Dell announced today an updated XPS 13, preloaded with Ubuntu, which has a full high-definition 1080p display. It will be available for sale in the USA  and Canada, but as part of this update Dell will also be making it available in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

As we reported in November, the Dell XPS 13 is a high-end ultramobile laptop, offering developers a complete client-to-cloud experience. It is the result of Dell’s bold Sputnik initiative which embraced the community and received terrific response from developers around the world.  With Ubuntu 12.04 LTS preloaded, the machine is perfect for developers and anyone who wants high speed, brilliant graphics and smart design.

If you’re keen to get your hands on a new Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu pre-loaded, check-out our web page for more details and links:

  http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/dell/dellxps

We’ll post more links allowing you to buy in additional countries as soon as we can.

Starting today, users can install the Steam Client with a few simple clicks in our Software Center, the fastest and safest way to install thousands of paid and free applications on Ubuntu. Canonical and Valve have worked closely together to make Ubuntu the best performing open platform for gaming and now the ultimate entertainment platform is fully supported.

To celebrate this release Steam has every Ubuntu title on sale for 50-75% off until Thursday, 21 February at 10:00am US Pacific time in what is the first of many Steam sales. Steam also brings with it some amazing Valve titles on Ubuntu, Half-Life, Counter-Strike and the free to play Team Fortress 2. As a launch giveaway and for the hardcore gamers who need every item in Team Fortress, for a limited time when you play Team Fortress 2 on Ubuntu you will get a Tux penguin item to keep or trade.

We welcome all the new Steam users who can now upgrade to Ubuntu. Steam Big Picture running on your Ubuntu computer connected to the living room TV is a great way to experience the future today. Canonical looks forward to the steady progress of games from all our partners on Ubuntu on the desktop and soon on the Ubuntu phone and tablet in due course.

Today’s inauguration of Barack Obama to his second term provides a good opportunity to look back at last year’s campaign and appreciate it in a bit more detail. We’ll skip discussion of the adverts, polls, photo ops, sound bites, political theatre and even the much appreciated informed debate on the issues, and focus instead on the interesting stuff – the IT infrastructure that powers something as dynamic as a presidential campaign. You can imagine the demands placed on such an infrastructure – scalability, reliability, cost effectiveness, manageability, openness, cloud. Once you have those requirements in mind, the clear choice for meeting those demands is Ubuntu. And so it’s no surprise that the Obama campaign reached the same conclusion.  We recently spoke with Harper Reed, the CTO of the Obama campaign, about the challenges he faced and solutions he and his team put in place during the campaign. We’ve published that piece in honour of today’s inauguration; you can find it on our new Insights blog.

The Humble Indie Bundle 7 is in the Ubuntu Software Center and just in time for some holiday gaming. The masterful indie games coming to Ubuntu this time are Closure, Shank 2, Snapshot and Legend of Grimrock.

These games debut in Ubuntu thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle 7 which is our favorite cross platform, pay-what-you-want, DRM-free bundle that also includes donations to great charities. Game delivery on Ubuntu with the bundle is powered by the Ubuntu Software Center which brings easy installs that are kept up to date with all of Ubuntu just like all of the other thousands of apps available. Enjoy this latest bundle, we will.

If you are curious about the current indie gaming trend, this bundle is for you because it includes the award winning documentary Indie Game: The Movie no matter what you pay.

This is a personal post and does not neccessarily represent the views of Canonical or the Ubuntu community.

Today Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project and Free Software Foundation wrote a critical post accusing Ubuntu of shipping spyware (which is referring to the online search capabilities of the Ubuntu dash).

He goes on to suggest “in your Software Freedom Day events, in your FLISOL events, don’t install or recommend Ubuntu. Instead, tell people that Ubuntu is shunned for spying.“.

This is FUD.

When controvosies such as this kick off from time to time about Canonical and/or Ubuntu, my approach has never been to try and convince our critics that they are wrong. My goal is not to turn the unbelievers into worshippers at the church of Ubuntu. My only goal has been to ensure that everyone who participates in the debate trades in facts and not in misinformation and FUD; there is enough misinformation and FUD on the Internet without us all adding to it.

If someone has an accurate set of facts and accurately respresents the topic but is critical about the position…no problem. We can then engage in respectful, accurate debate that will likely enrich all perspectives and ultimately result in better software.

The goal of the dash in Ubuntu has always been to provide a central place in which you can search and find things that are interesting and relavent to you; it is designed to be at the center of your computing experience. Now, this is a big goal, and we are only part-way along the way to achieving it.

Today it is not perfect – we need to improve the accuracy of the results, present the data more effectively, and continue to expand the coverage and capabilities of the data in dash searches. With each new release of Ubuntu we get awesome feedback from our community and users and we strive to refine and iterate on all of these areas so that subsequent releases offer a more and more compelling experience, freely available and sharable for all.

Naturally, privacy is critically important to us in doing this work. In the eight year history of Ubuntu and Canonical we have always put privacy forward as a high priority across the many, many different websites, services, and software that forms the Ubuntu platform and community.

The challenge of course is that privacy is a deeply personal thing and the way in which you define your privacy expectations will likely radically differ from each of your friends, and vice-versa.

With this in mind, just because someone may have differing views to mine on the implementation of privacy in software doesn’t mean they are wrong. Likewise, just because my views may differ to theirs doesn’t mean I am wrong. We are all different and we all manage our information and our expectations around information sharing in different ways.

Just look at Facebook; the privacy debates there have been raging on for years and have encompassed many different views and perspectives ranging from “I want to control every detail of my privacy in Facebook” to “I don’t care, if it is on the Internet, I don’t care who sees it”, and everything in-between.

We want Ubuntu to be a safe, predictable, and pleasurable platform for everyone, irrespective of their personal views on privacy, but we also respect that there will be some folks who don’t feel we are doing enough to represent their particular personal privacy needs.

