Ubuntu

As you all know, Canonical unveiled today, January 2, their gesture-based phone operating system based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Many websites are already posting various articles related to this interesting piece of news, but it looks like The Verge has the first hands-on video with the Ubuntu OS for smartphones, as you can see in the video above.

Ubuntu OS for phones is a mobile operating system based on Ubuntu Linux, especially designed for smartphones like Galaxy Nexus, which is also the only supported device, at the moment.

Further expanding from its core mission of providing Linux distributions for desktop computers and servers, Canonical is developing a version of Ubuntu for smartphones.

The company plans to market the OS to smartphone handset manufacturers and wireless phone network operators, in part as an alternative to Android. Ubuntu did not announce any carriers or handset manufacturers that publicly plan to build Ubuntu phones yet.

Canonical may not have published an official alpha release for its core Ubuntu Linux 13.04 OS last week—or a corresponding list of new features—but on Friday the company did reveal some specifics about what's coming in this next version of its popular Linux distribution.

In fact, Cristian Parrino, Canonical's vice president of online services, outlined three key new features in a post on the Canonical blog.

Full Disk Encryption (FDE) is one of the best ways you can ensure all of the private information on your laptop stays private in case it's lost, seized, stolen, or if you choose to sell or give away your computer in the future. This feature has been built-in to many GNU/Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, for many years. But until the recent release of Ubuntu 12.10, it was hidden away in the "alternate" text-mode installer of Ubuntu that many non-technical users don't even know exists.

In a twist that is sure to raise eyebrows and cause no end of neckbeard scratching, Canonical founder and Ubuntu’s de facto spiritual leader, Mark Shuttleworth, has announced that key parts of Ubuntu 13.04 will be developed in secret.

Nearly six months after Ubuntu 12.04 LTS arrived, Canonical and the Ubuntu developers have released version 12.10 of their Ubuntu Linux distribution, code-named "Quantal Quetzal". The new version of the popular open source operating system uses a kernel based on the 3.5 Linux kernel and updates Unity desktop with a number of new features and enhancements.

Canonical has released desktop and server versions of its Ubuntu 12.04 distribution dubbed Precise Pangolin, which comes with three years of support. 

Canonical's Ubuntu 12.04 is the first long term support (LTS) release in two years and is the first to feature the Unity desktop. Canonical has also introduced a number of cloud specific services in Ubuntu 12.04 server including metal-as-a-service and its recently announced AWSOME APIs.

Canonical said it has "no interest" in Linux kernel development. Two weeks ago a Linux Foundation report showed that since version 2.6.32, Microsoft had committed more code to the Linux kernel than Canonical. Since then, Canonical has faced claims from rivals that it does not contribute to Linux as much as it should given its popularity. 

Internet freedom actiivist group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has welcomed a move allowing users to delete log activity for GNOME applications in the latest update to the Ubuntu operating system.

The new feature, available in the current beta of Ubuntu 12.04, will allow users to disable activity logging for some Linux applications, potentially preventing thieves with physical access to a computer from pilfering user files.

The first beta of Ubuntu 12.04, codenamed Precise Pangolin, was made available today. The 12.04 release, which is the next major version of the popular Linux distribution, will officially launch in April. It's a long-term support release, which means that it will receive updates and support for five years.