Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

My Weather Indicator Released With Numerous Bug Fixes

| Date: June 30, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, linux, my weather indicator, ubuntu, weather

My Weather Indicator, an Ubuntu AppIndicator for displaying the current weather on the panel, was updated to version 0.6.8 today, receiving numerous bug fixes as well as a few other changes.

my weather indicator ubuntu
My Weather Indicator and one of its optional desktop widgets

Xfce App Launcher `Whisker Menu` Sees New Release

| Date: June 30, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: application menu, linux, menu, xfce, xubuntu

Whisker Menu is an application menu / launcher for Xfce that features a search function so you can easily find the application you want to launch. The menu supports browsing apps by category, you can add applications to favorites and more.

Whisker Menu 1.4.0

Lubuntu 14.04: Missing Network Manager Icon Bug Finally Fixed [Quick Update]

| Date: June 30, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: fix, linux, lubuntu, lxde, ubuntu

Quick update for Lubuntu 14.04 users: the bug that caused the Network Manager icon not to show up on the panel by default was finally fixed today. 


Convert Audio / Video Files With Selene Media Encoder

| Date: June 27, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: audio, converter, linux, selene, ubuntu, video

Selene is a GTK3/Vala media converter tool developed by Tony George (who's also behind Conky Manager), which "aims to provide a simple GUI for converting files to popular formats along with powerful command-line options for automated/unattended encoding".

Selene Media Encoder

Xnoise Media Player Development Stopped

| Date: June 27, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: linux, music player, ubuntu, xnoise

Xnoise Media Player

Xnoise is a GTK+ media player built with big music collections in mind. Its development started back in 2008 and unfortunately, it looks like 2014 is its final year because, according to Shuerhaaken, the Xnoise developer, the player "lost development contributors" and he doesn't have enough time to continue the project:

Easily Manage / Connect To SSH Hosts With Guake Indicator

| Date: June 27, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, cli, guake, linux, ssh, ubuntu

Guake Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator for Guake terminal users, useful for those who need to connect to multiple SSH hosts frequently: the indicator lets you easily manage your favorite SSH hosts and establish new SSH connections via Guake.

Guake is a Quake-style drop-down terminal which can be invoked with a single keystroke and hidden by pressing the same key again.

Guake Indicator

Help Test New Font Manager Vala/GTK3 Alpha Version

| Date: June 25, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: font manager, fonts, linux, ubuntu

Font Manager is a GTK+ font management application which allows previewing, enabling/disabling fonts and font collections, font installation and removal and more.

The application is not new and you'll find it in the Ubuntu (and Fedora, etc.) repositories but it hasn't been updated in about 4 years. Recently, the Font Manager developer started working on a new GTK3/Vala version and he needs you to test it and post feedback.

Font Manager 0.7 alpha under GNOME Shell

Font Manager 0.7 alpha under Unity

The initial Vala/GTK3 Font Manager version (0.7) is currently considered alpha quality and if you can test it and give feedback, it "would be incredibly useful to determine whether it can move to beta or even a release", as Jerry Casiano, the Font Manager developer, recently told me in an email. So if you want to post feedback, issues, suggestions or whatever regarding the current development (SVN) version, see THIS page.

New Cinnamon Stable Ubuntu PPAs [Ubuntu 14.04 And 12.04]

| Date: June 25, 2014 | View Comments

As you probably know, the official Cinnamon Stable PPA was closed not so long ago, leaving Ubuntu users who want to use Cinnamon with three choices: build the packages from source, use the Cinnamon Nightly PPA or switch to Linux Mint.

Cinnamon 2.2.13
Cinnamon in Ubuntu 14.04

To make Cinnamon easier to install for Ubuntu users, a couple of new stable Cinnamon PPAs were created. The new PPAs aren't official but I've been following them for a while / tested them and I didn't encounter any issues, so I though I'd share them with you.

Audacious Going Back To GTK2 Starting With Version 3.6

| Date: June 23, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: audacious, linux, music player, ubuntu

Quick news update for Audacious (audio player) fans: it looks like the Audacious developers aren't very happy with all the changes happening in GTK3 lately and they've decided to switch back to GTK2 starting with the next major release (3.6).