When we implemented the Amazon search results feature we didn’t get it 100% right with the first cut in the development release of Ubuntu, but that is how we build Ubuntu; we add software to our development branch and iterate on it in response to feedback and bugs. We did exactly this with these functional and privacy concerns…responding and implementing many of the requirements our community felt were important. We will continue to make these improvements in the future in much the same way.

Now, some of you may share Richard’s concerns over some aspects of this feature, and as I mentioned earlier, I am not here to convince you otherwise. Richard has every right to share his views on privacy, and who am I to tell him or you that he is/you are wrong?

What concerns me more is the FUD in his post. Statements such as:

In your Software Freedom Day events, in your FLISOL events, don’t install or recommend Ubuntu. Instead, tell people that Ubuntu is shunned for spying.

…and

Any excuse Canonical offers is inadequate; even if it used all the money it gets from Amazon to develop free software, that can hardly overcome what free software will lose if it ceases to offer an effective way to avoid abuse of the users.

These statements simply generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Ubuntu; a project that has a long history of bringing Free Software to millions of users around the world with an open community and governance.

But then again, this is not particularly surprising from Richard.

I have tremendous respect for Richard and his fantastic work in laying the foundations for the Free Software and Open Source world that we have today, but I think he is short-sighted at times. His views on software projects are pretty binary: either a strict set of ethics (defined by him) are observed, or it should be shunned.

The challenge here is that freedom is also a deeply personal thing.

I believe that freedom is far more than simply freedom of source code or a specific policy around privacy. When I got involved in the Free Software community 14 years ago my passion from then onwards was not driven by creating awesome Free Software code, it was more about creating awesome Free Software experiences that open up technology, education, creativity and collaboration to everyone. Free Software code is simply one mechanic in how we deliver these experiences; it is not the be all and end all of what we do.

A completely free set of source code that implements a system that is difficult to use, lacks the features that users want, is not competitive with proprietary competitors, and/or does not offer a desirable and delightful experience is not going to bring Free Software to the wider world. It may bring Free Software to a passionate collection of enthusiasts (as we saw back in the early days of Linux), but in my mind true freedom is software that is not just available to all but usable by all, even those who are not enthusiasts.

Just look at the success of Apple. General consumers have voted with their feet, and people want beautiful, desirable products that let them do useful and fun things with their friends, families and colleagues. There is absolutely no reason why we can’t achieve this with Free Software.

In Ubuntu we want to build a platform that is even more beautiful, elegant and delightful than Apple, but is infused with the Free Software values that empower that technology, education, creativity and collaboration in everyone.

But unfortunately, as far as Richard is concerned, if Ubuntu doesn’t meet his specific requirements around privacy or Free Software, irrespective that it has brought Free Software to millions of users and thousands of organizations, and despite the fact that you might not share his viewpoint, you should shun it.

This just seems a bit childish to me.

Let’s turn the tables around. Do I agree with everything the Free Software Foundation does? Not at all, but I do think their general body of work is fantastic, worthwhile, and provides an important and valuable service, and I would never want to suggest you should boycott them if you disagree with one part of what they do. Quite the opposite, I would encourage you to see their website, donate, and consider joining them as they provide a valuable piece of the wider Free Software ecosystem, in much the same way Ubuntu provides another piece. Let’s work together, not against each other.

UPDATED: I posted an apology to Richard about to refering to his position as ‘childish’ you can read it here.

The Ubuntu 12.10 release saw the Dash take another important step towards fulfilling its intended purpose of being an online, global search tool that helps users find anything, instantly, right from their home environment. There are a number of exciting improvements planned for 13.04 that will make the Dash more comprehensive, more online and as a result – slicker and even more useful. Here’s a snapshot of what is likely to land in the next release:

Smart Scopes – Scopes are the daemons capable of presenting local or remote information right in the Dash. In 13.04, we will increase the number of scopes installed by default in Ubuntu (including many existing community developed scopes) and introduce the ability to automatically light up the right ones based on their relevancy to a user’s search query. For example, a search for “The Beatles” is likely to trigger the Music and Video scopes, showing results that will contain local and online sources – with the online sources querying your personal cloud as well as other free and commercial sources like YouTube, Last.fm, Amazon, etc. To achieve this, the Dash will call a new smart scope service which will return ranked online search results, which the Dash will then balance against local results to return the most relevant information to the user. Scopes are becoming a really interesting contribution area for our developer community – and we can’t wait to see what people will submit to make the Dash an even richer experience.

Instant Purchasing – being able to purchase music or apps directly from the Dash, without opening a browser or a separate client. In 13.04, we expect to enable instant payments, powered by Ubuntu One, for both applications from the Software Center and music from the Music Store – to deliver the fastest possible purchasing experience directly from the Dash.

More Suggestions and User Controls – the More Suggestions scope, which currently returns relevant commercial content available from the Ubuntu One Music Store and Amazon, will expand to include more retailers. We are also testing a few additional user controls like filters for local and global searching – more to come on this front as we learn from those sessions. In the meantime, users can already focus a search to local files only with a simple super-f keystroke.

There are several principles around the Dash that are also worth reiterating:

Its raison d’etre is to provide Ubuntu users the fastest, slickest way to find things right from their home environment – independent of whether those “things” are on your machine, available online, free or commercial.  The music and video lenses in the Dash have queried online sources since their introduction, and we will continue to expand our online sources over the next releases. Our testing has overwhelmingly shown that this integrated and unified search feature is the best experience for the vast majority of users – and the best user experience will always be included as a default on Ubuntu.

