Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

DockBarX Live Window Previews Finally Work With Compiz 0.9.x

| Date: September 30, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: avant window navigator, compiz, dock, dockbarx, linux, ubuntu

DockBarX live window previews

DockBarX is a lightweight taskbar / panel replacement for Linux. It works as a GNOME panel applet (for GNOME 2.x), as an Avant Window Navigator applet or as a stand alone dock (called DockX) that you can use in any desktop environment: KDE, XFCE, GNOME 3 (with GNOME Shell), etc.

DockBarX has been updated today with a work-around for the bug that caused live windows previews not to work with Compiz 0.9.x in GNOME (well, for most of us anyway because it seems it worked for some of you).

Ubuntu Font Family (W/ Monospace Variant), Emesene 2.11.9, GNOME Shell Mousewheel Zoom [PPA Updates]

| Date: September 30, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: emesene, fonts, gnome shell, linux, ubuntu, ubuntu font

Mousewheel Zoom, a Gnome Shell tool that enables a Compiz-like ALT + mousewheel zoom, is now available in a PPA for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

Add the PPA and install GNOME Shell Mousewheel Zoom using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tobias-quinn/gsmz
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell-mousewheel-zoom

Thanks to Tobias for the tip!




Ubuntu Font Family Monospace

Ubuntu Font Family 0.80 (which includes a monospace variant) is now available in the official Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot repositories. 

To make it easier to install and stay up to date with the latest versions, I've also uploaded the new font version to the WebUpd8 Ubuntu Font Family PPA, for Ubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04 - add the PPA and install it using the following commands:

Ubuntu Indicator For Qt Applications (Skype, VLC, Etc.) In Ubuntu 11.10

| Date: September 29, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, linux, Oneiric Ocelot, open source skype, ubuntu, vlc

Here is something you might already know, but I for one didn't notice it until today (thanks to Georgi and Rolandixor!): Skype, VLC and other Qt applications have an indicator in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot thanks to a package called "sni-qt" that converts (automatically) Qt systray icons into indicators.

Skype qt appindicator Ubuntu

(Both Skype and VLC icons are indicators - notice the border on the Skype icon, that's indicator-specific)

Jupiter Applet Finally Available For Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

| Date: September 29, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: asus, battery, eeepc, jupiter, linux, ubuntu

Update: Jupiter has been discontinued. I suggest trying TLP instead.

Jupiter Ubuntu 11.10

Jupiter is an applet designed for netbooks and laptops that you can use to switch between maximum and high performance and power saving mode, change the resolution and orientation, enable or disable the bluetooth, touchpad, WiFi and so on. If you own an Asus EeePC netbook, there's also a separate package that adds support for Asus Super Hybrid Engine (SHE) as well as some other EeePC tweaks.

Jupiter doesn't work by default in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot due to some Mono changes, but you can now use it thanks to a "hack" provided by WebUpd8 reader mtron. If you want to help getting Jupiter to work in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot without this "hack", get the Jupiter source code from HERE.

Please note that because of a bug in Unity 2D, the Jupiter icon won't show up in the systray (it works just fine in Unity 3D though).

GNOME 3.2 Released - See What's New

| Date: September 29, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome, gnome 3, gnome shell, linux, ubuntu

GNOME 3.2 was officially released yesterday with all those cool features which I'm sure you've all been waiting for. Let's take a look at what's new:


Sublime Text 2 GIT Plugin

| Date: September 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, sublime text, text editor, ubuntu, windows

Sublime Text 2 Git plugin

Sublime Text 2 is an excellent TextMate alternative (text editor) that runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. The application is not free, but you can evaluate it for an unlimited amount of time.

I've recently stumbled upon (via HK) a GIT plugin for Sublime Text 2 which can display a log or diff, do a quick commit and a few more basic Git commands. It doesn't support every Git command, but it's a nice addition for those of you who are using Sublime Text 2. 

Cairo Dock 2.4.0 Released With Custom GNOME Session, Support For Unity Quicklists, More

| Date: September 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cairo dock, dock, linux, ubuntu

Cairo Dock 2.4

Cairo Dock is a highly customizable launcher / task manager for Linux which comes with a huge list of themes and plugins, being able to fully replace / replicate the functionality of an old GNOME 2 panel.

