March 2011 ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog

March 2011

Find Out If When Your Favourite PPAs Are Updated For Ubuntu 11.04 With This Script

Author: Andrew | Date: March 31, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, ppa, repository, ubuntu

Will you upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 soon and want to know if your favourite PPAs will be updated for Natty? David Callé has set up a script (comes with a GUI thanks to Zenity) that automatically checks all your current PPA repositories and lets you know the supported Ubuntu versions for each. Here's a screenshot with this Zenity script in action:

Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1, Released [Video & Screenshots]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 31, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal beta 1 has just been released! As usual, we'll do a recap of all the new features and changes since the previous milestone (Alpha 3) which of course you already know if you read WebUpd8 daily. But even so, maybe there are some things you've missed so read on to see what's new in Ubuntu 11.04 beta 1 since alpha 3!

Get The Dropbox AppIndicator To Work In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Author: Andrew | Date: March 31, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cloud, dropbox, linux, sync, ubuntu

Those of you that run Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal already probably know that the Dropbox application indicator doesn't work in Natty - not using the official Dropbox build.

But you can get the Dropbox AppIndicator to work in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the latest script below:

Install Java In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Via Repository

Author: Andrew | Date: March 31, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: Java, linux, repository, ubuntu

I've upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 on my netbook a while back and as usual, I can't install Java the "official" way because the Ubuntu 11.04 Partner repository is not yet ready (it's usually available once the final Ubuntu version is released).

So what are the options for installing Java in Ubuntu 11.04 if you upgrade before the final version is released? You can download it from its website and install it manually and/or use the JDK updater script provided by Bruce Ingalls - but there are actually 2 much easier to use alternatives. Read on!

Indicator Applet To Mount CD / DVD Images: Mounty

Author: Andrew | Date: March 30, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, applet, linux, mount, ubuntu

Mounty is a very simple indicator applet you can use to mount CD / DVD images. It supports ISO, IMG, BIN, MDF and NRG and besides mounting, it can also burn the images to a CD/DVD.

Mounty can also remember the mounted images and add it to startup with a single click. It's a very simple but effective little indicator applet.

Faenza 0.9.1 Released With Yet Another "Darker" Theme, Bug Fixes

Author: Andrew | Date: March 30, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, faenza, icons, themes, ubuntu

A new Faenza Icon theme version has just been released: 0.9.1. This is just a minor bug-fix release, but it does bring a new variant called "Faenza-Darker" which is great for dark themes (dark buttons / Gnome Panel) with a light toolbar.

That's pretty nice because now you don't have to manually tweak the default Faenza Icon theme or use unofficial variants if you just want to use the original Faenza but with various light/dark icon combinations.

Firefox 4 Mobile, Finally Released [Android And Maemo]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 30, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: android, firefox, linux, mobile

Mozilla has finally released Firefox 4 Mobile for Android and Maemo (Nokia N900). You probably already know all the new features since Firefox 4 Mobile has been in alpha/beta for quite some time, but I'll do a small recap:

3 New Themes In The WebUpd8 Themes PPA: GAIA Sprout, Soothe And Dichotomy

Author: Andrew | Date: March 29, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: emerald, eyecandy, linux, ppa, themes, ubuntu

To be able to install the themes below (well, you can also manually download and install them if you want), firstly add the WebUpd8 Themes PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes && sudo apt-get update

(Even if you've already added our Themes PPA, make sure you run "sudo apt-get update" so you get the latest packages as I've just uploaded these themes).

GAIA Sprout

Gaia Sprout:

More screenshots on DeviantArt

Bluebird Chrome / Firefox 4 Themes

Author: Andrew | Date: March 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: bluebird, chrome, eyecandy, firefox, themes

If you like Bluebird, you may also want a Chrome / Firefox theme to match. Below you'll find a theme that matches Chrome perfectly and a Firefox 4 theme which isn't a perfect match for Bluebird but looks great nevertheless. The Firefox 4 theme actually integrates quite well with other themes too.

Disable The AppMenu (Global Menu) In Ubuntu

Author: Andrew | Date: March 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, appmenu, linux, ubuntu, unity

If you're subscribed to the Ayatana mailing list (or you can look here - look for "Menus hidden by default"), you probably know the huge discussion behind the AppMenu (Global Menu) which is set to autohide by default in Ubuntu 11.04 (in both Unity and the classic desktop). Apparently even quite a few Ubuntu developers find it confusing.