 
Privacy is extremely important to Canonical. The data we collect is not user-identifiable (we automatically anonymize user logs and that information is never available to the teams delivering services to end users), we make users aware of what data will be collected and which third party services will be queried through a notice right in the Dash, and we only collect data that allows us to deliver a great search experience to Ubuntu users.  We also recognize that there is always a minority of users who prefer complete data protection, often choosing to avoid services like Google, Facebook or Twitter for those reasons – and for those users, we have made it dead easy to switch the online search tools off with a simple toggle in settings.

Onwards and upwards.

Search is at the heart of Ubuntu. Whether you search for applications or content in the dash, search for functionality in your applications the HUD, or search within applications and your file manager, for Ubuntu to be successful we have to get search right.

As we build search more and more into Ubuntu, it becomes increasingly popular. As an example, the HUD has been a really popular feature, but if there is one piece of feedback we hear more than ever is that it would be nice if the search in the HUD was even smarter.

This is a great way in which Open Source and community can iterate and improve.

One core project being worked on to consolidate search best practice is libcolumbus. libcolumbus is an implementation of the Levenshtein distance algorithm, but with a fast search and custom errors. The library is currently used by the HUD, but it is designed to be used across other parts of the desktop and devices as well as embeddable in applications. As with all search algorithms, iterations help bring better user experiences, and libcolumbus is something we would welcome community involvement in to help bring these improvements.

It is written in C++ and the author, Jussi Pakkanen, is keen to work with our community to grow involvement. Hacking on and improving libcolombus will not just help search in one place, but everywhere.

First, be sure to see Jussi’s blog about libcolombus for more information about the goals and architecture of the library.

Also see the Launchpad project and you can get the code with:

bzr branch lp:libcolumbus

I have asked Michael Hall to work with Jussi to help get a hacking guide, list of bugs, and feature goals online soon, so stay tuned for more information. Also, Jussi is in UTC+2 timezone and is available in #ubuntu-unity on Freenode (his nick is Satoris).

Ubuntu has long been a favourite with developers – especially in the worlds of web and cloud development. We’re excited that, from today, serious (and not-so-serious) developers will be able to get their hands on the super-sleek Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition, preloaded with and fully optimised for Ubuntu.

The Dell XPS 13 is a top spec, high-end ultramobile laptop, offering developers a complete client-to-cloud experience. It is the result of the Dell’s bold Sputnik initiative, which embraced the community and received terrific response from developers around the world. The community has spoken – and they said, “give us power, give us storage, give us a really ‘meaty’ machine – that also looks GREAT. And Dell has delivered.

The XPS 13 with Ubuntu allows developers to create ??microclouds? on the local drive, simulating a proper, at-scale environment, before deploying seamlessly to the cloud using Juju, Ubuntu’s service orchestration tool. That’s something you simply can’t do with a standard installation of any other OS.

With Juju now supporting 103 charms and counting, it covers the world’s most popular open source cloud services, all from the Ubuntu desktop.

I’d like to call out the drive and energy of Barton George and Michael Cote at Dell for making the XPS 13 launch possible. And of course, the team within Canonical for the fine tuning of this great product (mine ‘cold’ boots to desktop in under 11 seconds!) I’d also like to call out the dev community for their incredible support, helping us getting this from drawing board to factory ship – get buying!

Combining Ubuntu with the power of Dell hardware gives developers the perfect environment for productive software development, whatever their sector. The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is available from http://www.dell.com/us/soho/p/xps-13-linux/pd in America and Canada today.

The Unity cross-platform development tool version 4 has been released from beta into the growing world of Ubuntu game development. Every Unity developer is now only a few clicks away from publishing in the Ubuntu Software Center with Unity 4.0’s new Linux Deployment Preview. You can download a 30-day preview of all the Pro features, Linux export will always be in the free version.

Cubemen and Rochard are two examples of games built using the Unity game engine and available today through the Ubuntu Software Center. Millions of Unity developers now have the ability to easily deploy games to the most exciting open platform, Ubuntu.

If you just upgraded to Unity 4.0 or are starting out, load up your game, open the Build Settings, and choose the target “Linux” under PC, Mac, Linux Standalone. Then visit the Ubuntu MyApps developer portal, create your new account, and upload.

You say you are not using Unity 4.0 to build your applications? Geez…go get your free download today and get coding!

Another selection of mobile games from the Humble Bundle has been released with the fourth installment of the Humble Bundle for Android. As always we have awesome Ubuntu Desktop debuts: Splice, Walking Mars, Machinarium, and Crayon Physics Deluxe all now available in Ubuntu Software Center which is the easiest way to download and receive game updates on Ubuntu. Not only can you pay what you want for every DRM-free game on Ubuntu, support charity and redeem with Software Center, you can play the games on your mobile phone. This Bundle is a great way to pick up an Android versions of an Ubuntu favorite Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery. The “Beat the Average” game, Machinarium, is a must play game that challenges and entertains simultaneously.

One Note The Eufloria developers want to focus on Humble Bundle support and polishing before they start selling in the Ubuntu Software Center. That is why Eufloria is set at a unobtainum price, get a copy while you can as part of the bundle. The bundle should tide your gaming needs as the Steam beta from Valve that started this week for Ubuntu rolls out to a wider audience, thanks for playing.

If you’re considering the adoption of new technology in your business, there’s a new resource launching today that could give you everything you need to make the right decisions in what can be confusing and sometimes costly field.

With sections on the desktop, server and the hot topic of the moment – cloud computing – it offers useful content for business people of all kinds, regardless of how technical their background might be. It features contributions from IT experts across the Canonical departments, with content available in several formats.
Here are just some of the highlights on the site right now:

• Cloud and the Enterprise Data Center: Everything Changes – a free ebook that sets out to make the cloud as straightforward as possible.
• Open Cloud Computing: Mergers and Acquisitions – a fascinating article on how open standards in cloud computing are vital when combining the operations of more than one business.
• Windows 8 Migration – Let’s Open the Debate – the first article in a series looking at the pros and cons of upgrading business PCs to Microsoft’s controversial new operating system, Windows 8.

