OMG! UBUNTU!

Humanity Style Icons for Parcellite

2009-11-09T02:01:00.001Z

Yet more in our series on Humanity Style icons – this time we look at clipboard manager application ‘Parcel lite’.

Parcel lite

I was in the middle of creating my own parcel-lite icons when these beauties popped up on gnome-look. Very sleek, minimal and very humanity. I know many readers here were wanting these so I'm please they’ve arrived already!

Download

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Humanity+for+Parcellite?content=115123

Install

Unpack the icons.
Hit ALT+F2 and type: -
gksu /usr/share/icons/Humanity/actions/24/
Move the new icons into this folder,being sure to make a backup of the originals.
Logout and back in or use ‘killall gnome-panel’ to refresh icons.

Watch YouTube Video's Without Flash In Your Browser!

2009-11-08T21:15:00.006Z

If you want to watch YouTube videos without using Flash you can - thanks to neosmart.
Available as both a webpage AND as an extension for Chromium (and shortly to work on Chrome), Firefox and any other borwser that supports UserScripts.

Simple go to http://neosmart.net/YouTube5/ and enter the URL of the video you want to watch and it will load in glorious HTML5 playback. (working buttons!!)

If you choose to install the extension you will see a link when navigating YouTube offering to load it in HTML5 via the sit above. Nice!

Extension

Google Chromium on Linux now supports the installation of greasemonkey/userscripts AS extensions. SO click on this and you'll be prompted to install it.

{via Slashdot}

Get Windows Aero Style in GNOME [And I'm not talking Window Borders...]

2009-11-08T18:48:00.004Z

It requires a serious amount of hacking, but you can get "aero style" windows in GNOME using this. (I'm not talking Aero style window borders, but the entire application.

I'll be writing a tutorial on this once i've managed to get it working, but in the mean time you'll find a slightly dense yet complete tutorial via the download on deviant-art.

Tutorial: http://janhouse.deviantart.com/art/Gnome-quot-Aero-look-quot-tutorial-142265951

Thanks to ~Grayson

Humanity Style: Panel Weather Icons

2009-11-08T16:21:00.016Z

Continuing our series of finding 'Humanity Style' icons for applications in Karmic we come to the panel weather icons.

If you use the weather notification service in your gnome panel, you'll have already noticed that in Karmic the icons don't fit in.

They don't exactly ruin the appearance of the panel, but for those wanting uniformity on their desktop - you're going to really want these!

They come sin both humanity and humanity dark variants so you'll be sure to find the correct match for your set up.

Download

You can download the icons via gnome-look.org @ http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Grey+weather+icons?content=115099&PHPSESSID=d5d4919bc0f1e7bf47cbad380b4f1a90

Install

1. Hit ALT+F2 and type: gksu nautilus /usr/share/icons/gnome/16x16/status
2. drag the newly downloaded icons into this folder, choosing to replace the ones already there (make a backup first, mind!)
3. ALT+F2
4. type: killall gnome-panel
5. The panel will close and then restart. If it doesn't hit ALT+F2 and type gnome-panel to get it back. Your new icons should now be visible!
5b. If the old icons remain, use: sudo gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/gnome/

Gorgeous Humanity Style Icons For Pidgin

2009-11-08T00:13:00.004Z

Continuing our series on humanity style icons for popular applications we turn out attention to the most popular Instant Messenger since the dawn of, er... sometime - Pidgin!

Not-Empathy Clones
There have been some great 'humanity style' icons for Pidgin made recently, but I've held off on posting them because they either used Empathy icons or were a bit too 'Empathy' like. I wanted to share something different.

Download
Grab the icons at Gnome-look.org: http://www.gnome-look.org/Human+Gray+pidgin+icons

Install
Extract the icons to your /usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin/

Hit Alt-F2
type: gksu nautilus /usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin/
Move the folders you download into 'tray' folder of the newly spawned window
Restart Pidgin
Enjoy!

Video Conferencing Coming To GMail Chat

2009-11-07T22:42:00.002Z

Reports are circulating that GMail chat – the web-based version of Google Talk/GTalk – will be adding multi-user video chat/video conferencing to this other Google services in the coming months.
GMail Chat only supports one-to-one video chat at present.

Linux Users

Linux users can currently use the video chat feature via Empathy (with caveats attached), but with ChromeOS merely a few months away from beta release one could assume that an official GTalk client native to Linux, or at least improved support/support for other clients such as Empathy, may also be on it’s way.
A stretch, sure, but a fantastic time to make available such a client.

"This [current Gmail capability] is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video [and voice] chat capabilities. It's a great opportunity for us to push that space along."

~Rishi Chandra, a Google Apps product manager.

{via SFGate}

5 New Chrome Extensions Worth Trying – Twitter, Google Tasks, YouTube enhancer & more

2009-11-07T08:33:00.000Z

It’s been a while since my last pick of the best Chrome extensions and to celebrate Chromium finally supporting extension “tool tips” here are 5 new “toolbar” extensions to enjoy!

Google Tasks

Manage your to-do’s in Chrome

Install Google Task Addon

ChromeBird

Tweet From Chrome

This is comparable to TwitterFox for Firefox. It allows you to tweet from Chrome.

Install ChromeBird

YouTube Fixer

Remove excess space, ads and annoyances from YouTube

Go from this: -

To this: -

Install Usable YouTube Fix

Google Reader Checker

Displays Unread RSS items in toolstrip

Install GReader

GMail Notifier

A new and improved GMail extension for alerting you to unread mails.

Install Improved GMail Checker

Automatically Change Your Xsplash Background To Your Desktop Wallpaper

2009-11-06T17:43:00.001Z

Change your XSplash background from to that of your wallpaper automatically.

Download

@ Gnome-look.org

Installation/How to use

Extract the archive you have just downloaded.
Move ‘wallpaper_daemon.py’ somewhere safe where it won’t get deleted
Make it executable via the terminal using ‘chmod +x wallpaper_daemon.py’
Run ./wallpaper_daemon.py --install to set necessary permissions etc.
Add the ‘wallpaper_daemon.py’ to startup applications via System > Preferences > Startup Applications

Now whenever you login and change your wallpaper the daemon will automatically adjuct the xsplash background to the same image.

Why not combine this with an awesome new “loading animation”?

NewWave Firefox Themes

2009-11-06T17:06:00.000Z

I've blogged previously about the Dust Firefox theme that seamlessly marries Firefox with the Dust GTK theme.

Now it's the turn of NewWave!

Version One - NewWave Firefox Theme
There is an official NewWave Firefox theme available that matches the widget set of NewWave. It's very sleek and a great choice if you're looking for something less "flashy".

Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11239

Version Two - DarkLight Persona
If you use Persona's for Firefox then using the DarkLight theme will match the NewWave theme exceptionally well. I much prefer this 'look' as it resembles the new Firefox for Linux UI designs in many places.

Download Personas: http://www.getpersonas.com/
DarkLight Persona: http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/2167

Note: I am also using the meerket extension. This frees up wasted space and moves the main menu bar to the right-hand side.

Experimental OpenShot PPA Launched, No Longer Removes Video Playback

2009-11-06T15:59:00.000Z

OpenShot – a much loved Video Editor here on OMG!UBUNTU! - today launched a new experimental PPA for people wanting to sit on the bleeding edge of it's development.

FFMpeg Off!
The current PPA proved to be nothing more than a disaster for users who installed OpenShot from it. OpenShot was packaged with it's own codec libraries which replaced users traditional ones. The result was no video playback and required a jolly jaunt around some terminal commands to get it back working. It seemed users were stcuk with either OpenShot or keeping video playback.

Resolved!
The new 'openshot-edge' PPA solves this issue so users can install it (and heck uninstall it!) without creating issues or problems on their systems.

OpenShot-Edge

Each time an update is committed to bzr, this PPA is updated. This isn't the most stable version of OpenShot... just the newest most bleeding edge version.

~ Jonathan Thomas, OpenShot Developer

This PPA is Karmic only and will not be totally stable. If it's new features sooner you're after then this is the PPA to use!

Install
You can add the PPA via software sources using: ppa:jonoomph/openshot-edge
or via the terminal using: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonoomph/openshot-edge

Is Karmic Koala Ubuntu's Vista?

2009-11-05T16:26:00.010Z

To answer the title: no it's not, but since the release of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala only one week ago the blog-o-sphere, forums and opinion-pieces on various sites have been ringing loud with hate, disappointment and even death-baited breath for this latest release.

Has Karmic really been that bad?

