FREE FOR THE CODE

When it debuted this spring, Ubuntu 11.10 caused more than a few gasps from the Linux faithful. The introduction of the Unity as the new desktop interface marked a dramatic shift for the Ubuntu desktop experience, and it’s a change that many Canonical faithful weren’t too thrilled about. It’s always a balancing act for Canonical, of course. Ubuntu is far and away the most popular desktop Linux distribution, and its users are generally a savvy and opinionated bunch. Decisions like UI changes and switching default applications tend to draw plenty of debate from users — so they’re not taken lightly. Plenty of noise was made when Banshee became the default audio player in 11.04, but believe it or not a much bigger switch was also considered: the distribution’s default web browser. Canonical’s CEO Mark Shuttleworth, as it turns out, is a big fan of Google Chrome. In a discussion with Network World, Shuttleworth praises Google for the way Chrome performs on Linux. “You don’t often see tha

While not nearly as popular as its web browser cousin, Mozilla Thunderbird is nevertheless one of the most widely-used desktop email applications around. On June 28th 2011 Thunderbird 5 was released, packing nearly 400 performance and stability fixes, improved wizards and tab handling, and an an updated add-on manager like the one that debuted in Firefox 4. It’s also Thunderbird’s first rapid release version, so we’ll wait and see if some system administrators have the same beefs about long-term support and breakage with Thunderbird as they did with Firefox. For now, however, there’s some additional good news for the Thunderbird team. Canonical has released the second alpha of Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, and one of the most significant changes is to its default applications. After a lengthy tenure as Ubuntu’s pre-installed email client, Evolution has been booted — replaced by Mozilla’s blue, avian postman. The switch comes at an interesting time, what with Mozilla’s own Asa Dotzler