Fresh on the heels of releasing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Canonical has delivered an updated version of its Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix. As found in previous versions, this new update features applications likely to be appreciated by business users, and doesn’t include various games and other entertainment-focused options. The update is based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and here’s more on what you’ll find in it.

Canonical, of course, has made much noise recently about how it wants more enterprises and businesses of all sizes to adopt Ubuntu. The 12.04 release expanded long-term support and added cloud computing options for just that reason. The new Business Desktop Remix is squarely focused on business users, as noted on the Canonical blog:

"Designed for corporate and government organisations evaluating Ubuntu for their desktop infrastructure, the Business Desktop Remix is a simple base image that can be deployed into your corporate environment or used as a starting point for further customisation."

The post also clarifies some of the choices regarding bundled applications:

"To save time in deployment, we’ve removed games, social networking programs, file sharing apps and technical tools. In their place, you’ll find software more appropriate for a corporate environment, including VMware View, the Adobe Flash Plugin and the OpenJDK 6 Java runtime environment. Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix provides full language support in both 32 and 64-bit builds, just like the standard Ubuntu. Users also benefit from the great new productivity features introduced in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, including built-in support for Microsoft Windows RDP 7.1 and the Microsoft Visio diagram importer in LibreOffice Draw."

Can a combination of long-term support, and a set of applications optimized for business users help Ubuntu become more entrenched in businesses? Many businesses are standardized on Microsoft’s platforms, and in some cases extricating these businesses from those platforms is a tall order. However, just as Red Hat has found success aggressively supporting open source software, Canonical can definitely increase Ubuntu’s footprint in businesses.

The Business Desktop Remix requires registration, and you can register and download here. 

Over the weekend, The Hill reported that U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee members will look into claims from Mozilla that Microsoft is weilding monopoly power by making it difficult for non-Microsoft browsers to to run efficiently on Windows devices with ARM processors. Many mobile phones use ARM processors, so the dispute is similar to the browser-related disputes that Microsoft has gotten into in the past, except updated to apply to phone platforms. If The Hill’s report is correct, Microsoft may need to change its practices immediately.

Browsers have been at the center of scrutiny from the government toward Microsoft for many years, ever since the U.S. Department of Justice pursued its antitrust case against the company. The latest claims from Mozilla surround Microsoft allegedly withholding APIs needed to make non-Microsoft browsers competitive on Windows RT. According to Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler:

"For Windows on X86, Microsoft is giving other browsers basically the same privileges it gives IE. It’s not great that you don’t get those privileges (certain API access) unless you’re the default browser and I think that’s deeply unfair (a post for later,) but at least we’re able to build a competitive browser and ship it to Windows users on x86 chips. But on ARM chips, Microsoft gives IE access special APIs absolutely necessary for building a modern browser that it won’t give to other browsers so there’s no way another browser can possibly compete with IE in terms of features or performance."

In all likelihood, if members of the Senate Judiciary Committe even begin sniffing around this issue, it will prompt action in the direction of compliance from Microsoft. The company doesn’t want to immerse itself in a replay of the browser-centric government investigations that it has endured in the past. For much more on what to expect here, see Asa Dotzler’s updated post on the matter, found here.

Tired of the current crop of tablets mostly sporting Android and iOS? If that’s the case, mark your calendars for November, because according to reports, that’s when Intel-based slates running Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system are set to land in retail. Anticipation is running high for next-generation tablets equipped with Microsoft’s touch-friendly OS, which could prove game changing in the mobile space.

An un-named source “familiar with the device makers’ plans” told CNet that the first wave of such tablets will show up in stores in November. The source described the schedule as being “tight” and that Windows 8 mobile devices won’t be limited to strictly tablets, but over half of the “more than a dozen” models will be hybrid devices that function as both a notebook and a tablet.

Each Windows 8 device, whether it be a full-blown tablet or a convertible, will run Intel’s Clover Trail Atom platform, which will be the chip maker’s first dual-core Atom design built on a 32nm manufacturing process. A single-core version of Clover Trail will be used in smartphones.

Image Credit: Redmond Pie

One thing we never understood about the Xbox 360: it’s made by Microsoft, so why the heck doesn’t it have a web browser? Even the friggin’ Wii has a web browser. Xbox 360 owners who don’t feel like hooking a HTPC or laptop up to their TV to get their HDTV Amazon shopping on may have something to look forward in the future, however, as a new report claims that Microsoft is working hard to bring a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 to its home console.

The Verge’s sources don’t say much more than that, but they do say that the version of Internet Explorer being whipped up for the Xbox will include full Kinect integration, presumably similar to the Kinect integration built into the local Bing search capabilities that are already available. No word on availability, but the Verge says they’d expect an announcement at the upcoming E3 conference.

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Microsoft is dipping its search brush into its paint bucket and getting ready to swipe it across Bing, the world’s second most popular search engine behind Google. The new-look Bing will take on a three column design that Microsoft says is “the most significant update” to the search engine since it launched three years ago. Microsoft is looking beyond simple keyword searches and putting a big part of its focus on sharing search results by incorporating a Facebook column on the right-hand side.

“Now it’s possible to do more than find pages with search. You are able to share nearly everything you do, including where you are and who you are, in real-time,” Microsoft explains. “From rich multimedia content to real-time streams to social conversations to applications that let you take action in the real world, digital connections are created that present the opportunity to do something. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how search should work. Suddenly an index of documents that does not embrace these changes is insufficient.”

The social sidebar is always present and supposedly “never intrusive.” It will appear as part of every search query, though it’s whisked to the right side of the browser. Most of the social content that used to appear in the main search pane will be shuttled to the side. You’ll be able to share links and comment directly to Facebook using the sidebar.

It isn’t all about social networking, however. The other two columns will consist of core web results, which will take up the largest third of the screen, and a ‘Snapshot’ center column with relevant information and services related to your search, such as maps, restaurant reviews and reservations, and more.

You can read more about Bing’s redesign here.