Mandriva Linux 2011 RC1 Disk Images are Available to Download!

Mandriva is a German based GNU/Linux distribution that from the beginning was drifted towards the Qt written awesome KDE desktop rather than Gnome. Although the first versions used to come with an installer GUI written GTK but I actually haven't  tried it in a while so it could be changed by now.

But the thing is, even at that time where I used RedHat as my primary OS and those were the days where I was a bit new GNU/Linux (still learning) and I was pleased to find out that Mandriva actually came with all the proprietary codecs I ever think of! :D. So I'd just install the OS and all the audio/videos were playable as soon as I log-into the desktop!. Man, I can't describe the relief that I felt after all the frustrations that RedHat made me feel ;-).

This is actually something that you can see from the beginning with their operating system + KDE in general. Interestingly a lot of Europe based GNU/Linux distributions actually have this characteristics of being a bit light minded on "rules" or GNU philosophy. But this is certainly not to say that they don't have a philosophy or belief systems.

I guess what they believe is slightly different from the American or the others ... you know they suffered through a lot through wars and stuff :/, well we all have (trust me our county has seen more than enough) suffered but Europe in general was kind of an epicenter for all this in the past thus they have a tendency not to fall into a system that comes with a lot of rules, etc I guess.

Anyhow, as I was saying... Mandriva has evolved a lot now and they've always been known for being an GNU/Linux operating system that is very easy to set-up and use (comes with an excellent 'control-center' of their own, etc) and if you're just beginning to learn GNU/Linux then I highly suggest Mandriva. They have certain versions which falls mainly into few main categories.

The commercial version (which includes customer support, etc) and the free version that comes with both free and proprietary software and then the other version that only comes with the absolutely free software thus it is the true GNU version of their OS.

The all new KDE desktop ... Pic via: Softpedia.

Few hours ago they released the Mandriva 2011 RC1 (release candidate) which took them sometime to come up with and according to their post page this will be the last beta version before the official 2011 release thus it brings a lot of major changes (GUI, application, etc). It's available through their Mirrors if you're interested and brings the following updated packages such as...

*. A whole new Log-in manager, New themes! :D other totally new - Wallpapers, splash screens, icons, boot screens, etc.

*. Firefox 5 comes by default.

*. X.Org server version 1.10.2.

*. Pidgin 2.9.0

*. KDE pim 4.6.0.

*. iptables firewall version 1.4.11.1

*. The famous Mandriva Control center is refreshed (Qt written) and come with new features.

*. VLC 1.1.10 (oh ya... they have the most excellent multimedia support).

*. The latest version of the GRUB boot-loader.

*. Google Chrome version 12 and 13.

*. Opera browser 11.5.0

*. LibreOffice.

*. GCC 4.6.1

*. ffmpeg (one of the best multimedia handling libraries) 0.7.1

*. Wine 1.3.23 (a MS Windows OS emulator for GNU/Linux so you could make the poor Tux drunk and run those apps :P).

*. Linux kernel 2.6.38.7 and KDE SC 4.6.4.

*. Thunderbird 3.1.11 (makes sense since the version 5 is still at best stage).

These are just a very few of the all new features of Mandriva 2011 RC1. Remember, as said this OS is fast but when considering the latest versions applications and their needs, etc... you might need to have a PC/Laptop with 1GB of RAM or more to run it quite smoothly.

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How to Install Virtualbox 4.0.10 in Ubuntu 11.04/10.10?

Oracle, the developer behind the highly stable (and popular) cross-platform virtualizer called Virtualbox has released a new version few days ago which makes it now the 4.0.10 version. As any other durable virtualization utility, using this powerful app, as long as you have the Memory (RAM), CPU power and the HDD space... sky is the limit ;-).

Anyhow, as always this maintenance release brings few new improvements rather than features such as ...

*. Few disappearing widgets GUI fixed in KDE.

*. Fixed a Kernel related bug which wouldn't let restoring VM.

*. ACPI related enhancements.

*. Screen corruption related bug fix.

*. Few Memory leaks fixed while using in GNU/Linux.

*. Solaris Guest OS installation related bug fix... these are the main ones but you can read the full details from this change-log page.

When it comes to installing virtualbox 4.0.10 in Ubuntu 11.04/10.10, etc there are few methods that you can follow. But the easiest method is to download the pre-compiled (.deb files) binaries from the Virtualbox download page which include binaries for a lot of other GNU/Linux distributions.

Just download the below packages according to your Ubuntu version (if you use older Ubuntu version then follow the above link to get it) and once the downloading is complete, just double click on the file which should start the Ubuntu Software Center and follow the on screen instructions. Good luck.

for Ubuntu 11.04 32bit or 64bit

for Ubuntu 10.10 32bit or 64bit

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Wanna an Oxygen KDE Theme for Your Firefox Web Browser?

The Qt written (the GUI actually) gorgeous looking KDE desktop went through a lot of changes with the introduction of the version 4 some time ago. In the past KDE came with daunting amounts of options and a huge right-click menu ;-), etc but with the KDE4... I personally think the developers have done an extremely good job by reducing some features thus the desktop in general looks much more polished and simple as well.

Anyhow, as mentioned above the Oxygen theme is the default theme that the KDE4 uses which does resemble a lot of similar look-n-feel concerning the Mac OSX (it kinda slipped out :P) and the colors certainly are easy on the eyes too. It's a complete theme suite which comes with an icons, wallpapers and the GUI buttons and the "tinting".

But as any obsessive theme geek knows ;-) even after having a complete theme installed still if you have a major application that you frequently use which does not inherit the look-n-feel of the main desktop theme... well it can easily jeopardize everything.

Now the web browser is such an application nowadays thus if you use KDE 4+ as your main desktop and use the Firefox 3-5 as the web browser, then you might be wondering if you could find a way to "Oxygen-lize" its skin :D.

Well no worries dudes... there is in fact an Oxygen KDE theme for Firefox web browser that does exactly that!. Few hours ago they've released the latest version 3.2 which now supports the Firefox 5, finally. Anyhow the 3.x version comes with few improvements in general such as ...

Don't you just love it ;-)...

*. Automatic color scheme detection under KDE (say that you've changed the default colors of the Oxygen theme, then the browser add-on/theme will change automatically).

*. 4 Additional styles for buttons.

*. Classic Oxygen + the shadowed version.

*. 3 Styles for the background.

*. Hide/unhide arrows.

*. Also supports the now old Firefox 4.

