Ubuntu 13.10 Will Not Use XMir By Default

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="ubuntu saucy salamander" border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwAEgf76_M-S8NNuKv0bdvOZQVkgL0tNu3xI3LMdDLQzd8ecbGJbrBPSbv6hw4_BX2Ctx3oF8cEA2hMGq2kg1PSAI0dDhtb0R6Xgl3rKOOqb4vS0Ia383HwuEJs1SChyphenhyphenXY2BP_KHVPLog/s320/Saucy_Salamander_Abstract_by_Jos%C3%A9_Vera_alcivar.jpg" width="320" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Canonical has decided not to switch to Xmir by default for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Back in June, it was <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/ubuntu-1310-saucy-salamander-switching.html">decided</a> to use Mir + Xmir by default in Ubuntu 13.10 (for open source drivers only) but that will no longer happen "<i>due to some outstanding technical difficulties</i>". A native Mir + Unity 8 will still be used for Ubuntu Touch so that's not affected by this decision.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/10/01/xmir-update-for-ubuntu-13-10/">post</a> on the Ubuntu-devel mailing list, the issues are in XMir part of the stack which provides the compatibility layer between X server and Mir - more specifically, the XMir multi-monitor support which doesn't work "to the extend we’d like to see it for all of our users".</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"We always planned to ship Mir + XMir on Ubuntu 13.10 Desktop but after months of furious XMir development we needed to make a judgement call about whether we could assure a quality overall Ubuntu Desktop experience with XMir across all supported configurations. While Mir is in good shape for this and XMir is close, we didn’t feel that the user experience around XMir's multimonitor feature was meeting the parity standard."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">- <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/13.10/NoDefaultQ%26A">Mir Not Default Q&A</a></div></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/13.10/NoDefaultQ%26A">Q&A</a> about this on the Ubuntu wiki mentions that the recent <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/linux-and-open-source/a-bump-in-the-high-road-intel-drops-support-for-xmir-in-xorg-driver/">revert</a> from Intel (the Intel Xorg driver got XMir support but the change was later reverted) has nothing to do with this decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mir and XMir will be available in the repositories so users can use Xmir if they want, but will not be used by default.</div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/10/01/xmir-update-for-ubuntu-13-10/">Ubuntu Fridge</a>, <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mir/13.10/NoDefaultQ%26A">Ubuntu wiki</a></i></div>

Ubuntu 13.10 Will Not Use XMir By Default

Canonical has decided not to switch to Xmir by default for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander. Back in June, it was decided to use Mir + Xmir by...

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New GNOME 3.10 PPA Announced For Ubuntu 13.10: GNOME3-Next

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5LuBvDFrRm4U_5biSyIrt-raAdhL2drgOqaexEYMUvtQ_YuPolhmjutekznVTXPYSFViA1pGMX3J-rFgERYeRYtAGxX3kfh1CVGe8ymnpDLF1og3_FJe3xlwhvb-UkOyrSQjpURHxzg/s1600/gnome-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5LuBvDFrRm4U_5biSyIrt-raAdhL2drgOqaexEYMUvtQ_YuPolhmjutekznVTXPYSFViA1pGMX3J-rFgERYeRYtAGxX3kfh1CVGe8ymnpDLF1og3_FJe3xlwhvb-UkOyrSQjpURHxzg/s1600/gnome-logo.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>GNOME 3.10 won't make it into Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander and to make it easier to install, the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team">GNOME 3 Launchpad Team</a> has created a new <a href="https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team/+archive/gnome3-next">GNOME3-Next PPA</a>.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">For Saucy, the GNOME3-Next PPA will contain GNOME 3.10 packages that are considered stable while the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team/+archive/gnome3">GNOME3 PPA</a> will only contain a few pieces of GNOME 3.8 that didn't make it into Saucy. The <a href="https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team/+archive/gnome3-staging">GNOME3-Staging PPA</a> will continue to hold GNOME 3.10 packages that aren't considered stable just yet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-gnome/2013-September/000669.html">announcement</a> posted on the Ubuntu GNOME <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-gnome">mailing list</a>, <b>the GNOME3-Next PPA only holds a few packages for now but it should start to fill up over the next week or two</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also note that if you're using the GNOME3-Staging PPA, you'll also have to add the GNOME3-Next PPA because it will contain some dependencies required for the staging PPA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I will publish a new article with instructions on upgrading to GNOME 3.10 once the new GNOME3-Next PPA is ready.<br /><br /><i>GNOME 3.10 will be released on September 25 and it will include new applications such as GNOME Maps and GNOME Music, a revamped system status menu, Setting (Control Center) improvements, initial Wayland support and more. As usual, we'll have an article covering all the major changes when GNOME 3.10 is released.</i></div>

New GNOME 3.10 PPA Announced For Ubuntu 13.10: GNOME3-Next

GNOME 3.10 won't make it into Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander and to make it easier to install, the GNOME 3 Launchpad Team has created a ...

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Download The Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Community Wallpapers

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander community wallpapers have landed in Saucy recently. </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The wallpaper pack comes with 18 elegant images, including 3 cool salamander wallpapers:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/163_by_e4v.jpg" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMYsgnlu6-UxGIDnDIFEdhXdGGaALRYgCAJca4uW7pSXDksG8jaeVMNkFDHlcANZUHZQ8jgutpq43E80WH0m_cm2a5aTVa-gKNZrCrGq5UQxhSd8EzGjbsZ9Su5QpNTFISQlct4qF4Ik/s320/163_by_e4v.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Salamander_by_Lucas_Romero_Di_Benedetto.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Salamander_by_Lucas_Romero_Di_Benedetto_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Cyclotron_by_cyclotron_beam.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Cyclotron_by_cyclotron_beam_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Gota_D%27%C3%A1gua_by_Eiti_Kimura.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Gota_D'água_by_Eiti_Kimura_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Grass_by_Jeremy_Hill.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Grass_by_Jeremy_Hill_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/I_am_a_Saucy_Salamander..._by_Juan_Pablo_Lauriente.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/I_am_a_Saucy_Salamander..._by_Juan_Pablo_Lauriente_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Mountains_by_JamesPickles.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Mountains_by_JamesPickles_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Mr._Tau_and_The_Tree_-_by_TJ.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Mr._Tau_and_The_Tree_-_by_TJ_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Nylon_Rainbow_by_Sam_Hewitt.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Nylon_Rainbow_by_Sam_Hewitt_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Oak_by_Lyle_Nel.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Oak_by_Lyle_Nel_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Saucy_Salamander_Abstract_by_Jos%C3%A9_Vera_alcivar.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Saucy_Salamander_Abstract_by_José_Vera_alcivar_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Savannah_Lilian_Blot_by_a_Blot_on_the_landscape.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Savannah_Lilian_Blot_by_a_Blot_on_the_landscape_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Taxus_baccata_by_baubusiukas.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Taxus_baccata_by_baubusiukas_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/The_City_of_Polen_by_MilanVankovski.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/The_City_of_Polen_by_MilanVankovski_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/THE_%27OUT%27_STANDING_by_ydristi.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/THE_'OUT'_STANDING_by_ydristi_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Thingvellir_by_pattersa.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Thingvellir_by_pattersa_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Untitled_by_Garazi_Unzueta.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Untitled_by_Garazi_Unzueta_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Water_Lily_by_Denis_Dugushkin.jpg" rel="image_group"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander wallpapers" src="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/Water_Lily_by_Denis_Dugushkin_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Download</h2><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-unity/+archive/daily-build/+build/4901205/+files/ubuntu-wallpapers-saucy_13.04.0%2B13.10.20130823-0ubuntu1_all.deb">Download Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander community wallpapers</a></b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The pack is available as a .deb and you can either install it or simply extract it, then look for the wallpapers under <i>usr/share/backgrounds</i> (inside the extracted folder).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alternatively, if you want to download all the Ubuntu community wallpapers from Karmic to Saucy, get them from <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/saucy/+source/ubuntu-wallpapers/13.04.0+13.10.20130823-0ubuntu1/+files/ubuntu-wallpapers_13.04.0+13.10.20130823.orig.tar.gz">HERE</a>.</div>

Download The Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Community Wallpapers

The Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander community wallpapers have landed in Saucy recently. The wallpaper pack comes with 18 elegant images, inclu...

