How to Install GPicView in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04?

GPicView in the default image viewer for the lightweight LXDE desktop. Remember, this is certainly not a replacement for other advanced photo management apps such as Shotwell, Picasa, etc in fact as mentioned before, GPicView is just a simple image viewer rather than a "manager" at all.

It has a highly simplified GUI (a lot closer to the one that used to come with MS Windows XP) and loads fast as a result. Other than viewing images it can let you do things like...

*. View in full screen.

*. Rotate clockwise and counter clockwise.

*. Flip horizontally/vertically.

*. Save in a different formats.

*. Delete images from the window... and a separate "preferences" window that lets you configure few things such as - changing the background color of the app itself and few conformation dialogs, etc.

And on the negative side it cannot let you crop or change color settings as with Geeqie, F-Spot or gthumb for instance either. Anyhow...

You can install GPicView in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 easily since it's in the official Ubuntu software repositories by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install gpicview

Enjoy! (man, I gotta replace this "usual ending word", any suggestions ?? ;-) ).

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How to Install ATI/AMD Catalyst 11.7 Linux Driver in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

For both ATI and Nvidia GPU devices in GNU/Linux you should have installed the proprietary drivers if you want to get the full throttle out of your awesome VGA card :D. For instance, with the recent netbooks related AMD Fusion chip-sets where we have both a CPU and the GPU at the same "core" (same physical chip), if you haven't installed the proprietary driver then the GPU will not be able to play HD videos nor 3D games and rendering in general in full throttle :/.

So although the idea of "proprietary" is not compatible with the GNU license but that's how the world is anyway, you can either chose to swim with it or against.. (what the heck am I talking, sorry about that).

Anyhow, few days ago ATI (now owned by AMD) released the latest version of their Catalyst driver for GNU/Linux: the 11.7!.

Unlike with many other releases the 11.7 version does bring few major features or changes in general such as...

I'm not supposed to be doing this but but... :)

*. Kernel 3.0 x support.

*. VLC player 1.1.9 related hardware acceleration bug fixed.  

*. PowerXpress support for GNU/Linux (finally) - This technology makes it easy to switch between discrete graphics and dedicated graphics (say when you use your Netbook on AC power) which delivers better performs or low performance and enhanced battery life.

*. Few Catalyst control center related bug fixes.

*. De-noise and few other video playback related performance related bug fixes... are just a few to mention.

You can install the ATI/AMD Catalyst 11.7 driver in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below procedure (for 10.10 and 10.04 users please read from the official AMD Wiki pages, here and here). 

*. If have you installed any previous proprietary drivers such as the 11.6 series for instance, then you must remove them before proceeding!.

Now I'm not going to do a lot of "explaining" because I feel like I'd easily make some of you guys confused.. So basically just enter the below command in your Terminal window (Again remember, these steps are only for those of you who have installed an older version of Catalyst drivers).

sudo sh /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh

If you get an error saying that such command does not exists, etc then use the below one instead.

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev* xorg-driver-fglrx

Now let's begin the actual installation procedure.


1. Now first download the actual driver wizard (it contains both 32-bit and 64-bit versions integrated) and make it executable. For that enter the below commands.

cd ~/; mkdir catalyst11.7; cd catalyst11.7/

wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-7-x86.x86_64.run

chmod +x ati-driver-installer-11-7-x86.x86_64.run

2. Now use the below commands to install it.

sudo -s

./ati-driver-installer-11-7-x86.x86_64.run

Just follow your on-screen instructions (the installer is pretty much automatic) and within few minutes you should have installed the AMD/ATI Catalyst 11.7 in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

3. Optional Step - 

Most people might not need this, but if you found that the graphics are actually worse looking or the ATI driver is not loaded into the Ubuntu then you might want to update a configuration file called "xorg.conf". As said you'd probably won't need to do this, but if you need then open enter the below command in your Terminal.

sudo aticonfig --initial -f

That's it. Now you're done!.


Below method is not necessary by any mens and it's only for those of you who wants to manually build ".deb" packages only.  

Need a pre-build ".deb" file?

You can create a ".deb" file if you want. It can be quite handy if you want re-install the driver after a fresh install of Ubuntu where you don't have to re-download some of the required packages to build the driver and install. So...
 
If you'd like you can make that ".deb" package of the installer first and then install it too. To do that skip the step "2" and enter the below commands instead (and might want to use that step "3" command too).

First we gotta get the pre-requisite packages.


A. Get the pre-requisite packages - Although this may not be necessary for some since you'd probably have them installed automatically installing other apps as dependencies but do it just in case. Open your Terminal window and enter the below command.

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6 dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases

B. If you use the 64-bit Ubuntu Linux version then make sure to install the below packages too (only for the 64-bit geeks).

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

C. Now let's build the ".deb" file. For that use the below command.

sudo sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-7-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/natty

D. Now install it by using the below command.

sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb

Yep that's it. I'm sorry that the article looks a bit longer. Enjoy!.

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How to Install Xarchiver (archive manager) in Ubuntu Linux?

By default Ubuntu uses the File-Roller as the main archive manager (an original Gnome application). It's quite good actually but being a Gnome app, for the good or the worse it integrates the Gnome's simplicity (yikes) thus it won't let you change some options such as the default temporary folder location and creating a self extracting archive for instance.

Anyhow, if you're a bit frustrated with it and looking for something else that has the capacity to act as a powerful and fast loading archive management utility, then you should try the one called Xarchiver.

