Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Firefox 52 Released With WebAssembly Support, Removes NPAPI Plugins Other Than Flash (Java, Silverlight)

| Date: March 07, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: browser, firefox, internet, linux, macosx, ubuntu, windows

Firefox 52 was released today and it includes two major changes: support for WebAssembly and the removal of support for NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API) plugins like Silverlight, Java, and others, with the exception of Flash.

Firefox 52 plugins

Easily Use Free VPNs From VPN Gate In Linux With These 2 Tools

| Date: February 02, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, cli, internet, linux, privacy, ubuntu, vpn

Below you'll find 2 tools that make it easy to use free OpenVPN servers from VPN Gate in Linux.

In case you're not familiar with VPN Gate, this is project that offers free VPN servers that are ran by volunteers who use SoftEther. It was designed with the Great Firewall of China in Mind and is sponsored by the University of Tsukuba, Japan.

It's important to note that free VPNs are insecure, and they shouldn't be used for sensitive / important stuff!

6 Cool Internet Radio Players For Linux

| Date: February 01, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, cli, gnome shell, internet, linux, radio, ubuntu

There are quite a few Linux applications that can play Internet radio, but I thought I'd make a list of some of the most interesting apps that focus on this.

The list includes lightweight Internet radio players, a fully fledged desktop application, a command line radio browser and player, as well as a GNOME Shell extension.

Easily Share Files From The Command Line With transfer.sh

| Date: August 04, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: cli, internet, share, tips n tricks

If you prefer doing things from the command line, transfer.sh (no, that's not a script, it's a website) is for you. Using it, you can easily share a file from the command line, without installing anything. Well, cURL or Wget are required, but you probably already have them installed.

The service is free, allows uploading files up to 10 GB in size, and it stores the files for 14 days. In my test, it was also very fast.

Opera Developer Update Brings Built-In RSS Reader, Chromecast Support

| Date: July 20, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: browser, internet, linux, macosx, opera, ubuntu, windows

Opera browser rss feed reader

A new Opera Developer update released today brings an interesting new feature: a built-in RSS reader.

qBittorrent 3.3.5 Released With New Torrent Management Mode, Other Improvements

| Date: June 20, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: internet, linux, macosx, qbittorrent, torrent, ubuntu, windows

qBittorrent 3.3.5 was released today and it includes new features, such as a torrent management mode, a new cookie management dialog, as well as other improvements and bug fixes.


qBittorrent is a BitTorrent client that aims to provide a free software alternative to μTorrent, available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and FreeBSD.

The application comes with an integrated search engine, web interface, sequential download support, bandwidth scheduler, advanced RSS support with download filters, torrent creation tool, IP filtering and other useful features.

Opera Beta Adds New Video Pop Out Feature

| Date: April 14, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: browser, internet, linux, macosx, opera, windows

The latest Opera beta adds a cool new feature across all supported desktops: video pop out. This feature allows shifting the video frame outside the browser, the goal being to allow "true multitasking".

The new video pop out feature skipped the Opera developer channel, landing directly into beta, as a surprise for Opera users. This feature only supports HTML5 videos so it won't work with Flash.

Here's how this feature works: go to YouTube, DailyMotion or any other page that displays HTML5 videos while using the latest Opera Beta and you should see an additional button in the middle of the top border. Clicking this button pops out the video:


WebTorrent Desktop Is A New Streaming BitTorrent Client With Chromecast, AirPlay And DLNA Support

| Date: April 07, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: chromecast, internet, linux, macosx, streaming, torrent, ubuntu, WebTorrent, windows

WebTorrent Desktop (beta) is a simple, open source BitTorrent client that lets you stream torrents, available for Linux, Windows and Mac. 

The application comes with a very basic user interface, which allows dropping a torrent file or pasting a magnet link to start streaming it.

WebTorrent Desktop Ubuntu

How To Get Flash And H.264 To Work In Vivaldi Browser (Ubuntu, Linux Mint)

| Date: April 06, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: flash, internet, linux, tweaks, ubuntu, vivaldi

Vivaldi 1.0 stable was released today and if you gave it a try, you might have noticed, at least on a fresh Ubuntu installation, that Flash and H.264 don't work out of the box.

Here's how to get Adobe Flash and H.264 (used, for instance, by the YouTube HTML5 player) to work with Vivaldi browser, in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and derivatives.

Vivaldi Browser Sees Its First Stable Release

| Date: April 06, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: browser, internet, linux, macosx, ubuntu, vivaldi, windows

More than a year after its first technical preview was available for the public, Vivaldi 1.0 was released today.

Vivaldi web browser Ubuntu

Vivaldi is a new web browser especially created for users who "have problems fitting all their open tabs on one screen".

