Canonical said on Thursday that Ubuntu 13.10 for desktop and smartphone is now available. This release includes a wide range of mobile core apps created by the Ubuntu developer community, including a browser, calendar, clock, weather, and calculator. The company also said that it's working with partners to bring Ubuntu smartphone devices to market in 2014.
"This is a milestone in Ubuntu's history; the exact same Ubuntu OS runs on ARM phones and modern HP Moonshot ARM servers, and provides exactly the same capability as x86 platforms," said Rick Spencer, who leads Ubuntu's consumer-facing engineering. "Ubuntu 13.10 is a full server-grade OS that offers a mobile experience and is lean enough to support mobile devices, kicking off a new era in mobile security and computing convergence."
The release of Ubuntu 13.10 also brings the full SDK for developing apps for all Ubuntu form factors. This toolset includes templates and extensions, theming, automatic orientation, and easy to use UI tools for rapid application development. This toolset also supports native and HTML5 development, and a "responsive app design" that, according to Canonical, should make it easy for developers to target phones, tablets and PCs with a single database.
The updated OS also introduces Smart Scopes into the Dash. Simply type any query into the Dash Home, and the Smart Scopes server will determine which categories of content are the most relevant. The server constantly improves the results by learning which categories and results are the most helpful over time.
Ubuntu 13.10 also sets MIR, the new open source graphics stack which supports higher frame-rates, enabled by default for smartphones, and provides it as an option for desktops. MIR promises improved performance in games, with a simplified driver model for widespread hardware support, and better access to the latest underlying graphics capabilities of today's devices.
"The Ubuntu Dash brings content straight to your desktop, searching more than 50 online sources through scopes," reads the press release. "Ubuntu 13.10 introduces a Smart Scope on both desktop and phone which combines results from many different scopes automatically and learns individual user preferences so that search results improve for each user over time. In 13.10, the Dash includes many new search scopes including Wikipedia, Amazon, Google News and Flickr, and can be configured for privacy or specific search preferences."
Ubuntu 13.10 is available to download now right here. Canonical is accepting donations, but you can still grab the new OS for free.