Xarchiver is basically a GUI front-end that uses a lot of built in command-line tools which are built into the GNU/Linux operating system to handle archives + is already the default archive management tool used by LXDE and Xfce desktops too.

It has a pretty simple (bit similar to the File-roller actually) interface and lets you do things like...

*. Add/Rename/Delete or Create an archive (containing emails, text files, etc) from scratch. 

*. Save an archive into a different format.

*. Add or remove passwords.

*. Test for extraction errors.

*. Supports a huge list of file formats such as - 7z, ARJ, bzip2, gzip, LHA, lzma, lzop, RAR, RPM, DEB, tar, and ZIP.

*. As said it also has the ability to let you create self extracting compressed files which is very handy since you can decompress those files without having to have installed an archive manager.

*. Add a comment (another features that File-roller doesn't have).

*. Show the command-line out put (handy while trying to figure out if you had an issue while extracting).

*. A separate "preferences" window (above screen-shot) that lets you configure things such as - ask for conformation while deleting files, change temporary folder location (very useful if you had a "data-full partition" thus the archive manager most probably be unable to extract the content otherwise), show/hide archive commenting, etc.

You can install the Xarchiver in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by entering the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install xarchiver

That should do the trick. Enjoy your new and powerful Xarchiver for creating e-mail archives, out of multimedia files or password protected self extracting ones which makes exchanging archives much more easy and secure + for many more of your other nerdy needs :).

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How to Install Leafpad Text Editor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Both Unity and the Gnome classic desktop share the same text editor in Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (oh oh :P) which is called Gedit (the default text editor that comes with Gnome actually). It loads fast and has a lot of options (can even handle some HTML files) thus it's a powerful text editor without a doubt.

But if you're looking for something that's much more simpler than that, that which uses less resources, then Leafpad is the one to call for :). Leafpad actually comes as a part of the LXDE desktop (a light weight desktop for GNU/Linux) and in comparison with Gedit or many others, it has very little options (no preference window at all), one of the fast loading ones + uses very little system resources as well.


Main Features...

*. Running more than one instance is supported (new windows), although tabs are not implemented there, yet which would have been nice otherwise.

*. Search and replace words/text.

*. Change font, word-wrap and display lines.

*. Cut/Copy/Delete and Undo/Redo ability.

*. Auto indent. 

*. Open and save in few different file formats.

*. Print preview (and send to printing from its window).

*. Drag-n-drog support.

That's about it. You can't change the background or any other look-n-feel of the text editor but for its purpose it's quite good, I guess.

You can install leafpad text editor in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install leafpad

But as said, remember, this cannot fully replace Gedit or Kate (Qt/KDE's text editor) for instance because of the lack of few minor options but that being said, if you're looking for something that's fast like hell and minimal distractions + low on resources, then Leafpad is something worth giving a shot :). Enjoy!.

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Asus Eee PC X101 Secretly Gets a Product Page!

Few weeks ago Asus showed off one of their upcoming netbooks called the Eee PC X101. Concerning the cheap hardware this netbooks had nothing "major" in it, except for the physical design!. This netbook without a doubt will be one of the most thinnest ones in the market and the price range, according to Asus will be under $200!.

Although at that time Asus did not confirm about its launching date but few hours ago it seems to have a dedicated product page in Asus Eee section which appeared kinda secretly because Asus didn't even make any official announcement, but it should be a matter of days if not hours perhaps.

A 10.1 inch LED Backlight WSVGA with screen resolution of 1024x600, Intel Atom N435/N455 (it will have two versions) processor, 1GB of DDR3 RAM (max 2GB), 8GB SSD drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 2 USB 2.0 ports, audio headphone and a card reader (SD/ SDHC/ MMC), 0.3 MPX front camera, 2 built in stereo speakers, 17.6 mm thin!, 0.92 Kgs of weight...

The only disappointing thing is (there's always one :/) the battery life. According to Asus the X101 will have about 4 hours of battery life which is not bad but when considering some other popular ones and netbooks in general I think it's a bit low for its caliber.

And also it will be able to handle 720p HD videos but not the 1080p ones, I mean, even the Intel Atom dual-core versions struggle when it comes to trying to play some of those. It would've been nice if the X101 came with an AMD fusion version because the Fusion ones have no problems whatsoever playing 1080p videos thanks to the powerful ATI Raedon 6200/6300 HD GPUs.

But I guess it might raise some of that price tag anyway.

There's also a separate MS Windows 7 powered version available, although not sure about the price of that version at the moment, but by default it comes with the excellent MeeGO operating system which must have helped to cut out some of that cost :).

They wouldn't say but from the pictures I don't think it has a full keyboard but it's a Chiclet one and looks comfortable but will have to wait until it's released to see how well it performs while actually touch typing. Oh and it has three color choices at the moment - White, Red and Brown.

So, if you're looking for a very very light weight, awesome looking (well Asus has a bit of a reputation) netbook under $200, then the X101 will be (or maybe) an excellent choice, although in no way it can replace the MacBook Air... but for a price under $200 I really gotta say it "looks" impressive, don't you agree?. 

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How to Install elementary Dark GTK Theme in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Although a bit inspired (a bit! :D) by Apple, I gotta say that the Elementary team do have a talent for creating amazing applications + especially when it comes to art work... they just rock!.