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Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Not Switching To XMir By Default

<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Xubuntu logo" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDe809zSuEf7fjMZc68i98wqicEREOz-Br5_MT7mj507hJFZYmBwZtJErTv3zZaIclz3CLXgTpKkfDJElSe-nahfYxhpdFn3jfBaqFP_k2HHkUi6bhaRZPXkNN0Gv29yyKu2v4-WK1lZw/s320/xubuntu.png" /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>In a Xubuntu team <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-devel/2013-August/009308.html">meeting</a>, it was decided that Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander won't ship with Mir & XMir by default.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The reasons behind the decision is that XMir doesn't bring improvements yet and there are some issues with XMir and Xubuntu for now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first question, "<i>Should we wait for improvements landing to XMir later (but before the FF)?</i>" was rejected with 0 votes for waiting, 4 votes against and 1 abstention. The second question was if Mir should be included by default in Xubuntu 13.10 and with 5 votes against, 0 abstentions and 0 votes for including Mir, it was decided that Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander won't use Mir by default.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">XMir will be evaluated for inclusion in Xubuntu during the next cycle "<i>when it has the features we want and is more mature, hopefully at that point it can be a better option for our users</i>".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the same meeting there was also a discussion about including some Xfce 4.11 components (<i>xfce4-settings</i> which brings <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-use-multiple-monitors-in-xubuntu.html" title="How To Use Multiple Monitors In Xubuntu / Xfce (Extended Display Instead Of Mirror)">improved multi-monitor support</a> and <i>xfdesktop</i> with improved settings dialog and better workspace support) as well as enabling GTK3 indicators for the panel in Xubuntu 13.10 by default, but no decision regarding this has been made yet.</div>

Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Not Switching To XMir By Default

In a Xubuntu team meeting , it was decided that Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander won't ship with Mir & XMir by default. The reasons be...

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Using Nvidia Graphics Drivers With Initial Optimus Support In Ubuntu 13.10 Got Easier With Nvidia-Prime

<div style="text-align: justify;">As you probably know, the Nvidia graphics drivers have received <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/nvidia-releases-linux-graphics-drivers.html">initial Optimus support</a> a while back. Currently, the Nvidia GPU can be used to render the desktop, but there's no power saving yet. That means you can for instance play games or watch videos using hardware acceleration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But to be able to take advantage of this feature in the latest Nvidia drivers, you need up-to-date dependencies (such as Randr 1.4, Xorg 1.13 - that's what the initial Nvidia release notes mention, but it seems you actually need 1.14 -, Linux Kernel 3.9 with some special flags enabled), as well as a custom xorg.conf file and some other bits.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That means that out of the box, the only Ubuntu version that can use this initial <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus">Optimus</a> support in the Nvidia graphics drivers is Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, but even in Saucy, you need to configure some things to get it to work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you're using Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, things got a lot easier and you don't need to configure anything to be able to take advantage of this Optimus feature in the Nvidia graphics drivers 319.12+: a package called "<a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-prime">nvidia-prime</a>", which comes with a set of tools that enable Nvidia's Prime on MUXless systems, has been uploaded to the Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander repositories</b> about a month ago and it has currently reached version 0.4 (released today).</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">This package automatically checks if your system supports Nvidia Optimus and the required packages, creates the xorg.conf file and tweaks the LightDM configuration to support this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test, I've installed the Nvidia 319.32 drivers and the "nvidia-prime" package (both from the Ubuntu 13.10 repositories) and after a reboot, the Nvidia card was used on my Optimus laptop (Dell XPS L702X):</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JArYwpXaCX1NYDVlzikcXNQaivd53CREv-6HDjafP9VtBAZF9QIkyWDGaFQlzlhRne6aLyF0J0ozWl3Fl64VC2TmHapZZ5yiLmJ2O73dCcnA4xf97RHqzKEKe-8ACApquhEiVTbkUTk/s1600/nvidia-prime-nvsettings.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nvidia settings optimus" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JArYwpXaCX1NYDVlzikcXNQaivd53CREv-6HDjafP9VtBAZF9QIkyWDGaFQlzlhRne6aLyF0J0ozWl3Fl64VC2TmHapZZ5yiLmJ2O73dCcnA4xf97RHqzKEKe-8ACApquhEiVTbkUTk/s320/nvidia-prime-nvsettings.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">(Bumblebee was removed and as you can see, I didn't launch "nvidia-settings" using "optirun")</div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I was also able to play a h264 video using <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/use-mplayer-with-vaapi-support-hardware.html">Mplayer with VDPAU (hardware acceleration)</a>:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUePJI1yhyphenhyphenEX8oD-qTu7WD5Z0zIT5Qmh35IaYfpajEiha5G7RTw9Pg4FBWcuj9sELBjuABMJrIZ6NwgiHR0ITvybkmAUqsON5ht0rfdSj-rzYyV9meXdv_G0Xsis9dTBngOfF3ejpmgE/s1600/nvidia-prime-vdpau.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Nvidia Optimus Prime VDPAU hardware acceleration mplayer Ubuntu" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUePJI1yhyphenhyphenEX8oD-qTu7WD5Z0zIT5Qmh35IaYfpajEiha5G7RTw9Pg4FBWcuj9sELBjuABMJrIZ6NwgiHR0ITvybkmAUqsON5ht0rfdSj-rzYyV9meXdv_G0Xsis9dTBngOfF3ejpmgE/s320/nvidia-prime-vdpau.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE3RC8lVq5tU5QfIRkDIgTfGgGWIAQ6nsteDXtV62sb5ff1B65LfFAttab8M9R6n_JMzkmOpBWCdBZjAzXxEXArBpVnp_qhyphenhyphenB7snwOC-4KwkplTSWG5F1a9yG2QRqeMBQlt2qFRg_2Q9k/s1600/nvidia-prime_1.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Nvidia Optimus VDPAU Ubuntu" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE3RC8lVq5tU5QfIRkDIgTfGgGWIAQ6nsteDXtV62sb5ff1B65LfFAttab8M9R6n_JMzkmOpBWCdBZjAzXxEXArBpVnp_qhyphenhyphenB7snwOC-4KwkplTSWG5F1a9yG2QRqeMBQlt2qFRg_2Q9k/s320/nvidia-prime_1.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>glxspheres</i> reports some insane framerates - this is most probably a bug, but here's a screenshot anyway:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9xluPW033pwKLAsuu7QIeBYNkdEGTxs53qqecsRPd9UzvLvTrRtmOrI1p6B3Af_M4XAQ9-23c7xenxNCk4m7oF5IJfrx2QIxguovBjuHAPr4ha07-nsP3kBiWQH3HUkSyeHrI2prP750/s1600/nvidia-prime-glxspheres.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Nvidia Optimus glxspheres" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9xluPW033pwKLAsuu7QIeBYNkdEGTxs53qqecsRPd9UzvLvTrRtmOrI1p6B3Af_M4XAQ9-23c7xenxNCk4m7oF5IJfrx2QIxguovBjuHAPr4ha07-nsP3kBiWQH3HUkSyeHrI2prP750/s320/nvidia-prime-glxspheres.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>That's all nice, but there are some important issues I've encountered during my test (</b>the issues are most probably in the Nvidia graphics drivers and not in the nvidia-prime package):<br /><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>my laptop got pretty hot, especially when running <i>glxspheres</i> or playing a video using VDPAU;</li><li>Multiple monitors don't work out of the box; to enable multiple monitors, you need to edit the <i>xorg.conf</i> file, comment <<i>Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"</i>> and add the devices sections as explained <a href="http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/319.12/README/randr14.html">HERE</a>;</li><li>this only occurred at first and it now seems to have stopped for some reason: changing the theme from Ambiance to some other theme didn't change the GTK theme (only the window borders changes) and GTK2 theming was broken so GTK2 apps used the ugly Windows 98-like fallback theme;</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>Install Nvidia-Prime in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Follow the instructions below only if you know what you're doing and how to revert the changes in case LightDM fails to start, etc.! </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: the  <i>nvidia-prime</i> package only supports the proprietary Nvidia drivers and won't work with Nouveau!<br /><br /><b>If you're using Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander and want to test the Optimus support in the Nvidia Graphics Drivers 319.12+, here's what you need to do:</b></div><br /><b>1.</b> Firstly, purge Bumblebee and bbswitch if you've installed them:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get purge bumblebee* bbswitch-dkms</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Install the proprietary Nvidia drivers and the Nvidia Prime package:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install nvidia-319 nvidia-settings-319 nvidia-prime</code></pre><br /><b>3.</b> Reboot the system.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That's it, after a reboot, your laptop should be using the Nvidia GPU to render the desktop.</div>

Using Nvidia Graphics Drivers With Initial Optimus Support In Ubuntu 13.10 Got Easier With Nvidia-Prime

As you probably know, the Nvidia graphics drivers have received initial Optimus support a while back. Currently, the Nvidia GPU can be used...