I didn't find a way to disable the autohide only, but I was reading on Ubuntusecrets.it about disabling the AppMenu altogether and though I'd let you know about 2 ways of disabling the AppMenu: either for a specific application or globally, for all applications but using a different method which should keep you error-free.

Scribes Is A Very Interesting, Minimalistic Text Editor With Remote Editing Support

Author: Andrew | Date: March 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, scribes, text editor, ubuntu

In my quest to find the perfect text editor (for me), I've stumbled upon Scribes and I was quite impressed with its simplicity and features so I though it deserves a post on WebUpd8.

How To Install Liquorix (Kernel) In Ubuntu

Author: Andrew | Date: March 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: kernel, liquorix, ubuntu

Liquorix is a precompiled Kernel for Debian Sid (works in Ubuntu too - I've tested it on Ubuntu 10.10) that includes a modified version of Zen Kernel, optimized for desktop performance.

You probably want some benchmarks for this but I cannot provide any useful benchmarks since I only have one computer (well 2 but I don't have access to the second computer right now). If you want to see some numbers, you can take a look at THESE quick benchmarks which I've generated using "hardinfo -r" but the numbers are probably pretty useless. You can also take a look at the Liquorix Kernel thread @ Debian Forums.

Fix Skype Menus With Dark Themes (Like Ambiance) [Quick Linux Tip]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fix, skype, tips n tricks, ubuntu

By default, Skype doesn't play very nicely if you use a theme with dark menus. This is a serious inconvenient since Skype is a very popular application and the default Ubuntu theme - Ambiance - uses dark menus. But this is actually very easy to "fix".

Clementine 0.7 Comes With Reworked Tag Editor, .Cue Support

Author: Andrew | Date: March 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: clementine, linux, music player, ubuntu

Clementine - a Qt music player with some very interesting features - has reached version 0.7, getting some cool new features like a new edit track info dialog which allows you to edit more fields, change multiple songs at once, change cover art and even an option to identify songs and fill tags using MusicBrainz, support for .cue files and more.

Ubuntu Software Center Lets You Test-Drive Applications Without Installing Them [Ubuntu 11.04]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 26, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu, ubuntu software center

Ubuntu Software Center got a really cool feature in Ubuntu 11.04: it lets you test drive applications without having to install them.

To get this to work you firstly must install a package called "qtnx":

sudo apt-get install qtnx

Then when you open Ubuntu Software Center you should see a new "Test drive" button next to the application screenshot. The applications run on a remote server so you must have a decent Internet connection and also, this is not available for all the applications in the Ubuntu Software Center, but nevertheless, this feature sounds awesome. Here's a video I've just recorded so you can see exactly how it works:

[Poll] Do You Want Customizable Categories In Synapse?

Author: Andrew | Date: March 25, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: mockups, poll, synapse

Do you like Synapse and want to help? Alberto, one of the Synapse developers wants to make the Synapse categories customizable but before proceeding, he wants to hear your opinion about it so head over to Alberto's blog and check out his mockup, then vote! You can also leave a comment telling him if you like it or what he can do to improve it.

I want customizable Categories, do you?

System Monitor Indicator Puts The CPU And Memory Usage On Your Panel

Author: Andrew | Date: March 25, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, linux, system monitor, ubuntu

System Monitor Indicator is a new appindicator that displays your system CPU and memory usage on the panel - be it the regular Gnome panel or the new Unity top bar.

gImageReader (Tesseract OCR GUI) Gets Multipage Recognition Support

Author: Andrew | Date: March 25, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gimagereader, images, ocr, pdf, text recognition

gImageReader (runs on Linux and Windows) is a GUI for tesseract-ocr, a free software optical character recognition (OCR) engine which you can use to extract text from PDF documents or images.

gImageReader allows you to select columns, part of a document, spell check the output and more but it didn't recognize a whole document at once. But the latest gImageReader 0.9 adds multipage-recognition support for multipage PDF. You can also set gImageReader to extract the text from a page range if you don't need it to recognize a whole document.