Ubuntu Insights is aimed at business people who may not have a technology background, but who are increasingly faced with decisions that involve enterprise computing. We hope it will be useful to you or to some of your colleagues so, if you know of someone who could use a good introduction to the field, please share the link. And we’re always on the look-out for contributors, so if you have any content you’d like to contribute to the site, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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The  “More suggestions” feature (aka the shopping lens) in the Ubuntu 12.10 release, brings the Dash a few steps closer to becoming that go to place for immediate access to “stuff” – whether it resides on the device, in the cloud or is available for purchase online. This mix of personal and commercially available content is still a research area for a number of major platform and online services companies, so in 12.10 we’ll be breaking new ground. And as it happens when you break new ground, we’re bound to get some things wrong at the start. As such, we’ve been furiously sorting through user feedback, and this has helped us focus our efforts on quickly tackling some of the deficiencies introduced a few weeks back.

On Privacy – Communication between client and server has been encrypted by serving results over HTTPS, which went live on September 28th. This has introduced some latency to our search-as-you-type implementation and we’ll be optimizing it over the next several months. Fetching of images is still happening directly from 7digital and Amazon as immediate solutions are either inadequate or unavailable via the Amazon API (such as the suggested ssl-images-amazon.com), so this is an area still requiring attention. Over the next cycle, we will be looking at replicating the solution we already have when searching the Ubuntu One Music Store from the web, which is to proxy images from our servers. We are adding a legal privacy notice to the dash and this will be easily accessible to all users. For reiterated clarity, we have no intention of either storing or sharing user-identifiable data beyond what is necessary to deliver the intended search service. We have always recognized the trust that Ubuntu users place in Canonical and in Ubuntu, and we take data privacy very seriously.

On Unintended Mature Content – Content not safe/suitable for work (NSFW) appearing in search results when not wanted is now being filtered out via a number of client and server side changes and the use of black-listed terms applied to search-as-you-type. While this implementation will cover many NSFW cases, some exceptions may still occasionally happen.

On Improving Search Quality – The team is currently focused on tackling the most obvious search quality issue – the return of commercial content when searching for software and applications on your computer. The Dash gives you what you want – every time. Sometimes that’s a product from Amazon, most often its not, and the better we judge that the better the experience will be. Search quality is an area where we expect to learn a great deal from and we will be looking at other improvements over the next cycle – along with the introduction of more user controls such as filters for personal and online content, and there will be sessions scheduled at the next Ubuntu Development Summit to discuss this.

On the “commercial” factor – Keeping the Ubuntu project sustainable requires the development of services that continuously improve the user experience and can at the same time be “monetized”. Evolving the Dash from a place to search for local files and software into a place that can give users instant access to any content, whether on your device or available online, personal or for purchase – is challenging, behavior changing, and if done right, potentially extremely valuable to users. Online commerce is a real and important part of our everyday experience, and with the Dash, we are inventing faster, slicker and more stylish ways for all of us to get more done with Ubuntu. Introducing it as a default in 12.10 recognizes that, and allows us to learn from intensive usage. For users who wish to opt out of online search altogether, we have introduced an “on/off” toggle in settings.

We’re excited about the journey taken to evolve the Dash, and to get where we want to, we’ll need the continued feedback we’ve enjoyed so far.

Canonical and the Ubuntu community have established a solid position for Ubuntu in the worlds of desktop, server and now cloud computing. We’re continuing to innovate in these areas, nimbly adapting to new ways of computing in a cloud-based, multi-device world. One where Ubuntu will ultimately run on mobiles, tablets and televisions – in fact, any screen, anywhere.

Every day, thousands of community members support the development of their favourite operating system. Even if they’re not software developers they help out with testing, documentation, marketing, brainstorming or answering other users’ questions in online forums. And people who don’t have the time to help out directly have always been able to make a financial contribution, albeit in a not-easy-to-find spot on our website. Many users have been asking for a simpler, more obvious way to do this.

Today, we’re making it easier for people to financially contribute to Ubuntu if they want to. By introducing a ‘contribute’ screen as part of the desktop download process, people can choose to financially support different aspects of Canonical’s work: from gaming and apps, developing the desktop, phone and tablet, to co-ordination of upstreams or supporting Ubuntu flavours. It’s important to note that Ubuntu remains absolutely free, financial contribution remains optional and it is not required in order to download the software.

By allowing Ubuntu users to choose which elements of Ubuntu they’re most excited about, we’ll get direct feedback on which favourite features or projects deserve the bulk of our attention. We’re letting users name their price – depending on the value that they put on the operating system or other aspects of our work. That price can, of course, be zero – but every last cent helps make Ubuntu better.

Ubuntu will always be free to use, share and develop. We hope it will continue to give you everything you want in an operating system – and we hope that you’ll join us in helping to build the future of computing, however you choose to contribute.

Development on Ubuntu 12.10 is wrapping up, with another beta release due on September 27th. Blog posts and reviews of the user-facing features are already hitting the Internet, there has also been a lot of important work done lower in the stack as well. While that lower-level work doesn’t usually make the headlines, support for Secure Boot has (rightfully) been in the spotlight and therefore I felt it was important to give an update on how Ubuntu 12.10 will support Secure Boot. There has been a lot of collaborative discussion around technical and legal implications, between Canonical, OEMs, upstreams, and BIOS manufacturers, and I’m happy with the end result. I’m confident that end users, OEMs, and the free and open source community is getting the best, most secure, and safest solution with Ubuntu’s implementation of Secure Boot.

When we announced our plans to support Secure Boot in Ubuntu 12.10, we originally planned that we would use an EFILinux bootloader. We chose that option over the Grub 2 bootloader because Grub 2 has licensing provisions that, in our view at the time, could have forced disclosure of Canonical keys if an OEM partner had inadvertently shipped a computer which did not allow disabling of Secure Boot.

