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Tag: canonical

  • Ubuntu Flavors Drop OOTB Flatpak Support

    Ubuntu Flavors Drop OOTB Flatpak Support

    Ubuntu has made yet another controversial decision, dropping out-of-the-box (OOTB) support for Flatpak apps.

    Flatpak is one of the newer methods of packaging Linux applications, one that is distro agnostic. Regardless of whether a user is on Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Fedora, openSUSE, Slackware, or any of the others, as long as they have the Flatpak backend installed, any and all Flatpaks will work on their distro of choice.

    Flatpaks directly compete with Snaps, Ubuntu’s own attempt to build a distro-agnostic packaging format. Unfortunately for Ubuntu, Snaps are not nearly as popular as Flatpaks. In fact, while some distributions may offer both package managers OOTB few, if any, offer Snaps but not Flatpak.

    It appears Ubuntu plans to be the first, announcing its decision to drop OOTB support for Flatpaks in the upcoming 23.04 Lunar Lobster release.

    Philipp Kewisch, Canonical Community Engineering Manager, broke the news:

    As part of our combined efforts, the Ubuntu flavors have made a joint decision to adjust some of the default packages on Ubuntu: Going forward, the Flatpak package as well as the packages to integrate Flatpak into the respective software center will no longer be installed by default in the next release due in April 2023, Lunar Lobster. Users who have used Flatpak will not be affected on upgrade, as flavors are including a special migration that takes this into account. Those who haven’t interacted with Flatpak will be presented with software from the Ubuntu repositories and the Snap Store.

    Kewisch makes clear that the update will not delete Flatpak from existing installations, and the package format will still be available for users that want to install it manually. Nonetheless, the decision to remove OOTB support is in-line with the company’s belief that Flatpak doesn’t properly fit in with the “Ubuntu experience.”

    We think this will improve the out-of-the-box Ubuntu experience for new users while respecting how existing users personalize their own experiences. However, we don’t want this to come as a surprise. If you have comments specific to this change you are welcome to respond here on discourse.

    There are a number of reasons Snaps are not as popular as Flatpaks, among users and distro maintainers. One of the big ones is the fact that Snaps can only be installed via Ubuntu’s Snap Store. As a result, while the apps themselves may still be open source, the store they are available in is not.

    Another reason many users don’t like Snaps is because of performance. Compared to Flatpaks and native packages, many snaps are notoriously slow to start for the first time. In fact, Canonical’s own Snap Advocate, Alan Pope, left the company and created an app to help users migrate their Snaps to Flatpaks.

    In recent years, Ubuntu has come under increased criticism for being so focused on the server and IoT market that it is no longer the best distro for desktop users, a distinction it held for years.

    This latest decision is sure to add fuel to that fire.

  • Ubuntu’s Canonical Throws Its Weight Behind the Unity Desktop…Again

    Ubuntu’s Canonical Throws Its Weight Behind the Unity Desktop…Again

    Canonical has announced Ubuntu Unity will once again be an official flavor of the venerable Linux distribution (distro).

    Ubuntu is the world’s most popular Linux distro and is widely credited with making Linux easy for the masses. While the Gnome desktop environment (DE) is Ubuntu’s current default, for a number of years, its own home-grown Unity DE held that honor. Ubuntu switched from Gnome to Unity in 2011, before abandoning it in favor of a return to Gnome in 2017. Thankfully, enterprising developer Rudra Saraswat kept the DE alive, releasing an unofficial spin called Ubuntu Unity Remix.

    Beginning with Ubuntu 22.10, scheduled for release next month, the Unity version of Ubuntu will be an official flavor, dropping the “Remix” from its name.

    The announcement is good news for Unity fans. While the DE had a rocky start, in the years it was the Ubuntu default, it grew to be a powerful and elegant option. Many Linux experts, including TechRepublic’s Jack Wallen, consider Unity one of the most beautiful Linux desktops ever created.

    Unlike Gnome, which has been moving in a minimalist direction for years as the developers remove features and make others hard to access, Unity has a nice balance of intuitive options and advanced customization.

    For a more in-depth look at Unity, check out The Linux Cast’s video below:

  • Nvidia Is Finally Open-Sourcing Its Linux GPU Kernel Drivers

    Nvidia Is Finally Open-Sourcing Its Linux GPU Kernel Drivers

    Nvidia is — at long last — open-sourcing its GPU kernel drivers for Linux, potentially ending a major pain point for users.