Besides this very useful (and much needed!) new feature, gImageReader 0.9 also comes with:

Unity 3.6.8 Video: Grab Handles, New Icons, More [Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 24, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu

Unity (and Ubuntu 11.04 in general) got a lot of minor new features lately. Nothing big, but there are a lot of them. Here is a video with some of these changes in the latest Unity 3.6.8 (as of today):

Ubuntu Font Family Adds Light And Medium Variants [PPA]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 24, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, fonts, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu, ubuntu font

The Ubuntu Font Family package has just been updated in Ubuntu 11.04 and it now includes 2 new variants - light and medium:

Ubuntu 11.04 Community Wallpapers Revealed, Default Wallpaper Slightly Modified [Download]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 24, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: community wallpapers, eyecandy, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu, wallpapers

The "ubuntu-wallpapers" package has just been updated in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and it now includes wallpapers from the Ubuntu 11.04 community contest:

Use Google Chrome Built-In Flash In Firefox For (Probably) Less Crashes

Author: Andrew | Date: March 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: chrome, firefox, flash player

I had some issues with Adobe Flash crashing very often using the latest Firefox 4 so I've searched for a way to fix this and found a topic on AskUbuntu which says to use Chrome's Flash plugin in Chromium so I though - why not do it for Firefox? - and it's actually working quite well for now.

Chrome uses a built-in Adobe Flash plugin which seems to work better then the regular Flash. But there's a catch: you must install Chrome (and keep it updated if you want further Flash updates) even if you don't use it.

Edit PDF Documents In Linux With PDF Mod (Remove Or Add Pages, Rotate, Reorder PDF Files)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, pdf, pdf mod, ubuntu

PDF Mod is a great application for editing PDF documents which can be used to remove or add pages to existing PDF files, export images, rotate, reorder, edit the metadata (subject, title, author) and so on.

Install The Beautiful Bluebird GTK + Metacity Theme In Ubuntu

Author: Andrew | Date: March 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, linux, ppa, themes, ubuntu

After many comments about it, I've decided to make a separate post as it seems everybody wants to know what theme this is even though there was an announcement on ppa.webupd8.org.

Shotwell 0.9 Adds Extensible Plugin Framework For Web Publishing And Slideshow Transitions

Author: Andrew | Date: March 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, photo manager, shotwell, ubuntu

Shotwell is the default Ubuntu photo manager and you can use it to organize your photos, publish them on various websites such as PicasaWeb, Flickr, Facebook and more.

Shotwell 0.9 has been released today, adding an extensible plugin framework for web publishing and slideshow transitions which means we might see a lot more plugins soon for publishing the photos on the web.

Quickly Share A Folder Over HTTP With JetHTTP

Author: Andrew | Date: March 22, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: home server, internet, jethttp, share

Want to share a folder with someone in your network or over the internet? The easiest way to do it (especially if the folders include some large files) is probably using a tool such as JetHTTP.

JetHTTP is a small GUI-based web server for serving static content over HTTP an you can use it to share a folder with just one click.

Firefox 4.0, Uploaded To The Firefox Stable Ubuntu PPA

Author: Andrew | Date: March 22, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: firefox, ubuntu

Apologies for all the Firefox posts today, but like I've promissed in the comments, I wanted to let you know that the Firefox Stable Ubuntu PPA has been updated and it now includes Firefox 4.0 stable for Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10.

Our "Install Firefox 4 In Ubuntu 10.04 / 10.10 Via PPA Repository" post has been updated with exact installation instructions.

Firefox 4, Officially Released

Author: Andrew | Date: March 22, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: firefox, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows

I'll make this short:

Firefox 4 has been officially released and is available to download @ http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/

If you want to run it on Linux, close any running Firefox instance, extract the downloaded archive and double click the file called "firefox" (not firefox-bin!).

Ubuntu: see how to install Firefox 4 from a PPA

To see what's new in Firefox 4, check out the following video:

For a complete list of new features, see http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/

The Board Finally Gets A PPA [Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Only]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 22, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, gnome shell, linux, Natty Narwhal, notes, the board, ubuntu

The Board is a place for quick access to notes, photos, videos, audio and more. It's really hard to describe what The Board really is so take a look at the video below:

Please note that this is an older video demoing text selection in The Board.

Because The Board is still experimental, it was quite hard to try it out but installing it in Ubuntu just got a whole lot easier thanks to the packaging done by Robert Ancell and a PPA set up Lucas Rocha (The Board developer).

Install The Board in Ubuntu 11.04

LibreOffice 3.3.2, Released [Minor Bugfix Release]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 22, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: libreoffice, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows

LibreOffice 3.3.2 has been released today, bringing further improves and stability. This is a bugfix release and is identical to LibreOffice 3.3.2 RC2 (so if you've already installed LibreOffice 3.3.2, you basically have the latest stable version).