*. Comes with a Linux/KDE configuration window of its own which lets you change a lot more other options. 

*. 2 Different icon themes... are just a few to mention.

As you can see from the above screenshot, once installed this theme, it'll make the Firefox web browser "theme integration" with the Qt-KDE Oxygen desktop almost perfect. If interested (heck yea you are :D) you can get the stable version from this KDE-app page. Enjoy.

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Ubuntu One Files - The Official Android App for Ubuntu Cloud!

Some actually kinda like the idea of cloud computing but every time I heard about it... it makes me feel a bit scared :/. I really don't like the idea of storing my personal files in someone else's server. It doesn't matter anymore whether the cloud computing or the storage, etc strategies are risky ... many people have accepted that thus the rest is give a very little chance resist or to go with the flow which is a bit sad.

But, if you happened to be quite fond of the idea of computer Cloud and use both Android OS and Ubuntu ... then you'll be glad to hear that Canonical has just released their first ever Ubuntu one App for Android OS called "Ubuntu One Files!". 


Main features...

*. It's completely free to begin with :D.

*. Now you can send any file in your Android device to the Ubuntu One account with ease.

*. Upload/download/delete or rename files within the Ubuntu One cloud.

*. Create folders from the app. 

*. Share the URL of your chosen files.

*. You can set-up this application to automatically send the pictures once taken directly from the Android phone to the Ubuntu One account!.

*. Easy sharing you files with Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Picasa, and in your blog if you have one.

*. You need to have Android 2.1 or higher (Honeycomb is supported :D). 

We really have to appreciate the attempts by Ubuntu concerning the future. Because unlike many other Linux distributions (well as said... they have their reasons which I find to be quite reasonable) Ubuntu is doing their best to integrate their Operating system with the "future".

Although the original idea which came from the hackers of the "GNU/Linux" philosophy will eventually be "lost" from Ubuntu since the person that's leading them is not actually a hacker. Anyhow, other than few (including me), the majority does not care about the "philosophy" because a computer is merely a computer for them rather than an identity.

Anyway, well done Ubuntu. You can get the app from this Android market page. If you're a developer then you can obtain the source code from this Launchpad page but it's not available, yet.

Note: (although I highly doubt it but Mr. Mark, if you happen to read this post, it wasn't a judgment, I do respect you for who you are, your believes included... :)).

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Vagalume - The Last.fm Music Client GUI (GTK+) for GNU/Linux!

For those of you who haven't heard of Last.fm (highly unlikely ;-)), it's one of the biggest online music streaming source in the world. Although not just a free music source but it's actually more than that since they have a database that holds thousands or millions of album-data such as artist, year, album name, etc which is used to "fetch" missing data in your local audio files by many audio players for GNU/Linux such as Clementine, Banshee, etc as well.

Last.fm is actually an intelligent service (kinda :)) because by using information such as the ones that you're currently listening and your friends and their recommendations... it can make "suggestions" to you by trying to figure out what you like as well.

Anyhow, you can either use their web site to listen to all the radios, music (not everything is free though) etc which is not that cool because you always have to open the web browser and enter the proper URL, etc... in that case you can use graphical frontends such as Vagalume which is created for that exact purpose!.

Main features...

You have to register at "last.fm" first... (it's free)

*. Clean and easy to use GUI written in GTK+ toolkit thus integrates well with Gnome desktop (although you can use it in other desktops nonetheless).

*. Play Last.fm radios or music tracks.

*. Add/edit radio channels.

*. Download and save tracks to HDD.

*. Create playlists, bookmark, run in the system tray (can be disabled) and will give you notifications of the currently playing song (like many other audio plyers) are the main ones to mention.

You can install the excellent Vagalume (0.8.4 current version) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (may work in 10.10 and 10.04) by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install vagalume

Once installed you can launch it from: "Applications" -> "Sound and Video" -> "Vagalume". Yep... that's it. Enjoy the music dudes and dudees ;-).

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How To Install Nvidia 275.09.07 Driver in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot & 12.04?

Installing the proper VGA driver in GNU/Linux is not the most easiest (not user friendly is the best word I guess) thing. This is because, usually you have to get the Kernel-source code and then get the driver from the vendor, change the run-level and finally you'll have to let the driver to build the Kernel modules (loadable "plugins")... which is kind of a long process.

Although I'm not entirely sure about if there's a PPA available for ATI but with Nvidia, thanks to a dedicated X-org PPA which releases a lot of X-org related drivers and utilities (proprietary ones) by default we can do this pretty easily. So unilke with the above mentioned method... you just type few command and the pre-build drivers are installed and you're ready to rock the heck out of that video game :P.

Anyhow, few days ago Nvidia released a never version of display driver series which brings few enhancements (including an interesting one for Gnome 3 users!) such as ...

*. A Gnome 3 related bug which seemed to be doing a little corruption ;-) but finally fixed.

*. Added support for Nvidia GPUs such as GeForce GTX 560, GeForce GT 545, GeForce GTX 560M, etc.

*. KDE4 desktop effect bug fixed.

*. Few issues with audio jack unplugging errors fixed.

*. Performance enhancements in KDE4.

*. New configuration named "BaseMosanic" added which lets you to easily expand a singe display screen in multiple other displays... are just a few to name.

You can install this Nvidia Driver 275.09.07 version in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot & 12.04 Precise Pangolin by entering the below command in your Terminal window. Once done, make sure to do a reboot of your Ubuntu PC/Laptop as well.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

Although this driver is not currently added for Ubuntu 11.04 or below ones... So, I'll update you on them once they update the packages.

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traGtor - ffmpeg Encoder GUI for GNU/Linux (one of the best!)

I maybe wrong on this one but I think the origin of the Qt written KDE desktop actually comes from the German programmers. But the point is for good or worse..., unlike with Gnome, KDE has a philosophy that make sure the desktop and almost all the other applications come with a lot of options/features by default.

This was visible from the birth of KDE. But then again the reason for all those features is actually has nothing to do with the toolkit since it's the ideas and believe systems that define us thus even by a slight change of the "philosophy" any toolkit can be used to make a very powerful, features-rich application nonetheless.

In that sense, if you were looking for an easy to use yet powerful multimedia converter that comes with a GUI (hopefully :P) which is written in GTK+, then look no further, I don't know about you, but I've found it. It's called "traGtor".

Main features...

*. As said, this is actually a front-end that uses the ffmpeg multimedia library (one of the most efficient ones as well). So all the codecs supported by ffmpeg can be converted using traGtor.

