Linux Domination, Ubuntu Uncertainty, and Nerdy Enlightenment
There are some interesting stories today in Linuxville. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is reporting that Linux dominates on supercomputers more than ever. Arstechnica says "Mint 17 is the perfect place for Linux-ers to wait out Ubuntu uncertainty." Linux Tycoon Bryan Lunduke reviews Enlightenment 17 and Jamie Watson says Makulu Linux 6 makes him smile. This and more in tonight's Linux news recap.
Over at ZDNet, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports the findings that Linux is once again the fastest operating system on the world's leading supercomputers. But not only that, Vaughan-Nichols says, "In the latest contest, not only did Linux dominate, but Linux showed that is slowly pushing out all its competitors." Linux runs on 97% of them. Only two of the Top 500 run Windows, the other 13 Unix. Despite their speed records, Linux developers are still trying to go even faster because Vaughan-Nichols says, "research and businesses, especially the stock markets and trading companies, not only want but need even faster computers."
Another notable on ZDNet today is Jamie Watson's review of Makulu Linux 6.0 KDE saying it's "guaranteed to make you smile." This release ships with Linux 3.14.7, KDE 4.13.1, and a more modern but cranky installer. He says of this release, "It's big, it's beautiful, it's fun, and it is chock full of just about everything imaginable." He concludes that it's about as much fun as one can have with a Linux distribution.
arstechnica reviews Mint 17 saying it's an important release because of being based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. They contend Mint and its users can sit back and enjoy Mint while Ubuntu suffers the growing pains of Mir and Unity until 2016. Reviewer Scott Gilbertson says Mint 17 is a "great base" to update the next two years. He looks at both the Cinnamon and MATE versions of Mint 17 closely, but touches on the Xfce and Debian editions as well as the common elements of them all. Gilbertson concludes, "Linux Mint 17 makes a fantastic Linux desktop right now. It's stable, familiar enough for Windows refugees to pick it up without missing a beat, and has all the familiar tools Ubuntu fans would expect."
Speaking of Ubuntu, The Var Guy posted of the Ubuntu website updates. Posts from the Design Team have been appearing on the company website on the topic of its designs for a while, but today Christopher Tozzi summed it all up nicely saying, "All of these updates are good news for Canonical's customers and partners. But what makes the changes truly remarkable is how far Ubuntu's Web presence has evolved since the operating system's debut nearly 10 years ago, when ubuntu.com looked like this, and the landing page primarily featured images of people dressed in workout clothes."
In other news, The desktop-a-week review: Enlightenment, Fedora Linux running on the Amazon Fire TV, and Jim Zemlin to Wall Street: Why open source will lead the way.