It includes plugins / applets such as: keyboard indicator, weather, Messaging Menu, system monitor, stacks, notification area, a recent events plugin that makes use of Zeitgeist, clipboard manager, note taking applet, screen luminosity, terminal and many more.

Firefox 7 Available In Its Stable PPA For Ubuntu 10.10 And 10.04

| Date: September 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: firefox, linux, ubuntu

Firefox 7 ubuntu

A quick update for those of you are using Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat or 10.04 Lucid Lynx and want to upgrade to the latest Firefox 7: the new version is now available in the Firefox stable PPA.

Firefox 7 should be available in the official Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot repositories very soon.

Record Audio From Sound Card Or Microphone [W/ Built-in Skype Call Recorder]

| Date: September 27, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: audio, audio recorder, linux, record, skype, ubuntu

Audio Recoder

Audio Recorder is a Linux tool to record audio from your system's sound card or microphone and comes with some interesting advanced features such as a timer, automatic Skype call recorder and more.

Last 2 Weeks Top Posts (Weeks 37, 38 - 2011)

| Date: September 26, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: top posts

Gnome Pie: A Cool New Visual Application Launcher

| Date: September 26, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, gnome, gnome pie, launcher, linux, ubuntu

Gnome Pie is an application inspired by a World of Warcraft addon called OPie, that tries to offer a different way of launching applications in Gnome.

Gnome Pie

Gnome Pie

GTK+ 3.2 Released With HTML5 (Allows Applications To Run In A Web Browser) And Wayland Backends Support

| Date: September 26, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome, gnome 3, gtk, html5, linux, wayland

GTK 3.2 HTML5 application in browser

GTK+ 3.2 has been released with two eagerly expected features: experimental support for Wayland and HTML5 "Broadway" backends.

Terminator (Multiple Terminals In The Same Window) 0.96 Released

| Date: September 25, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cli, linux, terminal, terminator, ubuntu

Terminator

Terminator is a very interesting terminal emulator that lets you use multiple terminals in the same window (split view). It supports notifications (through 'watch for activity' plugin), tabs, can save / restore custom layouts and more.

Cardapio Menu Gets A GNOME Shell Extension

| Date: September 25, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cardapio, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux, main menu, ubuntu

Cardapio GNOME Shell

Cardapio is a menu for GNOME that can work as a panel, AWN or Cairo Dock applet and even as a stand-alone application.


Besides being able to launch and search applications, Cardapio can also:

OpenShot Video Editor Reaches Version 1.4, Gets New Effects, Transitions And More

| Date: September 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, openshot, ubuntu, video editor

OpenShot video editor


OpenShot, one of the most popular video editors for Linux has reached version 1.4, getting a many improvements and bug fixes:

Pithos Gets Support For The Latest Pandora.com Protocol [Quick Update]

| Date: September 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, music, pandora, pithos, ubuntu

Pithos Pandora client

Pithos is a Pandora.com client for Linux that comes with Last.fm scrobbling support, allows you to use a proxy or create QuickMixes, displays cover art, has NotifyOSD, multimedia keys and Ubuntu AppIndicator support and more.

Google Calendar GNOME Shell Integration

| Date: September 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fedora, gnome 3, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, google calendar, internet, linux, ubuntu

GNOME Shell Google Calendar

GNOME Shell Google Calendar is a tool that integrates Google Calendar into GNOME Shell.

The python script uses GNOME Keyring for storing your password and automatically fetches new Google Calendar events when you click the GNOME Shell calendar on the top panel. For now, you can't configure which calendar is imported (all are used) and there's no configuration GUI (but it's still very easy to use).

You can already do this through Evolution, but using this script, Evolution is not required.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Beta 2 Ready For Download [Video]

| Date: September 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, Oneiric Ocelot, ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot beta 2 is finally available for download. There aren't too many visible changes since beta 1, but we'll try to review what's new anyway.

