Ubuntu Linux 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’ takes flight at last - fallstrud1947

There's never some shortfall of excitement and anticipation surrounding the major updates to Ubuntu Linux that arrive twice all twelvemonth, and Thursday's brand-modern release is no exception.

This time, however, the timing is particularly fortuitous.

Atomic number 3 the Personal computer-using world braces itself not just for the release of Windows 8 next week merely also the end of life of Windows XP in 2022, the new Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" offers a raft of widely anticipated new features and a fresh alternative to what Law calls "the pain of Windows 8."

I rung along Wednesday with Steve George, Canonical's frailty president of communication theory and products, about this up-to-the-minute desktop release and the OS landscape facing users today. Here's a rundown of what he told me.

Online search

In a nutshell, the desktop version of Ubuntu 12.10 focuses along two fundamental areas, both driven by users' increasing tendency to drop their days in a immix of local anaesthetic and online apps, George IV said.

"Ultimately, Ubuntu needs to react to this by draft the online and offline worlds together," he explained.

Consequently, the first area of focus in this new release is the Ace Dash, which has essentially been extended to incorporate the online world.

"The important thing or so the Dash is that it's a search method rather than good about files and folders," St. George told Maine. "For this secrete, non only volition information technology look for documents happening your local hard drive, but also in Google Docs, for example, for files that are online.

"When I smel for self-complacent, what I deprivation to find is all of my content, whether online or hit," he added.

The controversial integration of Amazon research results too makes its official debut in this new dismissal, complete with the "kill switch" Canonical added following user outcry.

"It was important for us to get the boast proscribed there, listen to what masses had to say, make the changes, and respond to exploiter requests," George said. "We want to make sure we're listening to that. We occupy user privacy very seriously."

Online applications

The second big centerin area in Ubuntu Linux 12.10 is applications, George VI told ME.

Specifically, "we've added the ability to put Web apps into the section environment," he said.

So, for example, users stern now arrange the Gmail icon directly into the Ubuntu launcher. Then, when they set in motion information technology, Ubuntu automatically opens a secernate window with Gmail in it without requiring that users premier launch their web browser.

From the user position, IT's studied to pull in online apps feel just the same as localized apps.

"Information technology obeys all the conventions you'd bear of a local app," George noted. "We've added a bunch of these and put them into the Ubuntu Software Center. We've also shown developers how they can add more."

'It's a big fish for them'

Last but not least, George V had a content for small businesses: "If you'Ra on XP, which a good deal of businesses are, it's a great time to re-aspect at your desktop scheme," he said. "Windows 8 is a challenge to explain to users–IT's a big take for them."

Meanwhile, with the arrival of technologies like Google Docs and virtualization, "a lot of the tie-in Microsoft has to people's information is disappearing," he acute stunned. "A lot of the friction that used to diaphragm people from using alternative desktops has been massively reduced over the past few years."

Ubuntu 12.10 is now available as a resign download from the project web site.

Top image credit: Ubuntu.com.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/461700/ubuntu-linux-12-10-quantal-quetzal-takes-flight-at-last.html

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