Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Ubuntu Bug #1 Marked As Fixed By Mark Shuttleworth

Ubuntu bug 1

After almost 9 years and 1833 comments, the famous Ubuntu bug #1, "Microsoft has a majority market share", has been marked as fixed today by Mark Shuttleworth.

Linux Mint 15 `Olivia` Available For Download [Screenshots Tour]

Linux Mint 15 "Olivia", based on Ubuntu 13.04, has been released today and is available, as usual, in two editions: MATE and Cinnamon. Let's take a look at what's new!

Linux Mint 15

Official Intel Linux Graphics Installer Available For Ubuntu 13.04

Intel has released a new version of its Linux Graphics Drivers Installer and with it, the installer is now available for Ubuntu 13.04.

For those who are not familiar with the Intel Linux Graphics Installer, this a relatively new tool created by Intel that lets you easily install the latest video drivers for Intel hardware. The installer consists of a GUI tool and a repository that's automatically added and then used to install / upgrade new driver versions.

Intel Linux Graphics Installer

`Great Little Radio Player`: Simplistic Internet Radio Player For Linux

great little radio player

`Great Little Radio Player` is an Internet radio player for Linux that comes with a collection of about 400 radio stations organized by genre and you can easily add more, import or export radio stations.

How To Install MDM 1.2.5 From Linux Mint 15 In Ubuntu

MDM is the default Linux Mint display manager, forked from GDM 2.20, which means it supports the old GDM themes. Linux Mint 15 will ship with MDM 1.2.5 which has received support for HTML greeters (supports HTML5, CSS, Javascript and WebGL) and if you want to install it in Ubuntu, you can use a PPA to install both MDM 1.2.5 as well as the default MDM themes.

Since the previous stable release, MDM has also received many under-the-hood improvements and bug fixes. For a complete feature list and more info on MDM, see its GitHub page.

A MDM HTML theme

KeePass 2 AppIndicator And AppMenu Extensions For Ubuntu [Updated]

KeePass 2 is an open source password manager available for Windows and Linux (Mono).

You can no longer use the KeePass2 tray icon starting with Ubuntu 13.04 because the old systray whitelist has been removed from Unity, but you can now get AppIndicator support for KeePass2 thanks to an extension created by David Lechner:

Keepass 2 Ubuntu AppIndicator

In the same PPA, there's also an Unity appmenu (global menu) plugin, for an even better desktop integration:


Tiny Tiny RSS Ubuntu PPA (Google Reader Alternative)

A while back we wrote about installing and configuring Tiny Tiny RSS in Ubuntu, a Google Reader (which will be closing in July) alternative that you can host on your computer / server, but the version available in the Ubuntu repositories is pretty old, so I've uploaded the latest Tiny Tiny RSS version to a PPA, which should make it a lot easier to install in Ubuntu 14.10, 14.04 and 12.04.

Tiny Tiny RSS

At the time I'm writing this article, our PPA has Tiny Tiny RSS version 1.7.9. Update: the PPA is constantly updated, so now it provides Tiny Tiny RSS 1.14.

Since version 1.6.2, there have been many changes, like interface and typography improvements, error logging, new plugin system that includes plugins such as importing starred/shared.json files from Google Reader takeout or emulate Google Reader keyboard shortcuts and others, improved feed update speed, implemented basic password recovery and many other new features, tweaks and bug fixes.

`Football Manager` Game Coming To Linux

Football Manager

Football Manager, a football management simulation game series developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega, will be available on Linux.


How To Install Emerald In Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10 Or 12.04 [PPA]

Emerald Window Decorator development may have stopped and the package is no longer available in the Ubuntu repositories for a few releases, but there are users who want to continue using it, so to make it easier to install, I uploaded Emerald to the main WebUpd8 PPA, for Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04.

Emerald is a window decorator for Compiz that allows full composite window decorations. There are many themes out there that come with frames, titlebars, buttons and so on that you won't see in other window decorators, this being the main reason why Emerald was so popular a while back. Emerald is also highly customizable.

Because it requires Compiz, Emerald doesn't work in GNOME Shell, but it should work with Unity (3D), GNOME Classic with Compiz or Xfce with Compiz for instance.

Here are a few of the many Emerald themes available on Gnome-Look, DeviantArt and so on:

HalfTime Emerald theme

Pinguy OS 13.04 (Final, Yet Beta) Released With GNOME 3.8

Pinguy OS 13.04 (based on Ubuntu 13.04) beta has been released recently, this being basically the final 13.04 version because Pinguy has decided to keep the 6 month releases as betas and only the LTS will be considered stable.


Unity Tomboy Lens Available For Ubuntu 13.04, Supports Dash Previews

Unity Tomboy Lens has been updated to work with the latest Unity available in Ubuntu 13.04. Also, the lens now supports Dash previews so you can quickly take a look at your note contents by right clicking the note in Dash.

Unity Tomboy Lens

Sikuli (Atomation Tool Using Images) 1.0.0 Released

Sikuli is a tool available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X which automates tasks using images: you take a screenshot of what you want to click, right click, hover, drag and drop and so on and Sikuli performs those actions automatically, when you need it, either by using the GUI or running it via command line.