In subsequent discussion with the Free Software Foundation (FSF), who owns the copyright for Grub 2, the FSF has stated clearly that Grub 2 with Secure Boot does not pose a risk of key disclosure in such circumstances. We have also confirmed that view with our OEM partners, and have introduced variations to the Ubuntu Certification program and QA scripts for pre-installs to ensure that security and user choice are maintained on Ubuntu machines. Therefore, we have decided that Grub 2 is the best choice for a bootloader, and will use only Grub 2 in Ubuntu 12.10 and 12.04.2 by default.

I’d like to thank the many people at Canonical, our OEM partners, the open source community, the UEFI working group and the FSF who have been instrumental in resolving this issue. In particular, John Sullivan, Executive Director of the FSF, has been a source of clarity and commitment in navigating these unchartered waters. John says “We are pleased with Canonical’s decision to stick with Grub 2. We know that the challenges raised when trying to support true user security without harming user freedom — Secure Boot vs. Restricted Boot — are new for everyone distributing free software. This is the situation for which GPLv3 was written, and after helpful conversations with Canonical, we are confident the license does its job well, ensuring users can modify their systems without putting distributors in untenable positions.”

We’re in the homestretch to the Quetzal taking flight; you can always download the latest beta at http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.10. Let us know your feedback!

UPDATE: We’ve just added four more amazing titles to the Humble Indie Bundle 6! If you’ve already picked up a bundle, you’ll find BIT.TRIP RUNNER, Gratuitous Space Battles, Jamestown, and Wizorb available now if you beat the average. This brings the bundle to ten games strong!

Humble Indie Bundle 6 is upon us – and every single game makes its Ubuntu debut this time around. Humble Bundle veterans will know the drill by now, but if this is your first time, prepare to be amazed. For the next two weeks, you can pay what you want to for the following incredible new titles on Ubuntu:

- Torchlight, the critically acclaimed action-RPG

- Shatter, the physics-based brick breaker

- Space Pirates & Zombies, the top down space combat sim

- Rochard, the rugged sci-fi action platformer

- Vessel*, the steampunk puzzle platformer

It gets better. If your donation is higher than the average, you’ll be rewarded with a sixth game download: the frantic acrobatic platformer Dustforce! *Please note that the finishing touches for Vessel’s Ubuntu debut are still being completed and should be ready in 24-72 hours.

There’s something extra special about Rochard because it’s the first native game based on the Unity engine to make it into both the Humble Bundle and the Ubuntu Software Center. The team at Unity is dedicated to their mission to democratize gaming, while strengthening their cross-platform gaming platform with the ability to export to Ubuntu.

With the Unity 4.0 release later this year, we can expect a raft of new games on Ubuntu. So it gives us great pleasure to welcome all Unity developers to what is easily the most enthusiastic indie gaming community.

To make life easier for independent game developers, we’ve been working hard to streamline the process of bringing new games to Ubuntu. Canonical has been developing a new service as part of our developer program to automatically package your applications – and that includes Unity games. This means developers can focus on their software, while Canonical takes care of the packaging for Ubuntu.

To learn even more about the games, check out the Humble Bundle site, where you’ll also find information about soundtracks, redemption through both the Ubuntu Software Center and Steam and donations to this bundle’s chosen charities: Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

You have two weeks from now to get six brand new games for whatever price you think they’re worth. So lets make this bundle even bigger than the last one for Ubuntu – and the coming wave of gaming titles that continue to make Ubuntu great.

We’ve already written about Unity Technologies, supporting publishing applications to Linux in the next release of their platform, Unity 4.0. Canonical attended Unity’s Unite developer conference in Amsterdam, held 21-24 August, to meet with the nearly 1,200 Unity employees and developers and see first hand what to expect in Unity 4.0.

In Amsterdam, the Unite keynote kicked things off with an overview of the past few years and the evolution of Unity. Famed game designer Peter Molyneux, took to the stage and wowed the crowd with his latest game, the soon-to-be-renamed, Curiosity. The afternoon was filled with sessions geared towards developers who use Unity to create amazing games for all sorts of platforms. Thursday had a great session about how to use networking in Unity to create multiplayer games and how the new features in Unity 4.0 can make games come alive.

We already knew that Unity 4.0 is going to be unbelievable! The games that were showcased and won the Unity Awards really raised the bar for Unity development. You can get the lowdown on what Unity 4.0 has to offer, how to upgrade and what you need to run it from the FAQ. The free version of Unity 4.0 will, when released in a few months, include the new Mecanim engine and everything you need to start making incredible games right away. If you need a bit more power, additional effects, more streaming options and other tools, you’ll want to take a look at the Unity Pro 4.0 version. Either way free or pro, the great news is that publishing to Ubuntu is included.

On Friday, David Pitkin and I presented to a eager crowd about how Ubuntu and Unity’s new publish-to-Linux feature would open up their applications to millions of users who have a keen interest in getting their game on and buying games on Ubuntu machines. During and after the sessions we were bombarded with questions about how to get started with Ubuntu and submission requirements for the Ubuntu Software Center. We can’t wait for so many awesome games to arrive on Ubuntu in the coming months.

We had a great time at Unite, met some wonderful developers, played some excellent games, and got the word out on Ubuntu Software Center and publishing games to millions of Ubuntu users.

Get more information about the Ubuntu Software Center and MyApps. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow @ubuntuappdev on Twitter.

Since its April release, 12.04 LTS has had an enthusiastic reception in organisations that look to the LTS for large scale deployments that will remain in place for many years. For those of you waiting for the first point release, we are delighted to announce Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS. This update to the current long-term support release, available from 23rd August, is the result of four months’ worth of real-life enterprise usage. The resulting fixes and enhancements translate into a rock-solid, thoroughly tested upgrade path for any enterprise running Ubuntu 10.04, the last LTS release.