Although they started off as a project that used to give (it still does) a beautiful looking complete theme suite for Ubuntu, but soon they saw their opportunity and seize it :) which is now called the Elementary OS (finally something of their own). As said when looking at what they've done and the small group of geeks in the team, it's bloody amazing what a bunch of people can achieve.

Anyhow, among many of their inventions, the previously introduced Elementary theme was a massive hit within the GNU/Linux community. As said, it's clear that they've taken few ideas from Apple but that theme looks awesome nonetheless!.

Although this may not interest many but have you been looking for a bit darker version of that elementary theme??, well if you were, then you're in for a little treat pal :) because few days ago another a deviantart user called Satya released a darker version of the elementary theme called "elementary Dark!".

Main features...

*. Two buttons instead of the usual "three". Maximize button to the right edge and the close button to the left-edge.

*. Re-customized breadcrumbs for the Nautilus.

*. Panel colors included.

*. This does not work in Unity. I mean it does, partially. For instance, in Unity, after installing, the theme will only change the look-n-feel of Nautilus and other individual apps and won't "touch" the application launcher nor the top panel, etc.

So at the moment it only supports Gnome classic desktop (metacity, GTK2).

My desktop after installing, I'm using the Gnome High-Contrast icons...

One thing that I noticed after installing it was the lightness of the mouse pointer which means that thanks to the murrine engine, unlike with the default Ubuntu theme (Ambiance, which is also based on murrine) which is a bit slowish, but the elementary dark theme "feels light"!.

Anyhow you can install the elementary dark theme in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, although I haven't checked this may also work in Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 too.

Although recent version of Ubuntu comes with murrine pre-installed as mentioned before (Ambiance is based on it) but the developers advices to have the latest, most up to date version installed.

1. So to install the latest murrine theme engine in Ubuntu 11.04/10.10 and 10.04 (using the PPA), open your Terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:murrine-daily/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-murrine

2. Now you're ready to go to the next step.

The theme does not have any other dependencies but if you want the best possible integration, then you should have the elementary-mono-dark icon theme installed. To do that simply use the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementaryart/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install elementary-theme elementary-icon-theme

If you also want the wallpapers... then use the below command as well.

sudo apt-get install elementary-wallpapers

3. Now get the actual theme from here and extract it , say to your desktop. Now open your Terminal and change the directory to your desktop (or where you have it extracted) and enter the below command.

sudo sh ./INSTALL 

Now you should have successfully install the elementary dark theme in Ubuntu Linux!. Use your usual procedure to apply it to system-wide.

If you use Fedora, to make a long story short, enter the below command and then jump to the step "3" right away. That should do it for you. 

yum install gtk-murrine-engine

However...

The bit "lighter version"... also looking good :)...

... if you'd prefer a bit more "lighter" version then there is another theme based on this one from the same dude called "elementary dark mod" that you can get from this page. Again, thank you Satya for this pretty cool theme. Enjoy!.

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How to Install PCMan File Manager in Ubuntu Linux?

PCMan is the default file management tool (manager) that comes with the LXDE desktop. Since the LXDE desktop environment is designed to use as little resources as possible + it's well known for its speed, so as the PCMan.

So if you feel like the Nautilus is a bit slow or just would like to have another alternative (just in case :D), then PCMan can be a handy little application. Both Nautilus (Gnome's tool) and Thunar (Xfce file manager) are both a lot similar in characteristics, but if you're a bit new to LXDE, then think of PCMan as the simplest version of both Nautilus and Thunar.


Main features...

*. According to the developer himself, it's designed as a replacement for Thunar (if you're looking to do that), so the general GUI and the look-n-feel as you can see is very much like it.

*. Drag-n-drop support.

*. Side pane view which shows favorite folders and mounted drives (including network drives, etc).

*. Copy/move/delete/rename, etc files (okay, I feel stupid after saying that :D).

*. 4 Different types of views (thumbnails, detailed, folders and compact).

*. Open a Terminal in a give location (also as the root user).

*. Bookmark support.

*. Tabbed view support.

*. A preference window that lets you configure things such as - Confirm file deleting, delete files without moving to Trash, disable thumbnail generation for a give file size, change icon size, mount volumes automatically, etc.

These are just a few to name. Although as said it's trying to be a Thunar replacement, please be aware of the fact that it does not have the ability to generate video thumbnails at the moment (well, it's been there for a while now :/).

Anyhow, you can install PCMan file manager in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install pcmanfm

So other than the video thingie :), if you're looking for a file management tool that loads fast, low on your PC system resources ... then PCMan is a pretty handy application nonetheless.

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Tux Computer Case with Embedded Linux Kernel

This is for all you true nerds out there. Not the fake ones that think wearing glasses, reading Harry Potter and play W.O.W. only count. More the ones that know the hundredth decimal of pi. Here for your viewing pleasure is Tux the penguin computer case in pico form factor. Taken from the site -"TUX Case is 16.9 cm high (6.66 inches) and can house a FOX Board LX plus an add-on board. The rear side is already holed for the FOX Board LX connectors (Ethernet, 2xUSB, DC input)." This cute little case can be found here for a decent price: http://www.skpang.co.uk/catalog/tux-case-for-fox-board-p-207.html

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Few Upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 and Development Related "Update notes"

Well as everyone knows the Ubuntu developers at Canonical keep us updated from time to time by giving the current Ubuntu development updates. And few hours ago they released another update which is somewhat especial since we have the Alpha 3 coming in the next week.

Now since most know that Ubuntu 11.10 is certainly faster than all of its predecessors (and other GNU/Linux distributions in general, as far as I know) because it has an impressive 12 seconds of boot time!, but there are a lot to improve (especially the new and faster + a bit buggy USC, etc), so the upcoming Alpha 3 should be something "interesting".

Anyhow to brief you about what's new and other whatnots ...

*. It seems that Gnome 3.1 x pre-builds are already (some of 'em) available for Oneiric Ocelot + the Gnome team do have few major improvements of their own for the upcoming, 3.2 major release as well. 

*. Compiz is updated to 0.9.5.

Although the actual or the original Compiz version is 0.8.6 (which many other distributions prefer) but this version "change" occurred because the Ubuntu developers decided to do their own improvements since Unity 3D depends on it so having a "Unity optimized" Compiz compositing manager makes sense.

But as many have claimed, it's a bit buggy at the moment (in 11.04 I mean). So hopefully this may have fixed few bugs and performance improvements :).

*. Firefox 6.0 beta (6.0.b3 build 2 to be precise).

*. Unity desktop module updated to 4.4 (current version in 11.04 Natty is 3.8) which include few of its own bug fixes such as - Metacity related fixes, drag-n-drop related bug fixes, Compiz related crash fixes, etc.

*. Switching from Gtk2 -> Gtk 3 which is happening slowly at the moment (understandable).

And many other Gnome 3.1x related application builds for the 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot updates are just a few to mention.

Anyhow, if Canonical can make Compiz a bit stable and fix performance issues with the Ubuntu Software Center (which is looking good in the 11.10 alpha version as said before), etc ...

... then I think the upcoming 11.10 might be one of the robust and fastest (at least concerning boot-time, which seems to be the "only thing that matters" in the current trend) operating systems that can stand up against the Google Chrome OS "being the fastest" challenge :). We'll see.  

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PyRoom - Python Written, Minimalistic, Distraction-free Text Editor for GNU/Linux!

PyRoom is an excellent distraction-free (it's kinda its main "theme" :D) text editor for GNU/Linux. It's written in Python and about 6.75Kb in size!, loads almost instantly and launches itself in full screen, if you're a writer who wants a text editor with minimal distractions, then PyRoom is an excellent little application.

But remember, this is not for everyone. For instance if you want an all-time-visible tool-bar and window borders with the usual buttons, etc then this is not for you. And also it doesn't have a built in spell-checker which is a must for some people (OK, I'm just talking about me :D) but I guess that for professional dudes and gals, this won't be much of a problem.

Main features...

*. Once started you can start typing right away and by pressing the keyboard shortcut ("Ctrl" + H") you can get a list of available configuration options.

*. It has a kind of a cool fade out "text tips" section right under the bottom of the borders (you know text "stuff"/updates/auto saving info, etc appears and then vanish in a cool way).  

*. Only runs in full-screen, well it's essential for its purpose, distraction-free writing, remember.

*. Has a built in GUI which lets you change things like the colors of the text, background, font, change the width/height, etc.

Preference window...

*. Can set to save your text automatically or can do so manually (using "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "S").

*. Undo and redo support.

*. Save files in new buffer or start a new buffer window.

*. Fully supports your mouse (you know so you can select, copy, paste using the mouse, etc).

Decent "mouse support" :)...

Well, that's all I have to say about that :). You can install pyroom in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install pyroom

I should be thankful to Ara Pulido girly geek for this amazing little application. So thank you Ara :).

And as a final word, if you don't need a lot of options but would like to have an amazingly simple, fast loading and a bit advanced text editor (it really is in its own way) at the same time, then PyRoom is a pretty darn good "solution" without a doubt!.

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Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot is Just 2 Seconds away from Instant Boot!

Yup, according to the tests done by crn.com experts, the recently released Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 2, although, still in the earlier beta versions still it's significantly faster than the current 11.04 Natty Narwhal!.

There are few ups and downs at the moment since it's in alpha stage but in their own words...

"...judging by its early “alpha” version. It has the fastest boot-time we’ve seen on an HDD-based PC, shows snappy performance between applications..."

Although not entirely sure if the adaptation of the Kernel 3.0 RC+ has anything to do with it but it seems that the removal of GDM and replacing it with LightDM has done the trick. In any operating system, one of the early-loaded GUI services is the log-in manager, and since...

LightDM...

GDM has been criticized by many developers saying that it has about 50,000 pieces of codes while LightDM only has 5000, that's at least 10x lesser amount of software code thus it should have helped.

Anyhow in their test PC (Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 at 3.00 GHz and a usual hard disk, not a SSD drive, other hardware unknown) the Ubuntu 11.10 alpha was able to boot up (from the moment of switch on to log-in screen) within just 12 seconds!.

Thanks to Google Chrome type operating systems, there is now a "standard" that says any OS that has about 10 or lower seconds of boot up times is considered as an operating system with an instant boot, so in that sense, Ubuntu 11.10 is just 2 seconds behind and most importantly it has been able to achieve that not using a SSD drive (which is significantly faster) but by using a SATA HDD!.

Another key improvement is the Ubuntu Software Center since Ubuntu decided to remove Synaptic from the official CD/DVD (but still available through the official repositories), starting with the 11.10 version.

It's about time that they started to pay some serious attention to improving the USC, because from the beginning USC requires a lot of system resources (CPU actually, although RAM usage is not that high, pretty much closer to Synaptic according to my experience anyway) and the new improved USC in the 11.10 Alpha 2 seems to be quite responsive and fast than the one in the 11.04. 

