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Ubuntu Software Center offers many cool paid apps. Till now it was a bit frustrating to buy apps through the Ubuntu Software Center. It was even more challenging to manage it for developers. It's changing. Ubuntu Software Center is getting PayPal support.

I hate to say this but if you don't have issues with a Linux-based OS which looks like Mac then you will like PearOS. What I do like about PearOS is that it works out of the box. The overall experience is great.

Sebastien Bacher posted a call for contributors on a mailing list and I got some indication of Gubuntu there. He was calling for contributors -- package maintainers, hackers (on softwares or tools), documentation writers, bug triagers, tester, etc. to help the Ubuntu team.

I don't know if you are a TouchWiz fan or not. If you don't know what TouchWiz it then you probably wont care. TouchWiz is Samsung's skin for Android devices. It offers some cool features and has its own share of fans and hater. Irrespective of that Samsung is determined to put TouchWiz on top of Ice Cream Sandwich on its Android 4.0 phones.

While Gnome meta-morphed into a tablet/touch based desktop environment, which initially created some ripples, KDE has adopted a more mature approach. The free and open source project is working on what is called Plasma Active.

I just came across another cool extension of Gnome 3, which can be extremely helpful for those who tend to forget appointment and events. You will never forget your friend's birthday or meetings as Gnome 3 will make it easier for you to keep an eye on your calender.

Apple's has lost another major patent battle in Europe, this time against Motorola Mobility. The court in Manheim, Germany has ruled that Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) European sales company is infringing one of Motorola Mobility’s core cellular communications patents related to data packet transfer technology (GPRS) through its sales of the iPhone and iPad devices.

Linux distros such as Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu have quite a lot of data back-up tools which allows a user to back-up their data with greater ease. One such tool is called 'Back In Time'. The project description says, "Back In Time is a simple backup system for Linux inspired from “flyback project” and “TimeVault”. The backup is done by taking snapshots of a specified set of directories."

Gnome 3 extensions have breathed a new life in those disgruntled Ubuntu users who were looking elsewhere due to the lack of customisation of Unity. The rating jump that LinuxMint enjoyed on Distrowatch was a strong indicator which some Ubuntu fans tried to shot down as 'useless'. I don't want to get into that, I have already wrote about it. Unity may work perfectly fine for a majority of users, especially if you are using a netbook with tiny screen. For, those who are looking elsewhere due to lack of customisation of Unity, don't worry. Now, you can customise your Ubuntu and get back to work.Here are the top 6 extensions that I am using on Ubuntu and have started loving it again. It's the best of both worlds -- stability and power of Debian (with PPA) with customisation of Gnome 3 shell.

Gnome team has triggered a new wave of excitement around Gnome 3 Shell with the extensions website. Even Linux Torvalds now find Gnome 3 to be more usable. That leaves Ubuntu users behind who are stuck with Unity which has not seen any customization at all.

fpmurphy has create a Gnome 3 extension called Auto Hide Top Panel (uploaded to Gnome Extensions by erguille), which hides the top panel and give you full screen - it not only saves time but also removes distracting elements. When you take the mouse on the top, the panel will appear. Since all the menus remain with the respective windows (unlike Unity's global menu) there is no productivity loss.

With software patents the US has become a dangerous place for software development, including innovative software development, because when a program is innovative, that means it has some new ideas in it. But it also has lots of well-known ideas in it. A large program combines thousands of ideas. So if you have some new ideas and you want to use them, in order to use them you have to combine them with a lot of other ideas that are well-known. And if you are not allowed to do that because those other ideas are patented, you can't use your new idea.

Yesterday Gnome project announced a site called Gnome Extensions which makes it easier to find and install extensions. There extensions already exist, but not much was known about it. It seems Linus Torvalds has tried the extensions and is now liking it. He posts on his Google + page, "Hey, with gnome-tweak-tool and the dock extension, gnome-3.2 is starting to look almost usable."

Here are the top 5 extensions that I think every Gnome 3 user will need. Warning: You should be running Firefox to use the web-based installation.

The Gnome project has dropped a bomb today by announcing a project for Gnome 3 Shell extensions. The project is in alpha stage and brings the much needed extensions to the Gnome 3 Shell.

Looking at LinuxMint (which has done an amazing job with Gnome 3 Shell, they have showed what can be done with it) we now know that there is great potential behind Gnome 3 Shell. There is something for everyone. You can now customize Ubuntu 11.10 and get the same level of customization that LinuxMint offers. Unfortunately, it can't be done with Unity, it can be very easily done with Gnome 3 Shell.

If you are a Fedora using running Fedora 15 or even Fedora 14 and want to upgrade to the latest, and the greatest, version of Fedora, you can easily do that using PreUpgrade. The goal of PreUpgrade is to provide a way for Fedora users who wish to upgrade from one release to a newer version of Fedora by easily pre-resolving and downloading all the necessary packages before rebooting the system into the Fedora installer to complete the update.

OpeSUSE, like Fedora, doesn't support non-free/proprietary formats in the community version. So, if you want to use proprietary or restricted codecs you will have to install restricted formats. It's extremely easy using openSUSE KDE.

openSUSE KDE is a perfect desktop for those are not comfortable with the changes Gnome 3 or Unity is bringing. Not that I have any issues with Gnome 3 or Unity – I recommend both. But, if you are not comfortable, and as free software is all about options, I heavily recommend openSUSE KDE. You get the stability of openSUSE, the ease of use, elegance, customization of KDE and a familiar interface.

Alien Arena has hit the version 7.52 which brings new features, levels and bug fixes. Alien Arena is one of the most popular 3D games on the GNU/Linux platform.