Unity Video Mockup: Better Menus, Social Networking Widget Layer

Author: Andrew | Date: March 22, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, mockups, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu, unity

Frederico Araújo Mendes has created a very interesting Unity mockup (video) in which he proposes better menus and a social networking widget layer.

In Frederico's Unity, you have a regular dock with some fixed icons and an area for items you open / pin. Clicking the Ubuntu logo in the top left corner will flip the "dock" (just like it was in the "2 sided dock" mockups) and here you'll have basically all the regular menu categories, but displayed on the dock.

Download jDownloader Faenza Theme

Author: Andrew | Date: March 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: faenza, icons, jdownloader, linux, themes, ubuntu

jDownloader doesn't look too great and doesn't respect your GTK theme or icons. But luckily, if you use the Faenza icons, you can get jDownloader to use it (this is actually a jDownloader icon theme).

Here's a screenshot before and after applying the Faenza jDownloader theme:

(Before)

(After)

Firefox 4 (Stable) Available For Download!

Author: Andrew | Date: March 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: firefox, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows

Firefox 4.0 (stable) has been released. Not officially, but is available for download via the Mozilla FTP servers.

The latest Firefox 4.0 stable is not yet available in any Ubuntu PPA and will most probably be uploaded to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal official repositories firstly, tested and only then uploaded to the PPAs we were talking about last week.

Last Week's Top Posts (Week 11, 2011)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: top posts

Browse all our weekly top posts.

FOSS Skype Alternative "GNU Free Call" In The Works

Author: Andrew | Date: March 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, open source, skype

The GNU Project has announced a new project called GNU Free Call, an open source Skype alternative that will offer anonymous VoIP and will use the GNU SIP Witch server as the back end:

PyChess: Great Linux Chess Game You Can Play Vs. The Computer Or Online (Vs. Human Opponents)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: chess, games, linux, ubuntu

PyChess is a chess game originally developed for Gnome but it runs well under any DE because it's developed in Python.

You can play against the computer (PyChess comes with many difficulty levels) or play agains a human beging by connecting to the FICS servers, a big chess community with options to chat, observe games of others and more.

Kupfer v204 (QuickLauncher) Released With New Gwibber Plugin, Lots More [PPA]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: kupfer, launcher, linux, ubuntu

Kupfer is a quick launcher like Gnome DO or Synapse. Kupfer exists for quite a long time and thanks to this, it comes with a huge list of plugins: you can use it to quickly access any browser's bookmarks, control Empathy or Pidgin, Evolution, Thunderbird, Google Search, Gmail support, image tools, Rhythmbox support, Tracker search and well... basically it has support for half the applications you can think of.

Kupfer v204 was released a couple of days ago and today it was finally uploaded to the Kupfer PPA. The most interesting new feature in this new Kupfer version is a Gwibber plugin which allows you to easily send an update to Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook and so on (all the services supported by Gwibber). I'll tell you how to use this later on.

Lubuntu 11.04 Gets New Default Theme, Wallpaper

Author: Andrew | Date: March 20, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, artwork, linux, lubuntu, Natty Narwhal, wallpapers

Lubuntu is an unofficial Ubuntu flavor based on LXDE.

Remember Ozone, the theme proposed to become default in Lubuntu 11.04? Well, the theme got some improvements and it's now a lot faster so it was made default starting today. Here's how Ozone looks now:

Announcing WebUpd8 PPAs Status - Latest WebUpd8 PPA Uploads, Changelogs, Etc.

Author: Andrew | Date: March 20, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: launchpad, linux, ppa, ubuntu, webupd8

I usually update the WebUpd8 PPAs a lot more frequently then I blog about it on WebUpd8 so I though I would be nice for those who use the WebUpd8 PPAs to see a changelog for the recently uploaded packages, easily spot new uploads and so on.

So I've set up WebUpd8 PPAs Status, a small mini-blog (and easy to remember domain: ppa.webupd8.org) where I'll post the changelog for each update or a short description for each new upload.

You can receive the latest WebUpd8 PPAs news via RSS feed (separate RSS feed), like the WebUpd8 PPAs on Facebook and get updates in your home stream (this is a separate Facebook page) and/or via our main Twitter account.