Anyhow it's really interesting what this means at the end because as any developer knows, since Ubuntu has no interest in targeting the "hacker" and rely on the "actual PC users", which I think will help them immensely in the future because it's this change of "attitude" (for good or bad) that has put them up there at the top.

If I remember correctly it was actually Ubuntu who was one of the first GNU/Linux (is it really?) distributions to speed up the boot up times where in the past GNU/Linux was painfully slower as well. 

Anyhow, this should send some "alarms" across other distributions (or may be not) + we also have a little Gnome OS thingie going on at the moment, so it should be really interesting whether the other distributions have the ability to compete against this "Ubuntu trend".

Because a trend is a far more powerful tool which, if properly used can easily let you pass through the popular "players" easily, which can be seen a bit too much to dream about right now (oh I didn't made up that statement all by me own, saw something similar somewhere recently :D). But the rest assured, whether you love or hate Ubuntu, interesting times ahead, it seems.

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hardinfo - an App for Performing CPU Benchmarking and Displaying Hardware Information in GNU/Linux!

In GNU/Linux world, unlike with MS Windows, gathering advanced information about your installed hardware may not always be an easy task. This is still true in never versions of Ubuntu such as the 11.04 Natty Narwhal for instance.

But thankfully there are small yet powerful applications that can be used to perform system benchmarks and gathering hardware information in GNU/Linux (talking about GUI tools here) nonetheless. Among many, "hardinfo" is such a tool.

It's a very small application (about 375Kb of size!) but lets you see through you hardware  ;-) and gives advanced info such as ...

*. Processor, RAM, Hard disks, VGA card (including advanced GPU related information, etc) and other various Motherboard related "stuff".

Man, after that "expose", I feel naked! :P...

*. Operating system version and various other related info (uptime, boot time, computer name, default desktop, etc).

*. OpenGL render version and various X.org related information.

*. Mounted file systems.

*. Users of the system.

*. PCI cards.

*. USB devices.

*. Motherboard sensor related information. 

*. Battery related info.

*. Network - Interfaces, IP connections, routing tables, etc.

*. 6 Types of CPU related benchmarks, using encrypting/decrypting mechanisms (Blowfish, CryptoHash, etc) ... are just a few to mention.

One annoying thing though, as soon as you click on one of the CPU benchmarks, "hardinfo" just launches the benchmark without a prompt!. So make sure to leave the PC/Laptop alone and close any running application while you're doing that ...

After doing all the tests and gathering the hardware information you can save the data into a HTML file for permanent access as well.

You can install hardinfo in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by entering the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install hardinfo

You can also install hardinfo in Fedora core 15 (or below versions) easily via yum by using the below command instead of the above one.

sudo yum install hardinfo

That's it mates, enjoy!.

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Lubuntu ISO images are Available via Official Ubuntu Servers (Finally!)

Lubuntu is an excellent, Ubuntu Linux based GNU/Linux distribution that comes with the LXDE desktop which is at the moment is one of the fastest, light-weight desktops out there (even faster than XFCE). Although it was started as a derivative rather than an official part of Ubuntu but since Ubuntu did miss the LXDE desktop version in their long list of other options such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu... soon after the initial release of the Ubuntu 11.04 release Mark Shuttleworth said that now they'll consider treating Lubuntu as one of their "own", soon enough.

I think that pretty much became a reality for the Lubuntu developers since from now on we can download Lubuntu from the official Ubuntu servers!. Now before you're gonna go ahead and download please be aware of the fact that, according to the official announcement these images are not quite ready yet and are missing splash images, over sized (over 800MB in size thus won't fit in a CD!) and won't even load the default desktop session, etc. In simple terms, they are not stable.  

Anyhow you can still use them using a USB drive or DVD, etc... and these images currently have ...

*. Chromium web browser (well I guess it's better at low resources rather than Firefox, or maybe not).

*. Openbox as the window manager.

*. PC Man, the default file manager of the LXDE desktop, which is quite fast and resembles a "lighter" version of both Nautilus and Thunar.

*. Abiword and Gnumeric (excellent spreadsheet application which is not that famous thanks to both LibreOffice and OpenOffice :D).

*. Pidgin as the default IM client.

*. Gnome mplayer as the multimedia player (excellent front-end that uses the MPLayer "engine").

*. Audacious as the audio player.

And also not just the LXDE desktop but you'll also get some portions of the Gnome desktop such as file-roller (archive manager in Gnome) and Gnome-Keyring (a password keeper). Well, that's about it mates!. But as said these are the daily build ISO images and are certainly not stable at the moment. So use it at your own risk ;-)... (seriously!). Oh and congratulations to the Lubuntu Geeks as well, finally, you made it!.

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Vanillux - An Ubuntu Based GNU/Linux Distribution that Comes With Gnome3!

Since we're gonna be, somewhat missing the "Gnome support" in the future versions of Ubuntu (starting with the 11.10, although it'll still be officially supported through online repositoreis but not in the CD/DVD) it's about time that someone comes up with GNU/Linux distribution that's based on Ubuntu as the "core" yet uses the Gnome 3 or the Shell as the default desktop rather than the Unity interface.

It's called Vanillux and it's so new at the moment that it's not stable thus not recommended for everyday usage. Now to be honest I haven't tried it (yet) but the thing that got me excited, as said, it uses Ubuntu as the core + supports Gnome desktop only (both the classic and the new Shell). So basically if you (like me) happened to both hate and love Ubuntu at the same time then I'm pretty sure that could be the sort of a community that is building the Vanillux Linux at the moment.