I don't know about the manipulative history... but you gotta respect the way of the Germans... they really know their shi* :D

*. Change audio/video codec, bitrate, crop (my favourite and one of the important ones if you care about optimizing the output quality and size), and resize (enter values manually).

*. Edit audio sample rate, edit tags, change channels, 2-pass encoding (for the optimal results).

*. Change the output container (MKV, AVI, etc).

*. Change ratio and De-interlace.

By default it uses the German language... you can change it to English by Clicking on that "6th" tab under "Sparche wahlen" (don't know what that means though :/) choose "en" as shown in the screenshot.

*. If you know a bit about ffmpeg (command line) then you can enter additional encoding settings as well... and these are few of the features to mention.

You can install traGtor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by following the below instructions.

It's not supported by the Ubuntu repositories at the moment but I'm pretty sure they'll be added when considering the amazing capabilities of this utility. So we have to add their repository first.

Open your GNU/Linux Terminal window and enter the below commands.

wget http://repository.mein-neues-blog.de:9000/PublicKey

sudo apt-key add PublicKey

rm PublicKey

echo "deb http://repository.mein-neues-blog.de:9000/ /" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Now we can install it using the "apt-get" command as usual.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tragtor

As said, you have to have the ffmpeg multimedia codecs pack (library actually) to do the actual work. If you haven't already, you can install ffmpeg by using the additional commands, again in your Terminal window.

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Then we can install ffmpeg in Ubuntu 11.04 and the id3v2 (MP3 tag editor) by using the next command.

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

sudo apt-get install id3v2

That's it. Now you've installed TraGtor and all its dependencies thus you can start converting any audio/video under the sun in Ubuntu Linux! :D.

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How To Install Instantbird (IM Client) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Are you addicted to Internet Messaging so much that your mom has to IM you whenever the dinner is ready? (just kidding, so it in a movie :D). Anyhow, if you use GNU/Linux as your primary operating system and use a lot of IM clients such as AIM, MSN, Jabber, etc nonetheless, then other than using application after application for each IM client protocol... shouldn't you be be using an IM clients that supports various protocols by default thus you can have a single command center which makes managing things more easier?.

In that case you might be interested in an IM client that uses the Mozilla XUL runner, GUI written in GTK+ and it's a cross-platform application thus you can run it in GNU/Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX as well.

Main features...

*. Easy to use, cleaner interface.

*. It supports protocols such as - AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, Facebook and Twitter at the moment.

*. Tabbed interface for managing conversions... it'll be like using a web browser in Tabs rather than in different windows which makes the whole IM thing :) much easier.

*. If you don't like the theme (if it doesn't fit well with your current desktop theme for instance) then simply download the one according to your preference from hundreds of free themes.

*. Drag and drop support (especially for managing contacts).

*. Built in Add-on support - With this, again like with a web browser, you can expand its capabilities as simple as downloading and applying the add-ons.

You can install Instantbird in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by entering the below command in your Terminal window (not sure... but it may work on 10.10/10.04 too).

sudo apt-get install instantbird

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The Importance of Running Applications Using Command-Line Interface in GNU/Linux

These days you certainly don't have to rely on the GNU/Linux command-line interface that much even though it's the foundation of the entire operating system. This is because nowadays we have powerful GUI tools written in various toolkits such as GTK+/Qt, etc which makes the life of a someone who's even new to GNU/Linux much more "comfortable" without a doubt.

But quite ironically, many users, beside all those excellent package manager GUIs, etc still prefer to use the command-line when it comes to installing applications because unlike with a GUI where you have to go to the menu and open it then search and click on the "apply" button, etc... with a command-line tool (which is the "engine" these GUIs use anyway) all you gotta do is just copy and paste the command in to your Terminal and hit the "enter" key... the rest will be taken care of :D... especially with Debian based distributions such as Ubuntu for instance.

And the command-line, also known as the "Shell" (which is also known as "Terminal", which is again, another emulation of the original "command line interface" in a GUI environment such as in your Gnome/KDE desktop) is the way how operating systems used to get "orders" from the users since at that time there weren't any graphical user interfaces available thus the shell or the command-line was THE interface it self.

So it is a or "the" most powerful tool, especially in GNU/Linux OS to this day and perhaps always will be as long as the hackers have the authority.  

The "shell emulator" for the Gnome desktop... known as the Gnome Terminal...

Anyway because of its this powerful nature, did you know that you can actually use the command-line also as a way of fixing certain types of application related errors?. Of course not all the errors since some are "caused" by coding errors where there's nothing we as users can do about it but...

This is certainly not something new and is something that anyone like me who's got a decent knowledge of GNU/Linux knows that, concerning software (since the command line is the heart of GNU/Linux and its adaptation is in a much higher scale than I can image...) apart from installing, you can use the command line as a way of fixing certain errors that won't let you run the newly installed programs otherwise!.

For instance (this is just a singe example as I've seen this over and over again) sometime ago in my Ubuntu Laptop (11.04) I installed a software called NTFS-Config. Now I used the "apt-get" command to installed it but after the installation was over I closed the Terminal window and clicked on the icon on the menu to launch it. I waited for few seconds but nothing happened. Then I clicked on the icon again, but still nada, nothing happened.

So I realized the application  have failed to run ("oh Gayan, what an insight that is" :P).

The point is, the application didn't give me any errors or messages of any kind which would help me at lest to understand what was happening. Since I've been using (like many others) command line quite efficiently to getting fixed certain things in apps in the past, I opened the Terminal window and put the command that should launched the "ntfs-config" utility to see what information it can throw at me.

The same thing happened, it failed to launch but, unlike with the above method, this time I was able to see an "output" by the application which was "hidden" while it was running without using the command-line. Below is a portion of the error.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/ntfs-config", line 102, in <module>
    main(args, opts)
  File "/usr/bin/ntfs-config", line 75, in main
    app = NtfsConfig()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/NtfsConfig/NtfsConfig.py", line 56, in __init__
    os.mkdir(HAL_CONFIG_DIR)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/hal/fdi/policy' 

Now as you can see, although the whole "text" would get anyone a bit confused and I certainly have no idea what the heck that is all about, yet one line (in bold text) got my attention.

It basically says that "ntfs-config" cannot find a folder in "/etc/hal/fdi/policy" directory path. So I checked and realised that there isn't any folder by that name in that path!. So all I did was manually created the folders it said, "missing".