It can be useful for running repetitive tasks automatically, running some actions remotely via the command line and so on.

sikuli 1.0.0 Ubuntu

Skype 4.2 For Linux Released With Minor Improvements And Bug Fixes

Skype 4.2 Linux

Skype 4.2 for Linux has been released today and it includes various bug fixes, increased stability when using a Microsoft Account, optimized Voice messaging as well as some minor new features.

Gnome Encfs Manager: Cryptkeeper Alternative With Ubuntu AppIndicator Support

Gnome Encfs Manager (GencfsM) is a tool to manage EncFS filesystems. The tool is a great alternative to Cryptkeeper (but with some extra features), which can't be used in Ubuntu 13.04 unless you install a patched Unity to support the old systray whitelist.

gnome encfs manager

Video Transcoder `HandBrake` 0.9.9 Released With Blu-ray Subtitle Support, More

Handbrake, a free, open source video transcoder for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, has been updated to version 0.9.9 recently, getting Blu-ray (PGS) subtitle support, better audio remix support, updated built-in presets, additional video framerates and more.

handbrake

Install Weather Indicator With New Location And Forecast Fixes In Ubuntu

Weather Indicator used to be one of the most popular Ubuntu appindicators but unfortunately, it doesn't work properly any more: it crashes when trying to add a new location and the weather forecast doesn't work - because of this, it was even removed from the Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) official repositories.

Weather Indicator

However, if for whatever reason you don't want to use My Weather Indicator, a pretty cool alternative by the way, you can now use Weather Indicator again thanks to Joshua, who has fixed the two issues mentioned above along with some other bugs and has created a PPA so you can easily install a working Weather Indicator in Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04.

Desktop Search Tool `Recoll` Updated With Significant Improvements

Recoll

Recoll is a full text search tool for Linux that comes with a Qt GUI, an Ubuntu Unity Lens and it can also be used via command line. The application can find keywords inside documents as well as file names.

Get Better Linux Desktop Performance And More With pf-kernel

tux logo

pf-kernel is a custom Linux Kernel that comes with some popular patches not merged into the mainline Kernel, such as:

Fix: Shadow Displayed On Top Of Full-Screen Videos / Windows In Ubuntu 13.04

In Ubuntu 13.04, the top Unity panel shadow is displayed on top of full-screen videos / windows. The bug has been fixed a while back but it hasn't landed in Ubuntu 13.04 yet so here are two fixes / workarounds you can use until then.

Shadow displayed on top of full-screen video

Free DJ Software `Mixxx` Sees New Release

After more than a year of work, Mixxx 1.11.0 has been released recently, featuring a new beat detector, colored 3-band waveforms and many other new features as well as various bug fixes and performance improvements.

Mixxx DJ Software

Possible Changes In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander [UDS]


Ubuntu Developer Summit is a meeting where software developers gather to discuss the next Ubuntu version changes and features.

The Ubuntu Developer Summit (uds-1305) will start tomorrow, will last for 3 days and some major possible changes will be discussed, like "click packages", Chromium replacing Firefox as the default web browser, Unity 8 with Mir being available for testing on the desktop and more.

So here are the possible changes in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander (remember, possible, they may or may not happen) desktop as well as Lubuntu and Xubuntu 13.10.

Get Weather Or System Info On Your Desktop With These 2 Conky Configurations

There are two Conky configurations I've been wanting to write about for a while, but I didn't have the time to do it, until today, so here it is: the first one has been created by Satya, it's called Conky Google Now and is very easy to set up while the second one, created by Pressian, is more advanced and requires some experience with Conky to set it up.

Conky is a lightweight, highly configurable system monitor tool which can display the information on your desktop, in different shapes and forms.

How To Whitelist Systray Apps In Ubuntu 14.04 Or 14.10 (w/ Unity)

As you probably know, the Unity notification area (systray) whitelist is no longer available in Ubuntu 13.04+ (so that includes Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10) so you can't whitelist applications to be able to use the systray. If you can't live without an application that still uses the old notification area, here's how to get the Unity systray whitelist back in Ubuntu (Unity).

    systray whitelist ubuntu 13.04

    Half-Life 2 Games Available For Linux (Steam)

    Half-Life 2: Episode Two Ubuntu

    Quick update: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Half-Life 2: LostCoast are now available in Steam for Linux.

    Ubuntu Might Get A New Simplified Packaging Format And App Installer


    According to a recent message posted on the Ubuntu Devel mailing list by Colin Watson, Installer Team leader, Ubuntu might get a new, simplified packaging format and app installer which should make it easier for developers to get their software into Ubuntu. This will target, at least initially, the Ubuntu phone/tablet but it should be usable elsewhere too, even on non-Ubuntu or non-Linux systems.

    elementary OS Luna Beta 2 Available For Download

    Five months after the first beta, elementary OS Luna beta 2 has been released yesterday. Based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Luna beta 2 comes with improved multi-monitor support, updated default applications and artwork and more.



    Cinnamon 1.8 Gets Its Own Control Center And Screensaver, Easier Spices Installation


    Cinnamon, the desktop environment used by default in Linux Mint, has reached version 1.8, getting its own Control Center, screensaver and more.

    Cinnamon is a GNOME Shell fork which tries to offer the layout and customizability of GNOME 2: by default there's a panel at the bottom (but optionally, you can also get one on top like in GNOME 2) that supports autohide, it supports applets, a classic system tray and more.

    Let's take a look at what's new in the latest Cinnamon 1.8!