Canonical is looking to change that, and frontman Mark Shuttleworth thinks that you may see Ubuntu pushing things ...

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has announced that the Unity shell currently used in Ubuntu's netbook edition will become the default user interface for Ubuntu's main desktop edition as well, starting with the next version of the operating system. Unity became Ubuntu's netbook UI with the release of the current version of the OS, 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal is set to ...

A few days ago, Canonical outed the beta version of its Ubuntu One Music app for Android. It's nascent, to say the least -- lacking things we've come to expect from music players like album artwork and playlists. Now Ubuntu One Music has arrived in App Store -- and the iOS experience looks every bit as Spartan. And by that, I mean I'd like to kick it down a hole. But seriously -- the interface ...

Ubuntu 10.10 is due to arrive next month (10/10, of course), and if you've been waiting for Canonical to make the jump from alpha to beta before taking an early peek at it -- today's the day! The download page is up, torrents are seeded, and you can finally get your paws on the Maverick Meerkat beta. The new release features refined visuals from the background to the default icons. The ...

Firefox has been a Ubuntu default app for ages, but there's a chance that it might not be around come version 10.10 -- at least on the Netbook Edition of Canonical's OS. Developers are currently examining other options -- specifically Chromium and Midori. As Ubuntu HQ points out, there are currently several issues that would need to be addressed should Chromium be handed the default browsing ...