Ubuntu 15.04 will ship with Canonical’s own browser

Canonical adds its own browser to Ubuntu 15.04

Ubuntu 15.04 will be released tomorrow, and Canonical has decided to include its own browser (as well as Firefox) in the latest version of Ubuntu. The new browser is still under development, so don’t expect it to compete with Firefox in terms of features.

Silviu Stahie reports for Softpedia:

Canonical recognized the need of having its Internet browser for the Ubuntu Touch platform early on, and they have been working on it for quite some time. It’s been available on the desktop platform, but not as a default option. It’s basically the same code as the one that’s running on the phone, but the application scales up to the need of the desktop user.

Users will notice that the browser has very few options and settings. It’s still under development, so things are added all the time. With everything that’s on Canonical’s plate right now, you can imagine that developing a full blown browser that can rival with Firefox, Google Chrome, or Opera is not possible. On the other hand, a minimalist application that can help users just browse the internet is always welcomed.

More at Softpedia

Should a newbie programmer switch to Ubuntu from Windows?

Speaking of Ubuntu, a newbie programmer in the Ubuntu subreddit wanted to know if he should dump Windows for Ubuntu. His fellow redditors had some helpful advice for him.

New programmer 123elijah asked about switching to Ubuntu from Windows:

As a newbie programmer should I go with ubuntu or stick to windows for writing codes and learning new technologies, I read too many forums on “which os is better ” and most of them only commented on linux being more secure, free etc. I dont care much about any of those .

Only thing that is important for me is do all IDE will be available on linux platform as well like for python, ruby, andriod studio etc. In short I am asking should I stick to windows or linux from programming point of view . I never liked being spoon fed everything like windows does that is why I am leaning towards ubuntu in first place but would like to be sure I wont get stuck in it because of unavailability of certain support.

In case you advise me to use virtual machine I’d like to tell my computer starts lagging when I run even one virtual machine i was learning SAS using sandbox and response rate of computer was down to null so that option is out of window and I’d prefer not to dual boot as i will have to always restart my computer if i want to switch to another OS.

More at Reddit

Ubuntu redditors shared their thoughts about switching from Windows:

PancakeZombie: “The IDEs you mentioned are all available for Linux. As long as you don’t want to use Microsoft Visual Studio, you can safely go to Ubuntu. :)”

Syswizard: I personally like the tools available in Linux for those languages much more than what’s available for Windows. I do all of those in both OSs but prefer Linux.

I see you’d prefer not to dual boot, but, I would recommend getting a second hard drive (if you have the means) and installing Ubuntu on that and using bios to make it the main boot drive. You never know what can come down the road later that will require you to run Windows and you probably won’t want to reinstall Windows just to do these one or two things.”

Ralkkai: “Eclipse and Android Studio both work great in Ubuntu. I think the most recent version of Eclipse is in the repos so it’s an easy install. Eclipse can also do Ruby and Python so that looks like your IDE of choice. It also comes with an Android plugin but I don’t think it is officially supported anymore since Android Studio was officially released.

Android Studio comes as a standalone as you are probably aware, so you can either launch it directly from it’s own directory or use it’s in-house feature to make an icon that can be searched for from Ubuntu’s Dash.”

Boredatairport: “I made the switch to Ubuntu around 3 years ago to do Ruby on Rails development. It was too much of a pain to get configurations correct for Windows. Python and python packages are easier to install on Ubuntu than it is on Windows. The only thing I use Windows for now is for gaming.”

More at Reddit

Kubuntu versus Ubuntu

Another Ubuntu redditor recently announced his conversion from Ubuntu to Kubuntu. Kubuntu is an official spin of Ubuntu, but it uses KDE for the desktop instead of Unity. And that made all the difference for Tristan957.

Tristan957 on why he switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu:

As a debian based user, I’ve always been kind of a distro hopper but for the past few months I have stuck with Ubuntu. It’s been great. Unity is better than ever and it’s really user friendly. I have been keeping track of the 15.04 development cycle and kde plasma 5 really caught my eye. To me it’s the sexiest distro around. The kde developers did a really great job integrating a flat style in to the environment and the applications.

As a default file manager, dolphin is vastly superior to nautilus. 2 panel viewing and easier root access sealed the deal on that part for me. The customization that comes with kde is incredible, something which Unity severely lacks. Now I understand that there aren’t many widgets for qt5 right now, but the amount available for qt4 right now is really a sight to behold. I’m also interested in trying more advanced Compiz effects.

Where Ubuntu lacks is it’s lack of customization and speed. GTK widgets are few and far between while qt5 widgets increase in number everyday. Speed is also a big factor. The unity launcher just was too slow for me. The homerun launcher on the other hand is super snappy. The ubuntu software center is vastly overpowered by the kubuntu software center in terms of speed and looks.

This is going to be a new experience for me since I’ve never used a kde distro before but I’m really excited. I would like to give a shout out to my favorite Linux YouTuber quidsup for inspiring me to try Kubuntu 15.04 on 4/23/15.

More at Reddit

His fellow Ubuntu redditors responded with their own thoughts:

iBurley: “KDE 5 certainly does look great, especially once you switch everything over to the Breeze Dark theme. Only problem I have is the menu. The default one is utter trash and while the alternate style is good, it isn’t quite good enough. If I could get the Whisker menu (pretty much the only reason to use XFCE these days with MATE and LXQt looking so solid), I would switch immediately. I’ve always wanted to love KDE but until now it’s never had a chance with me.”

Sharky-PI: “This is an interesting thread to me, as I’m still trying to get my head around WHY people have such strong opinions about distros. Maybe I’m missing something. I ran Ubuntu but found it a big slow on my older machine & heard that Xubuntu ran faster, installed that, it ran faster, the end. If I want specific programs I’ll install them (rhythmbox/banshee, etc) and ditto uninstall those I don’t want. I get the impression that KDE is more different to the *buntu family than most distros, but I don’t see how it’s worth the hassle of installing a new distro vs just installing the apps you want and customising it how you please?”

Hothrous: “Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu etc are barely different distros. They are all part of the Ubuntu family. The biggest difference is what you said, the apps that come pre-packaged. They are basically just Ubuntu with a different DE.

Strong distro opinions are generally more around the actual functionality.

Ubuntu vs Debian would be more about out of the box functionality vs maybe missing some drivers.

Debian vs RedHat vs Arch vs etc will be around things like Apt/deb vs Yum/RPM vs pacman vs etc as well as how new the supported packages in repos are. Arch goes for bleeding edge, Debian tries to have a balance between stable and new, and RedHat focuses on not breaking enterprise infrastructures so they tend to have older packages available in the official repos.

There is also an aspect of what each individual believes Linux should represent. Some people think that Linux represents technical ability, some of those people tend to pick Slackware or Arch because they involve building from the ground up. Some think that Linux is more stable than Windows/Mac, those people tend to lean toward something like Ubuntu which works on most systems out of the box.

In the end, humans basically jump into a camp and believe that it is the best camp and won’t hear anything that argues against that. We see it in fans with sports, Windows vs Mac, Edward vs Jacob, Freddy vs Jason, Star Wars vs Star Trek, XBox vs PS, Console vs PC.”

Msangeld: “I’ve been a Kubuntu users for years now. In the repo there’s a menu called lancelot. It’s one of the first things I install during a new setup I like it much better than the default.”

More at Reddit

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