Looking at reports on tech sites you'd think so: -

Hey Ubuntu, Stop Making Linux Look So bad - Linux-mag.com
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala - theregister.co.uk
Karmic Koala displays bad karma - TG Daily
Bad karma for Linux koalas - blogs.telegraph.co.uk

And on the UbuntuForums things look even bleaker with thread after thread running into page after page of people decrying Karmic: -

Karmic = Ubuntu's Vista [thread that inspired this post!]
Anybody happy with karmic?
Shouldn't upgrade to Karmic
Stay away from 9.10!!!
Dissapointed [with karmic]
Worst Upgrade Ever

Of course, those for whom things have been less than pleasant will be far more vocal than those who have experienced very few, if any, issues.

The Issues
So what is all the fuss about? The main issues people seem to be having with Karmic are as follows: -

Graphics Issues - Mainly, it seems, with those using ATi Drivers
Flickering Screens
Dead displays
X not starting
Encryption not working
Upgrading from Jaunty causes issues/errors/fails

Many of these issues are likely hardware specific - Ubuntu has no control over 3rd party drivers other than trying to ensure they work fine and if they don't tweak the system around them to make sure they do.

It is fair, however, to say that Karmic does come with a few more bugs than usual. This is part-and-parcel of the new technologies present in Karmic that are new and largely untested in a "mainstream" environment.

Karmic itself came with more than 40 known bugs. These include: -

No USB devices work on MSI Wind netbooks, plus flickering graphics
Hibernation unavailable with automatic partitioning
System won’t boot with converted ext4 file system
X server crashes when using a Wacom tablet

If people are using a normal point release and not expecting bugs or regression in places then they should really stick to the LTS releases - that's what they're there for. You can't use the latest applications and updates without expecting some bugs here and there.

It's also pretty rush judgment to criticize a release one week after release for having bugs. Bugs have to be found before they can be fixed!

So Just How Many Users Are Having Issues?
In an oft-quoted poll on the UbuntuForums almost 35% of people have experienced serious problems when installing/upgrading to Karmic that they've yet to solve. 33% experienced issues that they were able to fix and 32% had a flawless time!

This poll is very evenly spread between flawless and grumblesville but 35% of people using Karmic who can't fix their issues/broken systems is a shocking figure.

Or is it?

No different to Jaunty, better than Intrepid
In the same poll conducted back when Jaunty was released the percentage of people who had irreparable issues? Almost 33%.

The number of people who's install was flawless? 30%.

Those in the middle? Nigh-on 37%.

If we go further back and look at Intrepid then by comparison Karmic looks like a stunning success!

Flawless: 21%
Some issues: 35%
Awful: 44%

So what can we conclude from all this?

Expectations = Fail
Ubuntu is, without a doubt, the biggest and most popular version of Linux around. It has a passionate, popular and vocal community.

To a lot of Ubuntu users each successive release of Ubuntu is supposed to be the latest, greatest and nicest to use. They expect new applications, new features and an even more stable environment. That just isn't the reality of Ubuntu releases - this isn't Windows where you get one big update every few years, these are incremental 6 month updates. They can't bring revolution every time and that aggrieves a lot of casual users expectations and this disappointment ensues and tiny trivial issues get blown up into giant unsolvable glitches.

Karmic Koala was never proclaimed to be a revolution of a release, yet it was clear from the outset that a heap of new technologies was going into it. The math just wasn't done by some.

Credit where credits due
With all of that said, Karmic Koala is a milestone in my eyes. It has been nothing but stable, easy to use and - perhaps most importantly - it is a joy to use it.

There has also been a considerable amount of positive coverage of Karmic Koala:-

5 Reasons why Ubuntu 9.10 is better than Windows 7 - ComputerWorld
Ubuntu 9.10 Testdrive - 8/10 - TheInquirer
Karmic Review 4/5 - DesktopLinuxReview

For those whom it hasn't been as plain sailing just remember to report your bug, go to the UbuntuForums and get some help and don't consider your issues irreparable out of frustration - these things happen!

Edit:

Before commenting please read the entire article so you don't jump to conclusions or false assumptions about my position on this.

I am reporting on the dissatisfaction that is starting to become a loud chorus and attracting mainstream media attention.

Humanity Style Icons: CheckGMail

2009-11-05T00:14:00.001Z

Continuing our series on Humanity Style icons for Karmic Applications we come to GMail notifier applet CheckGMail.