According to their home page the aim is pretty much straight forward, quoting...

"Contrary to most other OS suppliers out there, our goal is not to take large amounts of market share; Our goal is to keep our users happy and involved, regardless of their numbers..."

Nice and clean Gnome 3 desktop...

Now they have a downloadable ISO images but according to themselves they are a bit troublesome at the moment. Because of a possible "bug" with the ubiquity (Ubuntu's installing wizard) if you use those ISO files you cannot install the OS into the HDD but since they're liveCDs you can enjoy experiencing the OS nonetheless.

By default it does not come with a lot of applications since again according to the developers own words...

"The basic Vanillux desktop is simple and only includes the basic to get you running..."

Although I'm not entirely sure about all the software packages and their version (as said I haven't used it) but you'll get ...

*. Gnome 3 as the primary desktop.

*. Also the classic Gnome version (for those of us with slower hardware, you ain't alone in that :D).

*. Chromium web browser rather than the Firefox.

*. VLC and another media player (so that we can run proprietary codecs/files by default, man what A relief!)...

If you want to get more software such as LibreOffice and Flash, etc for the Vanillux OS then you can do so by using their online repositories. As said the LiveCD version does not let you install it because of a bug.

But if you want to install it permanently then you'll have to install the most basic version of Ubuntu using the minimal installation CD and then (make sure you have a faster Internet connection) after the installation issue the below command in the Command-line environment.

wget http://dl.vanillux.org/ubuntu-vanillux/vanillux-install.sh && chmod +x vanillux-install.sh && sudo ./vanillux-install.sh

This script, according to their wikipage is designed to automatically install the Vanillux graphical desktop and the applications. So all you gotta do is just run the script. Other things like System requirements are unknown (I didn't find them on the site) but they do have some nice screenshots at the moment. Although it would be nice that they could give the system requirements (I understand that it's might be too early for that but...).

But as a final note, it's no way in its final stages, only experimental at the moment so use it at your own risk. In the mean time if you want one of the most secure and stable GNU/Linux distributions but willing to let go of the need of having latest software versions, etc then I highly recommend the latest CentOS 6.0.

Anyhow, I'd like to wish good luck to the Vanillux developers one more time, Oh one more thing I almost forgot!. You can get the latest versions of the full ISO images from this FTP page. Good luck.

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CentOS 6.0 Live CD/DVD Editions are Finally Released!

For those of you don't know, CentOS is a GNU/Linux distribution that's based on the RedHat Enterprise Linux. Just like with RHCL, CentOS is also well known for being painfully slow to release new versions where most other GNU/Linux distributions give away new versions about ever 6-10 months.

CentOS on the other hand do a lot of testing for their packages thus even when they release a new version the packages may not have their latest versions nor features. But the rest assured, if you want a highly stable, less crashing secure operating system (say for our server), then this is one heck of an OS and I don't think there are that many who can compete against it either!.

Anyhow, after a long pause few weeks ago (2) they released the CentOS 6.0. It's available for both 32bit/64bit architectures but at that time there was no Live CD or DVD available for the users. But few hours ago (yesterday) they finally announced the official availability of the CentOS 6.0 Live CD/DVD!.

The Non-LiveCD CentOS 6.0 desktop...

In general this is only the LiveCD edition thus no new packages nor versions are included.

Main features of the 6.0 version ...

*. GNU/Linux Kernel 2.6.32.

*. Gnome 2.28.2 (Yup no Gnome 3 and if it's ever gonna get into CentOS that would be after a long time from today :D).

*. Mozilla Firefox 3.6.9 (Forget about Firefox 5 but not even Firefox 4).

*. Thunderbird 3.1.3.

*. Gimp 2.6.9... just a few to mention.

It comes with both CD and DVD versions. So if you want all the packages then you should go for the LiveDVD since they've stated that because of the lack of space, some of the apps are missing in the CD version. You can download CentOS 6.0 Live media from this official release page. And if you're looking for a review, then Igor Ljubuncic at dedoimedo.com has a excellent one as always. Good luck.

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How to Install KDE Plasma Netbook Edition in Ubuntu?

Plasma is actually a brand-name rather than a single app or a package which was invented by the Qt-written KDE desktop. To meet today's standards, since unlike in the past now the desktop environment developers have to take into consideration of the main three types of "desktops", one for the usual desktop users, another one for the notebook or netbooks and finally to meet yet another "big" trend these days, the Tablet PC screens.

The reason for such separate development is because, say that your current desktop is optimized for computers with a certain screen resolution (HD) then since most of the netbooks don't have HD or highest HD resolutions thus if they install the desktop then they'll have issues such as applications not "fitting" in their screen, etc.

Another benefit of designing a dedicated desktop is the ability to cut-out some of the unnecessary resources (smaller windows, etc) and optimizing it for certain CPU types, etc. 

Image via: KDE.org

So, if you have a nebook with a smaller resolution and size then although you can use the standard Qt/KDE desktop edition but as said if you do so not only you'll run into trouble trying to run apps and see their whole windows but also since that desktop is optimized for the usual Desktop/Laptop PCs, etc, so it'll put unnecessary strain on your Netbook thus resulting in a shorter battery life as well.