Users on 10.04 LTS will then receive their first system notifications encouraging them to upgrade to the new LTS release. Consequently, we expect an even bigger shift among enterprise users than we experienced when it was first made available, back in April. Enterprise users can now be completely confident that the upgrade will be fast and free from disruption.

In April, we announced an ARM version of Ubuntu Server. In the 12.04.1 release, we’ve added support for Calxeda SOCs, so businesses can prepare for a datacentre dominated by low-energy, hyperscale servers by testing their workloads on the new hardware now.

The Ubuntu Cloud Archive also makes its debut – essentially an online software repository from which administrators can download the latest versions of OpenStack for use with the latest long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu. It means Ubuntu Cloud users keep pace with OpenStack development, without having to migrate away from their chosen LTS release. Users will be able to download Folsom, the forthcoming release of OpenStack, and run it within their existing installation of Ubuntu.  For information on how to enable and use the Ubuntu Cloud Archive, please visit www.ubuntu.com/cloud/technical-resources.

On the desktop, a raft of bug fixes and security updates combine with five years of guaranteed updates and the option of commercial support to make this release an extremely attractive alternative to Windows. With native office apps and support for leading desktop virtualisation solutions, plus Unity, its modern, user-friendly GUI, Ubuntu enables desktop users to work more productively on the latest PCs, laptops and thin clients.

Ubuntu 12.04.1 is certified on 40 desktops, 98 laptops , 8 netbooks and 41 servers, including 12 of the latest HP Proliant Gen8 servers.

Canonical provides commercial support for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in the form of Ubuntu Advantage, a subscription programme that gives enterprise customers the choice of two levels of support and access to the time-saving systems management tool, Landscape, which includes audit, compliance and ongoing management features for large Ubuntu deployments.

Starting today, the third Humble Bundle for Android is available, bringing with it three games new to Ubuntu: Spirits, Fieldrunners and BIT.TRIP BEAT. Once again, the Humble Bundle provides for super-easy downloading through the Ubuntu Software Center. The bundle deal is only available for two weeks on a name-your-price basis – just like the Humble Indie Bundle before it – so don’t miss this opportunity. What’s great about this Android bundle is that the games will work on your phone as well as Ubuntu, Mac, Windows and other GNU/Linux desktops and laptops.

All three new games are great fun and will be surefire hits in the Ubuntu Software Center. We know you will like the tower defense game Fieldrunners; Spirits is a solid puzzle game and the pong beats in BIT.TRIP BEAT simply rock. SpaceChem and Uplink are updated for the bundle, so if you were waiting to get either one, now’s your chance. There are DRM-free soundtracks in there, too.

The team behind BIT.TRIP BEAT couldn’t be more excited about the launch of another Ubuntu game. As they explained this week, “releasing our games on Ubuntu takes Gaijin Games one step closer to our ever-present goal of dominating constantly. As our Ubuntu fan base grows and we release more games for the OS, we look forward to dominating constantly TOGETHER.”

In other gaming news, Canonical is sponsoring the Unite Conference next week. If you’re attending – or you’re one of the fourteen thousand developers and users who voted for Ubuntu and Linux support – we listened. Unity developers, get your games ready and we will see you in Amsterdam.

Last week Benjamin Otte shared some thoughts about GNOME that were pretty stark. It gathered some steam and hit Slashdot and this all happened the week GUADEC was taking place in A Coruña. I wasn’t at GUADEC but I can imagine there was some fervent discussion about the blog entry.

The gist of Benjamin’s blog was that people are leaving GNOME, that the project is understaffed, and arguably the reason for this is that GNOME has lost its direction and Red Hat have overtaken the project as the primary contributor-base. Of course I am summarizing, but check out the original post if you feel I am not representing Benjamin’s views fairly.

I wanted to share a few thoughts. To be clear: these thoughts are my own, and I am not speaking on behalf of Canonical, but I am speaking from my experiences as someone who has primarily been affiliated with Ubuntu and as a Canonical employee. My feedback is going to be frank but I really do care about GNOME as a project, and this feedback is intended from a position of love for the project and to be open and transparent about my own experiences as just one set of eyeballs in this story.

Fortunately, I think all of these problems are solvable, but for them to be solved GNOME is going to need to do a little soul searching to discover and focus on the right problems and explore and deliver the right solutions.

A Little History

To provide a little context, my interest in GNOME pre-dates my involvement in Ubuntu. I have worked on a few applications that use the GNOME platform (Jokosher, Acire, Lernid, and most recently Ubuntu Accomplishments) and I have had a long interest in where the project is moving forward and as a core part of Ubuntu. I used to go to GUADEC every year, and I consider many folks in the GNOME project to be good friends.

While I care about where the project moves forward I too have also become concerned about the direction it is going in, not in terms of the design and user experience of GNOME (there are other, better versed people to assess this work), but instead in terms of how the project works with others such as companies, developers, and other partners.

In my mind GNOME has become bittersweet. I remember back at GUADEC in Stuttgart in 2005, discussions started happening about what form GNOME 3 would be in. As the years progressed the project struggled to decide on a final vision for what GNOME 3 would look like. This is not surprising: GNOME 2 was such a smashing success that GNOME 3 was going to be difficult second album time. Ideas were shared and bike-shedding occurred, but ultimately it seemed that the project was lacking leadership to take take all of these ideas and flip the switch to a vision and design and move it forward.

Around this time Ubuntu had become arguably the most popular way in which people were consuming GNOME and we (Canonical) were hiring more and more people to perform this integration work (which is no light task, as any distro developer will tell you).

Back then Canonical was taking quite a bit of heat for “never writing code and just shipping other people’s work” (which I always found a misguided viewpoint as integrating and delivering a solid Free Software Operating System is significant work and a great contribution to the wider Free Software commons).

