A quick update for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin users running GNOME Shell: I've updated some of the extensions available in the WebUpd8 GNOME 3 PPA to the latest version which works with GNOME Shell 3.4.

Initially, I wasn't planning on updating them since they are available on extensions.gnome.org, but I've got quite a few requests for this. One thing that's not available for extensions installed through GNOME's extensions website is update support so the PPA should be useful for those who want to use the latest version of the above mentioned extensions.

GNOME 3.4 has been released today, bringing many important changes such as video calling for Empathy, smarter pop-ups and message tray, a much improved Epiphany browser, a new menu for some GNOME applications, new scrollbars and more.

As you probably know, the window dodge Unity launcher autohide behaviour has been removed from Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. Unfortunately, it seems this feature won't make it back into Unity, but thanks to a work-around by WebUpd8 reader Jorge, you can get the dodge windows feature back. Well, almost.

SkypeTab-NG, a tool that adds tabs to Skype for Linux, has been updated recently, getting some Unity tweaks:

LMDE Update Pack 4, which will include Linux Kernel 3.2, Mate Desktop 1.2 (a renamed GNOME 2 desktop), Cinnamon 1.4 (GNOME Shell fork), GNOME Shell 3.2.2, KDE 4.7.4 and Xfce 4.8, "is being prepared and tested at the moment" and should be available soon.

XBMC Media Center is a free and open source (GPL) digital media hub and HTPC (Home theater PC) software, available for Linux, OSX, iOS and Windows.

XBMC 11 "Eden" has been released recently and comes with speed increases, better and simpler library, better unencrypted BluRay support, default skin improvements, better networking support, AirPlay support, upgraded weather service with geoip lookup and much more. The new version also brings support for Apple TV2 and iOS.

Recoll is a full text search desktop tool which indexes the contents of many file formats including OpenOffice, MS Office, PostScript, MP3 and other audio files, JPEG and more. Besides regular searches, Recoll also lets you perform some advanced operations like searching for the author, file size, file format as well as operators like "AND" or "OR".

Unity Recoll Lens lets you use Recoll from Dash, without having to open any additional GUI. The lens comes with a few filters like Text, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Media or Message, but for more advanced searches, you'll have to manually enter the Recoll search query. Examples:

Quick update: Unity patched to support minimize on click for the Launcher is now available for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot users too. We've already talked about Unity with minimize on click patch a few days ago so check out that post for more info (including a video).

If you need to change the computer name (hostname) in Ubuntu for whatever reason, you won't find a System Settings option to do it so you must edit two configuration files. But don't worry, it's an easy task!

A branch that implements minimize on click for the Unity launcher was proposed for merging into Unity but unfortunately it was rejected (bug report) because it's "unwanted behavior according to design".

WOW, a beautiful, easy on the eyes theme, is now available for GTK3 (3.2). The WOW-2 pack comes with two GTK3 theme versions, two GTK2 theme versions, Xfwm4, Openbox, Emerald and Chromium themes.

Update Manager Indicator is an Ubuntu appindicator that shows up on the panel when there are updates available and comes with some extra features like showing a list of updates in a submenu, refresh the repositories or display NotifyOSD notifications when you have new updates.

There hasn't been a new Update Manager Indicator release in a while and the previous one was kind of buggy in Ubuntu Precise, so I've packaged the latest version from GIT and uploaded it to the main WebUpd8 PPA. The new version brings GTK3 support, an option to display the number of updates in the indicator icon and a new optional feature to upgrade in the background (until now, you could only use the Update Manager).

A new "Spread" design which should improve Unity task switching is coming to Ubuntu, starting with version 12.10. The "Spread" design was tested before the Ubuntu 11.04 launch, but there wasn't enough time to release it so the development was postponed and the Compiz "spread" was used instead.

A while back, it was announced that Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin will continue to have GNOME Shell 3.2 available in the official repositories and not 3.4 (not yet released).