In that sense if you're a KDE geek ;-) who's not ready to let go of it without a fight, then your best solution is to install the beautiful, KDE plasma Netbook edition.

Another key thing about the KDE plasma edition is that it does not come with a lot of applications which also helps to save some of that HDD (may not be a huge concern, unless you have a faster but costly and smaller SSD) space as well.

But that being said, the KDE netbook version do come with a file manager, web browser, office suite, image viewer, painting application, excellent widgets support and many other applications by default nonetheless + you can easily install many more of other apps in the future as well.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 OR

since you have a somewhat "restricted" hardware features and hard disk space, you can install the KDE plasma netbook by even without having to install any graphical versions of the Ubuntu Linux. For that you'll have to first install the Ubuntu using the Minimal CD.

And then use the below command in your Terminal window (as said if you've already installed Ubuntu 11.04 using the standard LiveCD, then you can also use the below commands too).

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-netbook

That's about it mate! :D.

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How to Install gDesklets in Ubuntu?

I'm not entirely sure who invented it first but Apple did make something big out of their dashboard widgets nonetheless ;-). A desktop widget in general is a single purpose application that comes with a beautiful looking theme of its own rather than inhering the default look-n-feel of the desktop GUI and usually they quite depend on your GPU hardware a bit more than usual since they are transparent and had 3D looking interface, etc.

Widgets mainly has two main version. The ones that relies on an online source (such as Google gadgets for instance, which can be used on websites, etc) and then there's the other kind that has both the engine and the applications installed on a HDD. But usually a lot of these widgets use Internet to fetch their data as well.

With MS Vista Microsoft also started giving widgets to their users but GNU/Linux actually has more than a singe "widget projects" going on for her at the moment. The Qt/KDE desktop has a widget engine of its own but if you want a more cross-desktop ready widgets then gDesklets is one of the best without a doubt.

The world's most beautiful desktop :p...

Main features...

*. Supports major desktops for GNU/Linux such as KDE, Gnome and Xfce.

*. Has a separate "engine" of using which the desklets run and lets you install third-party created widgets easily.

*. Comes with few built in widgets such as a - Clock, Calender, Quote of the day and a puzzle game.

*. Supports installing/running remote packages.

*. Configure individual widgets.

Configuring individual widgets is pretty easy... just right-click on the one that you need to configure and then click on "Configure desklet" ...

*. Create profiles.

You can install gDesklets in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in you Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install gdesklets

Once install you can run it by pressing "Alt" + "F2" keys and entering the below command in the box.

gdesklets

As said the default desklets (that's what they call them :D) may not be enough for you guys then you can a huge number of desklets from this page and use the main window to install them easily. Enjoy!.

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PyMusic - A Python Written, Fast Loading Music Player for GNU/Linux

If you're sick and tired of all these music players nowadays slowing down your old GNU/Linux PC or Laptop and just want a fast loading, simple music player that requires very little system resources, then the Python written, PyMusic player could be the one to look for.

But please be aware of the fact that it's currently on alpha stage thus you might encounter bugs which happened to me as well. For instance when you run it for the first time it asks for your music collection folder. But while I was using it for some reason it could not "remember" my music folder thus I always had to manually put the folder location every time I launched it! which is obviously frustrating.

But as said before this is still in its very early stages thus things like these should be expected but just because I had this issue doesn't mean that you'll encounter by it either. 

Update (4/12/2012): As you can see from the below comment (by the developer), the development of "pymusic" is officially stopped. But that doesn't mean that you cannot use it if it works on your distribution though :).

Main features...

*. It uses the Gstreamer multimedia framework and can handle MP3 and OGG files only it seems at the moment.

*. Very simple GUI and no menus either!.

*. Add multiple folders.

*. Arrange your songs via "Artist Name" or "Song names".

*. A big "missing" feature is the "progress bar" which lets you go to a preferred location in a file manually. So basically you just can't jump into the time-frame that you want which is a MUST!. As said this is still in alpha stage but this must have been there (or may be it's another bug :/...).

That's about it for features. There are no ".deb" packages at the moment but you can install PyMusic in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (might work on the 10.10 and 10.04... not sure though) by simply downloading the archive from here.

Then extract the content and open your Terminal and change directory to that extracted folder and enter the below command.

sudo make install

To launch it in Unity just search for "pymusic" or press "Alt" + "F2" keys on your keyboard and use the same command in the box.

The current version in 0.2.5 but you can check out whether the maintainer/developers has new updates, etc from his launchpad page in the future.

As said I won't be using it because of the issues and the "missing progress bar" (hope it's not a simplistic features like with Gnome :/) I had but one thing for sure I'll keep a close eye on this little app because after considering its speed ... when a stable release it available I'll most definitely be trying it again!.

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How to Install Xfburn (CD/DVD burner) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04?

By default Ubuntu Linux (both Unity and Gnome) comes with an optical disk burning utility called "Brasero". It's pretty good actually... loads fast and does its job quite well but if you want an even more fast CD/DVD burning application then you should try another one called Xfburn which is actually the default burner in the Xfce desktop environment.

I prefer Xfburn over Brasero for two main reasons. As mentioned above its quite fast and light on resources + although not much but since Brasero (the Gnome desktop's  default app) won't even let you change things like the buffer size out of its arrogant being simple "philosophy".

Xfburn on the other hand lets you change few settings that are necessary for better stability and controllability, if you are a bit of a "advanced" geek :P but please be aware that  if you want to compile a video DVD for instance ... then you'll be better off with Brasero since Xfburn does not have that implemented at the moment. But for the usual burning "jobs" this is quite handy. 