Install Nautilus Elementary 2.32.2 In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal And 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

Author: Andrew | Date: March 20, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gloobus preview, linux, nautilus elementary, tips n tricks, ubuntu

Since Nautilus Elementary 2.32.2 has just been uploaded to the PPA for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, I had to write a new post about installing it as well as some extra goodies.

Nautilus Elementary 2.32.2 comes with all the features the previous version had (but no new features) as well as many bug fixes. Also, the search is not using Zeitgeist anymore.

Nautilus Elementary Lives On, Version 2.32.2 Will Land In Ubuntu Maverick And Natty Soon

Author: Andrew | Date: March 20, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: elementary, linux, nautilus elementary, ubuntu

The Nautilus Elementary project was shut down in November in favor of Marlin - a new file manager, but many people are still using Nautilus Elementary so ammonkey, the Nautilus Elementary developer decided to bring it back to life and update it to version 2.32.2 for both Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat as well as for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal:

Synapse Launcher Gets A Do-ish Theme, Drag'n'Drop Support

Author: Andrew | Date: March 19, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: launcher, linux, synapse, ubuntu

Synapse, the cool new (well, not that new, it's been out for a few months now) semantic launcher will be getting a new "Do-ish" theme as well as drag and drop support. Further more, you can easily recolor the Do-ish theme by going to the Appearance Preferences, on the "Themes" tab, click "Customize" and then select a different color for "Selected items background" on the "Colors" tab.

Check out this video with the latest Synapse features:

Faenza Icon Theme 0.9 Released With A New "Darkest" Theme, New Chrome Icon, Lots More

Author: Andrew | Date: March 18, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, faenza, icons, linux, ubuntu

The beautiful Faenza Icon Theme was updated to version 0.9 today, bringing a new "darkest" theme with status and action icons in light grey.

Xubuntu 11.04 Default Wallpaper Announced

Author: Andrew | Date: March 18, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, wallpapers, xubuntu

Pasi Lallinaho, the Shimmer Project leader, announced the Xubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal default wallpaper:

Install Firefox 4 In Ubuntu 10.04 / 10.10 Via PPA Repository - The Proper Way

Author: Andrew | Date: March 18, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: firefox, firefox 4, linux, ppa, ubuntu

Firefox 4 (stable) will be released soon and I though I'd let you know how to install it in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick or 10.04 Lucid from a PPA - the proper way (from the semi-official Firefox 4 PPA).

No, using Ubuntuzilla or the Mozilla Daily PPA (well, this PPA is relatively ok but you'll never get stable builds so you might start receiving Firefox 4.1 alpha updates - or whatever the next Firefox version will be called -, as soon as Firefox 4 is released) is not the proper way to install Firefox 4. Why?

Download Chrome OS Ready To Use Nightly Builds (For VirtualBox, VMware And USB Drive)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 18, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: chrome, chrome os, linux, virtualbox

Hexxeh has made vanilla Chrome OS VirtualBox, VMware and USB drive images available for download so you can easily try out the latest Chrome OS nightly builds without having to compile it yourself.

ReText: Text Editor That Supports Exporting To PDF, ODT, HTML And Google Docs

Author: Andrew | Date: March 17, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, retext, text editor, ubuntu

ReText is a new, simplistic text editor for MarkDown syntax that supports some popular formats such as PDF, ODT, HTML and plain text. Unfortunately you can only export to these file formats (so you can't use it to open a PDF or ODT file but it does work for HTML) but even so, ReText is quite a handy application.

Gtk+ 3.2 Will Let You Run Any Application In A Browser (Remotely Too)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 17, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome, gtk, html5, linux

Gtk+ 3.2 will let you run any application in a browser thanks to the new HTML5 gdk backend. That means you'll be able to run GIMP, Gedit, a video editor or whatever, remotely (or on the same computer), using a web browser.

This is still work in progress so not everything works yet (the keyboard input support, dnd or c&p) and also, it only works in Firefox 4 for now, but this is nevertheless amazing.

Check out the following video recorded by Alexander Larsson:

WebUpd8 Themes PPA: Updated Minty Freshness, New Additions: Divergence IV, Victory, Buuf

Author: Andrew | Date: March 17, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: buuf, Divergence, eyecandy, icons, minty freshness, ppa, themes, ubuntu, victory

* To be able to install the themes in this post, you'll firstly have to add the WebUpd8 themes PPA using the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes && sudo apt-get update

If you've already added the WebUpd8 Ubuntu Themes PPA, make sure you run "sudo apt-get update" to be able to install the new packages / updates presented in this post.