Download

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Humanity+for+Checkgmail?content=114881

Install

Right click on CheckGMail’s panel icon
Select Preferences
Check the custom icon boxes under' ‘System Tray’

Select the correct icon for each from your downloaded icons by clicking on the right-hand squares.
Click ok
Restart CheckGMail and you’ll see your new icons!

KDE 4.3.3 Released – Boasts Nothing Major

2009-11-05T00:03:00.001Z

This months update to KDE sees a ton of bug fixes and some more translation work.

Among the improvements in KDE 4.3.3 are: -

Improved KWin effects
JuK has been made more stable
Konqueror ‘detached tab’ bug fixes
KDE PIM see’s a range of fixes and tweaks

For a full list of changes see here [link].

Ubuntu XSplash Animation - "Human Swarm"

2009-11-04T19:28:00.003Z

Further to my post on 'How to use Xubuntu's XSplash animation in Ubuntu' one enterprising reader, going by the moniker of pezmanlou, turned the cool blue hues of the Xubuntu animation into an ace Ubuntu coloured variant! Excellent work!

You can grab it @ http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=114875

Whilst we're talking XSplash, if you swapped your animation out yesterday and have since updated you'll have to change it again as today a XSplash update was released that replaced both the wallpaper and the animation.

Some More Gnome Panel Clock Applet Styles

2009-11-04T18:09:00.004Z

I've posted some styles for the Gnome panel Clock Applet before and some of you responded with your own in the comments to these posts. Some were really darn good so i've made a compilation of the best!

There is a short re-cap at the bottom on how to install these themes, and if you have any more great ones to share please do and I'll update the post!

'Humanity Style' tweak by dreamersbrow

Code: http://pastebin.com/f46b53bb3

Just Time tweak

Code: http://pastebin.com/f3bd4c25e

Time Style

Code: http://pastebin.com/f5807342b

Seif Sallam's "OS X" Style

Code: http://pastebin.com/f54d36a7c

How To Apply Recap

To use one of these styles click on the pastebin link to get the code. Copy it and then do the following: -

Press ALt+F2
Type: gconf-editor
Hit return
Navigate to "Apps > Panel > Applets > Clock_Screen* > Prefs"
(* this may be under a different name, just look for the applet that has the correct 'prefs' folder)

Double-click on the 'Format' value. Change it to 'custom'.
Double click on the 'Custom Format' field and paste in your style.
Hit return and enjoy!

How To Use Custom Backgrounds In Grub2

2009-11-04T17:29:00.006Z

Grub2 - the default boot-loader for new installations of Ubuntu 9.10 - has some nifty new features - including support for background images and custom font colours.

Whilst the previous version of GRUB could also support background images - it involved a hassle, some nifty navigation of folders and and editing some boot files. GRUB2 however supports this out of the box!

Install GRUB Background Package

A set of GRUB backgrounds is included in the Ubuntu repositories. Just install them via synaptic or install via the Terminal using: -

sudo apt-get install grub2-splashimages

The default choices aren't exactly much laud over, but are a nice enough selection. You'll find them in /usr/share/images/grub.

Choose An Image

If you want to use a background image be sure to FIRST make a backup of the files you're editing.

To choose one of the images from the grub2-splashimages packages you need to specify the file name in the grub boot appearance file: -

gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

Find the following line: -

for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/grub}/moreblue-orbit-grub.{png,tga} ; do

Change: -

moreblue-orbit-grub

to the file name of an image in the /usr/share/images/grub folder.

Save and close.

You then MUST update GRUB2 by running: -

sudo update-grub2

Example

Change moreblue-orbit-grub to Plasma-lamp.

for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/grub}/Plasma-lamp.{png,tga} ; do

Use your own image

To use an image of your choice you need to resize it to 640x480 and save it as a .tga file. You then need to make sure you place it in the grub images folder above.

Thanks to webupd8

Gnome 3.0 To Be Delayed Until September 2010?

2009-11-04T16:27:00.006Z

Gnome 3.0, which is due to bring the love/hate Gnome-Shell to users desktops, was originally slated in for a March 2010 release. This may now be pushed back to September 2010 due to the "beta quality" of Gnome-Shell; there is just too much work to be done on it and just not enough time.