That's all I did and the next thing I did was reopened it via the standard menu and clicking on the icon and guess what?, this time it worked!.

So all I'm trying to say to all those who are new and learning GNU/Linux from scratch (I'm an average dude... trust me :D) haven't happened to know this yet... whenever an application fails to start after a successful installation, just run it using your command line.

Remember :- this obviously won't be able to fix all the errors since some are only fixable via accessing the original programming codes... in that case there's nothing anyone can do unless the original developers fix it.

But other small issues like the above mentioned one, etc, whenever something like that happens, try running that app in your Terminal because even if you can't figure it out and fix it, still most of the time, command line will at least be able to give some "feedback" to you which should help to finding a way to fix it. Again not all the time but heck, it might save you few "angry faces" :D. Good luck.

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Canonical Store Launches a Neoprene Laptop Sleeve!

Canonical, unlike any other Linux distribution uses a lot of ways to promote their operating system, Ubuntu. At their store now we have Mugs, Ubuntu T-shirts, Ubuntu Mouse and USB pen drives, etc. Although I'm not sure when they launched this (it has to be done very recently since it says "New Item", still) but now they even have an official Laptop Sleeve available for purchasing!.

This is actually a pretty cool move since Laptops, Tablet PC's and Netbooks are replacing desktop PC's in a rapid speed more than ever. So, if you love the Ubuntu Linux operating system and already have a Laptop + wanna show-off your "love" for Ubuntu to your friends and stuff ;-), then why not give a shot at this all new Neoprene Laptop Sleeve.

It basically comes with three different sizes, "defined" by the screen size such as ...

*. 13/15 and 17 Inch versions (named - small/medium and large, respectably).

*. Comes with a color Grey on the outside and an Orange color inside of the sleeve.

*. The official Ubuntu Logo is displayed in two locations. Two rubber cycles with Ubuntu Logo (as in below screenshot) on the Zippers + the main Logo (also rubber) is displayed to the lower right corner of the Sleeve.

It looks pretty good and the inside looks "soft" and comfortable (well they all are anyway) thus I think not just a Laptop but you can easily use it as a "cover" for your Table PC without having to worry about any scratches on the touch-sensitive LCD screen, once inserted.

All the 3 different sizes come in the same price range which about £ 19.95 ($32 roughly) and you can purchase it from the Canonical online Store page. 

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How to Install Orta Theme Pack in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Natty Narwhal?

Gnome desktop is well known for its simplicity but some (including me) finds it too simple because when it comes to customizing the desktop according to your preference easily... well I've got two words for ya... "good luck", cause you're gonna need it.

Lets forget the other aspects of the desktop... but they don't even give you the ability to change the colours of the themes (title bars, buttons, fonts, etc) for instance because some core developers seems to believe that if you're an "advanced user" or use the computer for a single "major" purpose, other than doing actually nothing productive but playing with it, then you won't be needing those type of "options".

In a way this is true. For instance, I remember a time not that long ago when I was quite obsessed with tweaking themes and stuff. I wanted to make my desktop look absolutely beautiful and perfect thus I spent countless hours for doing so. And other than that... all I did at that time with my GNU/Linux (well I had Widows as well) Laptop was watching videos and listening to music.

Interestingly I had an another friend who primarily used his computer to use a certain application (it was a 3D graphic rendering app I think), it was basically the only program that he used (almost), I went to see him every weekend and even after several months he had the "official" theme that came with the OS and he haven't even changed a single thing!.

So in a way this is not wrong because if you're concentrating and doing something "productive" using your PC then you'll have lesser needs to think about how cool you can make the desktop and windows look, etc.

But the point is that everyone is different so are their needs and implementing something as small as giving the users the ability to change colours... I mean come one Gnome, be reasonable!. I really don't like this approach of Gnome developers of "trying to figure-out everything for the users" all by themselves and to think that it makes them unique or something like that. So please try to be reasonable.

Anyhow back to the post. Sorry about the rambling... but it kinda slipped out :).

Orta is actually a beautiful theme-suite (I guess you can call it like that) and unlike with many other themes... what I like about it that, it has an another application called "Orta Settings Manager" which basically lets you change a lot of it options such as...

*. Change window gradients.

*. Switch between tab styles (dark and light colours combinations).

*. Change expanders (square, arrows, etc).

*. Change scrollbar size.

*. Built in few Nautilus menubar styles (breadcrumbs, Nautilus Elementary type styles, etc).

The "settings manager" window...

*. Different types of menus.

*. Change panel colour (personal favourite :D).

And few other application related "fixes" for enhancing the GTK graphic rendering are the main features. So, a big thank to SkiesOfAzel the developer of this amazingly beautiful theme.

But as said, no manual colour selection is available (other than the built in ones) but the controllability and the features makes you wonder how cool Gnome will look if the developers were kind enough to include a "decent" theme manager by default :/.

Anyhow, you can install Orta-theme in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 10.10 by using their official PPA channel. To do that, simple open your GNU/Linux Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nikount/orta-desktop

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install orta-theme

If you encounter any errors saying some files are missing, etc while doing the "apt-get update" ... just ignore it... it works just fine on my Ubuntu 11.04 Laptop. 

It's made to integrate quite nicely with the Faenza Icon theme which is not necessary... but if you want the maximum "experience" ;-), then you can install it by using the below command as well.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install faenza-icon-theme

Sometimes the changes that you made via the "Orta settings manager" (accessed via: "System" -> " Preference") may not be applied unless you restart the PC or change the theme to a different one and then re-change it to Orta. Enjoy!.

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How to Install Parole in Ubuntu (a GTK+ Written Media Player for GNU/Linux)

Although Totem media player (actually a front-end for the Gstreamer - multimedia framework) is widely in use because of its ease of use and clean GUI... but I don't think the more experienced GNU/Linux users will be using it all the time because it certainly lack a lot of features (advanced options such as - fixing audio/video syncing related issues, add video effects, etc).

But as said for everyday use ... the GUI is impressively "clean" and many like it. So if you have a "thing" for that type of GUI in a media player and looking for a similar replacement then you might be interested in the "Parole" media player. It's actually a multimedia player written for the XFCE desktop (a lightweight GTK desktop) thus doesn't take a lot of system resources on the bright side as well :).

Main features...

*. Well, it's based on the Gstreamer framework thus plays almost all the popular formats by default.

*. A clean GUI with right-side play-list (which can be hidden).

