Image from http://anotherubuntu.blogspot.com/2009/11/lucid-lynx-timeline.html

Spring is in the air!  The trees are budding and the flowers are starting to come out of their slumber.  It also means that it is time for another release of the desktop oriented Ubuntu Linux.

Ubuntu will frequently produce what is called a LTS or a Long Term Support release.  That means unlike non LTS releases, this version is meant to be stable and to also have security updates and fixes for the next three years.  A release like this is meant for those who want to install something that will be somewhat guaranteed to work for the next 3 years.  The previous LTS, Ubuntu 8.04 codenamed “Hardy Heron” was released in 2008.

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To refresh your memory, the Touchbook is a ARM based device that has been released that has Linux installed on it.  It was their own version of Linux called AI OS.  However, today I noticed the Always Innovating site has been updated.

The Touch Book comes with an optimized home-made Linux-based OS. Guided by openness and wide support, we provide natively multi-OS boot on the device.

With a simple finger press at startup, the Touch Book will run either our AI OS, Ubuntu, or Android. Mer, Gentoo have also been adapted to the Touch Book.

Google Chrome OS and Maemo are on their way! Continue Reading

Gearsponsor Logicbuy sends over word of a new deal on a Dell Netbook. Take a look at this Dell Inspiron Mini 9n Netbook with 1.6GHz Atom Processor, 8.9″ LED LCD, 4-cell battery, 4GB SSD and pre-loaded Ubuntu OS for $239 – $40 instant discount = $199 + FREE shipping. Available for online customization and 4 lid colors/patterns to choose from.

Dell Inspiron Min 9

My one-year old daughter appears to take after her mother in almost all ways, which is a really good thing.  The only thing she seems to have inherited from me is that she doesn’t need a lot of sleep.  She sleeps well at night, but once she’s up, she’s up, and that’s the end of it.  She’s not much of a napper.  Getting her to sleep during the day takes a pretty fair amount of effort: reading to her, singing to her, giving her warm bottles, ensuring the house is quiet, and… well, lots of rocking her to sleep.

So why didn’t someone show me this trick before now???

Check out the Ubuntu baby rocker script in the video above.  This guy is a genius.  He’s using an Ubuntu script to open and close his CD ROM drawer automatically and tied it to a child seat, creating a pleasant rocking motion.

Okay, I don’t think it’s a real child in the child seat in the video, and no, I wouldn’t actually put my own child in a contraption that wasn’t specifically designed, tested, and approved for such a use.  But it’s fun to daydream anyway.

[via Waylou]

Netbooks are all the rage, and while Linux did start out on netbooks, it seems Microsoft has been getting the lion share of the shipments.  Well, if you have a netbook and are tired of Windows XP, but your hardware is too anemic Windows Vista or you don’t think you are geek enough for Linux, maybe you should try Jolicloud.

Jolicloud is based on Ubuntu Linux, the Linux OS that is considered the easiest Linux distribution to use. It has been getting a lot of love from such sites as Lifehacker, PC Magazine and Cranky Geeks. How good is it? Let’s find out.

I know Linux and, based upon the preview shots, I have never seen a version that looks as good as  Jolicloud.  They have taken the Ubuntu Netbook Remix install, a version of Ubuntu optimized for Netbooks, and added some tweaks to make it fit with their concept of “cloud computing”. As you can see in the screenshot, Jolicloud goes heavy on web-based applications such as Hulu, Boxee and LAST.fm but still has a number local programs. What it special is the approach they have taken to launching applications. Continue Reading

Over on workswithu.com, I came across this sweet new Ubuntu Netbook.  ZaReason has released the Terra A20 Netbook.  While ZaReason is not the first to use Ubuntu, I personally think they will be one of the best!

Base specs are an Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz CPU, 10 inch 1024×600 LCD, Intel GMA 950, Draft N Wifi, a 5400 RPM 160 GB hard drive, Optional 3G modem, 3.5 hours battery life, 3 USB ports, SD card slot, VGA port and headphone and mic jacks.  Oh, and it has a Ubuntu logo on the keyboard instead of a Windows key! Continue Reading

Active Media Products, maker of SSD drives and WWF series USB drives, have announced a new USB drive that is sure to interest my penguinista friends out there.

Yes it is a penguin thumb drive but not just any penguin thumb drive:  This one comes with a live image of Ubuntu Linux 9.0.4 otherwise known as the Jaunty Jackalope.  Continue Reading

Now in a closed beta  and currently only for Ubuntu(specifically, 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”), is a new service from Canonical called Ubuntu One.  Similar to Drop Box, Ubuntu One is a service that will sync files with multiple computers and also let you share a file with other Ubuntu One users.

