Ubuntu, one of the World’s most popular Linux distributions, is going mobile with smartphones, tablets, televisions, and even cars. When most people think of Linux, they think of an uber geeky crowd which is true to an extent, but a wide range of people use it, Millions Worldwide.

The OS has grown in popularity over the years and with more streamlined interfaces and solid alternative programs, users can get a good experience for the price of $0 aside from time and effort involved. Recently, they switched to the Unity interface which is touch-friendly and one of the changes in eventually adapting to mobile platforms wherever they may be.

Via ZDNet UK:

“Especially in mobile, there’s a lot of OSes [from various parties] that have come and gone very quickly. But they are platforms that were created specifically for a purpose, whether it was for a particular company’s hardware or for a particular reason. They are not established platforms.”

“We have that heritage, we have that user base, we have the developers, and we have the experience of building and maintaining a platform. For the last four-and-a-half years, we’ve had an active engagement dealing with [hardware] manufacturers. We have relationships with the top five PC OEMs, from laptops and the mobile perspective, as well as servers.”

Linux is in everything from what powers your web hosting to your smartphone. Yes, even your smartphone has traces of Linux. It’s a very secure, very customizable operating system and with that said, you’ll see it in all sorts of devices.

Have you ever used Ubuntu? Like/dislike?

Ubuntu Going Mobile, Expected To Arrive In 2014 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ubuntu 9.10 doesn’t only bring new advances to the Linux OS front, it has what I think is the coolest OS name to date. I still think a Snow Leopard would quite easily tear apart a Koala, literally and figuratively, but the new Ubuntu OS seems like it was named by a hippy on LSD while playing Commodore 64 games.

The new OS features a better (faster) graphical boot sequence which ditches those annoying text scrolls, while also providing a much improved audio framework which was needed to spread sound more evenly across multiple applications during multitasking.

Ubuntu 9.10 also features a software center which makes it easier to “visually” remove or add applications, much like what we already see in Windows PCs.

The new system is available for desktop, server and netbook systems and can be downloaded now from Ubuntu. [Engadget via Ubuntu]

Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” OS Now Available is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Webcycle may very well be the next big thing in fitness. The bike offers internet access, but only to motivated cyclists who are willing to work for their bandwidth, while at the same time getting a full cardiovascular work out.

The bike is hooked up to an Ubuntu based OS that users sensors to determine how fast the user is peddling the bike. The faster the peddles move the more throughput the user receives. Essentially if the user peddles fast the sensors allow for more bits and bytes to be sent through the system.

For users who may just want to take part in some casual web surfing, such as loading text based webpages and mobile pages, the system only requires a casual slow peddle to operate. We probably wouldn’t recommend trying to download large video files, unless of course you plan on riding out a practical marathon to complete the take in any reasonable amount of time.

Here’s a video of the bike in action:

[via Engadget]

Webcycle Rewards Peddlers With More Bandwidth is a post from: The Inquisitr

Meet Abbie Schubert, an attractive looking college student who would we’d be blissfully unaware of, until she blames Ubuntu for her failure to complete two semesters at college.

The story starts innocently enough. Schubert ordered a brand new $1,100 Dell laptop to help her with her college studies. Despite Linux being an optional extra, she managed to order a Dell laptop with Ubutnu installed. This is where it gets interesting.

Having no idea what Ubuntu was, she inserts her Verizon High-Speed Internet CD into the laptop, and it won’t load, so she can’t access the internet. She also can’t install Microsoft Word, which she says is a requirement for her college’s classes.

To quote the report: “As a result, with no internet and no Microsoft Word, Schubert dropped out of MATC’s fall and spring semesters.”

Holy crap, how dumb is this woman. The version of Ubuntu she had comes standard with Open Office, so she obviously never tried opening a document. Second: despite some flaws with Linux, exactly how difficult is it to use a setup wizard to get online…oh, but it doesn’t support the CD hardly anyone ever uses from the ISP which is Windows only.

Despite her complete and utter stupidity, help is at hand: Verizon has offered to dispatch a technician to assist her accessing the internet without the CD, and her college says it will accept any of her papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.

EPIC FAIL.

Worlds Dumbest Woman Blames Ubuntu for College Failure is a post from: The Inquisitr

The program you buy is the same exact one you can download at no cost from Ubuntu’s web site. So why put it up for retail sale? To target users who might not know about or be able to access the free downloadable version, execs say.

“Making it available through Best Buy is an opportunity to reach users who are unaware of Ubuntu or who are bandwidth restricted and don’t want to download Ubuntu themselves,” Corporate Services Director Steve George explains.

The packaged version does include 60 days of support as well as a “getting started” guide. The web site, of course, includes unlimited community support and ample startup documentation.

Your choice.

Best Buy Selling Free Software is a post from: The Inquisitr