Linux Format Archives

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Issue 172 (July 2013) - Has Ubuntu lost it?

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With its Distrowatch ranking falling faster than Man Utd now that Sir Alex Ferguson has departed, Ubuntu is no longer the all-conquering force that it was. So what's happened? Has it, in fact, lost it, or is there a more subtle game afoot? We answer this conundrum (sort of) in the latest Linux Format. We also invite you discover the ethos that's powering Trisquel, the freeest distro of all named after a Gaulish God; learn the fundamentals of programming with Scratch and Coding Concepts; and get acquainted with your ancestors without travelling through time with the excellent Gramps genealogy application. All this, plus Hotpicks, Sysadmin, tutorials and more, in Linux Format!
On The DVD: Our own Privacy Enhanced remix of Ubuntu and regular versions of Kubuntu and Xubuntu. Plus Manjaro, free (as in speech) books, software and more.

Features

Gramps

Take a trip down memory lane and build a family tree. (Jono Bacon)

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Inside Trisquel

We get inside the Freest of Free distros. (Mayank Sharma)

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Has Ubuntu lost it?

Has Ubuntu's community been disenfranchised by Canonical's push for convergence? We investigate. (Ben Everard, Susan Linton)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Dr Brown's Administeria

Metal as a Service and Tomcat in a nutshell. (Chris Brown)

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Interview: Jonas Sicking

We talk with a senior engineer on Mozilla's Firefox OS. (Ben Everard)

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Coverdisc

On The Disc

Ubuntu Remix, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Manjaro and more (Ben Everard)

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The best new open source software on the planet

LiVES, Sxiv, G4L, ETM, Plgen, Catfish, Siege, Colorful, Choria, Gitg and Atratus. (Mike Saunders)

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Tutorials

Duplicity

Continuing our backup bonanza, we show you how to use a simple program to duplicate your directories. (Neil Bothwick)

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Ardour 3

Become the next music sensation with our handy guide. (Graham Morrison)

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Bash Backup

write some Bash scripts to take the pain out of backing up. (Jonathan Roberts)

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Parental Controls

Control the way your little ones use their computers. (Neil Bothwick)

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Scratch

Learn to program with this visual programming language (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Coding Academy

Code Concepts

Use SQL and relational databases to add some structure to your data. (Jonathan Roberts)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Haskell

Fancy trying some functional Programming? Haskell gives you a new programming perspective. (Juliet Kemp)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Ruby on Rails

Find out how to use Test Driven Development to improve your code. (Gavin Montague)

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Reviews

Ciseco XinoRF

We try out a wireless Arduino clone. (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Ubuntu 13.04

Ubuntu has received quite a bit of criticism, but does the latest version deserve it? (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Manjaro

Can one distro really do bleeding edge software and a user-friendly GUI? (Mike Saunders)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Kerbal Space Program

Start your very own space program without billion dollar budgets. (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Viewsonic TD2340

We cast our mice aside and embrace the touchscreen. (David Hayward)

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Distros for x86 tablets

There's more to tablets than iOS and Android. And no, we don't mean Windows 8. (David Hayward)

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News: All the latest news from the Linux universe

Spanish swich to Linux, Firefox phones, Beaglebone black, Portal, Foxconnm, Snooper's charter and Wayland on Pi (Andrew Gregory)

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Distrowatch: This month's roundup of news from the vaults of Linux distro development

Fuduntu is dead, Mageia 3 and CinnArch (Susan Linton)

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What on Earth: Tizen

We present another Linux-based smartphone OS. (Marco Fioretti)

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