The release of Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal last month was a big deal, since Ubuntu has for some time now been regarded as the “friendliest” Linux distribution. It is certainly the most well-publicized in the consumer space. Its Debian-based roots give it access to a thriving and well-maintained set of package repositories. Its breadth of supported hardware and easy (well, usually easy) installer means it works just about anywhere. Canonical has put a tremendous amount of effort (both in programming and branding!) into making Ubuntu a powerful and full-featured desktop operating system.

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GNOME Shell to Support a “Classic” Mode

By

LWN

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November 21, 2012

GNOME developer Matthias Clasan has announced that, with the upcoming demise of “fallback mode,” the project will support a set of official GNOME Shell extensions to provide a more “classic” experience. “And while we certainly hope that many users will find the new ways comfortable and refreshing after a short learning phase, we should not fault people who prefer the old way. After all, these features were a selling point of GNOME 2 for ten years!“

Video: Rogue Wave Steps Up with HPC Programming Tools for Intel Xeon Phi

By

insideHPC

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November 21, 2012

In this video from SC12, Scott Lasica from Rogue Wave Software describes the company’s Totalview debugging tools for the new Intel Xeon Phi.

Rogue Wave’s rich set of development tools and libraries, which will now also include support for the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor, bring valuable capabilities to software developers,” said Bill Savage, vice president and general manager of the Intel Developer Products Division. “Rogue Wave is a great demonstration of how Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors can help tool vendors port more quickly and add more features.”

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Distribution Release: IPFire 2.11 Core 64

By

DistroWatch

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November 21, 2012

Michael Tremer has announced the release of IPFire 2.11 Core 64, a specialist firewall distribution, with updated intrusion detection software and fixed MAC rules: “Today, we are releasing the 64th Core Update for IPFire 2.11. The Intrusion Detection program Snort has been updated to version 2.9.3.1.

Report: Google May Dodge FTC’s Antitrust Bullet

By

CNET

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November 21, 2012

Federal regulators scrutinizing Google may not have a strong enough case to file a lawsuit targeting Google’s search service, Bloomberg reports. [Read more]

Microsoft Just Messed Up and Gave Out a Free Windows 8 Activation Key

By

Gizmodo

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November 21, 2012

Click here to read Microsoft Just Messed Up and Gave Out a Free Windows 8 Activation Key

If you’ve been wanting to upgrade to Windows 8 but baulk at paying then, firstly, you’re a bad person but, secondly, now your opportunity’s here. Microsoft just screwed up and handed out a free activation key for the OS. More »

Chromebooks Get Extended Desktop Support

By

Muktware

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November 21, 2012

Google has pushed an update for its dev channel brining it to version, 25.0.1324.1, (Platform versions 3196.1.0 for most platforms and 3196.2.0 for Samsung Chromeboxes) for all Chrome OS devices.