As such it seems the March 2010 release of Gnome 2.30 (which was to be renaged and replaced by Gnome 3.0) will be just that - Gnome 2.30.

"Beta quality..."

Red Hat's Owen Taylor posted a message on the Gnome Shell mailing list describing Gnome-Shell as 'usable' in it's currentl state but goes on to liken it to "beta quality" software. Time, it seems, is not on their side.

We'd have to either lock it down and freeze it without finishing everything, or we'd be changing stuff up to the last minute. ... It makes more sense to take our time anddo a really good job.

~ Owen Taylor to the Gnome-Shell mailing list.

He highlights two key areas that need big improvement before he feels a quality release should be made. These are: -

Messaging - how GNOME Shell interacts with nofitications and messaging.

App Browsing - The current way of finding applications is just a "regurita[ting] the gnome menu's in a slightly different form."

He also notes another area of the Shell that needs a re-think: Document Browsing:-

There's no big picture story about how you access and find your documents in GNOME 3. The default here is to just say that GNOME Shell replaces "Recent Documents" in the panel, and the rest stays the same. But all the interest in Tracker, Zeitgeist, etc, shows that people aren't that satisfied with the current ways this work.

User Testing

Worryingly still he goes on to note that no formal user testing has been done on GNOME Shell!

We have not (in general) set down users in front of GNOME Shell and watch how they succeed and fail with it and how they like it.

That just borders on insane! If GNOME Shell is to succeed, be useful and user-friendly (GNOME ethos here, no?) then not getting feedback along the way is a crazy idea, and judging by the feedback so far on forums, comments and the like there isn't a wide pool of love as is for GNOME Shell! Devs blindly trotting down a path they think users will like just isn't good enough. All the "user interface guidelines" in the world won't tell you if something works in the real world or not.

I am a GNOME boy at heart, but even i fear for GNOME Shell. I do hope that it is delayed and September 2010 becomes the release date.

Excited for GNOME-Shell? Think it's great enough already? Hate it? Share your thoughts below!

Don't forget you can easily install a developer preview of Gnome-Shell in Karmic Koala via Synaptic.

Quirky Wallpaper Series: KDE Edition

2009-11-03T17:05:00.004Z

Want a rotational, zoom-able globe on your desktop? How about a flying animated star field?!

Welcome to QUirky WaLlpapers KDE Edition.

Star-Field
"plasma-wallpaper-starfield" is a desktop background for KDEthat places an animated starfield over your wallpaper.

Although it can be quite CPU intensive and buggy, it's worth trying out just for the "huh!" factor. Coupling it with a space-esque wallpaper makes for a super cool effect, too.

(Imagine this animated.)

Installation

You can install the plasma star-field (and a bunch of other updated packages from "untrusted" PPA's) using this PPA [link].

Simple add the PPA, update and then install the 'plasma-wallpaper-starfield' package using ( the god awful) KPackageKit or via Konsole.

Globe

Setting your desktop to a move-able, usable globe (complete with a variety of themes) is very simple.

Install

Open up KpacakgeKit or Konsol and install the kdeplasma-addons package.

Once installed right-click on the desktop and select 'Desktop Settings'. Under the wallpaper menu chooce 'globe' and then proceed to choose one of the available themes.

Click 'Apply' and then zoom, twist etc until you get the desktop you want!

Get Xubuntu's Boot Splash Animation In Ubuntu Karmic!

2009-11-03T12:21:00.007Z

Xubuntu Karmic has a really nice XSplash animation effect during it's boot up. It resembles, to me at least, a bunch of swarming fireflies.

You can see it for yourself in this dodgy handheld video of Xubuntu's boot: -

It's a snap to get this effect in regular Ubuntu Karmic's start-up screen. So if you're bored with the "cylon zipper" during boot up why not replace it with this? You don’t need to install anything, just move a few files into a folder!

How To “Install” Xubuntu's Xsplash
Download the Xubuntu "Throbbers" (as they're called). I've packaged what you need into one file available from my dropbox [Link 2.9MB].

Hit ALT+F2 & type: -

gksu nautilus /usr/share/images/xsplash

Create a new folder within /images/xsplash and move all of the original images named 'throbber' into it.

Now move all of the images named 'throbber' from the xubuntu folder you downloaded into the /usr/share/images/xsplash folder.

Reboot and enjoy!