*. Built in plugins which enable it to disable suspending the PC/Laptop while watching a DVD, shows advanced information about video/audio files (title, artist, codec, etc), system tray icon and another plugin to set the window title to the currently playing file's name.

*. Enable/Disable visualisations.

*. Automatic subtitle loading (change font size, font).

*. Change display hue/brightness/contrast/Saturation.

*. Play DVD/CD directly from an ISO file.

You can install Parole in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (may work in 10.04 and 10.10) by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo apt-get install parole

That's it.

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"We're Done With Linux", Says Nokia

Nokia the mobile phone giant is having some troubles at the moment (well it's been a while now for them, and many "others" included) without a doubt. It's said that this year along (so far) Nokia's stock price is reduced by more than 40%! which obviously raises concerns, which is apparent.

Anyway, in a recent interview with Helsingin Sanomat (magazine), Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop said that ...

"I have talked a lot about how we increase our staff’s accountability, our empathy to listen to our clients and each other, and our aim to avoid being arrogant..."

The above quote is the answer for Nokia letting go of the MeeGo mobile platform (Linux based) as a result we won't see any Nokia phones with Linux in general (at least not in the near future).
 
We'll, if the numbers are correct and what he's saying is true then this is a desperate attempt to save Nokia from losing her clients. And according to Elop, some of the investors are not happy with the results, concerning the recent past (a year or maybe a bit longer), which seems to be the case.

Anyhow, what the heck does Linux has to do with it?

Well, to start with, sometime ago Nokia purchased the Qt toolkit (which is the GUI builder behind KDE desktop and thousand other application GUIs in GNU/Linux OS) and started to use it to design programs for their mobile phones. Not to worry, they didn't "touch" the license agreement (yet) thus Qt toolkit is still released in the GNU/GPL nonetheless.

What's "in-it" for Nokia?

Well, by using Qt they can create applications that can be run in their other mobile phone operating systems written using Java for instance with ease (because Qt in itself is a "framework").

So, if you have an excellent, Java written media player which was designed using Qt in a Java powered OS for instance, then you can "merge" or make it run in another Nokia mobile phone OS with ease by using Qt. This save both money and, oh well, it saves money :).

Nokia and Intel (including few other tech-giants) renamed the previously know Moblin project to MeeGo somewhere around last year in hope for finding/creating a "cost friendly" mobile operating system using the already existing MeeGo platform.

After bit of a "break" they introduced the latest Nokia smart phone powered by the MeeGo platform called N9 few days ago in Singapore and again Elop made clear the company's intentions even after praising the design, stability, look-n-feel of the N9 smart phone (the smart phone has already received a lot of positive feedback from both users and tech-experts), by saying...

"I have taken part in the conversations with the teleoperators and I have been part of the consumer test groups. The feedback has been extremely positive and I am sure that the Windows Phone system will be a great success.."

N9, the "newly-wed" ;-)...

So, even if the N9 with MeeGo is a great success/hit yet there's no turning back!. Now some say this is because of the lack of the availability of the applications (like Android market or MS Windows online store, etc) which could be true and one certainly can't ignore the power of the online application market any more.

But I highly doubt that MeeGo or Linux (it ain't really "GNU"/Linux since the license isn't fully compatible with GNU-GPL) not having a strong online applications has anything to do with it.

Because I mean come on, seriously!. As far as I know, N9 is the only smart phone that Nokia released which uses MeeGo officially (although the enthusiasts have run the OS in other Nokia phone models, etc) and they just started.

Elop himself said that even if the N9 is a "hit" there's no turning back. Why is that?. If what he meant by a "hit" was not just a success but a massive one, then where's problem?. This is not a judgement on Nokia or anyone but I think the reason is quite simple.

The real investors want better controllability which would ensure the safety of their investments which resembles their interests. But by drifting towards a Linux approach which, in its genuine sense tries to rule out the possibility of a centralised power would simply mean "unstability" from the Nokia's investors point of view because with platforms like MeeGo, does depend on the community, or so it seems.

Although not as "stretched" as Debin or other GNU/Linux OS, etc are since it's actually commercial companies funded it in the first place. Yet the visibility of not the actual users but the "free developers" can scare away the investors because unilke with the "actual users", but a with community driven developer-users, things can get a bit personal between them thus creating an environment in which making decisions can be a bit difficult. I maybe wrong here and easily be misguided but... that's what I feel.

But, I just can't help it any more but to think about, What is the purpose of GNU/Linux?. Lets forget computing, just for few seconds. But what is its real purpose. Is it going against our true nature as Mr. Mark and "others" seems to think?. Is it the reason for these "failures", you know, every time when it seems to be working-out nicely, then out of nowhere, shi* happens... I don't know.

To be honest, I'm too inexperienced to put together a reasonable answer to this. So, as an ending note, perhaps the following quote from Simon Phipp (an Open-Source expert) might help others like me, to get an insight into the matter ...

"Crocodiles are not evil; neither are they good. They are just reptiles, dealing with their hunger.To call something "a reptile" is not a value judgement; quite the opposite since reptiles are demonstrably amoral and mechanistic...

Despite their evil looks and repellant behavior, they are just being reptiles, doing what reptiles do. Working with them is not a matter of relying on their goodwill. It's all down to understanding their instincts - and learning to stand in the right place...

And that's what I mean when I say a corporation is just a reptile."

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Muon Suite 1.2 Beta 2 is Out (Qt Written Package Manager for Kubuntu 11.04 +)

Since I've written about Muon Suite before I won't be going into all the details all over again. Anyhow for those of you who are new to Muon (well we all are in a way, lol), it is a package manager GUI written using the Qt toolkit (owned by Nokia corporations) aimed at the Kubuntu/KDE Linux desktop.

It's actually becoming apparent that why Kubuntu team "invented" this package manager because the current package manager GUI when compared with the Ubuntu Software Center ... well it does lack few "user-friendliness" and like the Synaptic (although it's most certainly rich in features and the best option for the power users) the current package manager is not optimized for the touch-sensitive devices or the "future" in general.

So in hope for a more user-friendly package manager GUI they came up with the one called Muon. Soon after the initial announcement, they actually made available the 1.2 beta version few weeks ago for testing which you can install via their PPA channel.

The latest news is that few hours ago they've released the latest version of Muon, 1.2 Beta 2!. And according to the developer this won't give new features but seems to carry bug-fixes only. So if you've been using the older 1.2 Beta version, then it's advised to upgrade to this version.