    Hardware support for Linux has come miles in recent years, but Nvidia drivers have continued to be a sore point for many users. Unlike AMD, Nvidia steadfastly refused to open-source its drivers. Users with Nvidia cards have had to use Nvidia’s proprietary drivers. Depending on the specific Linux distribution (distro), accessing Nvidia’s drivers could range from easy to painfully difficult.

    According to Phoronix, Nvidia has finally agreed to open-source its drivers. This means that even the most free and open source (FOSS) focused distro will now be able to include the drivers in their standard repositories (repos). Canonical / Ubuntu, Red Hat, and SUSE are already preparing to include the drivers. While Ubuntu already made it easy to install non-FOSS drivers and software, Red Hat and SUSE required users to enable specific, non-official repos to access the drivers.

    Nvidia’s previous stance not only drew constant criticism from the open source community, but it also drew the wrath of hackers. The Lapsus$ ransomware group stole Nvidia code, demanding the company open-source its drivers if it wanted to avoid having its source code leaked to the world. While company CEO Jensen Huang called the breach a “wake-up call,” few suspected the company would go this far.

    Either way, Nvidia’s decision is a major win for Linux users and FOSS advocates alike.

  • Canonical and Blender Partner to Provide Support Options

    Canonical and Blender Partner to Provide Support Options

    Blender has partnered with Canonical to provide enterprise-grade support to Blender users.

    Blender is an open source 3D animation tool that has been used in the film, TV, tech and science community for years. As an open source platform, however, Blender hasn’t always had the support options its commercial competitors can boast.

    That has changed, with Canonical providing enterprise-grade support. Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distributions. The company also provides support for other open source applications.

    “It’s a privilege to support Blender and the fantastic work of this remarkable community, its founders and leaders. Today’s announcement strengthens Blender with full-service Canonical support and long term security maintenance, and delivers the level of assurance that professional Blender content creators need, in partnership with the Blender Foundation” said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical.

    “The way Canonical structured this service with us is exemplary for the open-source movement,” said Blender Foundation’s Chairman Ton Roosendaal. “I believe it will set a new standard for how independent, free groups of makers who truly care for their product and users participate in the market and shape the future of the industry.”

  • Google Has Fixed 99.9% of Canonical Indexing Issues

    Google Has Fixed 99.9% of Canonical Indexing Issues

    Google has announced it has fixed 99.9% of the canonical issues impacting how websites were indexed.

    Google confirmed three weeks ago that it was dealing with indexing issues that were affecting mobile pages and canonicalization. The issues could result in pages not being indexed, or the wrong URL being associated with a given page.

    According to Google, the issues are 99.9% fixed, with outlier cases expected to be fixed in the next week or two.

  • Flutter Can Now Be Used to Create Ubuntu Linux Apps

    Flutter Can Now Be Used to Create Ubuntu Linux Apps

    Canonical and Google have partnered to add Linux as one of the target platforms for the Flutter framework.

    Flutter is a popular UI framework Google created to make it easier to develop cross-platform apps. Unlike some other cross-platform frameworks, such as React Native or NativeScript, Flutter does not use the target operating system’s (OS) native controls. Instead, it uses its own rendering engine to mimic native controls.

    Until now, Flutter primarily targeted Android, iOS, Fuchsia, macOS, Windows and web apps. While it could run on Linux and be used to develop Android and iOS apps, it did not target Linux. Still, for developers looking for a fast way to develop cross-platform apps, Flutter has been steadily gaining in popularity. Google’s latest move is sure to improve that popularity even more, as it has worked with Canonical, the maker of Ubuntu, to bring full Linux support to Flutter.

    “By enabling desktop Linux support in Flutter, Canonical is making it very easy for application developers to publish their apps for Linux users via the Snap Store, the app store for Linux,” write Google’s Chris Sells and Canonical’s Ken VanDine. “By making Linux a first class Flutter platform, Canonical is inviting application developers to publish their apps to millions of Linux users and broaden the availability of high quality applications available to them.”

    While this initial release is an alpha, both companies are dedicated to ensuring Flutter provides a top-level experience for Linux developers.

    “Canonical is making a significant investment in Flutter by dedicating a team of developers to work alongside Google’s developers to bring the best Flutter experience to the majority of Linux distributions,” continues Sells and VanDine. “Canonical will continue to collaborate with Google to further improve Linux support and maintain feature parity with the other supported platforms.”

    This is good news for all parties involved, as it will open up new opportunities for developers, as well as Google and Canonical.

  • Canonical Announces Anbox Cloud: ‘Scalable Android In The Cloud’

    Canonical Announces Anbox Cloud: ‘Scalable Android In The Cloud’

    Canonical, the makers of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, have announced the release of Anbox Cloud, a “scalable android in the cloud” platform, according to a press release.