For previous changes in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, see: Ubuntu 11.10 beta 1 | Ubuntu 11.10 alpha 2 | Ubuntu 11.10 alpha 1



Changes in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot beta 2 since beta 1:

Windows 8 Certified Computers May Not Be Able To Boot Linux

| Date: September 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, ubuntu, windows, windows 8

According to an article by ITWorld, Microsoft requires that Windows 8-certified machines use UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) with support for secure booting instead of the BIOS firmware.

This means that both the firmware and software used in the boot process must be signed by a trusted Certificate Authority and at the moment, none of the EFI Linux bootloaders is signed. So basically, if you buy a computer that includes the manufacturer's keys and Microsoft's keys, you won't be able to boot a Linux distribution.

Dropbox Share Updated For Ubuntu 11.10 [Fedora Installation Instructions Too]

| Date: September 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: cloud, dropbox, dropbox share, fedora, internet, linux, sync, ubuntu

Dropbox Share is now available for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. This is a tool I've created a while back to easily share files or folders using Dropbox and automatically copy their public links to the clipboard.


Dropbox Share comes with a custom Unity launcher as well as two Nautilus scripts (so you don't have to use Unity to run Dropbox Share):

How To Install Nuvola Player (Ex Google Music Frame) In Fedora

| Date: September 20, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fedora, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, google music frame, linux, ubuntu

Google Music is a service that allows you to upload up to 20,000 songs which you can then listen from any computer and even your phone, for free (it currently only works in the US and requires an invitation which you can request from here).


Google Music Frame was created to make it easier to control Google Music via the Ubuntu Sound Menu or multimedia keys, comes with user scripts support (so you can add last.fm support among others), notifications and more.

Even though Google Music Frame was initially built to only work with the Ubuntu Sound Menu, later on, the Ubuntu Sound Menu dependency was removed and it can now run on non-Ubuntu systems too. Here's a screenshot with Google Music Frame running in Fedora 15 (and with a tweaked Media Player Shell extension that works with Google Music Frame):

Google Music Frame Fedora Gnome Shell

Update: Google Music Frame has been renamed to Nuvola Player and now supports other services too, like Grooveshark, etc.

Audacious 3.0.3 And 3.1 Alpha 1 Available For Ubuntu Oneiric (PPA)

| Date: September 20, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: audacious, linux, ubuntu

Audacious is a versatile music player for GNOME that has a low memory footprint and a clean GTK interface. It also comes with a Winamp-like interface that supports Winamp 2.x skins.

You can switch between the GTK / Winamp interface by going to View > Interface.


Here is the Audacious GTK interface:

Audacious 3.0.3


And the Winamp-like Audacious interface:

Audacious winamp interface

DockBarX 0.47 Released With Themeable Window List And Custom DockX Themes

| Date: September 19, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: dock, dockbarx, linux, ubuntu

DockBarX DockX panel

DockBarX is a lightweight taskbar / panel replacement for Linux. It works as a GNOME panel applet (for GNOME 2.x), as an Avant Window Navigator applet or as a stand alone dock (called DockX) that you can use in any desktop environment: KDE, XFCE, GNOME 3 (with GNOME Shell), etc.

Synapse Launcher 0.2.8 Released With A New Theme, More

| Date: September 19, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: launcher, linux, synapse, ubuntu

Synapse 0.2.8

Synapse is a semantic launcher similar to Gnome Do or Kupfer, powered by Zeitgeist. It comes with many plugins for controlling Rhythmbox or Banshee, connect to SSH hosts, upload to Imgur, search the web, Dictionary and more.

To use it, press Ctrl + Space (you can configure this in it's options), and start typing the name of an application you want to launch - Synapse will display the applications matching what you type, based on how frequently you've used them. Or start typing the name of a file and once you select it, press TAB and select an action to perform like: copy it to the clipboard, open the file with some application and so on.

Zenity For Appindicators: Ubuntu Indicator For Commands Or Bash Scripts

| Date: September 19, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, bash, cli, linux, ubuntu, yad, zenity

WebUpd8 reader Reda El Khattabi has created a small tool that makes it very easy to create an Ubuntu AppIndicator for Zenity, YAD (a Zenity fork with many improvements) or basically any bash script or command.