Elementary Hide Caption Titlebar Plus (HCTP) Style [Firefox 4]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: elementary, firefox, linux, ubuntu

Hide Caption Titlebar Plus (HCTP) is a Firefox extension you can use to get the tabs in the titlebar (sort of). What the extension does is display minimize/maximize/close buttons next to the tabs and by using Compiz you can remove the maximized windows titlebar and get "tabs in the tilebar".

We've covered HCTP last week so check out that post for more info: Firefox 4: Get Tabs In The Title Bar (Like Chrome).

If you're using the Elementary theme, there's now a nice Elementary HCTP theme (style) to go with it. Download it @ userstyles.org.

Wow, this post is huge. The introduction is 4 times longer then the actual post.

Thanks to arzali for the info!

Classic GNOME 3 Beta 2 Video (No Shell)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome 3, linux

We've published many videos of the upcoming GNOME Shell, but none of the classic GNOME 3. Here's a video demoing the latest GNOME 3 beta 2 (without GNOME Shell) running in VirtualBox:

Red Eclipse 1.0; 0AD Alpha 4 [Game Updates]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 0ad, fps, games, linux, macosx, red eclipse, RTS, ubuntu, windows

2 quick game updates:

0AD alpha 4

0 AD alpha 4 "Daedalus" was released recently. 0 AD is a historical real-time strategy open-source game.

Changes in the latest 0AD alpha 4:

"A New Start" (Theme Pack) 1.2 Brings Updated GTK And AWN Themes, Lots More

Author: Andrew | Date: March 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: a new start, eyecandy, linux, themes, ubuntu

A New Start is a beautiful theme pack that was updated a few days ago. This is not just a GTK / Metacity theme - it comes with many customizations: Conky configuration, a coverGloobus theme, fonts, an AWN theme, Gnome panel and AWN backgrounds and even a Firefox Startpage.

Announcing The WebUpd8 Themes Ubuntu PPA

Author: Andrew | Date: March 15, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, ppa, themes, ubuntu

There are a lot of amazing GTK / Metacity / Emerald / Icon themes on Gnome-Look and Deviant Art but to get the latest version you must constantly check the site and manually download and install the new theme so I though it would be nice to set up an Ubuntu repository for the themes that I (and you) like and do not have a PPA.

So I've created the WebUpd8 Themes PPA. The PPA currently provides the following packages:

"2 sided Unity Dock", Now A Reality [Video]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 15, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, ubuntu, unity

Remember the "2 sided Unity dock" mockups we've posted last week? Well, Andrea Azzarone (who's patch is also responsible for bringing configurable icon size for the Unity dock), has turned one of the 2 sided Unity docks mockups to reality and you can see it in action in the video below:

New Minty Freshness (GTK Theme) Version Brings Nautilus Elementary Support, Many Other Improvements

Author: Andrew | Date: March 14, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, linux mint, lmde, minty freshness, themes, ubuntu

Minty Freshness is a new theme created by Skies Of Azel, the Orta theme developer, especially designed for Linux Mint Debian Edition (the theme could become the default LMDE theme).

A new Minty Freshness (an amazing theme similar to Orta but which uses Murrine) version was uploaded to its GIT page today bringing Nautilus Elementary support and invisible panel handles when the panel isn't expanded (that's how I use it - see the screenshot below -, so I'm pretty excited about this) as well as many other improvements:

Sublime Text 2 Ubuntu PPA

Author: Andrew | Date: March 14, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: ide, linux, sublime text, text editor, ubuntu

Sublime Text 2 is a pretty neat text editor which will remind you of TextMate. It runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX and while it's not free, you can evaluate it for an unlimited period of time. Check out our Sublime Text 2 review for more info.

Sublime Text 2 is updated quite often so I wanted to create an Ubuntu PPA for a while now but I couldn't find out what license it uses. I've emailed the Sublime Text 2 developer and got no reply so I decided to package it like Adobe Flash: the .deb will download Sublime Text 2 from its website so the .deb doesn't come with the actual files.

While Sublime Text 2 automatically checks for updates and prompts you to download the latest version, I like getting the updates through a PPA. Further more, using this PPA, Sublime Text 2 will get a proper .desktop file so you can right click files to open in Sublime Text 2 as well as showing up properly in the Unity launcher. You can also open files from the command line (run "sublime-text-2 /path/to/file" or "subl /path/to/file").

Touchégg (Multitouch Gesture Recognizer For Linux) v0.2 Brings GUI To Configure Gestures

Author: Andrew | Date: March 14, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: apple, linux, multi-touch, touchegg, ubuntu

Touchégg is a multi-touch gesture recognizer for Linux (released under GPL) that allows you to associate actions to multi-touch gestures. It can be used to assign gestures to actions like maximize or minimize windows, resize windows, show the desktop, emulate all mouse functions and more.

Touchégg v0.2 was released recently, bringing a GUI to configure the gestures. The new version also comes with more gestures like Tap with 5 fingers and tap & hold with 2, 3, 4 and 5 fingers and more actions: MOUSE_MOVE, LEFT_BUTTON_CLICK, MOVE_WINDOW, RUN_COMMAND, DRAG_AND_DROP, SEND_KEYS.

Resizing Dash And Properly Collapsing Homeview Video (Unity - Ubuntu 11.04)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 14, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu

Neil J Patel posted an Unity video demoing resizing Dash and properly collapsing homeview, which you can watch below (this is not yet available in Natty):

(I've uploaded it to YouTube so watching it doesn't crash the server, the original video link can be found here)

Thanks to Gaurav for the tip!

Last Week's Top Posts (Week 10, 2011)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 13, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: top posts

Browse all our weekly top posts.

Set Up Sparkleshare With Your Own Server

Author: Andrew | Date: March 13, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cloud, home server, internet, linux, sparkleshare, sync, ubuntu

Last week we saw how to install Sparkleshare in Ubuntu from a PPA. As a reminder:

Sparkleshare is a tool to synchronize your files in the cloud - like Dropbox or SpiderOak - but unlike these, Sparkleshare is open source and allows you to use your own server. Sparkleshare uses GIT so if you delete/modify some files by accident, you can easily revert the changes.

If you want to use Sparkleshare to syncronize files with your server, the set up is a bit more complicated so I though I'd make a separate post for this. Using the steps below, you should be able to use Sparkleshare with your own server (make sure you've firstly installed Sparkleshare on your computer!).

Mockups: Add / Remove Workspaces In Unity

Author: Andrew | Date: March 13, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, mockups, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu, unity, workspaces

Ubuntu 11.04 lacks a way to manage multiple workspaces. Sure, there is a workspace switcher, but no easy way to add or delete workspaces and doing this from CCSM is not easy to find and it can't be used to add/remove workspaces on the fly.

A while back, there was a very interesting mockup that was rejected for Unity but something similar was then added in Gnome Shell. But maybe something simpler has a better chance.

WebUpd8 reader Georgi came up with a very simple way of adding or removing workspaces which you can see below (this is just a mockup!):

Firefox: Embedded PDFs With Evince (Using Mozplugger)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 12, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: evince, firefox, linux, mozilla, pdf, ubuntu

Mozplugger is a Firefox plugin that allows you to embed applications that handle various file types in Firefox.

In this post you'll see how to get embedded PDF files in Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 4 (I've tested it in both) - like in Google Chrome (sort of) - using Evince, the Ubuntu default PDF reader.

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal & 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Countdown Banners

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, 11.10, banner, linux, Natty Narwhal, Oneiric Ocelot, ubuntu

The Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal countdown banners contest hasn't started yet, but if you can't wait, you can use some cool banners provided by picomol.de. And if you're really impatient, you can go further and use a beautiful Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot countdown banner provided by the same website.

The banners use an image that's automatically updated so it can be inserted on any website (including wordpress.com, etc.). And what's even cooler is that the banners come in various sizes - you can see the Ubuntu 11.04 banners in action below:

Download DraftSight - Free AutoCAD-Compatible 2D CAD Software For Linux

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cad, draftsight, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows

The first DraftSight - an AutoCAD compatible CAD software - public beta for Linux was released today.

Fuduntu 14.9 Stable Released, Replaces Bottom Gnome Panel With AWN

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fedora, fuduntu, gnome, linux

Fuduntu is a Fedora remix designed for netbooks and laptops (but works on a desktop too) that integrates a lot of very interesting tweaks. Check out our previews Fuduntu posts for more info.