We were starting to find though that there were areas of GNOME 2 that we felt could be improved and expanded (largely based on feedback from our users). We started growing a design competence and hiring developers to build new code to add improvements to the experience. Many technologies were created such as the messaging menu, notify-osd, dbusmenu and the global menu, control center improvements, and ultimately Unity as an additional shell for GNOME.

I remember this time vividly. I was in weekly discussions with Mark Shuttleworth, Rick Spencer (Ubuntu desktop team leader), Ivanka Majic (head of design), and David Barth (head of engineering these components). Our goal was simple: be able to showcase these technologies in Ubuntu and bring value to Ubuntu users, but to also ensure they were contributed to the wider GNOME project as technology that could help the general project in moving forward.

I personally saw this all boil down into pretty simple parts: Canonical and GNOME were partners and it was a mutually beneficial relationship – the GNOME desktop with barely any users defeats it’s purpose and Canonical was helping to deliver it to millions of users in Ubuntu, but Canonical could not build an awesome Ubuntu without the wonderful components in the GNOME desktop to fill in the many different pieces in an OS.

My simple philosophy was also marinaded in the gift culture of Open Source and Free Software: Canonical was paying designers and developers to produce new code that could be of value (and thus offered as a gift to the GNOME commons) and as with all gifts, while it may not be exactly what you want (and may need some adjustments and improvements), I presumed there would be a polite, respectful, and open discourse to take these contributions and bring them into the shared commons that was GNOME, particularly as they were created with GNOME in mind.

This was not my experience of what happened.

Partners

I was really disappointed with what resulted. After years of Canonical and Ubuntu being criticized for not contributing code, when we then engaged in writing code we were met with a frosty, suspicious, and at times, frankly entitled attitude from some parts of the GNOME camp.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Canonical was not perfect here either. I fully admit that some of this relationship could have been handled better (and I am partially to blame here). We made some mistakes early on in which code was released too late and there was sometimes not enough open discussion. Retrospectively, we could definitely have done better in being more pro-active in some parts of the relationship too. At the time we were still learning how to do this, and as such we made some mistakes too.

Canonical wanted to strike the right balance of bringing innovation to Ubuntu releases with new features, but to also openly engage and contribute that innovation to upstreams such as GNOME. My goal here is not to open up a blame game of who did what and when (I will leave that to the commentators ), but what disappointed me most about the whole situation was that from my personal perspective it seemed that some influential members of the GNOME project were treating Canonical’s contributions more critically and suspiciously than others.

Now I haver never subscribed to conspiracy theories, and I don’t believe that there was a shadowy GNOME Illuminati that was meeting together in a hollowed out volcano to plan how to keep Canonical and their contributions out of GNOME, but I was surprised and disappointed at the attitude that came out of parts of the GNOME project to us, when we were ultimately delivering GNOME to millions of users as well as writing new code that could enhance GNOME. It just seemed incredibly entitled.

There were three things that really blew my mind about all of this:

1. From my experience of working on volunteer Open Source projects, new volunteers and their code contributions are tremendously valuable. As an example, if someone comes to my current project (Ubuntu Accomplishments) and is willing to propose new, disruptive ideas, and willing to contribute chunks of code, I will treat those people with open arms. Being challenged is a good thing: it keeps us fresh, and a challenging, innovative idea followed up with running code is awesome. Now, of course, this is not to say that writing code automatically gets the contribution into the core project, but I would treat the entire social engagement with someone offering such a gift with positive open discussion to see how we could find a great solution that makes everyone happy. This seems an area where things could be improved with GNOME.
2. If I was also running a project that was understaffed and struggling to define its direction (which I would argue was the case with GNOME at the time) I would treat such new contributions as wonderful ways of solving problems and building a new direction for the project, particularly if our major distributor was going to be delivering that technology anyway. Code is the currency of Open Source, and rejecting chunks of this currency because they don’t fit an as-yet incomplete jigsaw puzzle of a vision just doesn’t make sense.
3. Without sounding egotistical from the perspective of an Ubuntu guy, I would argue that the vast majority of GNOME consumers were getting GNOME in Ubuntu. Of course, there was and continues to be the wonderful work going into Debian, Fedora, OpenSuSE and others, but it seemed that Ubuntu was the most commonly-used GNOME distribution (I suspect it still is). Again, I saw this as a partnership but from my perspective it seemed like parts of the GNOME project saw Ubuntu as fundamentally subservient to GNOME; as if we had an obligation to deliver whatever the GNOME project saw fit, irrespective of our own ideas and feedback from our users. In my position as an Ubuntu guy, I have always tried to treat our upstreams with maximum respect as they are a big part of who we are; Ubuntu is nothing without awesome apps, and a wonderful integrated experience. I guess I just expected a more positive and collaborative experience with GNOME than I experienced…the kind of collaborative experience that I had known and loved in the earlier days of GNOME.

Of course, it takes two to tango and we at Canonical could have no doubt done better to improve our relationship with GNOME, but I remember back then feeling like no matter what we tried to do, we came up against resistance from the GNOME project, and this was de-motivating and no-doubt added stress to our relationship.

GNOME 3

To shift gears a little, one of the points in Benjamin’s post was that GNOME 3 is a Red Hat project. To me this is a bit of a double-edged sword.

On one hand, the crux of his point is entirely valid: most people contributing to GNOME seem to be a clique of Red Hat folks. What concerns me a little are the concerns in parts of the community that Red Hat is “running the show” and that much of the decision-making has been private to Red Hat staff.

Here’s the thing: I don’t doubt that this is probably happening, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. These concerns again highlight what I think continues to be an unrealistic expectation in parts of the GNOME project with those who are willing to invest in the platform (in this case, Red Hat). If Red Hat have decided to invest in a team of developers to work on and bring value to GNOME, building Free Software that can be shared with everyone, these contributions should be received with open arms. Leadership is leadership, irrespective of the employer.

