Interface Designer, OMG! Ubuntu! tech journalist and co-founder, Google and Ubuntu fanboy, part time musician, private pilot, geek. @humphreybc on Twitter.
Over the last couple of weeks we've been quietly working on a new release feature that we'd like to do for every Ubuntu release. A full on guide to new features in Ubuntu, focusing on the Unity desktop environment. And it's just for you.
Thanks to some quick work by Canonical Design Team member Paul Sladen, the Ubuntu font is now available for use in Google Docs for everyone regardless of operating system.
Earlier this week I posted a status update on our Facebook page asking for our Facebook fans to take a photo of their office computer setup and the coolest five would be featured here. So, I present the results!
Packaging has often been lamented as a massive weak point in getting software to users for testing or distribution. It can sometimes be more complicated to package a piece of software than it is to write it in the first place. Thankfully, the Launchpad team have been hard at work trying to make packaging easier.
Ever wondered how much work has gone into Unity this cycle? How about if we showed you an awesome visualization of the Unity branch, sped up into a 30 second video? Ubuntu's very own Jorge Castro made this video of the Unity branch using gource, a tool that allows you to visualize software revision branches hosted with things like bzr and git.
Just in time for the release of Ubuntu 11.04, Canonical have unleashed the Natty Narwhal T Shirts into their online store. The navy T Shirts sport a large centered orange Narwhal design on the front and ?Natty Narwhal 11.04? on the back.
Every cycle the Ubuntu project calls for people to submit their ideas for release countdown banners - small images that can be embedded in websites that update every day until they reach 0 when Ubuntu is released. This cycle is no different, and the winning three countdown banners were chosen earlier today.
Banshee 2.0 has just been released, bringing with it numerous new features such as user interface improvements, album/artist track actions, sound menu and Ubuntu One Music store extensions and more. Those that have been keeping up with the development of Banshee unstable probably won't notice many new features, but if you're upgrading from the last stable version (1.8) it's sure to be a vast improvement.
At Project Bossanova we've announced a playable demo, a pledge campaign, the open sourcing of the client and also that the final game will eventually be cross platform.
UDS-O - scheduled to be held in Budapest next month to plan the Oneiric Ocelot (11.10) release - hasn't even happened yet, but the location and date for UDS-P has been booked for later this year.
Google are known to be a cheeky company. A cheeky company that also has many employees that use Ubuntu and are looking forward to Natty Narwhal. That aside, we were still pretty surprised to see that the Google Maps team have added a giant Narwhal swimming in the Thames outside Canonical's office in the Millbank Tower for a little Ubuntu-related April Fooling.
Bad news, guys! Looks like we're having some server issues and the site is falling back to a command line prompt when you visit. Luckily, though, here at OMG! Ubuntu!, we're always prepared for any eventuality and "X server issues" (which are fairly frequent, actually) are no exception.