    Anbox Cloud will enable “enterprises and service providers to deliver mobile applications at scale, more securely and independently of a device’s capabilities. Use cases for Anbox Cloud include cloud gaming, enterprise workplace applications, software testing, and mobile device virtualisation.”

    In combination with fast 5G access, the platform will also allow energy, storage and compute-intensive tasks to be offloaded from individual devices and run via the cloud. This will make it possible to level the performance playing field between high-end premium devices and budget or mid-range ones.

    “Driven by emerging 5G networks and edge computing, millions of users will benefit from access to ultra-rich, on-demand Android applications on a platform of their choice,” said Stephan Fabel, Director of Product at Canonical. “Enterprises are now empowered to deliver high performance, high density computing to any device remotely, with reduced power consumption and in an economical manner.”

    The cloud platform will also provide a way for developers to streamline their application development process, emulating the countless devices and Android combinations available. Device and operating system fragmentation has long been a challenging aspect of Android development, especially when compared to iOS.

    Anbox Cloud is just the latest example of the innovations that can be achieved as 5G rollouts continue and the wireless technology becomes mainstream.

  • Ubuntu Touch Finally Has Hardware Partners

    Last year, Canonical unveiled its plan to upend the mobile industry with Ubuntu Touch. The mobile friendly version of Linux already runs on a wide variety of Android devices, but the company wants to start producing Ubuntu Touch hardware as well. It tried its hand at crowdfunding one such device last year that ended in failure, but now the company has found two hardware partners to produce the first line of Ubuntu Touch devices.

    Canonical announced today that Spain’s bq and China’s Meizu will be the first manufacturers to produce Ubuntu Touch devices. We don’t know much about the actual hardware yet, but Canonical says they will range from mid to high-end devices and be available later this year.

    “The mobile industry has long been looking for a viable alternative to those that reign today,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and Ubuntu. “Ubuntu puts the control back into the hands of our partners and presents an exciting platform for consumers, delivering an experience which departs from the tired app icon grid of Android and iOS and provides a fluid, content-rich experience for all.”

    So, who are Meizu and bq? Meizu is a small high-end smartphone manufacturer from China that employs over 1,000 people and operates 600 retail stores across China, Hong Kong, Israel, Russia and Ukraine. It will expand to the U.S. later this year, and Ubuntu Touch will be part of those expansion plans.

    As for bq, it’s a European manufacturer of multimedia devices that became Spain’s second biggest seller of unlocked smartphones in 2013. It will begin to ship Ubuntu Touch devices in 2014 as well.

    Of course, people must now be wondering why Canonical chose these two companies as its first partners. When launching a new platform, you generally want to go with an established brand. Shuttleworth told CNET that they wanted to work “with partners for whom we can be a significant part of their story.” In other words, Canonical thinks Ubuntu Touch is going to be a hit and they want to bring some up and coming manufacturers along for the ride.

    While signing on manufacturers is a big first step for Canonical’s ambitions, it’s going to need carrier support to actually launch these devices. Those plans haven’t been announced yet, but Canonical notes that it has an Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group made up of 16 carriers from around the world, including Deutsche Telekom, Verizon, T-Mobile and more. While their involvement is not an indication of their willingness to carry the devices, it’s a positive step for Ubuntu Touch as it makes its way to market later this year.

    Image via Ubuntu

  • Ubuntu Edge Doesn’t Reach $32 Million In Funding, Canonical Remains Optimistic

    The Ubuntu Edge was a highly ambitious smartphone with an equally ambitious Indiegogo campaign. Canonical hoped to raise $32 million in a month to fund the creation of what it saw as the future of smartphones, but it only managed to rake in a record breaking $12 million instead. With that in mind, where does Canonical go from here?

    In an update on the Indiegogo page, Canonical boss Mark Shuttleworth addresses the failure of his company’s fundraising campaign with nothing but positivity. He thanks the backers and the Ubuntu community who helped raise almost $13 million. Even though the Edge won’t be funded, he feels the amount raised has immeasurably helped the Ubuntu brand.

    Most importantly, the big winner from this campaign is Ubuntu. While we passionately wanted to build the Edge to showcase Ubuntu on phones, the support and attention it received will still be a huge boost as other Ubuntu phones start to arrive in 2014. Thousands of you clearly want to own an Ubuntu phone and believe in our vision of convergence, and rest assured you won’t have much longer to wait.