Features:
  • supports submenus and separators
  • you can specify a custom icon
  • persistent mode or quit after executing command

0 A.D. RTS Game Reaches Alpha 7

| Date: September 17, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 0ad, games, linux, macosx, RTS, ubuntu, windows

0 AD
(New 0 A.D. main menu)

0 A.D. is an Age of Empires like real-time strategy game. The game is open source and is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. 

0 A.D. is still in alpha stages, but is already looks great, with excellent graphics and sound. There are still some missing features though, like campaigns, lack of settings, no multiplayer matchmaking service and more.

HTC-Like Clock / Weather Conky Configuration

| Date: September 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: conky, eyecandy, linux, ubuntu

Conky HTC

Conky-HTC is a really cool Conky configuration inspired by the HTC weather / clock widget. It displays nice weather icons along with a 7-day weather forecast which can be configured to use either metric or imperial units.

Setting up Conky-HTC is not hard, but it requires quite a few steps and because some of them weren't specified in the Conky-HTC readme, here is everything you need to do to get it working:

Fuduntu Becomes A Rolling Release Distribution, Continues With GNOME 2

| Date: September 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: distro, fedora, fuduntu, linux

Fuduntu

Fuduntu (despite it's name, it has nothing to do with Ubuntu), a Linux distribution based on Fedora, is now officially a rolling release Linux distribution, meaning you won't have to upgrade / do a clean install each time a new Fuduntu version is released to be able to use the latest software versions. As an example, if you've installed Fuduntu 14.1, you should have Kernel 3.0.1, Chromium 12 and Firefox 6 just like those who are just installing Fuduntu 14.10.

GNOME Shell 3.1.91.1 Released With One-Click Installation Support For Extensions

| Date: September 15, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome 3, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux

GNOME Shell extensions website sweettooth extensions.gnome.org

GNOME Shell 3.1.91.1 has been released today and comes with many bug fixes and just one new feature. But this is a really interesting feature: a "browser plugin which will enable convenient installation of extensions from extensions.gnome.org".

Unity Google Docs Lens For Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

| Date: September 15, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: google docs, lens, linux, ubuntu, unity

Unity Google Docs Lens Ubuntu

Unity developer Neil J. Patel has created a cool Google Docs Unity lens for his Ubuntu App Developer Week session. And even though this was just to show how to develop Unity lenses, Gdocs Unity Lens is functional and Neil will develop it further.

Compiz-Like Mousewheel Zoom Tool For GNOME Shell

| Date: September 14, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fedora, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux, ubuntu

Mousewheel Zoom is a GNOME Shell tool that enables a Compiz-like ALT + mousewheel zoom.

GNOME Shell has its own magnifier, but the zoom increases / decreases in very large steps; Mousewheel Zoom on the other hand gradually zooms in/out. And it's very easy to setup too.

How To Install Oracle Java 7 (JDK) In Ubuntu

| Date: September 14, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: Java, jdk, linux, ubuntu

As you probably know, Oracle Java (JVM/JDK) will not be available in the Debian / Ubuntu repositories anymore because Oracle retired the "Operating System Distributor License for Java" (JDL) and the only release available in the repositories will be OpenJDK.

But of course, Oracle Java can still be downloaded from its website if you really need it and don't want to use OpenJDK:

Unity Reboot (Ubuntu Unity Launcher To Reboot In A Different OS) Available In A PPA

| Date: September 13, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, ubuntu, unity, unity reboot

Unity Reboot in other OS

A while back I wrote a custom Unity launcher to reboot in a different OS, useful if you dual boot.

Let me remind you how it works: 
  • when GRUB starts, the first GRUB menu item is highlighted - selecting to reboot from this custom launcher will highlight the menu entry you set and will boot it if you don't select a different option in the GRUB menulist (so the GRUB menu will still be displayed if you've set a GRUB timeout higher than 0 but you can set it to 0 and directly boot into the selected OS).
  • This only applies for one reboot, then everything is back to normal.

