Kali Linux, Successor of the BackTrack Penetration Testing Distro, Launched

mask.of.sanity writes “Kali, the sixth installment of the BackTrack operating system has been launched. The platform is a favorite of hackers and penetration testers and has been entirely rebuilt to become more secure, transparent and customizable. Metasploit too has been rebuilt to be more stable with an optional noob-friendly interface. Kali even works on ARM devices and comes ready to go for your Raspberry Pi.” The big new feature is that it’s been repackaged as a flavor of Debian, instead of using their own custom packaging magic. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kali Linux, Successor of the BackTrack Penetration Testing Distro, Launched

Canonical announces Mir, a custom display server that will serve up future versions of Unity

The X Window Server has been serving Linux users faithfully for the better part of a decade. And Ubuntu has been using the standard-issue display server to push its GUI to monitors across the globe since its color scheme was more sludge than slick . Canonical originally planned to replace the aging X with another display server called Wayland, but the developers apparently couldn’t bend the compositing-friendly protocol to their cross-device whims. So, Mir was created. The goal for Mir is to easily scale from the TV, to the desktop, to tablets and phones while providing “efficient support for graphics co-processors.” That means Canonical is relying heavily on GPU acceleration, which will require the cooperation of manufacturers like NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm and others. As part of the cross-form factor convergence, Unity will be getting a rewrite entirely in QT and QML (the current version uses a Nux-based shell on the desktop). The Unity Next project will incorporate several core components from the Ubuntu Touch interface, inching the Linux OS closer to its goal of a truly unified codebase. Mir should make its debut on the mobile variants of Ubuntu soon, with Canonical aiming to get the UI unified and stable in time for the next LTS in April of 2014. For some more technical details check out the source links. Filed under: Software , HD , Mobile Comments Via: OMG Ubuntu 1 , 2 Source: Ubuntu 1 , 2

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Canonical announces Mir, a custom display server that will serve up future versions of Unity

Steam For Linux: A Respectable Showing

An anonymous reader writes “Valve has just released its February, 2013 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, and the results are absolutely mind blowing. Linux is now standing strong as a legitimate gaming platform. It now represents 2.02% of all active Steam users.” That’s in keeping with what new submitter lars_doucet found. Lars writes: “I’m an independent game developer lucky enough to be on Steam. Recently, the Steam Linux client officially went public and was accompanied by a site-wide sale. The Linux sale featured every single Linux-compatible game on the service, including our cross-platform game Defender’s Quest. …. Bottom line: during the sale we saw nearly 3 times as many Linux sales of the game as Mac (Windows still dominated overall).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Steam For Linux: A Respectable Showing

Use Photoshop’s Color Lookup Adjustment Layer to Quickly Applies Color Effects to Photos

Thanks to apps like Instagram , color effects that emulate film stocks and vintage camera styles have become increasingly popular. While we’ve seen Photoshop actions that provide these effects , and you can even make your own , if you’ve got Photoshop CS6 you have a built-in tool that’s far more flexible: Color Lookup. More »

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Use Photoshop’s Color Lookup Adjustment Layer to Quickly Applies Color Effects to Photos

MyScript Calculator: Somehow Calculators Just Got Even More Convenient

Already on Android for the past few months, this conceptually simple calculator app is finally available to iOS users. What may seem basic in theory becomes extraordinary in MyScript’s execution, leaving you with a buttonless calculator you’d never think to want but can’t imagine living without. More »

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MyScript Calculator: Somehow Calculators Just Got Even More Convenient

Quad-Core Stick PC Runs Ubuntu

New submitter asola writes with this cool piece of small (ha!) news from Liliputing: “This Freescale i.MX6-quad based stick will officially support Ubuntu in addition to Android. This is a first among the newfangled category of ARM-based stick PCs. This Ubuntu may very well have the hw accelerated Gstreamer plugins created by Freescale for the i.MX6 so full HD video playing will be available under Ubuntu as well.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Quad-Core Stick PC Runs Ubuntu

Ubuntu Phone OS Unveiled

Today Canonical announced Ubuntu for phones. The new operating system is designed to provide easier access to apps and content than is provided by current mobile OSes. They do this by relying on swipe gestures from the edges of the phone’s screen. “Every edge of the phone is used, letting you move faster between apps, settings and content. A short swipe from the left edge of the screen is all it takes to reveal your favourite apps. Page either left or right from the home screen to see the content you use most. A full left-to-right swipe reveals a screen showing all your open apps, while a swipe from the right brings you instantly to the last app you were using. … A swipe from the right edge takes you back to the last app you were using; another swipe takes you back to the app you used before that. It’s natural to keep many apps open at once, which is why Ubuntu was designed for multi-tasking. … Swiping up from the bottom edge of the phone reveals app controls.” The Ubuntu phone OS is built to work well on low-powered devices. Canonical will be at CES next week working on raising interest from manufacturers. As far as software goes, they have this to say: “Web apps are first class citizens on Ubuntu, with APIs that provide deep integration into the interface. HTML5 apps written for other platforms can be adapted to Ubuntu with ease, and we’re targeting standard cross-platform web app development frameworks like PhoneGap to make Ubuntu ‘just work’ for apps that use them.” (In the attached video, the phone OS discussion starts at about 6:37.) Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ubuntu Phone OS Unveiled

Steam for Linux beta now open to the public

Good news for those who didn’t score an invite to the first round of Valve’s closed beta of Steam for Linux . The service is now available to anyone running Linux the latest build of Ubuntu (still no word on when the service is coming to other distros) (seems it runs on multiple different Linux builds now. Apologies). The new, wider release comes with a handy installer package , but those who are already in the closed beta can just upgrade to the latest version within Steam. Valve has also opened up a new Github repository to organize bug tracking for beta testers. That’s what you Linux people like to do, right? Find and catalog bugs? Since the closed beta launch in early November, Steam has expanded its selection of available Linux games from 24 to 39, a list still dominated by indie games. However, THQ president Jason Rubin recently tweeted that the struggling publisher was “evaluating cost/benefit” of Linux development, based on fan feedback in the wake of the company’s successful Humble Bundle experiment . Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Steam for Linux beta now open to the public