Developed by Vivaldi Technologies, whose chief executive and founder is John von Tetzchner, former Opera CEO and co-founder, the browser is built using open source technologies (it uses the Blink engine and, according to Wikipedia, is built using  Node.js, React.js, and numerous NPM modules), but is not open source software.

Indicator Netspeed Displays Network Speed On The Unity Panel

| Date: April 28, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, internet, linux, ubuntu

Indicator Netspeed is a simple Ubuntu AppIndicator which displays the network speed on the Unity panel.

Indicator Netspeed

How To Install Chromium Beta Or Dev Channel In Ubuntu Via PPA

| Date: February 13, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: chromium, internet, tips n tricks, ubuntu

Quick tip for Chromium Browser users: The official Ubuntu Chromium Browser beta and dev channel PPAs are unmaintained for a long time but there are a couple of PPAs you can use to get the latest beta and development Chromium builds in Ubuntu.

Chromium Browser Dev Ubuntu

How To Test Internet Speed Via Command Line

| Date: February 12, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cli, internet, linux, speed test, ubuntu

If you want to test the Internet speed on a server or you simply want to avoid the speedtest.net Flash interface, you can use speedtest-cli, a command line tool for testing Internet bandwidth.

speedtest-cli tests your Internet speed using the popular speedtest.net website and it supports listing servers sorted by distance, testing against a specific server, you can use it with a Speedtest Mini server and it can even generate and provide a URL to the speedtest.net share results image.

PPA Updates: Tor Browser Bundle 3.5, Sublime Text 3 Beta Build 3059

| Date: December 19, 2013 | View Comments | Tags: browser, ide, internet, privacy, sublime text, text editor, tor, ubuntu

Quick update for Ubuntu / Linux Mint users: our PPAs were updated today with the latest Tor Browser Bundle 3.5 and Sublime Text 3 beta build 3059.

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

| Date: May 29, 2013 | View Comments | Tags: internet, linux, music player, radio, ubuntu

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.

Unity Privacy Indicator: Quickly Enable Or Disable Dash Online Search Results Or Zeitgeist Logging

| Date: February 11, 2013 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, dash, internet, linux, online, privacy, ubuntu, unity, zeitgeist

ubuntu privacy indicator

Privacy Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator especially created to control some privacy aspects of Unity.

The AppIndicator can be used to enable or disable:
  • Dash online search results;
  • Zeitgeist logging (so when you disable this, all files you access won't be logged by Zeitgeist and thus, will not show up in Dash or any other applications that make use of Zeitgeist);
  • show real name on the Unity panel.
After a recent update, the indicator can also clear the Zeitgeist log and recent files (from the new Nautilus 3.6 sidebar, etc.).

    flareGet Is A Great Download Manager For Linux

    | Date: February 06, 2013 | View Comments | Tags: download manager, flareGet, internet, linux, ubuntu, videos

    flareGet is download manager for Linux that features dynamic file segmentation, HTTP-pipelining for accelerated downloads, supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and metalinks and more. The application is free to use but not open-source.

    The application is written in Qt and besides the icons, it integrates pretty well under GNOME, including desktop notifications and an AppIndicator for Unity.

    flareget download manager

    Fix Wireless Or Wired Network Not Working After Resume From Suspend In Ubuntu

    | Date: January 10, 2013 | View Comments | Tags: fix, internet, linux, network, ubuntu

    It's time for another fix, this time for wired / wireless network not working after resume from suspend. In Ubuntu, sometimes when resuming from sleep, the wired network doesn't work and I keep getting "disconnected" notifications. I've read that some users are having similar issue with the wireless connection but for me, it's always the Ethernet connection.

    Cloud Music Player `Nuvola` Sees New Stable Release

    | Date: September 18, 2012 | View Comments | Tags: debian, google music, grooveshark, internet, linux, music player, nuvolaplayer, ubuntu, web app

    nuvolaplayer

    Nuvola Player is an application that integrates cloud music services like Google Music, Grooveshark, Hype Machine, 8tracks, Pandora, Rdio and Amazon Cloud Player with your desktop. 

    Using it, you'll get desktop notifications, multimedia keys support, Mpris v2 (integration with Ubuntu Sound Menu or GNOME Shell Media Player extension) integration, Unity quicklists and more.

    3 Hidden Features In Firefox 15 You May Want To Enable

    | Date: September 01, 2012 | View Comments | Tags: firefox, internet, linux, macosx, pdf, tips n tricks, ubuntu, windows

    Firefox 15, which has been released a few days ago, comes with some cool features disabled by default: native PDF viewer, preferences in tab and click-to-play plugins.

    These features have been in testing for quite a while, but they are not 100% ready so they aren't enabled by default and there are no options in the Firefox preferences to enable them. But, if you don't mind an occasional glitch, you can enable them  using the about:config tool.

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