Old Audacious version (2.3) - GTK2 interface

Install DroidCam (Wireless Android Webcam) Client In Ubuntu Via PPA

| Date: June 23, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: android, droidcam, linux, ubuntu, webcam

DroidCam is a tool which lets you use an Android device as a wireless webcam that can be used from your desktop (Linux or Windows) to chat on Skype, Google+ and so on.

DroidCam Ubuntu
Skype for Linux webcam set to DroidCam on my Ubuntu 14.04 laptop

Opera Finally Sees New Linux Update With Opera 24 Developer Stream

| Date: June 23, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: browser, linux, opera, ubuntu

Opera 24 Linux

Opera web browser hasn't been updated for Linux since version 12.16 (about a year ago) - until today, when the Opera desktop team announced that they released Opera 24 for Linux on the Developer stream:

Laptop Mode Tools 1.65 Released With Intel PState Support, Other Changes [PPA]

| Date: June 19, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: battery, laptop, linux, power, tweaks, ubuntu

Laptop Mode Tools is a package that should extend your laptop's battery life by enabling the Laptop Mode Linux kernel feature along with other power-related tweaks.

The latest Laptop Mode Tools 1.65, released yesterday, includes important changes and bug fixes such as support for Intel PState driver and a more robust Runtime Power Management Framework that deprecates the usb-autosuspend module. That means that there should be less issues with USB devices such as mice / keyboards not working properly with LMT (if such issues still occur, you'll need to blacklist the device id or disable the runtime-pm and usb-autosuspend modules using the Laptop Mode Tools GUI).

Humanity Colors Icon Theme Now Available In 12 Colors

| Date: June 19, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, humanity colors, icons, linux, themes, ubuntu

Humanity Colors, an icon theme pack designed by the Ravefinity Project which provides Humanity (the default Ubuntu icon theme) in various colors, was updated with 3 new colors along with other changes and bug fixes.

Humanity Colors

Skype 4.3 For Linux Released With Updated User Interface, Other Changes

| Date: June 18, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: chat, linux, skype, ubuntu

Skype 4.3 for Linux has been released today with an updated UI, cloud-based Group Chat experience, support for PulseAudio 3 and 4 and various other changes and bug fixes.

Skype 4.3 Linux

Sigram: Native Linux Desktop Telegram Client

| Date: June 17, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: chat, linux, mobile, sigram, telegram, ubuntu

Telegram is a free messaging app that focuses on speed and security, at least that's what its developers say. There are official Telegram applications available for iOS and Android as well as various unofficial clients for Windows, Mac OS X and Windows Phone.

Sigram is a native, open source Telegram client for Linux desktops, written in C++, C, Qt, QML.

Conky Manager Gets Revamped UI, New Options (Conky GUI)

| Date: June 16, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: conky, conky manager, linux, system monitor, ubuntu

Conky Manager, a graphical font-end for managing Conky configuration files, has been updated to version 2 recently, getting a revamped UI and new options.

Conky

The tool allows you to easily enable/disable various Conky modules/widgets and it also supports full themes, which is a combination of widgets. You can configure each widget alignment, size, transparency and so on, all from a GUI so if you didn't know how to configure Conky before, give Conky Manager a try.

DockBarX 0.91 Released With Bug Fixes, Battery Applet

| Date: June 16, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: customization, dock, dockbarx, linux, ubuntu

DockBarX is a lightweight taskbar / panel replacement for Linux which works a stand-alone dock (called DockX), as an an Avant Window Navigator applet or as a Xfce4 panel applet.

DockBarX

DockBarX was updated to version 0.91 today, which includes various bug fixes as well as a new battery applet. Here's the complete DockBarX 0.91 changelog:

Wallch: Use Wallpaper Clocks, Live Earth, Live Website Wallpapers And More In Ubuntu [Wallpaper Changer]

| Date: June 12, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: customization, eyecandy, linux, ubuntu, wallch, wallpaper changer, wallpaper clocks

Wallch is a wallpaper changer which aims to make it easy to get cool new wallpapers each day. With version 4.x (Ubuntu 14.04 / Linux Mint 17 only!), Wallch got support for Wallpaper Clocks as well as a Live Website feature, along with more configuration options and support for a few more desktop environments.

Wallch wallpaper changer

Atom Text Editor Available For Linux 32bit [Ubuntu PPA]

| Date: June 12, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: atom, linux, text editor, ubuntu

Great news for Ubuntu 32bit users who want to give Atom a try! Atom, the open source "hackable text editor for the 21st Century" developed by GitHub, can now be built for 32bit (on Linux). 

