Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

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Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) Countdown Banner For Your Website / Blog

Ubuntu 10.04 Countdown


Immanuel Peratoner created an amazing Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx countdown banner. The code to place on your website is available @ immanuel-peratoner.de and the banner comes in two sizes: 205x135 and 180x150, available in English and German.

The banner uses a PHP script to count the days remaining until Ubuntu 10.04 is released, so the banner will change automatically each day.

More banners can be found HERE (but you'll have to create the script and host them yourself).

Possible New GNOME 3 System Status Area Changes [Mockups]

Gnome 2.30 was released a few days ago which means the next version will be (or should be) Gnome 3 (which will come with Gnome Shell). I recently came across some System Status Area mockups which might become reality.


The System Status Area is not an area that is variously called the Notification Area or System Tray and should not be used by applications (foreground or background) to indicate their status.


Gnome 3 might start using monochrome colors in the System Status Area - Ubuntu style (or we could call it Mac OSX style):

gnome 3 status icons



The Gnome 3 designers have taken into consideration the order of these icons which is important in terms of usability. This is the proposed order:


SongBird Linux Support Discontinued

songbird leaves linux

Songbird is a free and open source software audio player and web browser. Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks, Mozilla's XULRunner and GStreamer media framework, and largely capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solaris and Linux.


A recent blog post on the SongBird blog states that the Linux version will be discontinued:

UbuntuOne Adds Firefox Bookmarks Synchronization (And More)

The UbuntuOne client was updated yesterday in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and it can now sync your Firefox bookmarks:


ubuntuone sync firefox bookmarks - install extension



A Look At All Ubuntu Mascots (Code Names)

The development codename of an Ubuntu release takes the form "Adjective Animal". Initially these weren't in alphabetic order - until Dapper DRAKE (6.06) that is.


Let's take a look (in pictures) at all Ubuntu mascots - from the warty Warthog to the latest maverick Meerkat:


Ubuntu Warty WARTHOG (4.10):

ubuntu warthy warthog 4.10


Ubuntu 10.10 Codename Announced: Maverick Meerkat

meerkat image

The official codename for Ubuntu 10.10 has finally been announced and it's: Maverick Meerkat.

I admit, I had no idea what a Meerkat is so I Googled it:

The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta, a small mammal, is a member of the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some superfamilies have 50 or more members. Meerkats have an average life span of 12-14 years.


[quote via Wikipedia]


Well, that's too bad, I really liked Magical Mouse or Majestic Mammoth =)

The reason for choosing Meerkat as the mascot is (according to Mark Shuttleworth):

Meerkats are, of course, light, fast and social – everything we want in a Perfect 10. [...] They are also clever – meerkats teach one another new skills. And that’s what makes this such a great community.


meerkat


In the same blog post, Mark also says that:

Our new theme is “Light”, and the next cycle will embrace that at many levels. We have a continued interest in netbooks, and we’ll revamp the Ubuntu Netbook Edition user interface. As computers become lighter they become more mobile, and we’ll work to keep people connected, all day, everywhere. We’ll embrace the web, aiming for the lightest, fastest web experience on any platform. The fastest boot, the fastest network connect, the fastest browser. Our goal is to ensure that UNE is far and away the best desktop OS for a netbook, both for consumers and power users.


Could that mean that Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 Maverick Meerkat (if not Ubuntu Desktop also) might ditch Firefox in favor of Chrome/Chromium? Or even Opera (because Opera 10.5* seems the fastest browser at the moment)?

The Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 10.10 release schedule can be found HERE.


See also: A Look At All Ubuntu Mascots (Code Names)

EiskaltDC++: Actively Developed Direct Connect (DC++) Client For Linux [Ubuntu PPA Available]

eiskaltdcpp


Everyone is probably still using the old Linuxdcpp for direct connect file sharing, and even though I see some activity on Launchpad, Linuxdcpp didn't get a new version in more than a year so you may want to try some alternatives. I for one really like Microdc2 but if you want a GUI for the job, you may want to give EiskaltDC++ a try.


EiskaltDC++ is a program for UNIX-like systems that uses the Direct Connect and ADC protocol. It is compatible with other DC clients, such as the original DC from Neomodus, DC++ and derivatives. EiskaltDC++ also interoperates with all common DC hub software.


Final Decision For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Window Controls Placement Announced By Mark Shuttleworth

metacity window buttons ubuntu 10.04


Mark Shuttleworth announced seconds ago that the Metacity window controls will remain on the left in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx), however the order will change to: close, minimize, maximize.

Here is his entire comment:

Thank you to everybody who has participated in this discussion.

The final decision on window controls for 10.04 LTS is as follows:

- the window controls will remain on the left, however
- the order will change to be (from left) close, minimize, maximise

The decision is based on the view that putting the close button in the corner will be most familiar to many users, even if the particular choice of corner is not.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a comment dependent on the date
:-)

Our intent is to encourage innovation, discussion, and design with the right of the window title bar. We have some ideas, and others are already springing up in the community. We welcome participation on the Ayatana list, where those can play out. This will be a fruitful topic for the design track at UDS in Brussels in May.

This bug is now marked wontfix. Please focus ongoing participation on the opportunities for innovation that this opens up. The decision as to the window controls location and order itself is now final, and as they say in the old newspapers, no further correspondence will be entered
into.


So Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will have the window controls placed identical to Mac OSX. Well, I for one am still waiting for the Global Menu to be included by default like in the website mockups.

If you want to put the Metacity window controls on the right or change their order, don't forget you can use Mwbuttons (Metacity Window Buttons), a really easy to use GUI which comes with presets. Also, now when using another theme (except Dust - but that should be fixed soon), the buttons will automatically move to the right so basically the left-side buttons only apply for the new Light Themes (Ambiance and Radiance)!

Note: Like Mark states, this has nothing to do with 1st of April (just to make things clear!) even though some might consider placing the window controls on the left a bad joke.

'Add To Rhythmbox Play Queue' Nautilus Plugin [Linux w/ Gnome]

enqueue in Rhythmbox ubuntu nautilus

Linux users coming from Windows are most probably used to right clicking audio files and selecting "Enqueue in Winamp" so it is a bit annoying not to find a similar behavior in Linux.

But today I stumbled upon a Nautilus plugin which can enqueue audio files from Nautilus into Rhythmbox. The plugin isn't purfect but it works.


VLC 1.1.0-Pre1 Might Be Released On Tuesday

vlc 1.1.0 screenshot

Jean-Baptiste Kempf, one of the main VLC (everybody's favourite movie player. well, true for 64% of you anyway) developers posted the following message on the VLC mailing list:

I suggest a tag of 1.1.0-pre1 and a following string freeze the next tuesday. Tarball and binaries for Win32/Mac would then be available for testing.