Ubuntu Unity Like Skin Pack For Windows 7 / XP

| Date: September 13, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, ubuntu, windows

Ubuntu Unity Skin for Windows

Ubuntu Skin Pack is a complete Unity-like skin for Windows 7 or XP. There's no Dash, but almost everything else is covered: icons (Humanity for the system and Faenza for the launcher), the Unity launcher, boot and login screen, the Ubuntu font as well as the Ubuntu 11.04 wallpapers.

Dual Booting Guide PDF (Windows And Linux)

| Date: September 13, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: dual boot, fedora, linux, pdf, ubuntu, windows

Dual Booting

Many users try Linux for the first time in a dual boot setup so WebUpd8 reader Satyajit has created a nice dual booting guide to help them get started.

Last 2 Weeks Top Posts (Weeks 35, 36 - 2011)

| Date: September 12, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: top posts

GNOME Shell: Make Applications Start On A Certain Workspace

| Date: September 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fedora, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux, ubuntu

GNOME Shell

GNOME Shell Auto Move Windows extension can be used to get some applications to always start on a specific workspace. The extension is not new, but it is a bit difficult to use so I though I'd write a post explaining exactly how to get it working (tested on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and Fedora 15).


Wally Wallpaper Changer 2.4.2 Released With GNOME Shell Support

| Date: September 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: fedora, gnome shell, linux, macosx, ubuntu, wallpapers, wally, windows

Wally wallpaper changer Gnome Shell

Wally is a cross-platform wallpaper changer which uses multiple sources for getting the images: local folders, Flickr, Google, Yahoo!, Panoramio, DeviantArt, Vladstudio, Photobucket, Buzznet, Picasa, and Smugmug images.

Unity Mail Gets Ubuntu Messaging Menu Support, More

| Date: September 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, ubuntu, unity, unity mail

Unity mail

Unity Mail is a Unity-specific application to display the email unread count on the Unity launcher.

A new Unity Mail version (0.8.5) was released today for Ubuntu 11.04 (the 0.8.x series was already available for 11.10) which adds some of the features some of you have requested, such as: Messaging Menu support, an improved configuration dialog which allows you to set custom URLs, custom mail check interval, turn on/off the notifications and more.

Update Manager Indicator For Ubuntu Brings Old Update Manager Behavior With Extra Features

| Date: September 09, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, linux, ubuntu, update notifier

Update Manager Indicator

Update Manager Indicator is an appindicator that brings back the old Update Manager behavior (an orange icon is displayed on the panel when updates are available) with some extra features like displaying a list of updates in a submenu, option to refresh the repositories or display NotifyOSD notifications.

Install Lubuntu Software Center (Lightweight USC Alternative For Lubuntu 11.10)

| Date: September 09, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, lubuntu, lubuntu software center, ubuntu

Lubuntu Software Center

Lubuntu Software Center is a new project that aims to be a lightweight alternative to Ubuntu Software Center, for Lubuntu (Ubuntu based on LXDE).

The project is in its early development stages, but you can already browse various software categories, install or remove software or see detailed package information. To install some applications you must click the "Add to the Apps Basket" button and then head over to the App Basked where you must click the "Install" button.

Test Websites In Internet Explorer 9, 8 and 7 Under Linux / Mac OSX

| Date: September 07, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, macosx, ubuntu, virtualbox, website

IE9 VirtualBox

Microsoft has created some customized Windows VHDs with the purpose of allowing web designers to test websites in Internet Explorer 9, 8 and 7, for free. To make it easier to set up, xdissent has created a Mac OSX / Linux script that will download the required files, extract them, install the latest VirtualBox guest additions and so on.


GIMP Plugin Registry 3.5.4 Brings 4 Updated Plugins

| Date: September 06, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gimp, image editor, linux, ubuntu

GIMP Plugin Registry

GIMP Plugin Registry is a collection of plugins for GIMP image editor, available as a Debian package. Some of the included plugins: Film Grain, El Samuko GIMP Scripts (which includes effects such as "Obama Hope, Movie 300", antique photo border and more), GIMP FX Foundry (a huge collection of scripts for GIMP), Liquid Rescale, Save for Web plugin, Refocus, X11 Mouse Cursor, Warming and Cooling Filters and lots more.