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Xubuntu 13.10 XMir ISO Available For Testing

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Xubuntu team hasn't decided yet if the Xfce Ubuntu flavor will switch to XMir or continue with X.org for 13.10. Before making the decision, this needs to be properly tested so an Xubuntu ISO running on Mir & XMir has been made available for download.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypKAS2UVoYnfTLMLyez3YLDnCBHRT_BbdXU0NXjsTb92G53y69yhikwc1dOyNLKq78dWVqSorsqCttq0l7uBN9zaA2vsraxLxv9PkQBJhYExmfVGR_YQV6L9V8P3znV5uh_ojZOr66wM/s1600/xubuntu13.10.png"><img alt="Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjypKAS2UVoYnfTLMLyez3YLDnCBHRT_BbdXU0NXjsTb92G53y69yhikwc1dOyNLKq78dWVqSorsqCttq0l7uBN9zaA2vsraxLxv9PkQBJhYExmfVGR_YQV6L9V8P3znV5uh_ojZOr66wM/s320/xubuntu13.10.png" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a message posted on the Xubuntu-devel <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-devel/2013-August/009205.html">mailing list</a>, the team will decide if Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander will switch to XMir later this month:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">It is of EXTREME importance that we do as many tests as possible as the technology evolves. We need to understand how our system will behave under XMir in order to make the decision later this month whether to move our standard ISO from X.Org to XMir.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">XMir is an implementation of X running or <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir</a>, the display server developed by Canonical. As you probably know, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander (the main flavor with Unity) <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/ubuntu-1310-saucy-salamander-switching.html">will use XMir by default</a>, while <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/kubuntu-not-switching-to-mir-display.html">Kubuntu</a> and <a href="http://lubuntublog.blogspot.it/2013/06/lubuntu-willl-not-ship-mir.html">Lubuntu</a> will not switch to XMir for 13.10. There's no news on <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOMEOneStopPage">Ubuntu GNOME</a> and XMir for now.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to help test <b>Xubuntu on XMir</b>, grab the ISO from <b><a href="http://vanir.unit193.tk/mir/">HERE</a></b> (you don't need to install it, simply create a bootable flash drive or write it on a DVD).</div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.lffl.org/2013/08/xubuntu-disponibile-la-iso-con-il-nuovo.html">lffl.org</a> & <a href="http://marcosbox.blogspot.ro/2013/08/testiamo-xmir-su-xubuntu-in-attesa.html">MarcosBox</a></i></div>

Xubuntu 13.10 XMir ISO Available For Testing

The Xubuntu team hasn't decided yet if the Xfce Ubuntu flavor will switch to XMir or continue with X.org for 13.10. Before making the de...

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Ambiance Theme Updated With Dark Toolbars For Nautilus And Other GNOME 3 Apps [Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander]

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXRlIQNQ3_cDy2txpXe2uTVcqObDVfySekDPPb0zeH5Jvu-I-IHnA6LlecppYPIN5mpc1wtS_BF-jd72lg2w4reTjvK506lQkphHgA_Ia9rZ1g8OHeyRhjhgBSBQL8hb0a0Kc2UgN2nIQ/s1600/ubuntu13.10-nautilus-dark-toolbar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Nautilus dark toolbar" border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXRlIQNQ3_cDy2txpXe2uTVcqObDVfySekDPPb0zeH5Jvu-I-IHnA6LlecppYPIN5mpc1wtS_BF-jd72lg2w4reTjvK506lQkphHgA_Ia9rZ1g8OHeyRhjhgBSBQL8hb0a0Kc2UgN2nIQ/s320/ubuntu13.10-nautilus-dark-toolbar.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Nautilus dark toolbar" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Ubuntu Light Themes - Ambiance and Radiance -, have been <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/saucy/+source/ubuntu-themes/13.04+13.10.20130802-0ubuntu1">updated</a> today in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander with a <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-themes/+bug/1118838">fix</a> for the GNOME 3 "symbolic toolbars". Applications that use such toolbars, like Nautilus 3.6+ for instance, now have a dark toolbar using the default Ubuntu theme.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Symbolic toolbars are used in many GNOME 3 applications, including Nautilus 3.6+, System Settings 3.6+, Font Viewer, Evince, GNOME Clocks, GNOME Documents, Epiphany and more.</div><br />Here's what some of these applications looked like before this fix:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7VECAeJoceP-V3jWJ5VmMWbvWJXSVNTuTFoom-mk3teEX-BC5R-QvQ3wQyqQ7C59NMWccTkGGiNO1-PL7MFEz2POyaTYKn4Vj52_0uE9NKMzbhXT-K-jKykWXMQsqaHiDCeJevk8g8PE/s1600/toolbars-light.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ambiance toolbars before" border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7VECAeJoceP-V3jWJ5VmMWbvWJXSVNTuTFoom-mk3teEX-BC5R-QvQ3wQyqQ7C59NMWccTkGGiNO1-PL7MFEz2POyaTYKn4Vj52_0uE9NKMzbhXT-K-jKykWXMQsqaHiDCeJevk8g8PE/s320/toolbars-light.png" title="Ambiance toolbars before" width="320" /></a></div><br />And after:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtY7aSGI5_VWdnsHB9l45n81rNiPRUpyiY6mupCngD8vV8hEO7p20qzghhCuPcdtdC639LAS1IIAlrn7o6wprgVfPzjSaIrehhmh_LtTkFODR4FIi8pLSrpX-BdhSnmJn30JAE7_VaC1E/s1600/toolbars-dark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ambiance toolbars after" border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtY7aSGI5_VWdnsHB9l45n81rNiPRUpyiY6mupCngD8vV8hEO7p20qzghhCuPcdtdC639LAS1IIAlrn7o6wprgVfPzjSaIrehhmh_LtTkFODR4FIi8pLSrpX-BdhSnmJn30JAE7_VaC1E/s320/toolbars-dark.png" title="Ambiance toolbars after" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The fix is also available for Radiance, the other GTK theme installed by default in Ubuntu:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgU9bnpI_t666CSfDRXtFl-Wt742DJYwRPMO-4sa2ec4skKaNaiajTCPq_wrdRFwpDR6vsMU5niu0-1rLr4v4ePQHfbhIBskmyN1CmIECkn0UDMgoP6o5Xtq1vHAk_cAEqb5iRJLHZmY/s1600/toolbar-radiance.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Radiance toolbars after" border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgU9bnpI_t666CSfDRXtFl-Wt742DJYwRPMO-4sa2ec4skKaNaiajTCPq_wrdRFwpDR6vsMU5niu0-1rLr4v4ePQHfbhIBskmyN1CmIECkn0UDMgoP6o5Xtq1vHAk_cAEqb5iRJLHZmY/s320/toolbar-radiance.png" title="Radiance toolbars after" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><h2>Use the fixed dark toolbar Ubuntu Light Themes in Ubuntu 13.04</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you're using Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, the fixed Light Themes should be available as an update via Software Updater </b>so run an update, then log out and log back in and you'll be using the fixed Light Themes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test, the fixed Ubuntu Light themes (Ambiance and Radiance) have worked properly in Ubuntu 13.04 so if you want, you can install the Saucy deb in Raring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To use it in Ubuntu 13.04, download the fixed "light-themes" deb from Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander <a href="https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-unity/+archive/daily-build/+build/4844319">HERE</a></b>, install it, <b>then log out and log back in</b> (and obviously, make sure the theme is set to Ambiance or Radiance under <i>System Settings > Appearance</i>). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If later on you want to revert this change and go back to the default Ambiance / Radiance themes used in Ubuntu 13.04, use the following command to downgrade the themes:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ubuntu-themes/raring</code></pre>

Ambiance Theme Updated With Dark Toolbars For Nautilus And Other GNOME 3 Apps [Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander]

The Ubuntu Light Themes - Ambiance and Radiance -, have been updated today in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander with a fix for the GNOME 3 ...

