So here is the video:






Remember, these are all under development so they are not stable nor feature complete! Read Cassidy James' comment for more info (and some insights on what will change).

Marlin is a new file browser for GNOME developed by ammonkey (who's also behind Nautilus Elementary) for Elementary OS.

Bodhi Linux 1.1.0

Linux Mint 11 has finally been released! As you know, Linux Mint 11 is based on Ubuntu 11.04 so it comes with all the features in the latest Ubuntu, but without Unity.

GNOME Shell Mediaplayer extension

GNOME Shell Mediaplayer extension lets you control applications that support MPRIS by adding a status menu icon:

Ubuntu 11.10 daily builds are finally available @ http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/

But don't get too excited just yet because it's not usable for now. In my test I was unable to install it and booting the Live ISO looks like this:

1. More GNOME 3 Themes: Hope, Adwance GTK3 And Gaia GNOME Shell Theme
2. $25 "USB Stick PC" Running Ubuntu
3. How To Display Network Upload / Download Speed On The Panel In Ubuntu 11.04
4. Expected Changes In Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot [Ubuntu Developer Summit Overview]
5. Pinguy OS 11.04 Released With Classic GNOME 2.32.1 Desktop
6. New GNOME Shell Extensions That Provide A GNOME2-Like User Experience
7. Gnome 3 Menu Mockups
8. Configurable NotifyOSD Bubbles For Ubuntu 11.04: Move, Close On Click, Change Colors And More
9. VirtualBox 4.0.8 Released With GNOME Shell Support (For Fedora 15 And Ubuntu 11.04)
10. Custom Unity Launcher To Reboot In A Different OS
11. Change GDM Theme / Background In Ubuntu With GDM Tweaker

Martin Owens has announced the release of two plugin that allow you to publish your images to DeviantArt with a single click from GIMP or Inkscape:

This is a BIG deal my friends and I’m very excited because not only do we have this functionality, but we have it FIRST, before ANY proprietary software package. That’s right, the stash API was only announced last week and here I am giving you the keys to brand spanking new functionality right from within your favourite art creation applications!

- Martin Owens

3D support: fixed GNOME 3 rendering under Ubuntu 11.04 and Fedora 15

A quick update: Activity Log Manager, the application that lets you delete your Zeitgeist history or blacklist applications from being tracked by Zeitgeist is now available in the Zeitgeist PPA.

Some applications are removing the traditional menus (see Firefox, Chrome and so on) so a page has been created to discuss possible changes to the GNOME 3 menus.

Let's take a look at some of the mockups available so far.

This is a tip sent by WebUpd8 reader Jeff. He writes:

The app-indicator applet has an ugly keyboard icon which is not monochrome like the rest. It appears when you are using another additional language. It is a terribly ugly icon that sits besides "USA" or any other language, e.g. "RUS"; clicking either would present a list of languages you added, to choose from.

To remove it and retain all functionality in the language-switch indicator, simply search as root (or "sudo gnome-search-tool") for "input-keyboard" and delete all the .png files. It has zero effect on the system and deletes only the icon up in the panel. The indicator itself is still functional minus the icon, in the form of "USA" or say "RUS".

So if you want a totally monochrome panel, without this ugly icon, this simple procedure would solve it.

What's Zeitgeist?




Activity Log Manager



Here are a few Zeitgeist Activity Log Manager screenshots with all the available options:

The launcher will not change the GRUB menu entries order. When GRUB starts, the first GRUB menu item is highlighted - selecting to reboot from a this custom launcher quicklist 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).

Trying out LightDM

Here is a LightDM screenshot without using any theme - that's because I couldn't get the Webkit theme to work:



Important: do not set LightDM as default yet. You can try it out without setting it as default by installing it from the main Ubuntu 11.04 official repositories or you can get a more up-to-date version via this PPA, then install "xserver-xephyr" and finally run "lightdm --test-mode". More info here (note: creating a lightdm.conf file causes LightDM to fail on my computer).

There's even an online LightDM greeter available - but remember, the theme is just an example, it can look any way you want it to. Try it out @ http://people.ubuntu.com/~robert-ancell/lightdm/greeter.html (you can look at the page source to see how to theme LightDM).

This is a window attached to a parent window. There are some issues with the modal dialogs: the parent window turns gray which looks just more or less like a window that stops responding so that's a bit confusing. One suggestion was to make freezing windows turn red but we'll see how this issue is addressed later on.

• Unity 2D will switch from Metacity to Compiz (Compiz can run on different backends, including non accelerated ones). Also, the classic Gnome desktop will be removed from the CD but we already knew that. Session details
• The default browser session was canceled so Firefox will remain default in 11.10. Not a big surprise really.
• The Deja Dup session also took place today but from what I've understood, the Deja Dup inclusion by default is still under discussion. You can read the meeting notes here.

Also see: Possible New Default Applications In Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

• colors
• size of the bubbles, font size, icon size, corner radius
• opacity
• timeout
• position on the screen (you can place NotifyOSD notifications in any screen corner)
• disable fade out
• click anywhere on the notification to close them

The last two options have been added Faheem Pervez. Oh and all the options above are of course optional.


Here is a video I've just recorded to see exactly how everything works:

David Braben, an UK game developer has created a tiny computer which is about the same size as an USB stick, should cost about $25 and it will ship with Ubuntu by default.

If you use Nautilus Elementary (either in Ubuntu 10.10 or 11.04) and the default Ubuntu Ambiance theme, here's a nice tweak which makes Nautilus Elementary integrate better:

Update: I've replaced "up" and "down" in the AppIndicator with up/down arrows (thanks to manequin for the tip!) so this is how it looks now: