Peppermint Five, the latest release of the distribution formerly called Peppermint OS, features a brand new Control Center to manage settings, as well as a rebuilt Ice SSB (Site Specific Browser) manager. Since it’s built on the Ubuntu 14.04 code base, Peppermint Five is also a long term support release.

I used to believe that in the next stage of evolution we'd grow a third arm. That would be a sign that our bodies have adapted to one of the greatest physical impediments in human history: constantly having to pull out our smartphones to see if we have important messages.

But there's a less genetically drastic solution. A smartwatch can now deliver the most important and timely information straight to one of your existing wrists. And where Samsung 005930.SE +1.53% and some smartwatch startups have failed to gain momentum, Google's new Android Wear may be the first viable wrist-top platform.

The development team behind the HandyLinux operating system had the pleasure of announcing on June 30 that version 1.5.1 has been released and is now available for download. This build introduces several new features, updated packages, and fixes various bugs.

Linux Mint 17 is very impressive, but it is often said that the devil is in the details. With Linux Mint 17, the accumulated details are very devilish indeed. The development team did a hell of a job making this Linux distro smoother and better. The GUI for System Settings has a more consistent look. The categories are better organized and separated into subsections.

As the world increasingly moves to cloud-based infrastructure and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, the needs of traditional desktop users are changing. The Peppermint OS Linux platform is an effort to integrate the cloud SaaS world with the desktop in a seamless hybrid approach. Peppermint had its 1.0 release back in 2010, and the technology has been steadily updated ever since. The Peppermint Five Linux distribution was officially released on June 23, providing an updated software base and new features for Peppermint OS users. Peppermint Five is based on the recent Ubuntu 14.04 Long Term Support (LTS) Linux release that debuted on April 17.

• Ubuntu 14.04 KDE 5 20140627

• StartOS 5.1

Based on some recent experience, I'm of the opinion that smartphones are about as private as a gas station bathroom. They're full of leaks, prone to surveillance, and what security they do have comes from using really awkward keys. While there are tools available to help improve the security and privacy of smartphones, they're generally intended for enterprise customers. No one has had a real one-stop solution: a smartphone pre-configured for privacy that anyone can use without being a cypherpunk.

After years of rumours, months of teasing and weeks of waiting, SteamOS is finally here. The beta release of the gaming distro signalled the start of Valve’s tentative entry into the hardware market. The same day as the release, the first wave of Valve’s own Steam Machines went out. These beta units, while never truly meant to grace store shelves, are the first examples of many more third-party offerings to come. This massive step from Valve is making waves around the tech and games world, so we decided to talk to a few of the people that could help us truly understand the position Valve is in, and what their next move might be.

I’ve done the release team duty for the GNOME 3.13.3 release this week. As I often do, I took some screenshots of new things that I’ve noticed while smoketesting.

There is quite a bit of good new stuff in this release, starting with an rewritten and improved Adwaita theme that is now part of GTK+.

With the release of Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" Xfce, the collection of Mint flavors is now complete. Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, and Xfce are the main versions, but the developers have been dabbling for some time in a Mint release based on Debian. We'll have to wait a little more until those experimental OSes make their entrance in this branch.

Just like all the other releases in the new 17 "Qiana" series, the Xfce flavor is also based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, a distribution that will be supported until 2019. This extended support period will also be adopted by Linux Mint developers and the next three editions of this distro will use the same base, 14.04 LTS

• Zorin OS 9 RC

• LPS 1.5.3

After we’ve covered the news about the official lauching about the new flagship smartphone, the Huawei Honor 6, is now we have a review about the phone. The new Huawei Honor 6 is packs with 5 inch screen, 3GB of RAM and this is the first smartphone that powered by Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 920 octa-core processor made of four A15 cores and 4 A7 cores which Huawei thinks compares to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset.The Huawei Honor 6 has officially release in Beijing on June 24th, 2014. Before now, the Huawei Honor 6 has spread as a rumors, and now this phone is come to the market and ready to beat the other flagship smartphone, such as Samsung Galaxy S5.

This is one of those reviews that should be really easy to write. Just last week I wrote an article listing 5 reasons why Lubuntu would be good for Windows XP users. Therefore with this in mind you might think that this review would list all of Lubuntu's good points and paint a positive picture.

Unfortunately it isn't that simple. As far as I am concerned Lubuntu 14.04 feels like a step backwards when compared to Lubuntu 13.10.

There is nothing that is so broken that makes it unusable but I would have thought that because Lubuntu 14.04 is the long term support release it would have had less obviously visible bugs when it was first released.

The Linux Mint team has announced the release of the Plasma Desktop edition of the popular GNU/Linux based operating system – Linux Mint KDE 17. Being a Plasma user myself, and since I keep a close eye on what this team is doing, I was obviously interested in testing it out.

Another Makulu Linux distribution was released today, and that's always good news! This time it is the KDE desktop for the Makulu 6.x series. The Xfce version of this was just released a couple of weeks ago, so i don't exptect for there to be any major surprised: I hope that means this will not be a very lengthy post.

As usual, the release announcement gives a good overview of the what and why in this release. The most important specifics are that it is built on Linux kernel 3.14.7 and KDE SC 4.13.1. The download images are available from the Makulu Linux KDE page, it is a 32-bit (i686) build that is approximately 1.7GB in size. It is a hybrid ISO, so you can burn it to disk or dump it with dd to a USB stick, and it does not support UEFI boot.

Also: MakuluLinux 6.0 KDE

Linux Mint 17 Xfce includes enhancements to Update Manager, new artwork, better language settings, Xfce 4.10, long term support and much more.

Lubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr is an official derivative of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS based on the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE). On this release, as the Xubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, Lubuntu 14.04 also come with LTS version, it mean will be supported for 3 years.

http://ubuntuportal.com/2014/05/lubuntu-14-04-lts-trusty-tahr-video-review-and-screnshot-tour.html

Both LXDE and Xfce are fast and easy to use. The desktops they produce are uncluttered and efficient. That said, I find that Xfce is a bit more pleasant for me to use due to its additional special effects and fewer design quirks. That is where the LXQt difference comes into play. The additional tweaking that the QT settings panel brings to LXDE seems to close the LXDE and Xfce gap considerably. - See more at: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/80627.html?rss=1#sthash.yLlB3ND1.dpuf

Linux isn’t a complete operating system — it’s just a kernel. Linux distributions take the Linux kernel and combine it with other free software to create complete packages. There are many different Linux distributions out there.

If you want to “install Linux,” you’ll need to choose a distribution. You could also use Linux From Scratch to compile and assemble your own Linux system from the ground up, but that’s a huge amount of work.

When I saw the release announcement for KaOS 2014.06 on Distrowatch, it caught my eye for two reasons. First, because there have been a few times when I have thought I would really like to have a special KDE-focused distribution with rolling updates where I could find and test the latest in the KDE Software Collection and associated packages. And second, because I have recently been trying and writing about a totally "over-the-top" Linux distribution (Makulu) with absolutely everything thrown in, including the kitchen sink and whatever other appliances and paraphernalia were within reach, so the prospect of a smaller, carefully focused and selective distribution sounded quite interesting.