If you have never installed it before, then you can install the Muon 1.2 beta 2 in Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal window.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:echidnaman/qapt-experimental
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install muon

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How to Install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 ?

Unless you want to get the all new "Unity desktop" or the latest versions of the GNU/Linux Kernel and other applications easily... no one has to abandon their, now the bit "old" Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 versions. On the other hand if you slightly older PC/Laptop hardware (especially the GPU or the VGA card) and don't want a computer that finds its hard to keep up with the OS, yes you'll be better off with those "old" Ubuntu Linux versions.

Unlike with the OS Kernel (the part that deals with your Hardware) there are however certain type of applications that we use quite frequently and we have to rely on the latest updates from the developers since they'll help us to enhance the security + may add some speed in general, which are always more than well come :D.

The web browser is the best example, especially concerning nowadays ;-). Google Chrome web browser has a very short time-line between versions which is working quite nicely for them at the moment which was shortly followed by Mozilla foundation with their famous highly secure web browser the Firefox. Now as a result unlike in the past, we as users can have new versions (updates and interesting features) in a much more faster "cycle", which is a good thing, right?.

In that sense if you arrogantly refuse to give up the old Ubuntu version which works quite nicely for you :P but still would like to install the latest Firefox 5 which comes with few new features but less GUI changes such as ...

*. Over 1000 of bug-fixes.

*. Better HTML5 support (the new era of Internet :)).

*. CSS animations.

*. Do Not Track - A Web standard which web browser developers "sign-in" to let the users know that their web browser is highly secure concerning users privacy thus no data will be "gathered" without their approval.

*. Better web page loading (layout detection) support for the mobile version ... are just a few to mention.

In that case, you can install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat and 10.04 Lucid Lynx by using the Mozilla's official PPA channel. To do that, as usual, open your GNU/Linux Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Yep... that should do it. Enjoy!. 

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paprefs - An App to Configure PulseAudio Preferences in Ubuntu Linux Easily (GUI)

When it comes to computing there are main two types of programs. One type is the software applications that operates with the hardware devices (which are "invisible" to the PC users) and then there's the other kind which works with the users which are usually GUI such as Totem, Office suit, mail-clients, etc.

But there is also another type of applications which fall in between the two of the above types. They actually act as the "middle-man" between those two. Although sometimes they come separately but usually they're attached to user interacting GUIs, most of the time.

In that sense a sound server is actually that "middle-man" which sends/receives audio related information between the actual OS hardware level software (the Kernel, in GNU/Linux OS) and your sound card speakers, etc which "carries" the "mixed" sound-output.

Unlike with the original sound subsystems which were not that easy to configure since they were "close" to the Kernel or the PC hardware, thus even a small fluctuation could jeopardise things easily. So as a fix, later came the sound servers which run in a more "close to users" such as above mentioned applications thus they're easy to configure + even if a sound server fails the stability of the OS is not affected that much since it's doesn't run closer to the hardware level or at the core of the OS.

These days we have few main sound servers OSS, ALSA, ESD, etc and the latest is the Pulse Audio. Although personally I don't like it that much since it doesn't work that well with my sound card hardware yet many prefer it since it does come with many features and better compability (not in my case :D) nonetheless.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and want to configure your sound sever related setting such as ...

*. Local network access to your sound card.

*. Configure various audio-network-server related setting such as - enable/disable the access, automatic authenticate, enable/disable DLNA or UPnP media server access, etc.

*. Configure audio multicast severer settings (RTP receiving and sending) - send audio from local speakers/microphone or create a new virtual device for the RTP multicast.

*. Add simultaneous output support.

That's actually about it. It's a small application, a font-end actually, written in GTK+ toolkit and has a tabbed interface and very easy to use + can be extremely useful as well.

You can install paprefs (pulseaudio preference, tool) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo apt-get install paprefs

You should be able to access it via: "System" -> "Preference" -> "PulseAudio Preference" or simply type "Alt" + "F2" keys and enter "paprefs" in the run box. That's it. Good luck.

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Install CPU-Fire Applet in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Although we have several applets for managing and displaying the CPU usage in GNU/Linux (Gnome desktop specifically). But almost all of them use the same boring "standard" methods such as bars, etc while displaying the CPU usage :/.

For a change, would you like to have an applet (a small application/plugin which uses the already existing desktop environment such as Gnome or Qt-KDE, etc) that displays "fires" as a way of resembling the CPU usage!. Yep, it's pretty cool :). It's called CPU-Fire Applet.

The more flames there are the more your CPU is being used. It's pretty simple. Although onlike with others such as the Syspeek where you can guess the amount/percentage of the CPU is being used (rough values) without having to completely open the application with CPU-Fire, it may not be that easy to "read" the rough values, but I like it :D.

"My CPU's on fire with passionate lo..." what! :P

Main features...

*. Change the size.

*. Change update interval and the sensitivity (will add more flames even for a small CPU usage change).

*. Bring your mouse hover over the icon and it'll display a live updating CPU-usage (continuously - as long as the hover is there). 

You can install CPU-Fire applet in Ubuntu 11.04 (should work in 10.10 and 10.04) by entering the below command in your Terminal.

sudo apt-get install cpufire-applet

Once installed (only for Gnome classic desktop), right click on your panel and choose "Add to Panel". In the applets list you should see the CPU-Fire (around the top ones). Just click on it and it'll be added to the panel. You might need to log-out or restart the Laptop/PC if the applet is not in the "list". Enjoy it. 

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Ekoore - The Ubuntu Linux 11.04 Powered Tablet PC Series!

Although we have the MeeGo powered WeTab Tablet PC which also supports GNU/Linux in general (obviously) but the latest news is that an Italian based manufactured called Ekoore has released a series of Tablet PCs that come pre-installed Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by default!.

Although I said a "series" of products, actually you can choose between two Tablet PC models called Drake and ET10TA. And unlike with others (such as the WeTab) Ekoore does allow you to make certain customisations concerning the hardware, online such as change the HDD capacity, RAM, Operating system, 3G support, etc and the company has an interesting "explanation" for such availability... below, quoting themselves.

"Ekoore has always worked according to a precise philosophy, that hardware and software components are two important but distinct and separate parts of the informatcs... It is why every product we distribute, the user is free to choose in the first hardware configuration they prefer..." Sounce:- About Ekoore.

Main hardware features...

The only difference between the two Tablet PCS when compared...

Drake - 10.2 Inch multitouch screen and an Accelerometer no 3G but can be configured manually.