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Unity 8 Available In The Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Repositories

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Unity 8, the Ubuntu Phone Qml Shell, has <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity8/+publishinghistory">landed</a> in the Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander repositories.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For now, Unity 8 is in its early alpha stages and not ready for use, and in fact, there's a message on the wallpaper used by it that says just that:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3fK6JYO_gGXag_Wt6XpH37XiT1jYTFNI0A9zBapmMe9Zje03JkHbXOZFiQ4GyuizTGBUjOB31JvOl4O4hRW14HEgLsy0QDxKIjKiBXLBoBu380tnLRuu6nfEwcmxfLS8Qj0tlTnTvPQ/s1600/unity8.png" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Unity 8 shell" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3fK6JYO_gGXag_Wt6XpH37XiT1jYTFNI0A9zBapmMe9Zje03JkHbXOZFiQ4GyuizTGBUjOB31JvOl4O4hRW14HEgLsy0QDxKIjKiBXLBoBu380tnLRuu6nfEwcmxfLS8Qj0tlTnTvPQ/s320/unity8.png" title="Unity 8 shell" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">And indeed, while I was able to run it on my Saucy computer, most stuff didn't work: I wasn't able to access the launcher on the left using the mouse, the indicators didn't work and so on. Also, the phone applications that show up in Unity 8 are dummy apps so they don't actually work (and furthermore, clicking any of them freezes Unity 8 for now).<br /><br />Unity 8 currently runs as an app and you can switch from the phone to the tablet mode by resizing its window:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUNTsWUXUv0f6Bp6hv_y3v_KNPa_iq0abKI6QDQoHasM2YPTW29aV9Gk-5LqpGz2AdXCeWoKTm4wrG3r5jk_ibLdgCwV7eTrUSKbua2dV0Sa53hsrTgzsZmNYMCc5cnr7xOTZf7DZMPY/s1600/unity8_2.png" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Unity 8 shell" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUNTsWUXUv0f6Bp6hv_y3v_KNPa_iq0abKI6QDQoHasM2YPTW29aV9Gk-5LqpGz2AdXCeWoKTm4wrG3r5jk_ibLdgCwV7eTrUSKbua2dV0Sa53hsrTgzsZmNYMCc5cnr7xOTZf7DZMPY/s320/unity8_2.png" title="Unity 8 shell" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaawAwqR99RGCvw_1jPH09Y05IW7njK6ASg9smVYuK7VLn7C1EZ1O2lVvZVTfX-vOC53WAr7msZDwRMopeGXCx09QS86vTTHDuC6UDgH3T_V4N7y6_qxkr-lino7b3FLquGavC5D0JzeA/s1600/unity8_3.png" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Unity 8 shell" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaawAwqR99RGCvw_1jPH09Y05IW7njK6ASg9smVYuK7VLn7C1EZ1O2lVvZVTfX-vOC53WAr7msZDwRMopeGXCx09QS86vTTHDuC6UDgH3T_V4N7y6_qxkr-lino7b3FLquGavC5D0JzeA/s320/unity8_3.png" title="Unity 8 shell" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>According to the <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity8Desktop">Unity8Desktop</a> Ubuntu wiki entry, the following Unity 8 features should work for the final Ubuntu 13.10 release:</b></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>Keyboard input, including hotkeys similar to those in Unity7;</li><li>Mouse, touchscreen, scroll wheels, touchpads, and other existing input devices;</li><li>The HUD should be available;</li><li>Indicators should be available. Should include at a minimum the Networking indicator;</li><li>The Unity 8 Shell and its components adjusts to local screen size.</li><li>Content discovery should be working. At a minimum, the local content scopes should be available;</li><li>Minimal Window management, such as focus control and maybe window move and resize; </li><li>The following core applications should be installable and runnable from the Unity 8 Shell on the desktop: Browser App, Gallery App, Music Player App and the Video Player App.</li><li>Multi-monitor will not be supported.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The plan is to have a preview Unity 8 on Mir session (so users can select to log in to Unity 8 from the LightDM login screen) available for Ubuntu 13.10 for evaluation and testing - at least that's what the <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity8Desktop">Unity8Desktop</a> wiki entry mentions. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, Olli Ries, Head of Engineering for Canonical's Product Strategy team, says in a <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity8Desktop">blog post</a> that "<i>[...] the integration of Unity 8 into Ubuntu Desktop is not scheduled to happen for 13.10 but will only be fully integrated for 14.10. The QML based Unity 8 is currently fully integrated on the Ubuntu Touch images only</i>".</div><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity 8 in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to test Unity 8 in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, use the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install unity8</code></pre>Then, type "<b>unity8</b>" in a terminal to launch it.

Unity 8 Available In The Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Repositories

Unity 8, the Ubuntu Phone Qml Shell, has landed in the Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander repositories. For now, Unity 8 is in its early alpha s...

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Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Switching To Mir Display Server By Default

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Ubuntu developers have <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/27/mir-plans-in-13-10/">announced</a> today that they plan to deliver <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir display server</a> by default in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander with XMir, an implementation of X running or Mir.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Unity 8 (also known as Unity Next) on the other hand, won't be available by default and instead, Saucy Salamander will use Unity 7, the codebase which is already in the Saucy development.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAR7VxVxzk7q4nTPaw3hZ9LKjqpnPcSddiYUh3F9dsN5jTWeR1mCKWdPIeHnu1uo4lYACZk85x8hWAnESe50vcEmpWpDt-QMckZyfE3fTLq7RyEaPxd3Hy0vL09EZG4S1MuVC8u4pIdps/s1366/Unity7OnXMirWithBlender.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAR7VxVxzk7q4nTPaw3hZ9LKjqpnPcSddiYUh3F9dsN5jTWeR1mCKWdPIeHnu1uo4lYACZk85x8hWAnESe50vcEmpWpDt-QMckZyfE3fTLq7RyEaPxd3Hy0vL09EZG4S1MuVC8u4pIdps/s320/Unity7OnXMirWithBlender.png" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The announcement notes that <b>XMir will only be used for open source graphics drivers</b> (Intel, Nouveau and Radeon). <b>Proprietary graphics drivers </b>(Nvidia, ATI)<b> don't support Mir yet and</b> the computers that use such drivers <b>will fallback to the regular X server</b>. In the future, Mir should get support for proprietary drivers so this fallback should be removed for Ubuntu 14.04.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With XMir used by default in Ubuntu 13.10 and thus, used by a large number of users, the developers hope to "<i>better understand their [users] needs, fix and resolve edge-case issues, and overall exercise Mir and XMir much faster on our road to the next LTS</i>".</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update: Olli Ries, Canonical Engineering Director for Unity and Mir, has <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-June/037401.html">posted</a> a roadmap for the Ubuntu graphics stack transition to Mir, on the Ubuntu devel mailing list</b>:</div><ul><li>Ubuntu 13.10: XMir on Mir by default, with a fallback session to X where there is no Mir driver support, supported for 9 months;</li><li>Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: XMir as default with the fallback session removed, full Mir driver support, traditional LTS support for 5 years;</li><li>Ubuntu 14.10 and beyond: Mir stack as default, including rootless X support for legacy X applications, supported for 9 months.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He also adds that running XMir means Ubuntu will be using Unity 7 (<b>so basically, Unity 7 will not only be used for Ubuntu 13.10 but also for Ubuntu 14.04</b>), while Ubuntu 14.10 and beyond, which will be using the Mir as a system compositor will be running Unity 8 as the session shell. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Further more, the message says that "<i>Canonical is committed to support XMir for 5 years during the 14.04 lifecycle, which will give derivatives enough time to evaluate the graphics stack landscape and to make informed decisions when they are ready.</i>"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Below you can watch a video demoing Unity 7, GNOME 3, KDE, Xfce and LXDE running on XMir:</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8h0m-ZjPxe8" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=8h0m-ZjPxe8">direct video link</a>)</center><br />Today's announcement refers strictly to Mir being made default for Ubuntu Desktop - the main Ubuntu flavor.  There are no news about the other Ubuntu flavors, except <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/kubuntu-not-switching-to-mir-display.html">Kubuntu, which won't switch to Mir</a>.<br /><br /><b>Check out the full announcement <a href="http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/27/mir-plans-in-13-10/">HERE</a>.</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>image via <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110095242873945299189/posts">Thomas Voß</a></i></div>

Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander Switching To Mir Display Server By Default

The Ubuntu developers have announced today that they plan to deliver Mir display server by default in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander with X...

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Kubuntu Not Switching To Mir Display Server

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Kubuntu won't be switching to <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir</a> / XMir, has announced Jonathan Riddell, the main Kubuntu developer, in a recent blog <a href="http://blogs.kde.org/2013/06/26/kubuntu-wont-be-switching-mir-or-xmir">post</a>.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">In the same article, Jonathan mentions some recent screenshots posted by <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110095242873945299189/posts">Thomas Voß</a>, Technical Architect at Canonical, which show that KDE, among other desktop environments, can run on XMir (a layer that allows running X11 applications on top of Mir). However, he says that:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"[...] compositing is very fragile, even Ubuntu shipping the latest Mesa can increase the number of beasties the poor KWin developers have to handle with because of unexpected issues it creates. Putting another layer between KWin and your monitor is certain to create new issues so I'll be keeping anything to do with Mir off the Kubuntu images."</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>- <a href="http://blogs.kde.org/2013/06/26/kubuntu-wont-be-switching-mir-or-xmir">Jonathan Riddell</a></i></div></blockquote><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM47_kRJPDfqjnwnUP1OWiFopsdYIKfCnLpdVfOu2N8G-F_Gz6dluZSbbCTSmi_eIYwimaSgoF-dd9-fz6JlPonT2K3YA7mYEqphetc0o3qEWgLUt3WjRiNrT3FLGqdNTGHVFKqIDI5wE/s1366/KDEonXMir.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kubuntu Mir" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM47_kRJPDfqjnwnUP1OWiFopsdYIKfCnLpdVfOu2N8G-F_Gz6dluZSbbCTSmi_eIYwimaSgoF-dd9-fz6JlPonT2K3YA7mYEqphetc0o3qEWgLUt3WjRiNrT3FLGqdNTGHVFKqIDI5wE/s320/KDEonXMir.png" title="Kubuntu Mir" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kubuntu on XMir - image via +<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110095242873945299189/posts/MHUg78azKSN">Thomas Voß</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The distro will continue to use X by default for the 13.10 release which is currently under development, and for the 14.04 LTS release which will arrive next year. After<b> </b>14.04 LTS, Kubuntu will probably switch to Wayland, "<i>which is what KDE and every other Linux distro hopes to do</i>", says Jonathan.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There are still things to figure out though, like what happens if an Ubuntu Desktop user installs Kubuntu Desktop or the other way around - the Kubuntu developers will need to find a way to deal with this until Ubuntu makes the switch to Mir which, according to the initial <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/ubuntu-to-build-its-own-display-server.html">Mir announcement</a>, should happen with Ubuntu 14.04 (April 2014).<br /><br /><b>Update</b>: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/ubuntu-1310-saucy-salamander-switching.html">Ubuntu 13.10 will switch to Mir by default</a>.</div>

Kubuntu Not Switching To Mir Display Server

Kubuntu won't be switching to Mir / XMir, has announced Jonathan Riddell, the main Kubuntu developer, in a recent blog post . In the sa...

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Lubuntu 13.10 Changes: Firefox, zRAM Added By Default, LightDM Used For The Lock Screen

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC7nK7bHhKHt69cx3XaaGqAEGwE1eVRJOgYf5OmKPp6e6J89TN6_YaXBSH8jb5ladyxWbUM2EIrPbZEgOKwaKYBJxA1CgHI2x4HVpwRwX5p3LGCApAbxb2wP27XbgoHDPJhO1r7nInhyphenhyphenA/s1600/lubuntu-ff-zram.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC7nK7bHhKHt69cx3XaaGqAEGwE1eVRJOgYf5OmKPp6e6J89TN6_YaXBSH8jb5ladyxWbUM2EIrPbZEgOKwaKYBJxA1CgHI2x4HVpwRwX5p3LGCApAbxb2wP27XbgoHDPJhO1r7nInhyphenhyphenA/s320/lubuntu-ff-zram.png" title="Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" width="320" /></a></div><br />After an <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/saucy/+source/lubuntu-meta/0.50">update</a> today, <b><a href="http://www.lubuntu.net/">Lubuntu</a> 13.10 Saucy Salamander, the LXDE Ubuntu flavour, has switched to Firefox as the default web browser, replacing Chromium</b>, which is a bit of a surprise, considering that Ubuntu 13.10 may switch from Firefox to Chromium. <b>Other Lubuntu 13.10 changes include the addition of <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/10/increased-performance-in-linux-with.html">zRAM</a> by default and the removal of Xscreensaver, Lubuntu now using LightDM for the lock screen</b>.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4XO24p9Zmbkx6qcTmb0T7eZCT-Z1dqKQTdSwgngCH-LmEJcDP1InW23SkoyrZL3EsDbXgUu9jVvB_T2z9yppPWmyn42KKsfhGZ12hyRCh5tbk6aSHhFteHFNaNg7Zx6RHwrGEP47pj8/s1600/lubuntu-ff.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4XO24p9Zmbkx6qcTmb0T7eZCT-Z1dqKQTdSwgngCH-LmEJcDP1InW23SkoyrZL3EsDbXgUu9jVvB_T2z9yppPWmyn42KKsfhGZ12hyRCh5tbk6aSHhFteHFNaNg7Zx6RHwrGEP47pj8/s320/lubuntu-ff.png" title="Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Julien Lavergne, lead developer, among the <b>reasons behind the decision to replace Chromium with Firefox</b> are: <i>good behaviour on old hardware</i>, <i>PowerPC support</i>, <i>customization support</i> and <i>no "It's dead Jim" bug</i>, which happens often on old hardware, this being Lubuntu's main target:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><ul><li><i>Good behaviour on old hardware: thanks to your tests, Firefox seems to behave well on old hardware. I also saw it on my own testing system. It's difficult to say if 1 is better than another one, but a 1 tab use of Firefox seems a bit better, and many users still use only 1 tab;</i></li><i> </i><li><i>PowerPC support: Firefox support is still limited, but Firefox exists on powerpc. No need to advertise the fact that we have 2 different browsers;</i></li><i> </i><li><i>Customization support: you can add bookmarks and other customization to Firefox. Chromium doesn't have it (yet ?). There is also (still ?) a module to install flash support;</i></li><i> </i><li><i>No "It's dead Jim" bug. It may be fixed in the future, but I'm not sure it will be critical enough for Canonical to but a lot of effort to fix it. It mostly affects us only, not Ubuntu.</i></li></ul></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He also adds that "<i>in a politic view, it's better to have a product managed by a foundation</i>" because even though Chromium is open source, "<i>it's still very close to Chrome and Google"</i>.</div><br /><b>You can read Julien's complete email, <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/lubuntu-users/2013-June/004481.html">HERE</a>.</b><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Another change that has landed in Lubuntu 13.10 today is the <b>addition of zRam by default</b>. zRam is useful for low-RAM machines - it increases the performance by creating a RAM based block device which acts as a swap disk, but is compressed and stored in RAM instead of swap disk (which is slow), allowing faster I/O and increasing the amount of memory available before the system starts swapping to disk. More about <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/10/increased-performance-in-linux-with.html">zRAM</a> (including installation instructions).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Julien Lavergne says zRAM will be tested in the Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander cycle to see if it's useful or not. According to some messages on the Lubuntu mailing list, one of the main reasons for the zRAM addition is to prevent the installer from crashing during graphical installation on computers with very low RAM (256MB-512MB), which seems to have <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/lubuntu-users/2013-June/004419.html">happened</a> for some users.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the third interesting change in Lubuntu is the <b>removal of Xscreensaver</b>. <b>For the lock screen, Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander is currently using LightDM</b>, a change that was announced for Ubuntu as well a while back, but didn't make it for now:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj21RjV08jWPPcwtN-45mvcEXlfwTbcONld7zADHa83oi_kP7cVHp-W97-w41KradfdtDnuYw9cEoZBZ3Q7quw30tNvUHAYYMHT281pK_APx8oPSMN9CyfgD-4Ss9X2ZPKXlf_7KmEf4GY/s1600/lubuntu-lock-screen.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj21RjV08jWPPcwtN-45mvcEXlfwTbcONld7zADHa83oi_kP7cVHp-W97-w41KradfdtDnuYw9cEoZBZ3Q7quw30tNvUHAYYMHT281pK_APx8oPSMN9CyfgD-4Ss9X2ZPKXlf_7KmEf4GY/s320/lubuntu-lock-screen.png" title="Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Lubuntu 13.10, just like the other Ubuntu flavours, will be released on October 17th. The complete release schedule can be found <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/ReleaseSchedule">HERE</a>.</div>