However, thanks to Jeremy Bicha and Rico Tzschichholz, it looks like GNOME Shell 3.4 will be available in the Ubuntu Precise repositories after all: the bug that requests the GNOME Shell 3.4 inclusion in the Precise repositories (and the Clutter/cogl update to version 1.9 bug which had blocked GS 3.4) has been conditionally approved:

Cinnamon is a GNOME Shell fork which tries to offer a layout similar to GNOME 2: it comes with a panel at the bottom by default (optionally, you can use 2 panels or a panel at the top) that supports autohide, panel applets, a classic system tray, GNOME2-like notifications and so on, but using GNOME 3.

Cinnamon 1.4 has been released today and the major change in this release is a new hot corner behavior which can now use either workspace selection (like Compiz "Expo") or window selection (like Compiz "Scale"). In expo mode, you can add or remove workspaces and when you hover a workspace, the windows are arranged like in the overview so you can see all available windows (which you can drag onto another workspace, etc.). Also, the hot corner position can now be changed.

A quick update for Jupiter users: Jupiter 0.1.2 has been released and it now uses Python by default instead of C#. The latest Jupiter comes with an Ubuntu AppIndicator as well as a notification area applet for those who don't use Ubuntu, so there's no need to use PyJupiter anymore. 

Google Tasks Indicator, an Ubuntu appindicator that displays your 10 most recent Google tasks on the Ubuntu panel, has been updated to version 0.0.2.2 today, and it now lets you see all the available tasks, by selecting "Show Notes" from its menu.

You can use Lightning to get a calendar that's fully integrated with Thunderbird, but what about Google Calendar synchronization? Well, there's an extension called "Provider for Google Calendar", which lets Lightning read and write events to Google Calendar.

Unsettings is an Unity tweak tool that comes with some unique features, like: disable the global menu and overlay scrollbars or easily add applications to the systray whitelist. Besides these, the application also comes with features found in other Unity tweaking tools such as changing the Unity launcher look and behaviour, change the theme (icons, GTK, Metacity or cursor) and fonts and more.

Jupiter is an applet designed to improve laptops / netbooks battery life. It can be used to switch between maximum, high performance and power saving modes, change the screen resolution and orientation, enable or disable bluetooth, touchpad, WiFi (if available) 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.

Linux Deepin is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that uses a highly customized GNOME Shell as the default desktop environment. It was initially created for Chinese users only, but there are now different ISO images for both Chinese and English languages.

ReText is a text editor for Markdown syntax and reStructuredText (reST) that supports exporting to some popular formats such as PDF, ODT, HTML and plain text. It supports live previews, web pages generator, HTML syntax highlighting, full-screen mode for distraction free writing, can export files to Google Docs and more.

After 20 months of development, a new stable Wine version has been released: 1.4, bringing a new DIB graphics engine, re-written audio stack which can make use of Gstreamer, full support for bidirectional text, ARM support and more. There are also many new supported applications, like Microsoft Office 2010.

Update: the Sublime Text 2 beta builds are now considered stable builds!

A quick update for those of you who are using the WebUpd8 Sublime Text 2 PPA: until now, the PPA had Sublime Text 2 development builds only but starting today, you can install either Sublime Text 2 beta or the latest Sublime Text 2 development build, from the same PPA. The recommended package is Sublime Text 2 beta, because it's more stable.

The Unity Files Lens currently relies on Zeitgeist to display search results, meaning it can't find files you've never interacted with / accessed. But an improved Unity Files Lens is currently in testing, which doesn't rely solely on Zeitgeist. Finally!

Some of you have asked how to dual-boot Android-X86 4.0 ICS (which uses GRUB legacy) with Ubuntu (GRUB 2), so here's how to do it, including a video showing all the required steps as well as installing Android-X86.

ffDiaporama is a multi-platform application for creating videos from photos or movie clips. It supports various transition effects, titles/annotations, music and more.

HUD was added by default in Ubuntu 12.04, but only for Unity 3D (with Compiz) and since feature freeze has passed, it seemed HUD wasn't going to be available for Unity 2D. But a feature freeze exception was made and Unity 2D now includes HUD.

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin beta 1 has been released today and it includes a huge number of changes since alpha 2, so let's take a look at what's new.