Integrate Transmission With Unity Launcher (Badge And Progress Bar)

| Date: September 05, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, transmission, ubuntu, unity

Transmission Unity Launcher

"Transmission-Unity-Launcher" is a python script that provides Unity launcher integration for Transmission BitTorrent client. For now, the script displays the number of downloads and total download progress but in the future it might get more features, like menu items to control the speed, start or stop torrents.

Radiamentary Is A Beautiful GTK2/GTK3 Theme Based On Elementary And Radiance

| Date: September 05, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, gnome, gnome 3, linux, themes, ubuntu, unity

Radiamentary is a Gtk2/Gtk3 theme based on Radiance and Elementary. The theme is especially designed for Unity and tries to provide a light, blueish Elementary feel for Ubuntu 11.10:

Radiamentary gtk theme

Armagetron Advanced: Tron-Inspired Multiplayer Game

| Date: September 05, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: arcade, Armagetron, games, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows


Armagetron Advanced

Armagetron Advanced is an open source game inspired by the movie Tron. For those who haven't seen Tron: in this game, two or more players use a vehicle called "light cycle" which leaves a coloured trail behind; making contact with the trail or the walls is fatal, so the goal is to "box" your opponents.

Upload Files To Multiple File Sharing Websites Simultaneously With Neembuu Uploader 2.3

| Date: September 05, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, macosx, share, ubuntu, web, windows

Neembu Uploader

Neembuu Uploader is a cross-platform tool to easily upload files to multiple file sharing websites in the same time. It supports drag and drop and you can choose to upload files either anonymously or using an account (for websites that support it).

Y PPA Manager 0.0.8.1 Released With Ubuntu 11.10 Support

| Date: September 05, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, ppa, ubuntu, y ppa manager

Y PPA Manager

Y PPA Manager 0.0.8.1 has been released today, bringing support for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and quite a few bug fixes.

Get A Global Menu In GNOME Shell

| Date: September 03, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: global menu, gnome 3, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux, ubuntu

GNOME Shell global menu

Remember Gnome2 Global Menu? It's an applet that adds a global menu (the menu is displayed on the top panel) for Gnome 2 that wasn't very active for a long time because Ubuntu built its own global menu. But it's back!

Gnome Global Menu is currently being ported to GTK3 and an alpha version is already available for download so you can get a global menu in GNOME Shell. Here's a video with the new Gnome Global Menu running in Ubuntu 11.10 (with GNOME Shell):

How To Change LightDM (Login Screen) Background [Quick Tip]

| Date: September 02, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: lightdm, linux, tips n tricks, ubuntu

LightDM login screen ubuntu

LightDM is a lightweight display manager that has been made default in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, replacing GDM.

If you want to change the LightDM login screen background, all you have to do is edit a file and enter the path to the new background:

Dropbox: Access EncFS Folders On Android Using BoxCryptor

| Date: September 02, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: android, boxcryptor, dropbox, encfs, linux, privacy, security, ubuntu

A while back we wrote about encrypting your private Dropbox data using EncFS. And that's a really great way to keep your private Dropbox data safe, but what if you want to access some encrypted files from an Android device?

That's where BoxCryptor comes in. The first public BoxCryptor version for Android was released a few days ago so you can finally access EncFS folders in your Dropbox from any Android device (there's also a BoxCryptor version for Windows and an iPhone / iPad app is currently under development). The application is currently in alpha and for now it can only read encrypted files, but according to it's Android Market page, write support will be added in a later version.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Beta 1 Has Been Released [Video, Screenshots]

| Date: September 01, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.10, linux, Oneiric Ocelot, ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot beta 1 screenshot

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot beta 1 has just been released and... you know what that means. Yes, as usual, we'll do a recap of all the changes since alpha 3.

GNOME 3.2 To Get Web Application Mode

| Date: September 01, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome, gnome 3, linux, web app

Gnome 3 web apps

Besides notification counters, new login screen and other changes we wrote about a while back, there's one more really cool feature that GNOME 3.2 will be getting, through Epiphany:web application mode.

License: (cc) BY-NC-SA WebUpd8 | Privacy