Lubuntu 13.10 Changes: Firefox, zRAM Added By Default, LightDM Used For The Lock Screen

After an update today, Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, the LXDE Ubuntu flavour, has switched to Firefox as the default web browser, replac...

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Unity Smart Scopes Feature Lands In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander [Video]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/how-to-install-unity-smart-scopes-in.html">Unity Smart Scopes</a> (also known as "100 scopes") feature has landed in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander today</b>. <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SmartScopes1304Spec">This feature</a> tries to provide a smarter Dash search experience by returning results relevant to the search query.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYyiZutC0yyPGuaWB7lFGNkCrHQ7PuAS9KS3sr-JvbGjmtTkuKxz8NL3yi2nQfckY2o9HjaSfFBvtq9MwyxvyqmM3_Xx77IoZhtCIGLklxoCsUc3OFmD7G3AESjjvgvtlXv1wW2DzSUQk5/s1600/unity-smart-scopes-amsterdam.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYyiZutC0yyPGuaWB7lFGNkCrHQ7PuAS9KS3sr-JvbGjmtTkuKxz8NL3yi2nQfckY2o9HjaSfFBvtq9MwyxvyqmM3_Xx77IoZhtCIGLklxoCsUc3OFmD7G3AESjjvgvtlXv1wW2DzSUQk5/s320/unity-smart-scopes-amsterdam.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The project is also known as "100 Scopes" and it was initially supposed to land in Ubuntu 13.04 but it wasn't completely ready so it was postponed for 13.10. There aren't 100 scopes yet, but there are already quite a few useful scopes, such as:</div><ul><li>Amazon</li><li>Audacious</li><li>Banshee</li><li>Calculator</li><li>Chromium bookmarks</li><li>Clementine</li><li>Colour Lovers</li><li>Commands</li><li>DevHelp</li><li>DeviantArt</li><li>Dictionary</li><li>DuckDuckGo Related</li><li>Facebook</li><li>Firefox bookmarks</li><li>Flickr</li><li>Gallica</li><li>GitHub</li><li>gMusicBrowser</li><li>Google Drive</li><li>Google News</li><li>Gourmet</li><li>Guayadeque</li><li>Manpages</li><li>Ubuntu One Music Store</li><li>Ubuntu One Music Search</li><li>Musique</li><li>OpenClipArt</li><li>OpenWeatherMap</li><li>Picasa</li><li>Remote Videos</li><li>Rhythmbox</li><li>Shotwell</li><li>Skimlinks</li><li>SoundCloud</li><li>TexDoc</li><li>Tomboy</li><li>VirtualBox</li><li>Yahoo Finance</li><li>Yelp</li><li>Zotero</li><li>Wikipedia</li></ul><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"The Dash now gets and contributes information from a central server on which scopes are best able to answer Dash queries, in order to make the Dash home scope maximally useful through community-contributed scopes and usage data. As before, the Dash can be restricted from including any online content or contribution in the Privacy system settings." </i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">via <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SmartScopes1304Spec">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SmartScopes1304Spec</a></div></blockquote><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Here's how the Unity Smart Scopes feature works</b>: when searching for something on the home lens, Dash tries to guess which search categories should be selected by using the information it has about it in its central server. For instance, if you search for "Pantera", Dash selects "Music", "References" and some other categories. The categories selected automatically by Dash can be changed so you can manually select or unselect some categories:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCbuhDAbci6c9OJE57-4WnR2T8ssI5lw6ChO8N_c3z3cabbLbsqSwpmx4efraJaKU9HXOE6QPhTSqFU-6_5ijLA_l_oStCjFZpULhm2qBRXsnAJS5Fxcd8wudvXpq25mwq-BRFeD2__jU1/s1600/unity-smart-scopes-pantera.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCbuhDAbci6c9OJE57-4WnR2T8ssI5lw6ChO8N_c3z3cabbLbsqSwpmx4efraJaKU9HXOE6QPhTSqFU-6_5ijLA_l_oStCjFZpULhm2qBRXsnAJS5Fxcd8wudvXpq25mwq-BRFeD2__jU1/s320/unity-smart-scopes-pantera.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Each category has multiple sources (scopes) and for example, selecting the "Reference" category will select the "Wikipedia", "Dictionary" and "Zotero" sources. Just like the categories, the sources can also be selected / deselected manually.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Furthermore, <b>most of the scopes come with Dash Previews</b>, allowing you to take a quick look at a Wikipedia article for instance, see the detailed weather forecast for a city and so on:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojdv5qIzE9dxEXs6ILemDbozoq07emlDKVAgrcLOr0_-mciUxymgrtYX1wNrvUHSfQgD_ZpR37DBurxV-hlozRV0iyNKuxIhsH3Wy5jmGnLlIix-NZMDPxKjDzRd0706vl3kkWo5tSnoZ/s1600/saucy-weather-preview.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojdv5qIzE9dxEXs6ILemDbozoq07emlDKVAgrcLOr0_-mciUxymgrtYX1wNrvUHSfQgD_ZpR37DBurxV-hlozRV0iyNKuxIhsH3Wy5jmGnLlIix-NZMDPxKjDzRd0706vl3kkWo5tSnoZ/s320/saucy-weather-preview.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGj87CKTDPFaLqhzXzfYcuAA40cxvuL5oOeo-igtYVFlr_771FUEzu0avf6tTBdOa8YBY-fB2zSz84bpF37ldeylpdeeVuQdwFvKeRTZLnUcLPMy1HknosEEVzKv3qAMLrxQNKvIi3khLW/s1600/unity-smart-scopes-wiki.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGj87CKTDPFaLqhzXzfYcuAA40cxvuL5oOeo-igtYVFlr_771FUEzu0avf6tTBdOa8YBY-fB2zSz84bpF37ldeylpdeeVuQdwFvKeRTZLnUcLPMy1HknosEEVzKv3qAMLrxQNKvIi3khLW/s320/unity-smart-scopes-wiki.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Dash Previews for the new scopes still need some polish - as you can see above, the Wikipedia icon doesn't look too good in the preview -, but they work pretty great already.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The scopes can be individually enabled or disabled from the Applications Lens</b>, by selecting "Search plugins" and then opening the preview for the plugin/scope you want to enable or disable:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpPpVSJP2PsWeZ_2s-wOdi1DqRiWMgtR6lFqWVx-_gMEIWnMdABYg4ry6sPuxTaUZ-FoUiwGnYCautDvo1kKP_afIslAACio6gqBdZGVFvyvOUK9no0rLyNiUqGHyYV-I50VHm6QRK1EhL/s1600/ubuntu13.10-unity-smart-scopes-enable-previews.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpPpVSJP2PsWeZ_2s-wOdi1DqRiWMgtR6lFqWVx-_gMEIWnMdABYg4ry6sPuxTaUZ-FoUiwGnYCautDvo1kKP_afIslAACio6gqBdZGVFvyvOUK9no0rLyNiUqGHyYV-I50VHm6QRK1EhL/s320/ubuntu13.10-unity-smart-scopes-enable-previews.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi98SZJjLAgfBEP5nGXJp2NRXgFMZINji2juPjQTviiv7IQJTuiBC7vGkMve7xoSTJTbjp2-UFwq14hKWMoeODaPCCUh6Qsw318oMd6ro46Jy_TInPJH0-h3Som8QL3jpBXKS0ajIVnmOMW/s1600/ubuntu13.10-unity-smart-scopes-enable.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi98SZJjLAgfBEP5nGXJp2NRXgFMZINji2juPjQTviiv7IQJTuiBC7vGkMve7xoSTJTbjp2-UFwq14hKWMoeODaPCCUh6Qsw318oMd6ro46Jy_TInPJH0-h3Som8QL3jpBXKS0ajIVnmOMW/s320/ubuntu13.10-unity-smart-scopes-enable.png" title="Ubuntu 13.10 Unity Smart Scopes" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><h2>Video: Unity Smart Scopes in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander</h2><br />Below you can watch a quick Unity Smart Scopes demo video which I've recorded in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander today:<br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zzXvZt0TUCg" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzXvZt0TUCg">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Besides this feature, there have been many changes in the Unity package uploaded today in the Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander repositories, like support for payment previews that will allow users to buy music from within the Dash and many fixes, including a fix for <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/05/fix-shadow-displayed-on-top-of-full.html">the bug</a> we wrote about a while back that caused the panel shadow to show up on top of full-screen windows. You can see the complete changelog for today's Unity update in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/saucy/+source/unity/7.0.0daily13.06.07-0ubuntu1">HERE</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, in my test today, left clicking an application in Dash opens its Dash Preview instead of launching it, but I'm guessing this is a bug.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To get the Unity Smart Scopes feature you need to either use Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, currently under development (I don't recommend installing it yet, it's pre-alpha) or use the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/how-to-install-unity-smart-scopes-in.html">Unity Smart Scopes PPA in Ubuntu 13.04</a>. </b></div>

