This is sad news:

Edubuntu Will Not Do A 16.04 LTS Release, Project May Be On Its Final Leg
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...Edubuntu-16.04
https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...-its-final-leg

This is better news:

Dell Launches XPS 13 Developer Edition Notebook with Ubuntu
http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Dell-...d=11000B9V5FIG

...and this is welcome news:

It's Official, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Now Lets Users Move the Unity Launcher to Bottom
http://news.softpedia.com/news/it-s-...m-501932.shtml

I'd still keep the bar on the left. I can't use Unity any other way now. They trained me well.

It's Official, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Now Lets Users Move the Unity Launcher to Bottom
http://news.softpedia.com/news/it-s-...m-501932.shtml




Yep , seems a pretty pointless thing to do, most people use widescreen and so need all the space they can get top and bottom.

No matter what distro im using, it goes on the left.

Now if they let us move the ...min/max/close buttons... that would have been better

I guess they must have been copying Apple's OS X way of doing things.

...and now for some good news:

There are actually more Linux gamers than ever before.

I don't think I'd move the Unity launcher from the left, but I'd like the option to not have it take up the whole side of the screen, but be centred like the Gnome launcher.

They're talking me into KDE guys! I'm powerless!

Just been watching the KDE Plasma 5.6 videos, and have to say it really seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds. I may switch from Mint this time to Kubuntu.

If you do try it i'd be interested to see how stable it is for you, i'd love to use Plasma5 again but found it too unstable.

Still unstable, watch it crash at start then skip to 52mins for full review.
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/9...e-kde-lup-137/

KDE is to heavy, seems you have a dozen options just to do the same thing, also just like Gnome, the widges are still unstable.

Bit sad really as its a lovely looking OS.

Wish somebody did a stripped down version?

IHmm long weekend, i could find a few spare hours to dig sapre HD out
Will Kubuntu 16.04 be using latest plasma?

Now I'd expect that type of thing from Windows 10.

As for something more stripped down, have you checked out the most recent version of Netrunner which uses their own twist of KDE?

OK, installed Kubuntu 16.04 Beta 2 over my Xubuntu 15.10 install. No problems this time installing it. Previous entries of X/K/Ubuntu have all proved problematic for me to install as it cannot progress past the partition formatting stage if you select the "Something Else" option. This time it just got on with it.

Had it installed for an hour or two now, and no real issues. Widgets are now easier to move around and can now be added to the panel without error. Generally speaking, the desktop feel much more polished in play. I haven't had any error messages or crashes at all so far. The only thing that had me worried cosmetically speaking was on first boot after installing it seemed to present the older KDE4 icons and themes. But since logging out and rebooting several times this hasn't happened again. I'll keep an eye on it of course.

Muon is a bit problematic though. Doesn't find packages I'm looking to install even though they are available. Had to install Synaptic, but then I always do that anyway.

Otherwise I really like this and it is beginning to feel as if it could fulfil the promise of KDE Plasma 5 that we all seemed to be hyped for. But I will cautiously step forward and let you know how it goes. I'm starting to add my usual round of software to get it up to spec.

out today
http://distrowatch.com/
not long now for the annual final releases

Tried it before, but never could take to it. But haven't tried latest release (yet )
If it was to be KDE it would have to be either Kubuntu or Manjaro for me.

Dam, will never get those DIY Jobs done at this rate

Yes, holiday weekends are solely for tinkering around with Linux distributions and for pointing out the deficiencies of all things Redmond!

Seriously, last time I had a look at Netrunner, I thought it was a well designed and capable but then again so are many others are too like Linux Lite which is also good. So much choice...

installed Kubuntu 16.04 and so far no crashes, fingers crossed it might be usable for me again.

The main problem I'm having is with the Muon Discover thing. Can't add PPA's, can't find programs I use. They're there in Synaptic FFS!

Otherwise it's very good so far. Replace Mint? Unlikely. But I will continue to play.