As a result, the WebUpd8 Atom PPA was updated so there are now Atom packages for both 32bit and 64bit available in the PPA.


GNOME Shell 3.12 and GTK+ 3.12 Available In The Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Repositories

| Date: June 12, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: gnome shell, ubuntu, ubuntu gnome, Utopic Unicorn

Quick Ubuntu / Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 Utopic Unicorn update: GNOME Shell 3.12 and GTK+ 3.12 have recently landed in the official Utopic repositories. 

GNOME Shell 3.12 Ubuntu 14.10

Fix Copy.com Indicator Menu For Ubuntu 14.04 Or 13.10 [Updated With Monochrome Icon Fixes]

| Date: June 11, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: copy.com, fix, linux, tips n tricks, ubuntu

The Copy.com client indicator menu doesn't work properly in Ubuntu 14.04 and 13.10 due to a bug in libdbusmenu:


This bug was fixed in Ubuntu 14.10 and I'm not sure when it will be fixed in older Ubuntu versions but you can get the Copy.com indicator menu to work right now in Ubuntu 14.04 and 13.10 by using the fix /  work-around below.

Copy.com client indicator menu working under Ubuntu 14.04

Install Copy.com Client In Ubuntu Or Linux Mint Via PPA (Cloud File Storage, Sync And Sharing Platform)

| Date: June 11, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cloud, copy, linux, storage, sync, ubuntu

Copy.com is not new, but its Ubuntu indicator didn't work properly. Recently, it was fixed so I've decided to finally write about Copy.

Copy is a cloud-based file storage, sync and sharing platform, similar to Dropbox or Google Drive, which has clients available for Linux (including Raspberry Pi), Windows, Mac OS X as well as iOS, Android and Windows Mobile.


The service offers 15 GB of free cloud space or you can get a pro account:
  • $9.99 per month or $99 pe year for 250 GB
  • $14.99 per month or $149 per year for 500 GB

It's also important to mention that by inviting someone to Copy, both you and the person you introduced to copy will get an extra 5GB of storage space, with no limit on the total extra space you can earn.

Sid Meier`s Civilization V Game Available On Steam For Linux

| Date: June 10, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: civilization v, games, linux, steam, strategy, ubuntu


A while back, some steamdb changes revealed that Sid Meier's Civilization V will probably be available for Linux. The official confirmation came today, when Aspyr Media announced that the game is finally available for Linux (via Steam).

Ubuntu Desktop Next (Unity8) 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Daily ISO Available For Download

| Date: June 10, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: iso, ubuntu, unity8, Utopic Unicorn


A while back it was decided to create a separate Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn ISO running Unity8 on Mir, including the new core apps:

"The goal is to ramp up the quality of the unity8 desktop, without destabilizing our current environmenent. For that we are going to keep an unity7 image and add a new one for unity8 on the desktop, that new iso should become the default one by 16.04".

The new testing "flavor" is called Ubuntu Desktop Next and a daily ISO is available for download starting today. However, the ISO is still work in progress and for now, it still includes Xorg (needed for the current LightDM greeter and Ubiquity) and also, the list of packages that will be included on the ISO is marked as work in progress, so the default package selection should change.

Install Asunder CD Ripper 2.5 In Ubuntu Via PPA

| Date: June 10, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: asunder, cd, cd ripper, linux, music, ubuntu

Asunder is a GTK2 Audio CD ripper and encoder for Linux. It can be used to save tracks from Audio CDs and encode them in various popular audio formats such as MP3, OGG, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, Musepack, Opus, AAC and Monkey's Audio.


SysPeek Indicator Ported To GTK3, Install It In Ubuntu Via PPA

| Date: June 09, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, linux, system monitor, ubuntu

SysPeek is a system monitor AppIndicator that displays CPU, memory, swap and disk usage as well as network traffic.


Popular Faience GTK / GNOME Shell Themes Updated For GNOME 3.10 [Ubuntu 14.04 PPA]

| Date: June 07, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, linux, themes, ubuntu

A year and a half after the previous release, the beautiful Faience GTK / GNOME Shell theme pack was finally updated and it now supports GTK / GNOME Shell 3.10.