Unity Smart Scopes Feature Lands In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander [Video]

The Unity Smart Scopes (also known as "100 scopes") feature has landed in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander today . This feature tri...

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Possible Changes In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander [UDS]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PSmkudGoGDMuQPczdkbC1RV25skeWPwnmcbrM7BDSZdR779LILLHNjasoxKhKqm0I_nwrb0MDHTNPFbKeOcxjGw55WONg5dCUOF1X-IotmWHmgT60bK2ADmUvB4bFgef9IqLqquluR24/s1600/salamander-picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PSmkudGoGDMuQPczdkbC1RV25skeWPwnmcbrM7BDSZdR779LILLHNjasoxKhKqm0I_nwrb0MDHTNPFbKeOcxjGw55WONg5dCUOF1X-IotmWHmgT60bK2ADmUvB4bFgef9IqLqquluR24/s250/salamander-picture.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Ubuntu Developer Summit is a meeting where software developers gather to discuss the next Ubuntu version changes and features.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The <a href="http://uds.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu Developer Summit</a> (uds-1305) will start tomorrow, will last for 3 days and some major possible changes will be discussed, like "<a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/05/ubuntu-might-get-new-simplified.html">click packages</a>", Chromium replacing Firefox as the default web browser, Unity 8 with Mir being available for testing on the desktop and more.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So here are the <b>possible changes in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander (remember, possible, they may or may not happen) desktop as well as Lubuntu and Xubuntu 13.10. </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The discussions start tomorrow and you can watch all the UDS sessions live (Google+ Hangouts) or recorded. See <a href="http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-1305/">http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-1305/</a> for a complete UDS-1305 schedule.</i></div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Ubuntu / Unity changes</h2><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzag5OLbUyCKQTwe_pYUB87z6tgCS0KPGBwkGzHjSGtd-8p8ZObjli6CyWVwrVFtioU-SiDwXiyUs-U_2Qx-iPBT-LFfwZTihHl5gNbpwIForGU-yYEQlxXwBpVNgRb3NK5AJF5TAyqiu3/s1600/ubuntu13.04-raring-ringtail.png"><img alt="Ubuntu" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzag5OLbUyCKQTwe_pYUB87z6tgCS0KPGBwkGzHjSGtd-8p8ZObjli6CyWVwrVFtioU-SiDwXiyUs-U_2Qx-iPBT-LFfwZTihHl5gNbpwIForGU-yYEQlxXwBpVNgRb3NK5AJF5TAyqiu3/s450/ubuntu13.04-raring-ringtail.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Unity 7 should  get the 100 scopes / <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/how-to-install-unity-smart-scopes-in.html">smart scopes</a> feature </b>that was supposed to land in Ubuntu 13.04, but was postponed<b>, </b>along with an <b>in-dash payment system</b>. Furthermore, <b>Compiz will probably be updated to version 0.9.10 (trunk) with the performance improvement branches merged</b>, so users should see an even faster Unity / desktop in the upcoming Ubuntu release.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Unity 8 which will be running on top of Mir might be available as an alternative session on the desktop in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, for testing purposes</b>. If this will happen, Unity 8 will be able to run in parallel with Unity 7 (the main shell used by default in Ubuntu 13.10). The <b>expected minimal capabilities include</b> accessing local content, working networking, using some phone core apps on the desktop and a good experience navigating the shell with a non-touch device such as a touchpad or mouse. There will be no desktop features added so this will only be a reflection of what already exists for the phone.</div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCk6XLGDpa1gABGGzcQ1VuW_wjrlIGGB_GAbxLaR2vlJDWv-NCQjJs_hkOIgO72iD-wJTDrP29yQ9cgGfIPK9Zztx3ITi_Dsz27JRstiDtw1NztmjNkALShtyk9W0Egisal2h7UpI5UiRA/s1600/chromium-browser.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCk6XLGDpa1gABGGzcQ1VuW_wjrlIGGB_GAbxLaR2vlJDWv-NCQjJs_hkOIgO72iD-wJTDrP29yQ9cgGfIPK9Zztx3ITi_Dsz27JRstiDtw1NztmjNkALShtyk9W0Egisal2h7UpI5UiRA/s400/chromium-browser.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the default applications, it looks like there's only one change proposal, but a pretty major one: <b>Chromium might be used as the default web browser in Ubuntu 13.10, replacing Firefox</b>. According to the <a href="https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-1305-chromium-default-browser">blueprint</a>, "<i>Chromium has matured to being as good or better than Firefox. It will be the foundation of a lot of Ubuntu Touch code and webapps code</i>", this probably leading to considering it as the default browser on the desktop too.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A new feature that might be added to Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander is "<b>click packages</b>", a simplified package format and installer - we've already covered that so take a look at our initial article for details: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/05/ubuntu-might-get-new-simplified.html">Ubuntu Might Get A New Simplified Packaging Format And App Installer</a>.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update:</b> <b><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/new-locally-integrated-menubar-might.html">locally integrated menus</a></b> was initially in the Desktop Unity Polish for 13.10 <a href="https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/client-s-unity7-polish">blueprint</a>, but was later removed, so it seems this feature won't make it in Ubuntu 13.10 either (it was firstly supposed to land in Ubuntu 12.04).</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Other changes that might make it into Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander include:</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">support by default the latest Nvidia drivers that come with <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/nvidia-releases-linux-graphics-drivers.html">initial Optimus support</a> (the patches are already available, there's little work required);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">there might be some new indicators (e.g.: for Keyboard);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Saucy will probably ship with xserver 1.14 or even 1.15, mesa 9.2.x and Linux Kernel 3.10 or 3.11;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">prime support, Radeon UVD support, proper radeonsi support as well as proper touch screen support for X.Org.</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>Possible Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander changes</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Some interesting changes are expected to happen in Lubuntu too, the LXDE Ubuntu flavor. While Ubuntu might switch from Firefox to Chromium, <b>Lubuntu considers the opposite: it might ship with Firefox by default instead of Chromium</b> as the default web browser because Chromium uses too much memory for Lubuntu, which is supposed to be a lightweight Linux distribution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Other possible changes in Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander include:</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">remove lxkeymap in favor of the keyboard applet of lxpanel;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Lubuntu Software Center might be replaced with something else;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Xscreensaver might be removed and replaced with the LightDM locking system;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">some new games might be added by default;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">artwork changes.</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">No Xubuntu session shows up in the UDS session list, but there are some sessions registered on Launchpad, though they don't give too much info about Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander. So far, it looks like <b>Xubuntu 13.10 might get apt-offline by default</b> and also, there's going to be a<b> study to see if it's feasible to integrate HUD into Xubuntu</b>. Xubuntu Saucy might also get a new <b>keyboard shortcuts overlay</b>, kind of like the one available in Ubuntu and some other minor tweaks, at least according to the <a href="https://blueprints.launchpad.net/sprints/uds-1305/+specs?searchtext=xubuntu">current blueprints</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, since Xfce 4.12 was <a href="http://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.12/roadmap">supposed</a> to be released in March, but wasn't, it's still unsure if Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander will ship with Xfce 4.12 or continue with 4.10 like in Xubuntu Quantal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>There's little or no information for now about Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME or the other Ubuntu flavors, that's why I didn't add any info about them.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>info via <a href="http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-1305/">summit.ubuntu.com/uds-1305/</a></i></div>

