Ubuntu

Netbooks are often ridiculed as a solution looking for a problem but they are also regarded as the ancestors of present day Chromebooks and “cloudbooks”. With the resurgence of these more modern but still low-performance devices, it might seem that the netbook is due for a revival as well. Or so that seems to be the proposition GPD makes with its almost literal Pocket computer. But does that make more sense now than it did before, especially in an age of powerful smartphones? We take the Ubuntu Edition of the GPD Pocket for a good and thorough testing to find out.

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If you’re the sort of technophile that follows Microsoft’s every movement on the Windows front, then you’re probably well aware of how many times Redmond froze hell over with its professed love for Linux and open source. Now it has done so again by making it almost too easy to install Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distributions around, right from within the Windows Store, as if you were just installing an app.

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Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu for tablets and phones is dead, and that the Ubuntu desktop OS will be reverting back to GNOME instead of using Unity. It's a major change, one that Shuttleworth describes as 'a very difficult decision.' This spells the end to Canonical's visions of 'the convergence future' -- instead, the company will be focusing on the areas of business that are growing, Shuttleworth explains, which includes servers and VMs, the cloud infrastructure products, and, of course, the desktop, among other things.

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GPD, short for GamePad Digital, is a strange beast. More known, in small circles, for its Android-based gaming handhelds, the China-based company last year dabbled in crowdfunding to get GPD WIN, a Nintendo DS-like Windows 10 handheld, out the door. That campaign, those successfully funded and, to some extent, delivered, the campaign received mixed reactions, some of them very vocal, in a negative sense. That hasn’t stopped GPD from trying again and dreaming bigger, this time with the GPD Pocket that’s aimed at more “fashionable” serious workers.

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“Ubuntu” and “drones” are probably not two words you’ll come across often, even though both are quite popular in their respective areas. So when Parrot, one of the most famous drone makers, and Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, come out with a special product, it’s hard not to take notice. Painfully spelled as S.L.A.M.dunk, short for “Simultaneous Location and Mapping”, this “drone development kit” piggybacks on a drone, from Parrot preferably, like a Remora fish on shark, giving any drone some autonomous navigation capabilities of its own.

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Ubuntu has a very ambitious goal with Ubuntu Touch. It proposed an operating system that could work equally on any capable device, a smartphone that can truly be your computer, no holds barred. That was the promise of Convergence, which we took for a spin with the Meizu PRO 5 smartphone and, before that, the bq Aquaris M10 tablet. The results back then where disappointing yet promising. Ubuntu Touch, as it was when we reviewed these devices, still lacked that punch that would make you truly go "wow!". But, unlike other operating systems, Ubuntu is fast evolving, and the latest OTA-12 brings much needed improvements to bring us closer to true Convergence.

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Despite Nokia ex-CEO Stephen Elop's boasts, the smartphone market has indeed become a two-horse race between Android and iOS. Of course, just because those two have pretty much cornered the mobile market doesn't mean there is no room for others, especially those that aren't aiming for world domination. At leat not yet. We're talking here about more unconventional, more "experimental" platforms like, say, Ubuntu Touch. Although already in the commercial market for more than a year, Ubuntu Touch's smartphone promise reaches its full potential in the more muscled Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition. But does this so far most powerful Ubuntu smartphone live up to the expectations it has set up for itself? It's time to buckle your seat belts and join us for another ride into the somewhat alien world of Ubuntu on Mobile.

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A new smartphone running the Ubuntu operating system appears to be in the works carrying codename Midori. The first grumblings about the new device have surfaced from a bug report about a trust prompt issues with the device via the Ubuntu Touch IRC and on Launch Pad. According to the chatter, the trust prompt issue causes the mystery Midori device and the MX4 to reboot.

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We have finally come to the end of our long, three-part journey into the relatively unexplored world of Ubuntu Touch devices and the bq Aquaris M10 tablet. We've seen what the hardware is capable of and and we've gotten a glimpse of the future of computing promised by Ubuntu Touch. Now it's time to take stock of it all and answer the most difficult question of all: should you buy this rather piece of equipment that is both unique and ordinary at the same time?

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Canonical has just released the latest major update to the Ubuntu Touch mobile OS and it is really a major one, especially for owners of Ubuntu Touch smartphones. While those, particularly the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition, is more than capable of offering Convergence, it was blocked by the lack of a HDMI out port. With this latest OTA-11 update, that is no longer an issue as Ubuntu Touch now supports connecting to an external display wirelessly, which means smartphone users can even more conveniently use Convergence with no wires in sight.

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In part one of our rather lengthy review, we took a look at the bq Aquaris M10 Ubuntu tablet's hardware. Suffice it to say, it perfectly played the role of a mid-range tablet. While the device had a few ups, like its lightweight design, bright display, and substantial battery, it would have been easily passed for a mediocre slab if not for the software running on it. In this round, we take a deeper look into what makes this tablet truly one of a kind, and almost literally too. This time, we take a dive into the alien world of Ubuntu Touch.

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The mobile market today has practically been what former Microsoft-then-Nokia-then-Microsoft-again exec Stephen Elop loved to refer to as a two-horse race. Android and iOS have been butting heads quarter after quarter, year after year. Despite their popularity and ubiquity, neither is truly perfect and neither can really meet everyone's needs and preferences. Which leaves a little wiggle room for other platforms (that includes Windows 10) to try and fill in the gaps. This time around we are going to take a closer look at one the newer challengers, Ubuntu Touch, as it is embodied in the recent bq Aquaris M10 tablet. How does it fare against the bevy of Android, iOS, and even Windows tablets scattered throughout the market? And does it have what it takes to not only stand tall and proud but also to survive? Read on to find our verdict.

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