Faience gtk themes

Syncthing: Open Source BitTorrent Sync Alternative (P2P Sync Tool)

| Date: June 04, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: android, cloud, linux, macosx, Raspberry Pi, sync, syncthing, ubuntu, windows

Syncthing is a cross-platform peer-to-peer file synchronization client/server application written in Go. Similar to BitTorrent Sync, the tool can be used to synchronize files between computers however, unlike BitTorrent Sync, Syncthing is open source:

"Syncthing replaces Dropbox and BitTorrent Sync with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, if it is shared with some third party and how it's transmitted over the Internet".

"Using Syncthing, that control is returned to you".

Syncthing
Syncthing Web GUI

Pipelight 0.2.7 Brings New System Check Tool, GPU Acceleration Enabled By Default For AMD Graphics

| Date: June 04, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: linux, pipelight, silverlight, ubuntu

Pipelight is a wrapper for Windows NPAPI plugins such as Silverlight, Widevine or Flash (the Windows version) which allows you to use these plugins in native Linux web browsers and thus, use services that aren't officially supported on Linux, such as Netflix (Silverlight), HBO Go (Widevine) and so on.

Pipelight was updated to version 0.2.7 yesterday, bringing quite a few enhancements and bug fixes, such as a tool to check the system configuration and find issues that might cause Pipelight to fail, GPU acceleration for AMD graphics is now enabled by default for Silverlight and more.

Pipelight Silverlight Widevine Unity3D

Psensor Updated With Option To Display Temperature Sensors On The Panel

| Date: June 04, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, hardware, linux, psensor, sensors, ubuntu

Psensor, a hardware temperature monitoring tool, was updated recently with an option to display the temperature on the panel (next to its AppIndicator icon), along with other improvements and bug fixes.

Psensor Hardware Monitor Tool

For those not familiar with Psensor, this is a tool which can be used to monitor the motherboard and CPU temperatures, Nvidia GPUs temperature, (for ATI/AMD it's more complicated) hard disk temperature, fans rotation speed and CPU usage.

View FIFA World Cup 2014 Match Schedule, Scores, Stats And More With iCup 2014 Brazil

| Date: June 03, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: football, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows, world cup 2014

As all football (soccer) fans most most probably already know, the 2014 FIFA World Cup which will be hosted in Brazil, is scheduled to start soon, on June 12.

To stay up to date with the latest scores, check out the match schedule and much more, you can use a cross-platform application called iCup 2014 Brazil.

iCup 2014 Brazil screenshots

Nuvola Player 2.4.0 Released With Support For 2 New Services, Google Play Music Fixes, More

| Date: June 02, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cloud, linux, music player, nuvolaplayer, ubuntu

Nuvola Player is a cloud music player which integrates cloud music services like Google Play Music, Grooveshark, Amazon Cloud Player, Bandcamp, Deezer, Hype Machine, 8tracks, Pandora, Rdio and Pandora with your desktop.

Nuvola Player
Nuvola Player - Grooveshark

Using this application, you'll get desktop notifications, integration with the Ubuntu Sound Menu as well as GNOME Shell Media Player extension, Unity quicklists, multimedia keys support, lyrics, last.fm and libre.fm scrobbling and more. Most of these features are available as plugins so you can easily enable/disable them.

Ambiance And Radiance Colors Theme Pack Updated With Dark Menus Everywhere, Other Changes [Ubuntu 14.04]

| Date: June 02, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, linux, themes, ubuntu

Ambiance & Radiance colors is a theme pack that provides Ambiance and Radiance themes in 9 different colors: blue, brown, graphite, green, orange (different than the one used by default in Ubuntu), pink, purple, red and yellow. The pack supports Unity as well as Xfce and LXDE/OpenBox (it doesn't work very well in GNOME Shell because Ubuntu's Ambiance doesn't either - they don't support client side decorations).

Ambiance Red under GNOME Shell - KKEdit, a GTK2 app uses dark menus (with the default Ambiance theme, the app uses a light menu)

Steam Skin Manager, A Tool To Change Steam For Linux Appearance, Available In PPA (Ubuntu 14.04, 13.10)

| Date: June 02, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: eyecandy, games, linux, steam, ubuntu

Steam Skin Manager is a tool developed by +Martin Kozub for changing the Steam for Linux appearance. The app comes with 4 skins by default: Ambiance, Radiance, Light and Blue and it also lets you easily add more themes.

Steam Skin Manager

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