12 new wallpapers have landed in ubuntu 12.10 - just days after the Ubuntu wallpaper contest itself closed.
Ubuntu 12.10 has updated the Unity Greeter – aka login screen – with some minor visual tweaks. None of the changes are drastic, and for many will be barely noticeable. The changes, or ‘finesse’, are subtle and incremental improvements to the padding, styling and alignment of items on greeter.
The Ubuntu 12.10 icon theme has been updated with new status items for use in the Messaging Menu. A total of 24 new messaging indicator icons were added - 12 for use with the default 'mono-dark' icon set, and 12 for use with the 'mono-light' version.
It's official: a pure GNOME edition of Ubuntu is to be released later this year. 'Gnomebuntu', to be based on Ubuntu 12.10, will be released on October 18th - the same day that Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu all release their latest versions.
Miguel de Icaza, one of the founders of the GNOME project, has said that OS X has 'killed the Linux desktop'. He cites rapid development 'breaking both open source and proprietary software alike', as well as the 'incompatibility across Linux distributions' as being key reasons for its failure to take hold.
Sharing your Ubuntu One files and folders has been made easier in Ubuntu 12.10. The Ubuntu One desktop application has bene fitted out with a new section titled "Share Links".
The first issue of 'GIMP Magazine' is set to drop on September 5th. The free magazine, which aims to publish four issues a year, features works from various creatives in the GIMP and free-software communities.
WebMenu is a new Rhythmbox plugin that takes the pain out of finding artist, album, or song info online. For example, when listening to music on shuffle I often come across that I haven't heard from in a while. With WebMenu enabled I can press CTRL+W; right click on a track; or use the HUD to instantly open up their page on Wikipedia to see what they're up to.
Firefox 15 has finally hit stable and been released to the wild. Amongst the iterative changes rocking up in this release improvements to the memory usage of add-ons, and enhanced WebGL performance.
We all like to spice our Ubuntu desktops up now and again, and the easiest way to do it is by changing the icon theme. Nitrux is a new squared icon set for Linux that sports clean lines, smooth gradients, and simple icon logos.
The last few weeks have seen a flurry of activity surrounding Unity 3D (the game engine, not the desktop). Most prominent amongst this is the beta release of Unity 4 - the next iteration of the games development tool - which was announced at the annual Unite conference last week. Unity 4 is notable for a number of reasons, but the one most relevant to a site like this is that it brings Linux support.
Stephen Fry is more than just a a revered actor, writer and comedian: he's also an Ubuntu user. The actor confirmed his choice of Linux distro in a pre-recorded interview for the OggCamp 12 event, held last week in London