Fuduntu 14.9 stable was released today and it now features Avant Window Navigator by default which is automatically adjusted based on your computers ability to run Compiz. But if you want to use the regular Gnome panel instead, Fuduntu provides a tool that automatically restores it - simply go to System > Preferences > Bottom Panel Chooser and select "Restore my bottom panel".

Set All Applications To Use Overlay Scrollbars In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, scrollbars, ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal will get overlay scrollbars but for now the packages that provide this are available in a PPA and further more, you must use "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=1" when launching an application to get overlay scrollbars.

But there's a way to launch all applications (apps which support it - not all applications will work!) with overlay scrollbars by default.

Nevernote (NixNote) Ubuntu PPA

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: evernote, linux, nevernote, ppa, ubuntu

Nevernote, an open source Evernote clone for Linux now has an Ubuntu PPA you can use to stay up to date with the latest releases.

Ubuntu Ambiance / Radiance Themes Are Now Borderless [Ubuntu 11.04] (Updated x2)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, ambiance, eyecandy, light themes, linux, Natty Narwhal, radiance, themes, ubuntu

(Click to enlarge)

Remember Borderless Elementary? It was quite a success and I'm not sure if that's where the Ubuntu devs got the idea from, but an update today in Ubuntu 11.04 removes the borders for the Ubuntu "Light" themes: Ambiance and Radiance, writes Neil Patel on his blog.

Hotot Twitter Client Gets A "Wide" Interface

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: hotot, linux, twitter, ubuntu

The best Linux Twitter client - Hotot - finally supports a wide mode, like Tweetdeck:

Unfortunately for now you cannot customize (reorder, add or remove) the columns because the "extended" mode depends on the Hotot window width: the larger the window is, the more columns will be displayed. Hopefully such a feature will be added soon.

Install Hotot in Ubuntu using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jimmyxu/hotot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install hotot

Thanks to Ubunlog for the news!

More Unity "2 Sided Dock" Mockups [Ubuntu 11.04]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, mockups, ubuntu, unity

(This is just for presentation - see the mockup links below)

David Reichling posted some new mockups for the Unity dock in a comment on our initial Unity "2 sided dock" post but since not everybody reads the comments, here are the new mockups:

1 Dock:

unity.exemo.net/2 places inside dock
unity.exemo.net/3 different with drag and drop
unity.exemo.net/6

2 Docks:

unity.exemo.net SlideUpDown
unity.exemo.net/4 flipp over
unity.exemo.net/5 different flipp over

The mockups are pretty self-explainatory so check out the links above (and don't forget to click the Ubuntu logo in the top left corner!) to see Marc's new ideas.

Unity 3.6.4 Brings Resizable Launcher, ALT + F2 Run Dialog, More [Ubuntu 11.04]

Author: Andrew | Date: March 10, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, ubuntu, unity

Unity 3.6.4 was uploaded to the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal repositories a few minutes ago, brining some features many of you were waiting for. Read on!

ALT + F2 is back! And looking cool: pressing ALT + F2 will open Dash in a special "command" mode and it displays a nice list of recently used commands:

The Unity launcher is now resizable, thanks to Andrea's patch:

Install Sparkleshare In Ubuntu Via PPA (Open Source Cloud Sync - Dropbox Alternative)

Author: Andrew | Date: March 10, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: backup, cloud, git, linux, sparkleshare, sync, ubuntu

Sparkleshare is a tool to synchronize your files in the cloud - like Dropbox or SpiderOak - but unlike these, Sparkleshare is open source and allows you to use your own server. Sparkleshare uses GIT so if you delete/modify some files by accident, you can easily revert the changes. You can use it with your own server, GitHub or Gitorious. In this post I'll only cover setting up Sparkleshare with GitHub.

Sparkleshare is still in development and until now you had to compile it yourself but I've recently came across a PPA that provides Sparkleshare (Client) GIT snapshots so you can easily install it in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (and a different PPA for Ubuntu 10.04).

Unity "Two-Sided Dock" Mockup

Author: Andrew | Date: March 09, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, mockups, ubuntu, unity

There's a long thread on the Ayatana mailing list about the upper-left Ubuntu button in the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04. Currently, this button will open Dash. But there are also two shortcuts in the launcher which trigger Dash (Applications / Files Places) which make the Ubuntu button redundant - this lead to some new ideas for the upper-left Ubuntu button behavior.

One very interesting idea was posted by Marc Lajoie and he calls it "two-sided dock". Here's how it's supposed to work in Marc Lajoie own words:

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