Possible Changes In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander [UDS]

Ubuntu Developer Summit is a meeting where software developers gather to discuss the next Ubuntu version changes and features. The Ubuntu De...

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Ubuntu Might Get A New Simplified Packaging Format And App Installer

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbN7G5xPrX-G1J8WkEvnVe1UiBvNxrR6gPOOX4v6-r6irjBS6JBeFhz39gQMhyphenhyphenusb3B8EVz4aTMLr86dUimermIa29P6C2od1C6mA_jAAieuDbB5UoviheRKCj72LKeLpU86imPZTOTB_W/s1600/ubuntu-packaging.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbN7G5xPrX-G1J8WkEvnVe1UiBvNxrR6gPOOX4v6-r6irjBS6JBeFhz39gQMhyphenhyphenusb3B8EVz4aTMLr86dUimermIa29P6C2od1C6mA_jAAieuDbB5UoviheRKCj72LKeLpU86imPZTOTB_W/s400/ubuntu-packaging.png" title="Ubuntu packaging" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a recent message posted on the Ubuntu Devel mailing list by Colin Watson, Installer Team leader, <b>Ubuntu might get a new, simplified packaging format and app installer </b>which should make it easier for developers to get their software into Ubuntu. This <b>will target, at least initially, the Ubuntu phone/tablet but it should be usable elsewhere too, even on non-Ubuntu or non-Linux systems</b>. </div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The already existing packages won't change and Ubuntu will continue to use dpkg and apt, syncing with Debian and so on. </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"<b>Click packages</b>" (the new packaging format) is aimed at making it easier to build packages for Ubuntu: no dependencies between applications, no maintainer scripts and each app will be installed in its own directory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new package format needs a new installer and there's already a <b>proof of concept low-level app package installer</b> that's entirely new code - highlights of what it can do so far:</div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">no dependencies between apps; single implicit dependency on the base system by way of a Click-Base-System field;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">installs each app to an entirely separate directory;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">entirely declarative: maintainer scripts are forbidden;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">base package manager overhead, i.e. the time required to install a trivial package containing a single small file, is about 0.15 seconds on a newish x86 laptop and about 0.6 seconds on a Nexus 7 (and that's with the current prototype implementation in Python; a later implementation could be in C and would then be faster still);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">not limited to installing as root, although there may be similar constraints elsewhere to ensure that apps can't edit their own code at run-time</li><li style="text-align: justify;">packages built by feeding the intended output directory tree to a simple Python tool, plus a manifest.json file;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">building packages requires only the Python standard library, with the intent that it should be possible to build these packages quite easily on non-Ubuntu or even non-Linux systems;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">binary packaging format sufficiently similar to existing one that we could add support to higher-level tools with minimal effort;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">strawman design for hooks into system packages, which will be entirely declarative from the app's point of view;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">unit-tested from the start. </li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ubuntu developers have also looked into similar existing tools such as <a href="http://listaller.tenstral.net/">Listaller</a> or <a href="http://0install.net/">0install</a> but there are some things which they prefer to do differently; e.g.: Listaller is dependency-based and they prefer this to be as independent as possible and 0install would also need some system integration problems to be solved, so instead, they've decided to create a new installer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The proof of concept installer is currently under 300 lines of code (Python) and obviously, still needs work. The prototype will be ready in time for <a href="http://uds.ubuntu.com/">UDS</a> next week and there's also going to be an UDS session to discuss this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For more info, see Colin Watson's message @ <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-May/037074.html">Ubuntu Devel mailing list</a>. </b><br /></div>

Ubuntu Might Get A New Simplified Packaging Format And App Installer

According to a recent message posted on the Ubuntu Devel mailing list by Colin Watson, Installer Team leader, Ubuntu might get a new, simpli...

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Ubuntu 13.10 Codename Announced: Saucy Salamander

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpEdXFBMIj_1sowOuTzfdWjgRr9hAmhtk9SpAphANwJWw1FfvL2Go84CRzno2xaklhUINX4AP11Om3SiuRJTw5OO3r_zGXfFnEwxGnyOyGhu9Nf6xENnuDzoS4g6RcC_d09juVUjoMTfb/s1600/Salamander.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Saucy Salamander" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpEdXFBMIj_1sowOuTzfdWjgRr9hAmhtk9SpAphANwJWw1FfvL2Go84CRzno2xaklhUINX4AP11Om3SiuRJTw5OO3r_zGXfFnEwxGnyOyGhu9Nf6xENnuDzoS4g6RcC_d09juVUjoMTfb/s320/Salamander.jpg" title="Saucy Salamander" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Mark Shuttleworth has <a href="http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1252">announced</a> the codename for the upcoming Ubuntu release: <b>Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander</b>:</div><br /><a name='more'></a><blockquote class="tr_bq">[...] I usually spend a few weekend afternoons doodling with a dictionary (it’s actually quite a blast, and I recently had the pleasure of actually knowing what some ponce was talking about when they described something as ‘rugose’).<br /><br />So today I find myself somewhat short in the naming department, which is to say, I have a name, but not the soliloquy that usually goes with it!<br /><br />Which is why, upon not very deep reflection, I would like to introduce you to our mascot for the next six months, the saucy salamander.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The development codename of an Ubuntu release takes the form "Adjective Animal". Initially these weren't in alphabetic order - until Dapper DRAKE (6.06).</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Up next: Ubuntu 14.04 T T. Will it be Terrific Tiger? Or maybe Tenacious T-Rex? We'll find out in 6 months. For a list of codenames used in previous Ubuntu versions and upcoming release suggestions, see <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DevelopmentCodeNames">THIS</a> page.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>image credits: Wikipedia</i></div>

Ubuntu 13.10 Codename Announced: Saucy Salamander

Mark Shuttleworth has announced the codename for the upcoming Ubuntu release: Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander : [...] I usually spend a few w...

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