I always use Synaptic anyway, as long as it doesn't start crashing i'll use it instead of 'ubuntu mate'

Just been watching this show while doing my ironing. I know, exciting Saturday eh?

Look at that crash! It's not good is it, but then I have had that happen across a number of different OS's, and not just Linux. The good thing here was he was able to recover it. I haven't had a crash like this yet, but Kubuntu 16.04 is using the last Plasma release, rather than the 5.6 Chris is using. I intend to add the PPA for 5.6 if I'm still using it. It's a very positive review though despite that crash at the start.

I also agree with the assertion that KDE is very heavy. I was surprised to see it using 1Gb RAM when idle. I can handle that if it's using memory well though, keeping the OS snappy.

EDIT: Ooops, had the browser running. Idiot! It's about 0.78Gb, which I think, for what you get, is not bad at all.

On one hand, KDE is nice eye candy but on the other hand it, along with Unity and Gnome, comes with a price tag of increased resource use: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...cb5bd1264e.jpg

Although, it's not featured in that particular graph, the Deepin desktop environment uses broadly the same resources as Cinnamon.

Well, Steam doesn't work with the open AMD driver I'm using, which is whatever came by default as I've not installed anything extra. The driver is OK I think, not had any issues with other games and emulators, but Steam will not run. I get the same errors I used to get on the previous Mint/Ubuntu editions (cannot load radeon.si, swrast etc), but this time the fix that was going around does not work.

I'm not too bothered really as I don't have an extensive library on Steam, just Half Life 2 and an indie game I bought. But for those using AMD and needing to use the free driver, it's an interesting heads up. Hope they fix it.

Otherwise, SuperTuxKart in the repo works beautifully! That'll do me.

Outrun 2006 still works too. Phew! It looks even better in fact.

However, a multitude of errors have prevented play. Tried to set it up with my usual roster of emulators, including M64py, and it all went totally bananas! Loads of Apport errors and crashes. Hmmm. I'll keep an eye on it. Obviously it's still beta, and a lot of packages are still to be updated, but my confidence has been shaken.

Happens every time this. One day, it'll all work bang how it should. But that's computers for you.

Try "sudo apt-get install muon" from a terminal and this will install the muon package manager which is very similar to Synaptic.

Over the Easter holiday break, I read up, and watched videos, about the free and open source movements and the development of Linux.

For anyone interested I have provided some links below:

Revolution OS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw8K460vx1c

Default to open: The story of open source and Red Hat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhYMRtqvMg8

The Red Hat model is now the one that Satya Nadella appears to be following for Microsoft although they don't give back to the community in the way the Red Hat does, e,g. the free Fedora and CentOS operating systems.

Microsoft did make one serious attempt to cripple and kill off Linux over a decade ago when they realised its potential. While they didn't instigate any litigation, not only did they efectively fund the SCO Group's lawsuits against IBM, Linux, etc, they also introduced investment backers to the SCO Group to keep it viable and going: http://www.zdnet.com/article/fact-an...-relationship/

Fortunately, that conspiratorial attempt ultimately failed with the result today that 98% of the world's supercomputers run on Linux, 2% on Unix and 0% on Windows. Linus Torvalds one said that "If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won" and the start of this year saw that very thing happen as reported earlier on in this thread.

Unbelievably, the dead zombie corpsoid has just come to life again today:

SCO vs IBM: 13-year-old Linux dispute returns as SCO files new appeal FFS By Graeme Burton

I hope that the appeal court judge throws out this vexatious legal appeal and awards punitive (i.e. huge, massive, humongous) damages and legal costs against SCO to cripple them forever so that they never again return.

in other news, the latest beta version of Ubuntu 16.04 has been reviewed:

Go nuts, brother: Ubuntu 16.04 beta – no more auto data-spaffing.Review Ubuntu 16.04, named after a type of African ground squirrel, Xenial Xerus, is here – in beta

Ubuntu 16.04 is the first version to be shipped with the GNOME Software Center in place of the somewhat slow Ubuntu Software Center.