Of course, there needs to be a culture of openness and transparency, and I suspect a certain amount of internal water-cooler chat is happening in Red Hat, but you will find that with any commercial team that is actively engaged in a Free Software project; we just need to always try to keep things as open as possible. GNOME is definitely going to need to ensure that the openness and values of open collaboration are not compromised, and an open and frank discussion with the Red Hat team about resolving these concerns is no doubt the best step forward.

I personally think it is wonderful that Red Hat are investing so much in GNOME and they have arguably led in much of the direction and leadership in delivering GNOME Shell and the various other parts of the platform. What seems ironic to me is that the same criticisms that were thrown at Canonical with Unity (as a perceived competitor to GNOME Shell, which it was never intended to be) are now being leveled at GNOME Shell (“you don’t care about our needs”, “you are pushing your own agenda” etc).

Maybe a solution to this problem is to be open and frank about the relationship with Red Hat. As an example, we always try to be open about our relationship between Ubuntu and Canonical; there is no doubt that Canonical drives a lot of the development and innovation in Ubuntu, although this leadership and innovation is firmly rooted in expectations around openness and collaboration. We don’t try to hide the influence Canonical has on Ubuntu, and I wonder whether the wider GNOME community feels comfortable in accepting the influence Red Hat has on the project. This is always a delicate balance.

I would agree with Benjamin that GNOME is essentially a Red Hat project these days, but as I say this is double-edged: the wonderful benefits of the investment from Red Hat will be tinged with the challenges of how vendor-neutral the project wants to remain.

The Future

So what is the future of GNOME and how can these problems be solved? Can they even be solved in the first place?

I think so.

I love GNOME as a project, and I love the folks involved in it. While we don’t always agree, the core ethos and goal of GNOME is admirable: to bring an awesome Free Software desktop to everyone. While I personally prefer Unity as a shell, I think the work that has gone into GNOME Shell has been a wonderful rebirth of the motivation and focus of GNOME. The architects of this vision should be credited in getting GNOME out of the slump I mentioned earlier that seemed to stem from 2005. Of course, I will always be disappointed that GNOME seemed quite so resistant to much of the contributions we wished to make, and I think we could have helped to have moved things along a little faster, but I am delighted that GNOME 3 has got to the point it has got to.

As I mentioned earlier, my feedback here really has nothing to do with the design and technical direction of GNOME, and others can provide more insightful commentary than me. I do though think this people-problem issue of GNOME being a rather difficult project to work and interface with at times is a problem that has not yet been confronted and resolved. While this problem continues to exist, I worry that it will eat away at GNOME more and more.

GNOME is blessed with some wonderful leaders, and I hope that the content in this post can act as some food for thought: I am not expecting everyone to agree with me, but if this opens up a discussion about these topics I will be happy.

What is not a solution is for us to give up on GNOME. I know some folks are moving on from the project and moving onto other things, and we have more competition than ever for desktops, but I still see GNOME as an important foundational component of the Free Software and Open Source desktop today.

Now, I am sure this blog entry is going to result in some folks screaming from the rafters that I am misrepresenting GNOME and it is all Canonical’s fault, and you are entitled to your view. Traditionally I have not wanted to raise these concerns publicly as I didn’t want to cause any further harm in the relationship between Ubuntu and GNOME, but Benjamin’s blog post seemed to offer a good opportunity to throw out some feedback that might be helpful in constructing a solution.

While I don’t have much time to contribute to GNOME formally these days, I am more than happy to talk more, provide any further feedback, and help where else I can. I would love to see the GNOME project that we know and love be back in a healthier state. Thanks for reading.

These days, we spend more time online – working with docs, email, music and occasionally even accessing social media. But, our online and desktop experiences have been disjointed. We give applications the full run of our desktops, where they have their own icons and windows, but we trap the whole Internet inside one overworked application, the browser.

That’s why we’ve been working on a way to integrate the two worlds – something to make it just as easy to run a web application as a traditional app. And we’ve been working to give web applications access to the full range of desktop capabilities.

At OSCON today, Mark Shuttleworth revealed Ubuntu Web Apps, a new feature due to land in October’s Ubuntu 12.10 release. It will enable Ubuntu users to run online applications like Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, Ebay and GMail direct from the desktop. Making web applications behave like their desktop counterparts improves the user experience dramatically; it’s faster and it reduces the proliferation of browser tabs and windows that can quickly make a desktop unmanageable.

The apps can even take advantage of Ubuntu’s new HUD system, making it even easier to navigate. So Web properties leap to the forefront of modern UI design, making for amazingly productive, fast and fluid applications on the desktop.

That makes Ubuntu the best platform for the web – secure, fast and lightweight. This new feature is part of our drive to make the web a first class part of Ubuntu. We’ve already turned 40 popular web sites into Ubuntu Web Apps and there are plenty more on the way. It’s easy to integrate your favourite website or interface natively into the desktop, and share the result with all Ubuntu users. No other OS has come close to this level of integration between the web and desktop.

To see it in action check out this video:

Some examples of what users can do with Ubuntu WebApps:

• Launch online music site Last.FM directly from the Dash and control the music from Ubuntu’s sound menu

• Access and launch your social media accounts (Google+, Twitter, Facebook) from the Launcher, and get native desktop notifications

• Quickly and seamlessly upload photos to Facebook from Shotwell

• Pause and play the video you are watching on Youtube

• See how many unread messages you have in your GMail account, in Ubuntu’s messaging indicator

Ubuntu Web Apps will be available as a preview for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS soon and will be available by default in Ubuntu 12.10. I think we’ve made something that’s about to radically change users’ expectations of the web!