First time accepted submitter jakimfett writes "On April 13th, The Linux Game Tome will be going dark, but there's hope yet. The admin, BobZ, has an update for the community: 'To everyone who is expressing interest in helping to continue The Linux Game Tome: thank you! But don't tell me, tell the community! After this site is shut down, I will walk away from it. I have no plans to be involved in any effort to continue the Linux Game Tome legacy. If you are interested in continuing the legacy, please organize and make it happen.' Following the announcement was an email with some 'Linux Game Tome 3.0' information. In response to the email, I've set up a site that can act as a discussion platform for anyone interested in contributing to the project."

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In a few weeks, the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu Linux will roll out. Here's what to expect.

New submitter drachensun writes "Francesco Santini was looking into the possibilities of stand-alone printing with the Solidoodle. He choose the PengPod 700, a tablet that runs a full Linux distribution and turned it into a standalone interface for the SD2. 'So, in summary, I now have a fully-functional touchscreen pronterface installation that can drive the Solidoodle, for a total cost of 110$. No assembly, soldering, firmware modding required. Just a little bit of fiddling with Linux (if required, I can post a step-by-step guide, or prepare an ad-hoc linux image).'"

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Alienware (a Dell Inc. subsidiary) begins offering its first Ubuntu-powered PC targeted at gamers.

Image from alienware.com

The Alienware x51 series is a standalone PC tower which you would attach to your own TV and peripherals and starts at $599 (ranging up to $1049, with “build yours” options).

Ubuntu on Alienware

Regarding Ubuntu, Alienware describes it’s “simple and stylish” nature, and highlights that it’s “fast and secure” and offers “free applications and storage”, not to mention explaining (to newcomers, presumably) the plethora of Ubuntu default applications.

Alienware also plugs Steam for Linux as the gaming platform on this PC, noting the rapidly expanding Linux game library that Steam provides.

Video Hardware

Arguably the most important element for gaming is the graphics card and the X51 systems offer NVIDIA hardware. Of course, under Ubuntu you would have NVIDIA’s supported drivers out-of-the-box, so you would be able to game right away. Having said that, it probably would be ideal to keep tabs on updates for the drivers regularly.

More info

You can check out the Alienware website for more info on the x51 series, such as the range of hardware specifications and availability.

Alienware X51 with Ubuntu 

Alienware Joins the Ubuntu OEM Family OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

dartttt writes "Dell has launched a new Ubuntu gaming desktop (first ever?) . Alienware customers can now choose either Windows or Ubuntu when buying a new X51. Ubuntu option is initially available to U.S. customers only and the price starts from $599." Also in Ubuntu news: Canonical announced on Friday the final beta release of Ubuntu 13.04, aka Raring Ringtail (the main release, as well as the growing flock of other *buntus).

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The Intel Linux Graphics Installer provides a friendly way for downloading the latest Intel Linux graphics software stack.

Early in March, Intel –specifically the Intel Open Source Technology Centre– released a graphical installer providing Linux users with a friendly way for downloading the latest Intel-related open source Linux graphics components –for the more technical this includes:

• the Intel core kernel driver
• Mesa 3D rendering library, responsible for 3D rendering, OpenGL compatibility, GLES, etc.
• the 2D renderer for the X Window stack (xf86-video-intel), also known as DDX.
• libdrm –the “Direct Rendering Manager” library, for communication between user applications and the kernel
• the Cairo graphics library, for 2D rendering and acceleration
• vaapi-driver-intel –the APIs for hardware-accelerated video rendering, processing and output
• initial support for Wayland

Getting the Latest and Greatest Intel Linux Drivers

Intel Linux Graphics Installer automatically detects your hardware and system specifics and adds a software repository to your sources for keeping you up-to-date. The installer also performs a check to see if your system is running the latest drivers and, if not, it runs a system upgrade.