This "throbber" is the work os an incredible designer who has an incredible eye for design. Most of the interwebs know him as MadsRH and his artwork proposals for Ubuntu are always pretty much universally loved (but never used =( ) so I'm glad other distro's/offshoots are starting to pick up on his talent.

Update

Reader rinoshea uploaded a video to YouTube with the results of this tutorial in action! Nice stuff!

Kubuntu “Project Timelord” Announced

2009-11-03T11:00:00.001Z

The Kubuntu development team have today announced ‘Project Timelord’ – a set of clear aims, goals and changes they hope will have a regenerative effect on the popularity of the distribution.

It has come to the attention of several Kubuntu developers that Kubuntu is not currently reaching its full potential.

The full set of proposals making up the project concern the following key areas: -

Translations
Marketing
Software
User-Developer Interaction
Recruitment

Translations

The formal announcement on Kubuntu.org sums this one up very succinctly: -

Following the improvements of Kubuntu 9.10, translation and localization issues will be dealt with once and for all, to provide quality localization for both KDE and Kubuntu software.

Marketing

As it stands The Kubuntu team feel that: -

Kubuntu basically has no marketing; or at least none compared to Ubuntu or even any
other major distribution. Our current branding policy is unclear, and when we do give out
information every release it is in a non-human-readable (geek) lump of technical
information that the average user could care less about. Currently, LoCos are the only
venue of promotional work we have.

And as a (mainly) Gnome user i have to agree. There is is no “vision” or slogan with KDE; at times Kubuntu can almost be forgotten from the Ubuntu equation due, in large part, to the lack of visibility of Kubuntu and Kubuntu dev’s on places like the UbuntuForums. Couple that with the virtual lack of mention or promotion – be it on blogs, forums or other places - and Joe User might not even know Kubuntu exists, and if he does he probably won’t know what the hell it is.

I also feel, at times, as if Kubuntu doesn't want to pay it’s respects as an official Ubuntu offshoot; there seems to be very little in common between Ubuntu and Kubuntu apart from the *buntu, the logo and some familiar packages. I’d like to see Kubuntu pick up on the code names – perhaps using them in default artwork etc.

Perhaps Kubuntu could even come with an Ubuntu coloured theme! (Don’t hate me!)

The Kubuntu Dev’s will be approaching the issue of marketing and vision by creating “concrete strategies”.

Software

Bug Reports

Everyone’s favourite past time is submitting bugs and Kubuntu will be ringing in some changes as to how KDE specific bugs are handled relating to Kubuntu. Or something.

To increase the efficiency of our bug trackers, only serious upstream bugs will be tracked at Launchpad. This way developers will be able to efficiently track distribution-specific issues without being lost in a sea of upstream bugs.

Better Quality Packaging

KDE users may hate me for saying this but it needs to be said: The quality of packages in Kubuntu is, at times, laughable awful.

It’s almost like taking a lucky dip – will this package overwrite another one? Will this package even work? Will it have all of it’s supposed functionality or has it been uploaded missing some? Etc.

The Kubuntu team have noted this (thank gods!) and aim to improve the quality: -

To solve the problem of all-to-common overwrite errors, a concerted effort must be
made to have multiple people (rather than one or two people) test upgrades of KDE
packages, even if it means delaying the release of the packages for a bit. Scripting an
automated upgrade tester should be looked in to as a way to test for such errors with
more efficiency.

Kubuntu Integration

Over the next few releases a push to improve the integration of Kubuntu-specific tools with KDE and the surrounding system will be made.

Says the official announcement.

What this means for the end user is big, big, good, good changes.

Ditching the “hastily ported” applications from KDE3 when switching to KDE4
Replacing said applications with proper, useable alternatives.
Get rid of duplicate-functionality packages/apps
Bye-bye GDebi-KDE as Package-Kit should bit fitted with its features
Any app not replaced will be tweaked to conform to the KDE Interface Guidelines.

User-Developer Interaction

The Kubuntu team will branch out and join the land of the non-iRC non-mailing lists!

Coming in 10.04 LTS

A large chunk of Timelord will land in Kubuntu 10.04 LTS. The more dramatic changes will be targeted at Kubuntu 10.10.

