After releasing the LXDE edition of wattOS 10 at the beginning of the month, developer Ronald Ropp now announced the availability of the Microwatt Edition, which includes less of everything when compared to its bigger brother.

• Ubuntu Phone, Sep 2016 - Vorsprung durch Touch

  The Ubuntu Phone is getting better, and with every new iteration of the OTA, my little BQ Aquaris E4.5 is gaining more speed and functionality. Like in the air force, with an avionics upgrade, which transforms ancient wings into a powerful and modern bird of prey. Only the pace of advancement is lagging behind the market. See what Android and iOS can do, even Windows Phone, and you realize how late and insufficiently meaningful the Ubuntu Phone really is. This has to change, massively.

  This latest round does bring some fine goods to the table - more speed and stability, better icons, more overall visual polish, incremental improvements in the applications and the scopes. But that's not enough to win the heart of the average user. A more radical, app-centric effort is required. More focus on delivering the mobile experience, be it as it may. Ubuntu cannot revolutionalize that which is already considered the past. It can only join the club and enjoy the benefits of a well-established reality. And that is a kickass app stack that makes the touch device worth using in the first place.

  Still, it's not all gloomy. E4.5 is a better product now than it was a year ago, fact. Ubuntu Phone is a better operating system than it was even this spring, fact. So maybe one day we will see Ubuntu become an important if not dominant player in the phone and tablet space. It sure is heading in the right direction, my only fear is the availability of resources to pull off this massive rehaul that is needed to make it stand up to the old and proven giants. And that's it really.

  If you're keen on Linux (not Android) making it in the mobile world, do not forget to check my Ubuntu tablet review! Especially the convergence piece. On that merry note, you do remember that I'm running a wicked contest this year, too? He/she who reads my books might get a chance to win an M10 tablet. Indeed. Off you go, dear readers. Whereas I will now run the same set of tests we did here on the Aquaris tablet, and see how it likes the OTA-12 upgrade. The end.

• Ubuntu 16.10 Unity 8 - new window snapping feature

• Ubuntu Online Summit for Ubuntu 17.04 is Taking Place In Mid-November

• Ubuntu Online Summit: 15-16 November 2016

• Ubuntu Wants Your Opinion On Scopes and Colors

  Got a spare five minutes? You can help the Canonical design out by filling in a questionnaire. The team is looking to “gather information about how people perceive colours and use Scopes.” The short questionnaire is split into two sections: colour and Scopes.

• Ubuntu Smartphones / Tablets Are Getting Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 Update

• An Easy Way To Set the Bing Image of the Day As Your Linux Wallpaper

• Black Lab Linux 7.7 Released With Security Fixes And New Software

  Softpedia’s Marius Nestor notes that Black Lab Linux 7.7 arrives with security fixes and software updates released in the Ubuntu Linux repos.

We reported yesterday on the upcoming availability of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 software update for Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu Tablet devices, and it looks like Canonical finally started the phased update earlier today.

Canonical's Lukasz Zemczak informs us that the main OTA-13 images have been successfully copied from the rc-proposed channel to the stable one for users to update but, as expected, it's phased during the next 24 hours, so not everyone will get it at the same time.

Also: Ubuntu tees up OpenStack on IBM's iron