However, the installer doesn’t automatically add the repository authentication key to your system but it can manually added by opening a terminal, and executing:

wget --no-check-certificate https://download.01.org/gfx/RPM-GPG-KEY-ilg -O - | \ sudo apt-key add - Download & Install for Ubuntu

Supporting both 32 and 64 bit systems, the Intel Linux Graphics Installer is available for download for Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 (as well as Fedora 17, 18) via their website:

Download Intel Linux Graphics Installer 

Intel Release Graphical Installer for Their Linux Drivers OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

DeviceGuru writes "After four years of development, Micromagic Systems has finally completed the Mantis Hexapod Walking Machine (YouTube video), claimed to be the world's largest all-terrain operational hexapod robot. The device stands nearly three meters tall, weighs just under two tons, and is controlled by a PC/104 module stack running embedded Linux."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Announces private yellow show at Microsoft Management Summit

Another day brings another Amazon Web Services price cut, yielding another frantic bout of spreadsheet-hammering among the Microsoft and Google accountants trying to work out just how low their companies' margins can go, we imagine.

Android fragmentation will wreck Android for smartphones and tablets just as much as Windows fragmentation ruined Windows for the PC.

New submitter dtschmitz highlights the success of the Google Chromebook to underscore what, in his view, is a serious Linux brand image problem. "It's remarkable how Google doesn't mention the word Linux anywhere in their marketing of the Google Chromebook. I mean, it's running the Linux Kernel, so shouldn't it be Google Linux instead of ChromeOS? Why did Google carefully avoid references to Linux? It's all a very carefully crafted, well executed plan of elegant branding and image making. ... The profile of this user is that of someone who really doesn't care anything about the technical underpinnings of a device. They are not sophisticated technophiles by any means. They have a set number of things which they wish to do--recreational surfing, banking, email, an occasional letter, not complicated. ... Google didn't mention Linux because they know it will scare buyers away. That's unfortunate, but true. And we need to come to terms with that fact and work towards improving the 'Linux Inside' brand image.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Eric Brown presents 10 new ARM modules, in ascending order of processor speed. See the linked article for an analysis of the ARM COM market.

Eric Brown presents a slideshow of 10 new ARM computer-on-modules (COMs). The current boom in ARM boards is, in part, fueled by the continuing growth of ARM-friendly Linux, and more recently Android, in the general embedded market.

Following on from its release last week, GNOME’s default web-browser is now available for users of Ubuntu 13.04 to install.

The aptly-titled Web, is a lightweight webkit browser built using GNOME technologies and designed specifically for the GNOME desktop.

Ubuntu GNOME 13.04 users can install the release from the GNOME PPAs, both of which also upgrade the stock GNOME 3.6 desktop to GNOME 3.8.

Why Web?

Despite being the default web-browser in GNOME few GNOME-using distributions actually ship with it by default. Ubuntu GNOME, Fedora and OpenSuSE instead provide Firefox to their users. That’s understandable: Firefox is a power-house of a name.

But just because Web is a less well known doesn’t mean that it’s less useful. In fact, it’s rather charming. The minimal gives less room to excessive options and more room to web-pages, and if you can live without add-ons, themes and extensions, you’ll find it can do just about anything other browsers can.

And that list of ‘can do’s’ grows a little longer in this latest release…

New in Web 3.8

But what’s new in Web 3.8 specifically? Quite a fair bit.

A private browsing mode has been added, letting you tip-toe around the web without leaving a trace.

To go ‘Incognito’ just click the Web app menu and select ‘New Incognito Window’.

Private Browsing in Web 3.8

Another user-experience tweak – and one many will be incredibly pleased to see arrive – is the arrival of a ‘New Tab’ button in the application toolbar. I sorely missed having this accessible in previous versions.

Adobe’s Flash plugin is now supported natively. Just install the Adobe Flash Plugin installer package from the Ubuntu Software Center and Web will do the rest.

Other changes in addition to those mentioned above:

• ‘Page Search’ style now matches other GNOME apps
• Improved HTML5 media controls 
• ‘Undo Closed Tab’ action added to App Menu 

Install Web 3.8 in Ubuntu GNOME 13.04

In stock, freshly installed Ubuntu GNOME you can install the previous version of Web, version 3.6, straight from the Ubuntu Software Center.