The "multitouch Drake"...

ET10TA - 10.2 Inch touch-screen and no Accelerometer but has 3G by default.

The "touch only" ET10TA...

Other than that, they both almost the same hardware characteristics such as...

*. Support both Ubuntu 11.04 and MS Windows 7 (MS gonna make your wallet hurt :/).

*. Inter Atom N450 1.66GHz processor. 

*. 1024x600 resolution display.

*. 1GB DDR2 RAM (can be upgraded up to 2GB).

*. Optional 3G support.

*. Wi-Fi built in.

*. RJ-45 Network adapter. 

*. 160GB Sata HDD (can be upgraded up to 320GB).

*. GPS (optional).

*. 1.3 Megapixel front web camera.

*. 945GSE Intel chip-set (including an Intel GPU/VGA).

*. 3 USB (2.0) ports, 1VGA port, Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO) including SDHC support, microphone input and Realtek audio output (built in 2 Stereo speakers). No Bluetooth it seems.

*. 3000mAh battery (lasts about 2.6 hours according to the manufacture).

Well, the hardware seems pretty darn good. Except for the battery life which is not that impressive in today's standards. + When considering the price of 489 € only for the Ubuntu version (=$693), it's a slight disappointment.

The package also includes a stylish pen and a leather carrying bag as well.

I'm not sure about the real performance since I don't have it :/. Anyhow, interested you can check out their official page for purchasing (both online and off-line stores) and if you do so, would you be kind enough to tell me about the actual performance ;-).

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How to Make Gnome Desktop Automatically Change the Wallpaper?

Despite all the criticisms against it, still the one of the oldest parts of the GNU, the GTK+ written (now uses the GTK3+ toolkit with the Gnome 3) Gnome is one of the most popular choices among the GNU/Linux users when it comes to the desktop.

The GUI is extremely simplified thus it's pretty easy to learn to use it (especially if you're coming from the Mac OSX environment :D) but as mentioned, most of the time we'll have to depend on "external" applications when it comes to "computing" or doing certain things, since Gnome does lack some features. 

Anyhow, I don't know if we can call this feature a "must have" but nonetheless, if you want to make Gnome automatically change its wallpaper, well, by default you can't.

Although it has a simple desktop customisation window which lets you do things like change the wallpaper, add pictures from online sources (Gnome artwork, etc), change font, etc but it won't let you automatically change the wallpaper on a timely basis.

In that case, especially if you use Ubuntu Linux (the app maybe available for other major distributions) then there is an excellent utility called Cortina that does exactly that!.

Main features...

*. Once installed it'll run from the notification area and let you add wallpaper locations from local storage devices such as HDD/USB, etc easily.

*. Change the wallpaper from a timely basis automatically, finally! :D.

*. Lets you choose it to run when the desktop is loading.

*. Delete pictures from the "collection".

One thing though, once done configuring, don't click on the "close" button at the title-bar, use the big "Close" button below instead, otherwise it'll exit from running thus no more automatic wallpaper changing, etc...

*. Set pictures to - Zoom/scale/centre/spanned, etc

*. Change the time-frame.

That's about it. It's an amazingly simple yet extremely useful app if you want to automatically change those wallpapers nonetheless.

You can install Cortina in Ubuntu 11.04, 10.10 or 10.04 by using its PPA. To do that, open your GNU/Linux terminal and enter the below command.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:cs-sniffer/cortina

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cortina

That's it. Once installed you can access it via: "Applications" -> "Graphics" -> "Cortina" in classic Gnome desktop. Enjoy it!.

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DeVeDe - An Excellent DVD/SVCD/Divx Video Disk Creator for GNU/Linux!

Well, VCD had their days. Now it's the era of DVDs, Blue-ray disks and also the extremely popular low bitrate optimised Xvid and Divx codecs/players as well :D. Not as a user who enjoys watching them, but as a video disk author, as always with GNU/Linux, it's still a bit hard to find applications that lets you easily create DVD or VDC, etc videos.

But if you search in the proper place there's always "that" which fits :D. In that instance, there is an excellent utility called DeVeDe which is basically a GUI written in GTK+ toolkit that uses several other "engines" such as MPLayer, Mencoder (the encoder portion of MPLayer), DVD Author and several other applications.

So basically the developer of DeVeDe has done an excellent job of bringing together very useful applications and creating something "whole", that without a doubt be much appreciate by all the nerdy video author s ;-).

Main features...

*. Has a built in start-up menu, so you can easily choose the disk type that you want to create. 

*. Create a DVD/VCD/SVCD/Divx-MPEG4 disks out of any multimedia file that's supported by MPLayer/Mencoder (that means a lot... avi, mpg, wmv, mkv, divx, etc).

A clean GUI...

*. Change video bitrate, audio bitrate, resize, De-interlace, add black borders (only recommended for DVD otherwise, lower bitrate optimised codecs such as Divx may hurt in quality since they occupy a reasonable amount of "bitrate"), split according to your own preferred output size, use 1 pass or 2 pass (may change depending on the format/codec) and few other video quality related settings such as resizing methods, live previews... it is very rich in features!.

Note:- when creating live previews, when asked, try to add few seconds rather than in minutes otherwise it'll take some time to generate the preview since it actually has to encode the multimedia file. 

*. Add fonts and change the font size.

*. Rotate, swap filed.

*. PAL/NTSC support.

*. I forgot to mention the most important one... creating menus! - Change font size and colours, background change, add shadow, various alignments (center, left, top, etc) and create menu Title separately, again including live previews.

*. Adjust disk size by using built in standard sizes such as 4.7GB/8.5GB DVD, 185/650/700MB CDs and 1.4GB mini DVD, etc.

*. Volume gain.

*. Save you settings as a single project file.

*. Use multi-threading (for speedup the painstaking encoding ;-)).

*. Create .ISO or BIN/CUE image files so you can easily burn then using any CD/DVD burner.

*. Change aspect ratio.

Seriously!, this is a one heck of an application that can be recommended even for professional to use because it's really that powerful!.

You can install DeVeDe in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal.

sudo apt-get install devede

That should install the application and all its dependencies for you. So, if you want an easy to use DVD/SVCD/Divx... disk creating (including menus) application, then I humbly advice you to use DeVeDe. It's just bloody brilliant! :D.

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How to Install Geeqie (Image Viewer) in Ubuntu Linux 11.04?