Quick Hack To Get iPods Working With Banshee In Karmic

2009-11-02T18:17:00.008Z

One annoyance in Karmic is the fact some iPod's won't work in Banshee "out of the box". This is due to Ubuntu moving from HAL to devicekit for managing and notifying the system when hardware is add or removed. Sucky, but necessary.

There are a few options users can take for managing their iPods: -

iPods still work fine in Rhythmbox.
You can use a dedicated iPod management application such as YAMiPOD, Floola or GTKpod.

Or you can use the following "hack" to get iPods working with Banshee.

1. Issue the following in a terminal: -

killall -9 nautilus

2. Plug iPod in

3. Restart nautilus using ALT+F2 and issuing: -

nautilus

4. Start Banshee.

It may take a minute or so but your iPod will mount and show in Banshee. Everyone's happy!

Thanks to tmtan on the UbuntuForums!

Skype For Linux To Be Open-Sourced [updated]

2009-11-02T16:29:00.004Z

Skype is going to be open-sourced!

I won’t dwell too long on this as you can check the full post on Slashdot via Olivier Faurax’s blog post.

Whilst asking about a Skype package for some alien sounding distro called “Mandriva” (must be a fork of the Hanna Montana distro or something*) he was told that the Skype client was due to become part of the open-source community.

Not quite believing what he’d read he asked for clarification on this and received: -

Yes, indeed, the Linux Skype version will become open source in the nearest future.

from “Joerg” @ Skype Customer Support.

Great news!

If this is true then it’s great news and the first sign of proper progress for Skype on Linux since before eBay bought it. (They’ve since sold it, hence the progress!)

Now this will only apply to the client side of things and not the underlying protocol, but it will give developers the chance to enhance, beautify and hell even give us a native GTK version!

* I’m joking about not knowing of Mandriva. I’m fully aware it’s great legacy as Madrake and it’s popular modern form as Mandriva. I’m just having a friendly rival-distro dig.

Update
Skype have issued an official statement: -

Just a quick update, since we seem to have hit slashdot with this news. Yes, there's an open source version of Linux client being developed. This will be a part of larger offering, but we can't tell you much more about that right now. Having an open source UI will help us get adopted in the "multicultural" land of Linux distributions, as well as on other platforms and will speed up further development. We will update you once more details are available.

Get Dramatically Faster Boot Times In Karmic With Ubuntu-Boot PPA

2009-10-31T15:26:00.001Z

Karmic has made good progress on the road to the much-vaunted “10 second boot” aim in mind for 10.04.

But you can get it even faster if you’re prepared to take the risk!

Reader ‘Ellipsis’ pointed me in the direction the official Ubuntu-Boot PPA, which contains: -

Packages containing instrumentation to aid in boot performance work, and packages proposed to improve performance.

Do be aware that installing these packages isn’t advised unless you’re okay with dealing with any potential “issues” afterwards. Whilst issues aren’t likely, just don’t install blindly.

Install

Open a terminal and type: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-boot/ppa

Or add it to your software sources using: -

ppa:ubuntu-boot/ppa

Now run

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and you’ll be prompted to install the necessary updates to your system.

Note

It will take around 2 reboots before you see any real improvement. This is because the updated packages need to create a “pack file” to read from when booting.

Faster? Better? Stronger? Er…?

Ellipsis – who recommended this tip to me – found his boot time improve from 1.04 minutes to 45 seconds. That’s a respectable near 20 seconds shaved off!

I’ve not noticed my boot-times take as long as 1.04 minutes, but I'll be trying this out and seeing anyway.

If you install it let us know your boot times via the comments and I'll be sure to update the chart to show even more gains!

UbuntuTweak 0.4.9.2 Released – Adds Even more Themes & PPA’s

2009-10-30T13:59:00.003Z

The UbuntuTweak team have released a new version of the oh-so-popular all-round desktop tweaking application to celebrate the launch of Karmic Koala.

It brings new PPA’s & Updated sources – some only available for Karmic Koala. It also see’s the removal of some depreciated PPA’s and features.

New PPA’s

Gartoon Redux icon theme
Gnome Music Player Client
Mingming’s PPA (Flash plugin [inc. 64bit!], + lots of libs)
Rico Tzschichholz’s PPA (Gnome-Shell, Docky, Inkscape)

Updated Third-Party Sources

osd-lyrics
Dropbox
Amarok
Blueman
Christine
Smplayer
PlayOnLinux
XMBC
Vlc
Clutter
Gloobus
Bisigi

Sources Removed

Ubuntu-CN
Transmission daily
Bug fixed
Personal>Folder menu error on opening (LP: #461666)

A new “Theme” sub menu has been introduced so you can install even more themes: -

Download

If you already have UbuntuTweak and have enabled the Ubuntu Tweak PPA then you’ll find this new version waiting in Update Manager.

Or you can download a .deb for double-click installation @ https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.4.x/0.4.9.2

Firefox 4.0 Interface For Linux Mocked-up (& Peek at Firefox 3.7, too!)

2009-10-29T20:44:00.001Z

Firefox 4.0 is not due to be released for well over another yeah but mock-ups of the premier open-source browser’s proposed visual refresh as it will look on Linux have been mocked-up and shown off today.

Version 4 will see a raft of major new features and improvements – not least of which is the refined interface above. This will see the addition of : -

Tabs-on-top: Default tabs to top of UI.
Hiding the Menu Bar: Hide the menu bar and add Page and Tools buttons.

Another major addition will be Browser Sync via Mozilla Weave, allowing for cloud syncing of bookmarks, passwords and favourites.

Is it enough?

The majority of the forthcoming improvements are a reaction to Google Chrome. The speed, features and slick interface it offers really puts the “established” browsers in the shade – and Firefox is stepping up it’s game. But is it too little, too late?

Google Chrome will offer browser syncing in just a few months time (it’s already in testing, add --enable-browser-sync as a flag to use it.) Weave will rear it’s head in Firefox well over a year away. It already has the interface, it’s extension framework has potential to be far greater than Firefox’s (add-ons can be installed, disabled and removed without needing to “restart” the browser) and browsing just keeps getting faster.

In The Mean Time…

The next “minor” release of Firefox which will bear a visual change will be that of 3.7 which has also received some Linux mock-up treatment.

It includes the following “improvements” : -

Consistent Back/Forward Buttons: Use the same back/forward shape as on the other platforms. The back button would use the same texture as the other buttons however it would be round and larger.
Buttons vs Icons: Switching to a button+glyph style for the toolbar items. This would be instead of the more representational style that is widely used. It also is a deviation from the common system standard of having icons and then a button shape on hover.
Curvier Tab Shape: Match the tabs to the proposed tabs on Windows and Mac while keeping the native texture and colour.
Removing Toolbar Separators: Reduces visual complexity as well as maintaining external consistency.

OMG! UBUNTU!

Humanity Style Icons for Parcellite

Parcel lite

Watch YouTube Video's Without Flash In Your Browser!

Extension

Get Windows Aero Style in GNOME [And I'm not talking Window Borders...]

Humanity Style: Panel Weather Icons

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Video Conferencing Coming To GMail Chat

Linux Users

5 New Chrome Extensions Worth Trying – Twitter, Google Tasks, YouTube enhancer & more

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ChromeBird

YouTube Fixer

Google Reader Checker

GMail Notifier

Automatically Change Your Xsplash Background To Your Desktop Wallpaper

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Installation/How to use

NewWave Firefox Themes

Experimental OpenShot PPA Launched, No Longer Removes Video Playback

Is Karmic Koala Ubuntu's Vista?

Humanity Style Icons: CheckGMail

Download

Install

KDE 4.3.3 Released – Boasts Nothing Major

Ubuntu XSplash Animation - "Human Swarm"

Some More Gnome Panel Clock Applet Styles

How To Use Custom Backgrounds In Grub2

Gnome 3.0 To Be Delayed Until September 2010?

"Beta quality..."

Quirky Wallpaper Series: KDE Edition

Get Xubuntu's Boot Splash Animation In Ubuntu Karmic!

Update

Kubuntu “Project Timelord” Announced

Translations

Marketing

Software

Coming in 10.04 LTS

See Also…

Quick Hack To Get iPods Working With Banshee In Karmic

Skype For Linux To Be Open-Sourced [updated]

Great news!

Get Dramatically Faster Boot Times In Karmic With Ubuntu-Boot PPA

Install

Note

Faster? Better? Stronger? Er…?

UbuntuTweak 0.4.9.2 Released – Adds Even more Themes & PPA’s

Download

Firefox 4.0 Interface For Linux Mocked-up (& Peek at Firefox 3.7, too!)

Is it enough?

In The Mean Time…