    All of the support and publicity has continued to drive our discussions with some major manufacturers, and we have many of the world’s biggest mobile networks already signed up to the Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group. They’ll have been watching this global discussion of Ubuntu and the need for innovation very closely indeed. Watch this space!

    Phone manufacturers can’t exactly scoff at almost $13 million raised and almost 20,000 backers as they formulate their Ubuntu phone hardware plans. They see that people want a smartphone that’s leagues above and beyond what’s currently offered, and those manufacturers may just deliver. That’s at least what Shuttleworth and the folks at Ubuntu hope happens.

    On a final note, you may remember that Shuttleworth said a month ago that they would use crowdfunding again if the Edge was successful. Even though this round was unsuccessful, he says that Ubuntu may “take everything [it] learned from this campaign – achievements and mistakes – and try it all over again.” For now, however, Ubuntu fans will have to settle for whatever traditional OEMs come up with for Ubuntu smartphones.

  • Ubuntu Developer Preview Coming To More Android Devices

    Ubuntu Developer Preview Coming To More Android Devices

    Last week, Canonical released the Ubuntu Developer Preview for Google’s most recent Nexus devices. Developers immediately got to work and began porting Ubuntu to other Android devices. The results of their work are starting to show as more devices are soon to be supported.

    Canonical updated the Ubuntu wiki with a list of Android devices that are compatible with Ubuntu. The original four Nexus devices are still listed as running fine, but now there’s two more tables of compatibilty – “sort of working” and “work in progress.”

    The “Sort of working” list contains the devices that are almost ready to welcome Ubuntu with open arms. Here are the devices that should be getting Ubuntu soon:

  • Asus Transformer Infinity
  • Asus Transformer Pad TF300T
  • Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Wifi
  • HTC Desire
  • HTC DNA
  • Huawei Ascend G300
  • LG Nitro/Optimus HD
  • Nexus One
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
  • Samsung Galaxy Note
  • Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000)
  • Sony Xperia S
  • Sony Xperia T

    • As for the Work in Progress, a much larger pool of devices are currently in the works:

  • Alcatel OT-995
  • Asus Transformer
  • ATT SGSIII
  • Dell Streak 7
  • HTC One X
  • HTC One X+
  • HTC One XL
  • Kindle Fire 1st Gen
  • Kindle Fire 2nd Gen
  • Kindle Fire HD 7″
  • Kindle Fire HD 8.9″
  • LG Optimus 4x HD
  • Motorola Droid 3
  • Motorola Droid 4
  • Motorola Droid Bionic
  • Motorola Droid RAZR
  • Motorola XOOM
  • Nexus S
  • Samsung Galaxy Note i717
  • Samsung Galaxy S SCL (GT-I9003)
  • Samsung Galaxy S II
  • Samsung Galaxy S III

    • The wiki contains links to unlocking instructions and Ubuntu install instructions for each device. Some are still a work in progress, however, so you might have to check back at a later date if your phone still doesn’t have a ROM available.

    For links to the source code and instructions on how to install Ubuntu ROMs, hit up the Ubuntu Wiki.

    Ubuntu mobile is already off to a great start if this list is any indication. The wide variety of devices receiving support should ensure that Ubuntu can operate any any number of mobile devices when it launches later this year.

    [h/t: Droid Life]

  • Canonical Is Bringing Ubuntu To Tablets

    Canonical Is Bringing Ubuntu To Tablets

    Ubuntu is set to take the world by storm this year by coming to smartphones, smart TVs and more desktops than ever before. Now it’s time for Ubuntu to tackle the final frontier.

    Canonical announced today that its bringing Ubuntu to tablets. The Ubuntu tablet combines the best desktop and smartphone UIs have to offer and combines them into a cohesive interface that offers maximum usability. It’s the continuation of Canonical’s philosophy that Ubuntu should remain the same across all devices with only a changing interface to reflect the platform its currently on.

    Check out a quick video tour of Ubuntu for tablets below:

    The most interesting feature of Ubuntu for tablets is the new “side stage” feature that promises to improve multitasking on tablets. Here’s the breakdown:

    Ubuntu’s unique side stage places a phone and a tablet app on the same screen at the same time for amazing tablet productivity. True multitasking comes to the tablet. Take calls in Skype while you work in a document, make notes on the side while you surf the web, tweet while you watch a movie. Or use apps collaboratively – drag content from one app to another for a super-productive day. We’ve reinvented the tablet as a bridge between phone and PC.

    Ubuntu for smartphones will be out in October of this year, but it’s still unknown which territories it will be initially launching in. I would presume that Ubuntu for tablets would be on a similar schedule, but it’s still up in the air at this point.