Geeqie is a powerful image viewer for Gnome desktop written in GTK+ tookit. Although it does come with lot of options and features but I find that GUI to be a bit confusing. For instance, to your left it shows the folders and the image thumbnails (which can be customised, sort, etc) and to the right is the actual image viewer.

But for some reason, still the interface when comparing with others such as gThumb or F-Spot for example is not that user-friendly (at least for my taste anyway) but if you're just bored with the same GUI over and over again and for a change looking for "something", well then, Geeqie is certainly not a bad choice at all.


Main features...

*. Supports almost all the image file types under the sun :).

*. Filter out certain file types.

*. Zoom-in or out (switch between different resizing methods from low quality to high).

*. Edit image meta data.

*. Colour management.

*. Delete/copy/move files.

*. Flip/Mirror/rotate.

Preference window which lets you configure a lot of things...

*. Edit images with already installed software in your GNU/Linux distributions (via its "plug-in" API).

*. Delete, change size, create new or change the default directory where thumbnails are stored.

*. Comes with a "set as wallpaper" feature, but it did not work while I was playing with it :/.

*. Change file associations.

*. Change image loading cache file size.

*. View images as slide-shows.

*. Hide the toolbar and make the "side-bar" and the image viewer separate (shown below).

*. Enable/disable image pixel info display (you know, it displays the pixel "locations" when you move your mouse hover over pictures). 

*. Assign keyboard shortcuts for easy manoeuvrability.

These are just a few to mention. You can install Geeqie in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux terminal.

sudo apt-get install geeqie

With all the due respect for the developers for their hard work... but I don't think I'll be using Geeqie as my primarily image editor (it just doesn't suit my taste + I think if you have a huge collection to manage, it can be a bit frustrating with it as well).

But it's very popular and a highly recommended (starred app in Ubuntu Software Center) utility nonetheless.

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No More Synaptic (package manager) in Ubuntu Linux 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot!

The days are gone where people used to think that GNU/Linux has the "ability" to scare away the newbie :) yet when it comes to doing certain things, GNU/Linux can still be a bit hard to "tolerate". But the rest assured, thanks to the hard work of the developers and the users... nowadays, it is very user friendly.

But as said, there are certain aspects (installing/uninstalling applications) where you might get you into trouble. In the old days there weren't much GUIs for package management thus you had to do everything by using the command line. But the times has passed and different distributions have package mangers of their own (including a decent GUI, hopefully).

But because of the simplicity + the very little system resource needs of the command line tools... many users still prefer the command line while installing applications as well.

Anyhow, it took sometime for the Fedora team to come up with a decent GUI for the "Yum" package manager and even though they came up with a GUI around the version 4-5 yet it wasn't that impressive and at that time the package manager didn't even support installing packages from CD/DVDs!.

But, from the beginning, Debian team had the best/robust/stable package manager called "APT" (usually used with the command = apt-get). Later came its GUI called the Synaptic, GUI written in GTK+ which made managing packages in Debian based GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu for instance, much much easier.  

But, Synaptic is not perfect and at the moment do lack very few things, otherwise I think most will agree to the fact that it's perfect, almost :). For example, have a look at the below screenshot. Now as anyone can see, basically it has a search box and a left "panel" which displays the installed/available packages in categories.

So if you want to know about a certain package, then all you gotta do is just search for it. You don't even have to use a specific package name these days. Say that you wanted to install a "music player", then just use the term "music player" and do a search, Synaptic will give you applications that falls into that category!.

So, it's pretty much user friendly. But to be honest, it does lack a bit of a simplicity. Because having a lot of text around (anything) can be a bit confusing.

If we could do something like, replacing category names such as "Development", "Multimedia", "Games", "Utilities", etc with icons... then not only it'll add more simplicity but as soon as the eye hits the icon, it'll give the same expression as the texts would, in a much better way. Right?.

That's what the Ubuntu/Canonical developers have come up with. There is a separate package manager "suite" in Ubuntu Linux (I know you know this, but gotta write about :D) called "Ubuntu Software Center" which has exactly the above mentioned attributes. Basically it is almost everything that Synaptic is not.

It's not loaded with words/texts that much but use icons and as a result the interface is much more simpler.

They've also done excellent things such as, when you enter the main window, to the lower sections of the Software Center, now we have "featured applications" and whenever we click on an application, we can see a screenshot (which is available via Synaptic, but not displayed by default), shows the web site of the developer and most importantly, there are "actual" reviews/feedback by those who have used the app for real.

Further more, it has a "star points" which represents the quality level of the applications as well.

Although I don't own a touch-screen device such as a Tablet PC... but when looking at the two applications, the advantageous Ubuntu Software Center have over Synaptic is obvious, I think. And Canonical has been planning to replace Synaptic for a while now and the latest news is that, they'll do so by removing Synaptic from the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

To be honest, I actually like the Ubuntu Software Center, although at times it feels like slightly "heavier" on my system resources... other than that, it is pretty easy to use and has an excellent user friendly GUI.

Although I used to think that it uses a lot of my memory (RAM) than Synaptic because every time I use it had a low response time. But then I did a bit of a memory check and actually realised that they both use similar amount of system resources!. Have a look at the below screenshots, which were taken separately, then the two package managers were opened (while running the home screen).

Synaptic uses 25.2MB....

USC uses about 27.3MB... marginal difference..., this is also true while installing applications too (at least while I tested them).

So what was it that gave me the impression that USC is slower/heavier (slow mouse pointer responsiveness, etc)?.

Well I guess it's just that, it uses a lot of your network (Internet connection) because unlike with Synaptic, USC has to download icons, screenshots, user reviews, its featured applications related data, etc from online sources thus it uses higher Internet connection bandwidth.

So, having a bit slower connection is actually the bottleneck here, at lest in my experience anyway +, when an application has to work with a lot of outside networks or web sites, it can use a bit of your CPU especially, which is usually "represented" by an unusually slower mouse pointer as well.

Synaptic on the other hand does not use a lot of your Internet bandwidth by "default" because there are no default screenshots (unless you manually enable it) or icons... it's basically a text-oriented GUI ... so the responsive times can be quite quicker since the Internet connection is not "busy" than while using USC.

Anyway, I'll always be using Synaptic in the future, because it is still a way powerful utility than USC since it has so many advanced/useful features that are not implemented in USC at the moment.

On the bright side, Canonical won't completely wipe out Synaptic from their distribution and it'll be available via their repositories. And if you don't like this "move", well, we have a lot other GNU/Linux distributions, just in case as well :).

What do you think??.

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