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Ubuntu One Music Store comes to mobile and web, skips the plugins
If you'd wanted to shop Ubuntu One's Music Store in the past, you had to use a plugin through an app like Banshee or Rhythmbox. Not very convenient, we'd say. Someone must have been listening up in Canonical's cloud, as Ubuntu One just brought its 7digital-based store to the web and mobile devices. Apart from widening the software scope, it's billed as a more direct interface to shop for tunes and send them to Ubuntu One's cloud for either streaming or syncing. Don't think that's enough of a perk? Early purchasers get half a year's worth of Ubuntu One Music Streaming for free -- as strong an incentive as any to dip a toe into the (music) stream before jumping in.
Gnome-flavored Ubuntu desktop environment coming for purest purists
If you're a Linux user squarely in the Gnome desktop camp and sneer with disdain at the mention of Unity, there's good news -- your preferred flavor is coming, uncontaminated, to Ubuntu. Though "GNOMEBuntu" was originally floated as a name for the new environment, that idea was apparently kiboshed by the Gnome Foundation, leaving "GNOBuntu" and "Gnubuntu" as possible monikers, according to Mutkware. Neither Unity, nor cloud service Ubuntu One will be included in the distro, but you'll find a library of apps pre-installed, including the Epiphany browser and Rhythmbox music player. Customized settings will let you further tweak the purity level to suit your zeal -- so, if you're thinking about grabbing the upcoming alpha, check the source for more info.
El Tunes gives Linux users iTMS playback capabilities
It has been a solid tick since we've seen a good FairPlay hack, so it's with great pleasure that we pass along El Tunes for Ubuntu 8.04 users everywhere. Tested to work on Hardy Heron using RhythmBox (but assumed to work on any modern Linux Distro with GStreamer and a media player that utilizes GStreamer), said plug-in enables open-source aficionados to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store. As for limitations, the current version has no Pause / Seek support and cannot de-authorize a machine for playback, but a future version should hopefully cure those two quirks and add support for purchased video content and audio streaming to an AirTunes device. Give it a shot and let us know how it treats ya.
