Ubuntu Phone System looks extremely cool.

What the video from around 5:30 and you'll be treated to a walk thru a very unique and innovative new smartphone system. We all know Android and Windows phone and IOS or iPhone, and they are good systems but I have to say this is the first phone system I have seen recently that looks innovative and really does things a little different. It really uses every once of the screens space and swipes have been really well thought out. You can swipe from all 4 edges, right from one side to the other or touch your normal tinny icons on the status bar across the top to access things. This is logical and very fast at accessing things in a logical manor.
So watch the video and skip to 5:30 to see just the Ubuntu smartphone section. I'm not a Ubuntu user but this sort of innovation certainly makes me very interested.

Linux 3.7 arrives, ARM Support!!

The latest Linux, 3.7, comes with real improvements for ARM developers and network administrators.
Only months after the arrival of Linux 3.6, Linus Torvalds has released the next major Linux kernel update: 3.7. The time between releases wasn't long, but this new version includes major improvements for ARM developers and network administrators. The 3.7 source code is now available for downloading.
Programmers for ARM, the popular smartphone and tablet chip family, will be especially pleased with this release. ARM had been a problem child architecture for Linux. As Torvalds said in 2011, "Gaah. Guys, this whole ARM thing is a f**king pain in the ass." Torvalds continued, "You need to stop stepping on each others toes. There is no way that your changes to those crazy clock-data files should constantly result in those annoying conflicts, just because different people in different ARM trees do some masturbatory renaming of some random device. Seriously."
ARM got the message. Thanks to Olof Johansson, a Google Linux and ARM engineer, unified multi-platform ARM was ready to be included in Linux 3.7.
ARM's problem was that, unlike the x86 architecture, where one Linux kernel could run on almost any PC or server, almost every ARM system required its own customized Linux kernel. Now with 3.7, ARM architectures can use one single vanilla Linux kernel while keeping their special device sauce in device trees.
The end result is that ARM developers will be able to boot and run Linux on their devices and then worry about getting all the extras to work. This will save them, and the Linux kernel developers, a great deal of time and trouble.
Just as good for those ARM architects and programmers who are working on high-end, 64-bit ARM systems, Linux now supports 64-bit ARM processors. 64-bit ARM CPUs won't ship until in commercial quantities until 2013. When they do arrive though programmers eager to try 64-bit ARM processors on servers will have Linux ready for them.
Website and network administrators will also be happy with Linux 3.7. TCP Fast Open will now be supported on servers By eliminating a step in opening Internet TCP connections, TCP Fast Open can speed up Web page opening speeds from 10 to 40%.
Network managers who have Windows PCs on their networks will also be glad to know that Linux now supports Server Messenge Block (SMB2) protocol.. Microsoft introduced this file-sharing protocol in 2007 in Vista. While its predcessor, SMB, is still supported on Windows, SMB2 support will enable Linux file servers, and the many Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices that use Linux for their operating system, to deliver files faster to Windows PCs.
For those who are still using Network File System (NFS) to share files on their networks at long, long last Linux 3.7 now fully supports NFS 4.1. The main advantage of this is that it also means you can parallel NFS (pNFS). PNFS enables you to use clustered servers to provide extremely fast and scalable parallel file access.
If you want to know more about what's new and significant in Linux 3.7, check into th Kernel Newbies Linux 3.7 Website. The bottom line though is that if you're working with ARM or you're running a network, you're going to want Linux 3.7 in your Linux distribution as fast as possible. For you, Linux 3.7 is a game-changing release.

Oracle releases Java SE 7 bringing first-class support to OS X and Linux on ARM.

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Oracle announced on Tuesday that it will start offering direct downloads and auto-updates to Java on OS X beginning with the release of Java Standard Edition 7 Update 6. Users can download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) directly from Oracle's java.com website "soon," according to Oracle, and will receive auto-updates at the same time as Windows, Linux, and Solaris platforms. The update also fully integrates the JavaFX 2.2 libraries, designed to make the development and deployment of desktop applications easier and faster, and adds OS X support for a new JavaFX user interface development tool.
Oracle is also expanding its support for Linux as well. Java SE 7 Update 6 adds support for Linux on ARM, "to address 'general purpose”' ARM systems, such as those used for the emerging micro-server ARM market, and for development platforms such as Raspberry Pi." JavaFX 2.2 also fully supports Linux on x86 and x64 platforms.
The latest release of Java SE 7 now makes OS X a fully supported platform. That includes the JRE, which end users install to run Java-based applications; the JDK, which developers use to develop Java applications; and the JavaFX "rich client platform," used to develop GUI desktop applications. Oracle is also releasing an OS X version of its new JavaFX Scene Builder, which allows developers to build user interfaces using drag-and-drop components (similar to Xcode or Visual Studio).
Apple's continuing inability to stay on top of updating Java resulted in the most widely exploited vulnerability in OS X to date: a quick-spreading trojan known as Flashback. The malware infected over half a million un-patched Macs at its pinnacle, though Apple quickly released patches and a removal tool after news of Flashback became public.
Apple has since effectively ceded responsibility for Java to Oracle, which had begun taking over support of Java on OS X with the release of Java SE 7 Update 4 in April. Apple has still distributed its own updates to Java, releasing critical security patches in concert with Oracle, though it appears end users will be getting updates from Oracle from now on.
"Oracle continues to expand our support for the Java platform, and now, for the first time, consumers and developers have access to the latest Java SE features and security updates across all major operating systems: Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X," Hasan Rizvi, senior vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware and Java Products, said in a statement. "We're also focused on improving the client Java experience with the release of JavaFX Scene Builder and bundling JavaFX with Java SE to provide better performance and improved usability for JavaFX applications, without having to install and maintain a separate product."

Gamers … Valve cranks up Linux gaming, and it's faster than Windows

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Valve's distaste for Windows 8 has led the company to take on an increasing interest in Linux, and the new Valve Linux blog shows that, with some work, the Source Engine actually runs faster on it than it does on Windows. The company used a testbed with an Intel i7 3930k, Nvidia GeForce GTX 680, and 32GB of RAM to pit Left 4 Dead 2 on Windows 7 against Ubuntu 12, and the results are rather interesting.
At first, Valve's Linux port of Left 4 Dead 2 ran at only 6 FPS on the i7 machine, but after tweaking the game to make effective use of the efficient characteristics of the Linux kernel and OpenGL, the Valve Linux team was able to eke out a much higher 315 FPS. Using the same machine running Windows 7 and Direct3D, the same game ran at 270.6 FPS, or roughly 14 percent slower.
After optimizing the Source Engine for the Linux platform, Valve wondered why OpenGL was outperforming Direct3D at a technical level. Their research found that, on the same hardware, there are "a few additional microseconds [of] overhead per batch in Direct3D which does not affect OpenGL," indicating that Direct3D may not be as efficient as Microsoft would like developers to believe. There are still challenges ahead for the Valve Linux team, however, as the state of Linux graphics card drivers is still a tumultuous affair. The team has yet to work with AMD and Nvidia, but collaboration with Intel's engineers took place just last month.