    That being said, Canonical is inviting developers to start making apps for Ubuntu on phones and tablets for when they become available. You can grab the preview mobile SDK here.

  • Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 Get Ubuntu Developer Preview On February 21

    Canonical announced last week that Ubuntu Mobile would be launching across certain markets in October. The company didn’t say if the U.S. would be included in the initial launch, but U.S. based developers can start developing apps for the platform next month. There is a catch though – you must have one of Google’s Nexus smartphones.

    The Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview will be launched on February 21, and will initially support Google’s Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones. The preview is intended for enthusiasts and developers who want to get a sneak peek at what Ubuntu has in store for mobile devices later this year. It will also be advantageous for developers who want to test Ubuntu Mobile apps on a real smartphone instead of an emulator.

    There will be two ways for developers to get a hold of the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview next week. The first will be a set of tools that Canonical will release on its Web site next Thursday that will allow you to flash your Nexus phone to Ubuntu. The other will involve meeting up with Canonical team members at Mobile World Congress on February 25. They will flash your phone to the latest version of the Developer Preview at their booth.

    Those who don’t own a Nexus smartphone will be understandably saddened by the limited breadth of the first developer preview, but worry not, as new devices will be continuously added to the list of supported devices. There’s also a pretty big chance that developers will just build support for their own devices once the ROM is released. You can keep on top of developments at the Ubuntu Wiki.

    [h/t: engadget]

  • The Ubuntu Smartphone Launches In October

    The Ubuntu Smartphone Launches In October

    2013 is the year of the truly open smartphone. Android kind of fits the bill, but some OEMs lock down their devices. Instead, this year will see the launch of two truly open mobile platforms – Firefox OS and Ubuntu.

    While we don’t know when Firefox OS will launch, but the Wall Street Journal reports that Canonical will launch the Ubuntu smartphone in October. Canonical says that it will launch the new smartphone in two geographic areas at that time. It’s unknown at this point if the U.S. is one of those launch markets so hardcore Linux fans may not want to get their hopes up.

    Leading up to the October launch, Canonical has to make sure developers are on board building apps for the new mobile Ubuntu platform. To that end, the OS will be going out to developers in late February. The WSJ report says that the current developer OS is optimized for the Galaxy Nexus hardware.

    There may be concern among developers, however, that building applications for an untested platform would not be a wise decision. That’s where the real magic of Ubuntu mobile comes in. Canonical says that any application built for Ubuntu will work across both desktop and mobile. Even if Ubuntu smartphones don’t immediately take off, developers still might earn a following on desktop.

    Of course, it doesn’t look like Ubuntu will have any trouble finding acceptance among carriers at least. Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told the WSJ that carriers are liking what they’re seeing from Ubuntu smartphones.

    All of this leads up to a potential growth spurt for Linux adoption. Desktop Linux is getting more and more support everyday from major players like Valve and maybe even Microsoft. The addition of a mobile ecosystem that shares applications between itself and its desktop counterpart is all kinds of genius. It may just be what Ubuntu, and Linux, needs to become a mainstream player in personal computing.

  • Google Adds HTTP Header Support to rel= “canonical”

    Google is now supporting link rel=”canonical” relationships specified in HTTP headers. Evidently this was heavily requested, as the feature is in response to webmaster feedback.

    The syntax can be found in this document. Google Webmaster Trends analyst Pierre Far outlines an example on the Webmaster Central Blog:

    To see the rel=”canonical” HTTP header in action, let’s look at the scenario of a website offering a white paper both as an HTML page and as a downloadable PDF alternative, under these two URLs:
    http://www.example.com/white-paper.html
    http://www.example.com/white-paper.pdf
    In this case, the webmaster can signal to Google that the canonical URL for the PDF download is the HTML document by using a rel=”canonical” HTTP header when the PDF file is requested; for example:
    GET /white-paper.pdf HTTP/1.1
    Host: www.example.com
    (…rest of HTTP request headers…)

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Content-Type: application/pdf
    Link: ; rel=”canonical”
    Content-Length: 785710
    (… rest of HTTP response headers…)

    Far also notes that the canonical tag in HTTP headers might help when a site serves the same file from multiple URLs, such as a content distribution network, when the webmaster wants to let Google know the preferred URL.

    The support is for web search only.

    Last month, Google’s Matt Cutts discussed some reasons (which are few and far between) why Google might skip your canonical tags:

    If you’re unfamiliar with rel=”canonical” altogether, watch our interview with Cutts from when it was first launched: