Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Professional Video Editor `Lightworks` v12 Available For Download

Lightworks, a professional video editing and mastering software, has reached version 12, this being the first release which gives the same experience on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX:

"The release of Lightworks version 12 marks a unique milestone in that for the first time, the same version runs on the Windows, Linux and Macintosh platforms - a unique achievement for a professional, fully featured NLE.

As a result of Lightworks' intelligent software architecture, new features and fixes for all three versions will be available virtually at the same time, barring operating system-specific issues"


The latest Lightworks 12 includes a new Content Manager structure, rewritten Lightworks Play engine for improved playback performance along with new Blur, Color Correction and Selective Color Correction effects and more.

Lightworks 12 Ubuntu

Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Final Beta Available For Download

Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn

Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn final beta was released today, this being the first and only milestone for Ubuntu Utopic (while for the Ubuntu flavors, this is Beta 2). Let's take a look at what's new.

gdrive: A Simple Google Drive CLI Client (Cross-Platform)

gdrive (not to be confused with Grive!) is a simple command line Google Drive client written in Go, available for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X.

gdrive

The tool was created for uploading and downloading files from/to Google Drive and it doesn't support any kind of synchronization. In fact, gdrive can't even download multiple files at once.

However, gdrive is still useful for one-off uploads / downloads (for automated uploads of a backup archive for example), especially since Grive, another command line Google Drive client (which does support sync) that's quite popular among Linux users, wasn't updated since May, 2013 and looks pretty much dead.

GNOME 3.14 Released, See What`s New

After six months of development, GNOME 3.14 was released today and it includes quite a few interesting changes such as multi-touch gestures for both the system and applications, re-worked default theme, new animations as well as various enhancements for the code GNOME applications. Let's take a look at what's new!

Debian Switches Back To GNOME As Default Desktop Environment

Debian GNOME Desktop

Debian switched to Xfce as the default desktop environment back in November 2013. But that didn't last long because a few days ago, Debian restored GNOME as the default desktop, based on preliminary results from the Debian Desktop Requalification for Jessie.

According to Joey Hess, the Debian developer who performed this change, the main reasons for Debian switching back to GNOME as the default desktop are related to accessibility and systemd integration:

Counter Strike: Global Offensive Available For Linux

Valve finally released Counter Strike: Global Offensive for Linux.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is  an objective-based multiplayer first-person shooter in which players join either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist team. CS:GO uses the Source engine and it was initially released in August, 2012, as the fourth game in the Counter-Strike franchise.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive Linux

Download Subtitles Via Nautilus / Nemo Context Menu With Periscope Or Subliminal

This article provides instructions for installing Periscope or Subliminal, two command line subtitle download tools, and how to add them to the Nautilus or Nemo context menu, so you can download subtitles with a simple click.

NSS Updated To Allow HTML5 Netflix Playback In Ubuntu

A while back we wrote about enabling HTML5 playback for Netflix in Ubuntu, but that required updating NSS and using an user-agent extension in Google Chrome. Well, NSS 3.17 landed today in Ubuntu 14.04 and 12.04, and thanks to this, Netflix should soon use HTML5 playback in Ubuntu, without requiring any tweaks.

netflix HTML5 ubuntu

Geeknote: Command-Line Evernote Client

Geeknote is a command-line client for Evernote, useful to add notes to Evernote via Bash scripts, cron, applications that can't directly use the Evernote SDK or to simply manage your Evernote notes from the command-line.

Wasteland 2 Officially Released

After 2,5 years of development, Wasteland 2, a single player post-apocalyptic RPG developed and published by inXile Entertainment, was released today and is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X on GOG.com, Steam or Humble Bundle Store.

Wasteland 2

Gamepad Keyboard/Mouse Mapping App `AntiMicro` Sees New Release

AntiMicro 2.6 was released recently, getting two new turbo modes, an option to invoke the Game Controller mapping window from command line as well as experimental uinput support.

AntiMicro

For those not familiar with AntiMicro, this is an application that can be used to map keyboard and mouse buttons to gamepad buttons, useful for playing games with no gamepad or poor gamepad support.

Ozon OS "Hydrogen" Alpha Available For Testing

Numix Project and Nitrux S.A. released Ozon OS "Hydrogen" alpha yesterday.

Ozon OS "Hydrogen" alpha is based on Fedora 20 and it uses GNOME Shell and Gnome apps by default, customized with various extensions. The newly released alpha is aimed at developers and ships with only part of the Atom Shell: Atom Dock, Launcher and Panel, so it's not really interesting for regular desktop users. However, the beta (and obviously, the final release) should include a lot more exiting stuff.

Here are a couple of Ozon OS Hydrogen alpha screenshots (but, as I said, there's not much to see right now):

Ozon OS

Keyboard Modifiers State indicator For Ubuntu: Xkbmod Indicator

Unity doesn't ship with a keyboard modifiers state indicator by default, so Abdellah Chelli has recently created such an indicator, called Xkbmod Indicator, useful for users with disabilities who need use sticky keys.


Opera 25 Beta Released, Linux Added To Beta Channel

Opera 25 beta was released today and besides new graphical bookmarks and an improved Speed Dial, it finally supports Linux (for now, there are only 64bit debs available for download). This is the first Opera beta (previously known as Opera Next) release available for Linux since version 12.16, which was released more than a year ago.

Opera 25 Linux

PeerTV: Command-Line Tool To Manager And Play TV Series From EZTV Via Peerflix

PeerTV is a command line tool for manage and play TV series from EZTV.it. It uses Peerflix to stream the torrents and by default, the videos are played with mpv, but that can be changed from the PeerTV configuration file.

Peertv

For those not familiar with Peerflix, this is a an experimental video streaming BitTorrent client for Node.js which can be used to stream video torrents via command line and play the stream with your favorite video player, such as VLC or MPlayer.

PeerTV allows you to easily keep track of your watched / unwatched episodes: each viewed episode is automatically marked as seen and you can manually mark/unmark episodes as viewed - and of course, you play them with the help of Peerflix, with subtitles support.

How To Install World Of Warcraft In Ubuntu Or Linux Mint (W/ Fixes, FPS Optimizations)

World of Warcraft Ubuntu screenshot

Installing World of Warcraft (WoW) in Ubuntu or Linux Mint (with Wine) is pretty easy, however there are various crashes that can occur, especially if you're not using the latest Wine and also, the FPS can be pretty low without a few tweaks, so I though I'd document everything I did to get World of Warcraft to work properly on my laptop (Nvidia Optimus, so I was able to test the game with both Nvidia and Intel graphics), even in large scale PvPs and hopefully, this will help you play WoW under Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Syncthing GTK: GTK3 & Python GUI For Syncthing [Ubuntu PPA]

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

For more information about Syncthing, see our previous article: Syncthing: Open Source BitTorrent Sync Alternative (P2P Sync Tool).

Syncthing GUI
Syncthing GTK under GNOME Shell

Syncthing GTK is a GTK3 & Python GUI for Syncthing (which comes with a web GUI only by default). The tool supports basically all Syncthing features:

Nemo With Unity Patches Available For Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn [PPA]

Quick update for Ubuntu users who have upgraded to Ubuntu 14.10 or are planning to do so in the near future: today I updated the WebUpd8 Nemo PPA with packages for Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn.

Nemo file manager Unity

Download The Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Community Wallpapers

The Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn community wallpapers were revealed today. They haven't landed in Ubuntu 14.10 yet but if you don't want to wait or you're not using Ubuntu 14.10, you can download them already.

The pack includes a selection of 12 beautiful wallpapers and of course, there's also am Utopic Unicorn image among them:

Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn community wallpapers

Easily Install The Latest golang Compiler, LiteIDE and Various Go-Related Tweaks In Ubuntu With A Script

Go (or golang) is a programming language initially developed by Google. It is a statically-typed language with syntax loosely derived from that of C, adding garbage collection, type safety, some dynamic-typing capabilities, additional built-in types such as variable-length arrays and key-value maps, and a large standard library. More information @ Wikipedia.

Until Canonical's Ubuntu Developer Tools Center gets support for golang, you can use a script created by WebUpd8 reader +George, which can be used to set up everything Go-related in Ubuntu. The script downloads and installs the latest version of Go compiler and IDE (LiteIDE) in Ubuntu and it also automatically sets up most of the tings you'll need:

Install Timekpr (Parental Control App) In Ubuntu 17.04, 16.10, 16.04 Or 14.04

Timekpr is a parental control application which can track and control your kids' access to the computer. The application can be used to easily limit the login time duration or access hours for your children's user accounts, as well as lock accounts with a click.

Timekpr Ubuntu

SelekTOR: Tor GUI With Country Exit Node Selection, Useful To Bypass Country Restrictions For Various Websites

"Tor is free software for enabling online anonymity and resisting censorship. It is designed to make it possible for users to surf the Internet anonymously, so their activities and location can't be discovered by government agencies, corporations, or anyone else". More information @ Tor & Wikipedia

Selektor TOR gui

SelekTOR is an open source Java-based GUI front-end for the Tor Client which has a few advantages over Vidalia (the official Tor GUI), such as:
  • Simplifies the usage and configuration of Tor in client mode, SelekTOR does most of the hard stuff for you;
  • you can quickly select Tor exit nodes by country;
  • SelekTOR can continuously monitor and maintain a connection to the exit node with the best response time, with as little downtime as possible;
  • as well as proxying all traffic through the active Tor node, SelekTOR can also do selective routing of traffic through the active tor node based on URL patterns.

The option to select the Tor exit nodes by country can be used to access websites which aren't available in your country, such as Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ABC, Pandora, British TV, HBO Go and so on (these depend on your country, obviously).

Dual Boot: Fix Time Differences Between Ubuntu And Windows


Quick tip for users who dual boot Ubuntu and Windows: if the time is off on your computer when you reboot and switch between Ubuntu and Windows, here's how to fix it.

Recent Update Broke Ubuntu Desktop On Some Nvidia Optimus Laptops [Fix]

Nvidia Optimus Ubuntu

According to a bug report, a recent Ubuntu 14.04 update broke the desktop for some Nvidia Optimus users:

"Until yesterday the 14.04 install on this Thinkpad T530 (nvidia Optimus) with nvidia-331 drivers worked just fine, including excellent multi-monitor behavior. Yesterday the set of packages below [1] was updated. I shut down, booted this morning and found out that I was not shown the lightdm login screen: I was stuck at the purple screen that precedes it (into which I enter my disk encryption password)".

- lp #1365695 bug

Unofficial MEGAsync Nemo Extension Available For Download

A couple of days ago we wrote about the new MEGA Linux desktop client (MEGASync), which consists on two parts: a tray / appindicator application and a Nautilus extension and unfortunately, they didn't release a Nemo extension, even though the code is pretty much the same as for the Nautilus extension.

Well, the MEGAsync source was briefly available for download so I decided to convert the Nautilus extension to Nemo and package it as a deb so both Ubuntu 14.04 (and newer) users who use Nemo with Unity patches as well as Linux Mint 17.x (Cinnamon) users can use it easily.

The MEGAsync Nemo file manager extension lets you see the sync status of your MEGA folder (using emblems) and also, it can be used to copy a file share link or upload a file outside your MEGA folder to MEGA.co.nz.

Here are a couple of screenshots with the MEGAsync Nemo extension:


Download And Convert YouTube Videos With ClipGrab

youtube-dl is great for downloading YouTube videos, but if you don't like the command line, you might want to give ClipGrab a try. The application is not new but I never got to cover it on WebUpd8.

