What’s new in Ubuntu 15.04

Ubuntu 15.04’s new features and changes

We’re not far from the final release of Ubuntu 15.04. So it’s a good time to take a peek at the changes and new features in Canonical’s latest version of Ubuntu. Unfortunately, Ubuntu 15.04 might be somewhat underwhelming for those expecting tons of new features. There are some important changes, but most of them won’t be apparent to desktop users.

Silviu Stahie reports for Softpedia:

Ubuntu 15.04 is not an exciting release, but that it’s only a surface impression. The truth is that it’s an important upgrade because some very important changes have been made, including the adoption of systemd.

Users will notice that not too many visual changes have been implemented in Ubuntu 15.04, but that was to be expected. The team is transitioning to a new Unity version that is still not ready for general use, so it’s easy to understand why Ubuntu 15.04 is not all that different from Ubuntu 14.10.

1. Changes galore, but most of them under the hood.

2. Systemd replaces Upstart.

3. The Linux kernel has been upgraded to 3.19.3.

4. Unity and Compiz get minor upgrades.

5. Locally Integrated Menus are now default.

6. A new wallpaper has been implemented.

7. All the major apps have been upgraded.

More at Softpedia

You can check out some of the new features and changes in Ubuntu 15.04 in this YouTube video:

Ubuntu redditors chimed in with their thoughts in a thread about Ubuntu 15.04:

Mrstejdm: “Apart from systemd it’s a minor release. I used to jump from every 6 month release to another however since 14.04 I decided to just stick with LTS releases. New OS every two years is still a lot!”

Dogstarchampion: “Yep, I agree. I switched every 6 months before 14.04, but I never even bothered to download 14.10. The next Ubuntu I download will be 16.04 because the support is too limited on the standard releases. 14.04 is really damn stable and my system doesn’t seem to be broken in any way since installing it about two weeks after release.”

AkivaAvraham: …Systemd I have noticed has improved my battery life extremely significantly, so in that respect I think this may be the best laptop relevant update.

Pydry: “It’s a pretty vast change to the underlying system which means the potential for stuff to break during upgrade is high, which users will care about. I think for this particular release, and for this particular reason, when I have some time, I might wipe everything first and reinstall from scratch rather than doing do-release-upgrade. Might be a good opportunity to try out the new kubuntu plasma 5, too.”

NotSteve: “I don’t get locally integrated menus in unity. It makes the top bar 90% useless.”

ManicQin: “So they abandoned the mac style menu in favor of lim?”

auRoscoe: “So basically the top bar is only used for notifications which almost means it’s a waste of screen space. While there isn’t a actual loss it would be good to get more functionality from the bar instead of less.”

TheManThatWasntThere: “Well the locally integrated menu’s are still in the menubar and take up no extra space, which is new. There’s no other desktop that offers this through official means, although some KDE applet can offer the same functionality. In 15.04, the lim also does NOT require the window to have focus.”

More at Reddit

The Samsung Galaxy S6 versus the iPhone 6

Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 phone is getting positive reviews, and it may be Samsung’s best phone yet. But how well does it stack up against the iPhone 6 in a head to head fight? 9to5Mac did an in-depth comparison of the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6, and found that both of them are worth owning.

Dom Esposito reports for 9to5Mac:

In this comparison we’ll be looking at hardware, design, software, camera performance and specialty features that each device offers. Before we get into that, let’s talk about specifications. First up, Apple’s iPhone 6 features a 4.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 750 x 1,334 (326 ppi). Along with that, we have a dual-core Apple A8 processor clocked at 1.4GHz, 1GB of RAM, 16/64/128GB of storage, and an 1,810 mAh battery.

As for Samsung’s Galaxy S6, you’ll find a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 (577 ppi), an Exynos 7420 octa-core processor (1.5 GHz quad-core and 2.1 GHz quad-core), 3GB of RAM, 32/64/128 GB of internal storage (depending on configuration), and a 2,550 mAh battery.

…which one should you get? Well, I’m not here to tell you which of these devices is better. In fact, it would be hard to declare either one as the clear winner. Both the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 are built from excellent materials and perform flawlessly with their respective operating systems. Aside from iOS vs Android, it’s going to come down to which device and ecosystem suits you the best.

If you’re strictly into the numbers on paper, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 may be appealing. On the other hand, Apple is known for quality and performance with iOS devices. Hopefully, this comparison helped clear up a thing or two between these flagship smartphones. Let us know which one you prefer.

More at 9to5Mac

9to5Mac readers were not happy with the design similarities between the iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S6, and they shared their thoughts in the comments section of the article:

The GNOME: “I’ll go with the non-clone phone. Nice effort though, Samesung.”

Fernando: “Is there a mistake? This article is comparing two iPhones.”

Robert Brugman: “OMG. After so many years they still can’t do than rip off the design from Apple. All the other Android phones gave their own identity, but SameSung keeps copying.”

Marcus Boothby: “It’s copyright infringement in a way really. In terms of materials and designs, Samsung are about 4 years behind Apple as it looks like a blown up iPhone 4/4S to me.”

B9bot: “According to tests the Samsung copycat has very poor video performance compared to the iPhone 6. You would think by the numbers the performance of the Samsung would just kill the iPhone but its just the opposite. Shows you the specs don’t mean everything. It’s how you combine everything together to make it work the best and Apple still does this hands down over everyone.”

More at 9to5Mac

The attitude of the 9to5Mac readers was not lost on Android redditors who had their own thread about the comparison of the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6:

Mangoman: “The comments. They are beyond cringe worthy.”

Dassub: “The iPhone owner butthurt is real in those comments.”

WontonSoup77: “I’m not against Apple in any way (been using Apple products for well over a decade) but it seemed to me like Apple took some cues from HTC on the iPhone 6.”

Jokermika: “Yeah everyone seems to be missing that. They basically stole the back of the HTC m8 and made the phone flat.”

Paultower: “But to me, the iPhone 6 looks very much like the Sony Xperia Z2, Z3. The rounded outline and the bevel inset buttons are undeniably Xperia. Then the antenna bands that are HTC M8’s, M7.”

More at Reddit

Five Linux command line tools for browsing sites and downloading files

There are many different applications in Linux for downloading files or browsing web sites, and not all of them require a graphical user interface. Some work very well right from the command line. Tecmint has a roundup of five useful command line tools for browsing sites and downloading files.

Avishek Kumar reports for Tecmint:

The Linux command-line, the most adventurous and fascinating part of GNU/Linux is a very cool and powerful tool. The command line itself is very productive and the availability of various inbuilt and third party command line application makes Linux robust and powerful. The Linux Shell supports a variety of web application of various kinds be it torrent downloader, dedicated downloader or Internet Surfing.

Here are 5 great command line Internet tools…

1. rTorrent

2. Wget

3. cURL

4. w3m

5. Elinks

More at Tecmint

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