Free accounts get 2 GB storage, and those who pay $10 per month get 10 GB of storage in the cloud.  Get in the queue if you’re running Ubuntu, so you can check it out.

Although it may not have happened yet when you read this, the Jaunty Jackalope is now streaming around the internet to anxious Ubuntu fans and early adopters.

Some of the things that are in this release are:

• Gnome 2.26
• Improved handling of multiple monitors.
• X.Org Server 1.6
• Wacom tablet hot plugging
• Faster booting
• Ext4 Filesystem Support
• Server Edition includes “Cloud Computing” features and Turn-Key Mailservers.
• Missing on their website is the new Osdnotify system for notifications.

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This press release came down on Friday, but I wanted some time to digest the lengthy press release because there’s more than just Android on a E-Ink display in this release.

First, the headline is that MOTO Development Group has the first example of Android running on a E-Ink display.

E-Ink displays are like the displays that run the Amazon Kindle.  They are low power, black and white screens for the moment.  Imagine having a color version of this with a touchscreen layer on top.  You could probably gain some battery life with these screens or at the very least have a Android powered eReader.

Also in the press release is this little tasty tidbit:

MOTO labs is working towards customized solutions that employ not only Android but Ubuntu, Linux, and Adobe AIR platforms for custom web-connected application development. We are actively extending our multi-touch and gestural interfaces expertise to these platforms. MOTO is also developing prototypes for better remote management of connected devices with a range of approaches from Mac & PC based device management applications to over-the- air wireless firmware and software updates. Stay tuned to labs.moto.com for more on this thread.

So what are they getting at?  Is Moto working on a Mid?  What about the Adobe Air thing?  Maybe a mobile phone that runs Air applications?  It’s anyone’s guess.  Make sure to keep checking the site for more details.  I certainly will.

As we prepare to give thanks for all the things we’ve been blessed with over the past year and eat a bunch of food, I was thinking of one thing I am most certainly thankful for and that’s Open Source Software.  Without it, I could not be writing this post as we are a user of FOSS or Free and Open Source Software here at Gear Diary.  Most of us use Firefox and the software that runs it is WordPress.  With out FOSS, much of the internet wouldn’t exist. So I thought it appropriate to list and write about 10 things in the FOSS community I am most thankful for.

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Still being very geeked about the announcement from Neuros, at lunch I was perusing the forums on the Neuros site and discovered just how hackable the Neuros Link will be.  The answer is: VERY

The Neuros Link is running Ubuntu 8.10 according to Joe Born’s post in the forum and the specs page.  That means that you can pretty much run any variant of Ubuntu on it.  Joe himself has installed Boxee on the Neuros Link, so it may even be possible to get Mythbuntu running on the box since you can probably add a USB Tuner to it as well.

UPDATE: Found more….the Neuros Link runs a Athlon CPU, so it’s x86 box!  This is VERY good news!

We’re nearing the release of the Intrepid Ibex, and I thought I would share some of my thoughts after having used both Ubuntu and Kubuntu versions of the venerable and popular Ubuntu Linux.

First, since there’s not a large Linux audience on Gear Diary, I will do a little explaining.  The Linux Kernel was first developed by Linus Torvalds in or around 1991.  He was designing it as a replacement for the Minix kernel.  It’s hard to say when it truly started to take off, but the most important thing Linus did was release the kernel under the GPL, which then lets anyone who wants to modify the kernel.  Since the kernel is GPL, anyone can download a copy, modify it if they wish and then redistribute it  – so long as there is credit and a copy of the GPL included with it.

Since it is GPL, many others have taken the Kernel, the GNU utilities and other GPL software and then distributed it.  First, was SLS.  Then Slackware, then Redhat and Debian.  So as the years have gone by, there’s been distribution after distribution…more distributions than I can count.  Some think this is a bad thing, but I think it is a very good thing, as it gives the user a choice of which tools they would like to use.

My choice (or choices) as of late have all been Debian based.  My top two favorite distributions of Linux are Ubuntu and Kubuntu.  The main difference between the two is that Ubuntu uses the Gnome Desktop as its interface, while Kubuntu uses KDE.

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It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by.  A lot has happened in the Linux world.  While the economy is in the crapper, Linux is growing in both the easy of use and the strength of its community.

Ubuntu was at the show this year and had machines from System 76 showing off Hardy and giving out CD’s.  There were at least 5-6 different CD’s they were handing out in this booth alone.  This includes, Ubuntu Desktop and Server in 32 and 64 bit versions.  They also had Kubuntu in both 32 and 64 bit versions as well as a remix of Kubuntu with the shiney KDE 4 Desktop.  That doesn’t cover the myriad of other Ubuntu based remixes out there.  Ubuntu has firmly entrenched itself as THE Linux distro that is in everyone’s bag. Continue Reading