ClipGrab is an open source tool to download and convert videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and more, available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

ClipGrab

Tribler BitTorrent Client To Become Anonymous, Version 6.3.1 Released

A year after the previous release, a new Tribler version was released recently and it includes new features, bug fixes as well as work towards anonymous streaming (using a built-in Tor-like network).

Tribler 6.3.1 Ubuntu

For those not familiar with Tribler, this is an open source, decentralized peer-to-peer client based on the BitTorrent protocol, supported by EU and Dutch research funding. The application includes features such as wiki-style channels, video-on-demand (watch videos while you download them) and more and is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

Borderlands 2 Game Is Coming To Linux / Steam OS

It looks like Borderlands 2 , a popular video game released in 2012, is coming to Linux / Steam OS.

Borderlands2 screenshot

Download MEGAsync For Linux Desktops (MEGA.co.nz Linux Sync Client)

MEGA is a cloud storage and file hosting service founded by Kim Dotcom (who was also behind Megaupload), which offers 50 GB of storage for free, along with various paid plans. More about MEGA.

The mega.co.nz website doesn't offer a sync client for Linux desktops however, MEGAsync for Linux showed up on their servers recently (without any official announcement about this).

MEGAsync Linux

Update: MEGA has officially announced the MEGAsync Linux client. The announcement mentions that they plan to release the MEGAsync source code under an open-source license.

The new MEGAsync for Linux is written in Qt, is available for Ubuntu and derivatives (14.04, 12.04 as well as for two Ubuntu versions that aren't supported by Canonical any more: 13.10 and 12.10), Debian (6 and 7), Fedora (19 and 20) and openSUSE (12.2, 12.3 and 13.1) and it consists of a tray/appindicator application as well as an optional Nautilus extension.

Canonical Releases Ubuntu Developer Tools Center, Makes It Easy To Install Android Studio And Android SDK In Ubuntu

Update: Ubuntu Developer Tools Center has been renamed to Ubuntu Make.

Canonical wants to make developers who create applications for platforms other than Ubuntu feel at home. In a recent article posted on his blog, +Didier Roche, Software Engineer at Canonical, writes: "Ubuntu loves developers and we are going to showcase it by making Ubuntu the best available developer platform!".

To achieve this, the Ubuntu Developer Tools Center was created, a project to enable quick and easy setup of common developers needs on Ubuntu. For now, Canonical is focusing on Android developers, but more will follow, like Go developers, web developers, Dart and more.

Android Studio Ubuntu Developer Tools Center
Android Studio installed in Ubuntu 14.04 using UDTC

Exaile 3.4.0 Released With New Plugins, Other Changes [PPA]

In case you were wondering, Exaile, a music player that exists since 2006, is not dead yet. A new Exaile version - 3.4.0 "We're not dead yet" -, was released today and is, according to its developers, the best release of Exaile yet.

Exaile 3.4.0 Ubuntu

Pushbullet Indicator Gets (Partial) Universal Copy & Paste Support

Pushbullet Indicator was updated today with a cool new feature: it now partially supports Pushbullet's recent universal copy & paste feature.

Pushbullet Universal copy paste

Universal Copy & Paste allows you to copy a link or some text from a device and paste it on another device. For now, this feature only works one way with Pushbullet Indicator: you can copy a link or some text on your Android device and then paste it on your Ubuntu desktop, but it doesn't work the other way around, because the Pushbullet API doesn't allow this for now. 

Ambiance & Radiance Colors Themes Updated With Xfce Fixes

Quick update for Ambiance & Radiance Colors fans: the theme pack was updated (version 14.04.6) today with quite a few Xfce fixes such as: fixed window borders on non-Debian distros, fixed Xfce GTK3 indicator background and more.

Ambiance Colors

Nautilus / Nemo `Folder Color` Extension Gets Support For Custom Colors

Folder Color is a tool that lets you easily change folders icon color, available for Nautilus and unofficially, for Nemo file manager.

Folder Color Nautilus