But for this newer, more featured and more stable release you’ll need to add the following GNOME Team PPA. It’s important that you’re aware that adding this will also upgrade the rest of your desktop to GNOME 3.8.

First add the GNOME Team PPA using the Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3; sudo apt-get update

Now hit the button below to install Web 3.8 through the Ubuntu Software Center

Click to Install Web in Ubuntu GNOME

Latest Release of GNOME Web Browser Available for Ubuntu 13.04 Users OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

The final beta of Ubuntu 13.04 has been made available for download.

Also shipping alongside it are betas for all of the official Ubuntu spins, including the newly anointed Ubuntu GNOME and Ubuntu Kylin projects.

Key features new to Ubuntu 13.04, and available in this beta, include:

• New shutdown and session exit dialogs
• A new sync menu for Ubuntu One
• Faster, more performant Unity
• New interface animations, including window snap
• Scroll-switching of open windows from Unity Launcher

For details of precisely what has changed between Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04 you can view our development coverage by using the Raring Ringtail tag.

Getting Ubuntu 13.04 Beta

If you’re running daily builds of Ubuntu 13.04 you don’t need to do anything special to get the beta – as long as you’re up-to-date, you’re using it.

Ubuntu 13.04 is scheduled for release on April 25th. It will come with a reduced support cycle of only 9 months. Support for it will end in January 2014

A release candidate of Ubuntu 13.04 is due for release on April 18th.

Download Ubuntu 13.04 Beta

Ubuntu 13.04 Beta Released OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

As part of the 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks series, we talked to 30 of the world's best developers over the last eight months in an effort to learn more about how the world's largest collaborative development project works. We've also learned a lot of details about what makes these amazing people tick and what advice they have for people who want to get involved. In these two slideshows you'll find the names and specialties of the kernel developers we profiled, along with links to their in-depth interviews. 

Lashes new Sparc T5 and M5 servers to each other and storage

Oracle is ratcheting up the virtual networking wars with the relaunch of its Xsigo line of I/O director switches.

Roughly six months after the launch of its “Folsom” release last fall, OpenStack on Thursday unveiled version 2013.1 “Grizzly,” the seventh and latest release of the open source software for building public, private and hybrid clouds.

Microsoft’s long-held dominance over the computing sector is coming to an end, say market experts Gartner.

The industry analysts expect Microsoft’s roost to shrink by over 7% this year alone. And, in further research they’ve conducted, go as far as as to predict the Windows’ makers share slipping as little as 14% by 2017.

But if Microsoft’s grasp is loosening, what’s taking up its slack? Simple: the meteoric march of mobile devices.

As worldwide PC shipments continue to fall – a market in which, back in 2005, commanded 97% of – sales of tablets and smartphones continues to rise.

And, despite the spin, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Windows RT OS continue to flounder, accounting for a very small percentage of sales over all.

The future, as we’re seeing with Canonical’s investment in Ubuntu Touch, is mobile.  Fellow industry gurus IDC said,at the tail end of last year that “Consumers and business buyers are now starting to see smartphones, tablets and PCs as a single continuum of connected devices separated primarily by screen size.”

For Microsoft the future isn’t looking great. Sales of their new operating system continue to eek rather than sprint forward, and with worldwide tablet sales are expected to grow by almost 70% in 2013 – but more companies ruling out shipping Windows 8 RT on them – it seems their relevancy will continue to be questioned for some time to come.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi sums up their predicament quite well: “Consumers have options and consumers are choosing. Microsoft cannot take that for granted that they’ll be the one to be chosen.”

Like most towering giants it seems that they haven’t been brought down by an outside inasmuch as their own complacency.

Microsoft’s Market Dominance Is Coming to an End, Say Leading Analysts OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

Parity support across hypervisors, broader networking, other goodies

The OpenStack community is keeping faithful to its six-month spring-fall cadence for software releases: today, the world receives an OpenStack update codenamed Grizzly.

The chief developer of the popular alternative Android firmware CyanogenMod thought that requiring devices to report unique smartphone and tablet data would be an unqualified blessing. They reckoned without their users.