Main features...

*. Just like other CD/DVD burning applications Xfburn also has built in wizard type welcome screen from which you can choose -

1. Burn an Image (ISO, etc).

2. Create a new data compilation (switch between various CD/DVD sizes from 200 MB -  7.9 GB). 

3. Blank a disk.

4. Create an Audio CD.

*. Separate file explorer window integration.

*. Under the "Preference" window as mentioned before you can change the buffer size, show hidden files, change the "tmp" file directory, detected devices list, etc.

On the "negative" side, it doesn't seem to support "plug-in" at the moment...

Well that's about it actually. You can install Xfburn 0.4.3 (current version) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window. How to Install Xfburn (CD/DVD burner) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04?

sudo apt-get install xfburn

That should do it. You can use multiple optical disk burning applications without any "collusions" as well. Enjoy!.

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Few Cheap Netbooks Under $ 200 - 250

In the past netbooks used to cost a lot than their bigger laptop cousins ;-) because those days the manufactures had to make dedicated CPU/RAM/Motherboard, etc that are smaller + still retaining the performance, although the performance wasn't as high as the Laptops but somewhat closer.

But the technology has advanced thus the manufactures have come up with different solutions such as cheaper versions of CPU that aren't as fast as the desktop or the "usual" Laptop versions but in general they've been able to cut the price quite significantly not just by manufacturing "cheaper" versions of the hardware devices (subtle plastic out-fits, LCD screens, etc) but the main reason is the growing demand the "market" which is now quite expanded thus this is one of the reasons for the price being somewhat lower than in the past.

Anyhow, if you want even cheaper versions then yes it is possible to find cheap netbooks under $200 or $ 250 but please be aware of the fact that, in my opinion, if you want a netbook that's a closer match to a usual Laptop than you'd be better of with something that starts with a price range of $350+. But that being said... there are few netbooks around $200-250 that are quite powerful and useful nonetheless.

Also remember, for a such cheaper price you won't be getting a larger screen (I'm talking about 11"+) and as a result all these netboks will have a smaller keyboard thus if you're a touch-typist then again, think twice before you purchase since they're certainly not that comforting neither efficient because of the smaller size (you won't be able to achieve your usual typing speeds with these keyboards).

But that being said in this small list that I compiled has  two 10.1" screen netbooks that the manufactures have been able to include a full size keyboards nonetheless!.

Anyhow if you're ready then I don't have a huge list since I tried to come up with reasonable ones rather than cheap shitt* stuff (these are all highly rated products, 4/5 or more user ratings) ... so here it goes...

1. ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-EU17-BU 10.1-Inch

Buy directly from Amazon!

This is a beautiful looking Netbook from ASUS EeePC family, and from the beginning the Asus Eee PC family had one of the best looking netbooks in comparison with other products. When considering the hardware details and customer feedback, its asking price it is more than acceptable.

Hardware details in brief...

*. Comes with three color choices (Blue/Black/White). 

*. Intel Atom N455 (1.66GHz).

*. 1 GB DDR3 (max up to 2GB).

*. 250GB Sata HDD with 5400 rpm.

*. No CD/DVD drive but can plug-in a separate external drive nonetheless.

*. 10.1-Inch Matte 1024X600 WSVGA LED Display.

*. Wi-Fi, 0.3MP front web camera, Reader MMC/SD(SDHC).

*. 4 Hours of battery (will change according to the usage).

*. Comes with Windows 7 Starter pre-installed.

*. Total weight (including the battery) is about 1.1 kg. 



2. ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-EU17-BK 10.1-Inch 

Buy directly from Amazon!

As you can see from the name this is almost "copy" of the above mentioned model (including the hardware details) So what's the catch ;-) ?. Well it's the price. It's about $20 cheaper than the above model but it weights a bit higher which is about 1.5 kg. Other than that little weight increase I think this is an excellent netbook around $200-250 range.



3. Toshiba Mini NB255-N245 10.1-Inch 

Buy directly from Amazon!

This one is from Toshiba and in my experience they're not the ones with cheaper prices usually. You can buy this netbook from Amazon but please be aware that they don't have brand new ones only have used and refurbished ones only. But again this is another product that has a lot of positive user feedback and importantly you can expect for a 8 hours + battery life from it as well. 

Hardware specifications...

*. 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N455 processor (512 KB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB).

*. 1 GB DDR2 RAM and expandable up to 2GB (note: unlike with the other models on this article... this one comes with the a bit older "ddr2" RAM module thus there may be a slight decrease in performance but since the processor FSB is also 667MHZ it doesn't make a lot of sense to have a DDR3 on the other hand either).

*. 160 GB SATA hard drive.

*. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 up to 250MB shared memory.

*. Wi-Fi.

*. Has an excellent Full size keyboard which is very rare for a 10.1 netbook!. Excellent for touch typists.

*. Memory card reader and 3 USB 2.0 ports.

*. 6-cell battery with up to 8 hours of battery life (this again will change according to the usage from the user).

*. Total weight of 1.04 kg and is one of the most lightest too.

*. Comes with MS Windows 7 Starter edition. 



4. Acer Aspire One AOD257-13876 10.1-Inch

Buy directly from Amazon!

Another beauty form Acer Aspire series. If I'm not mistaken I think it was actually Acer who was among the first few manufactures to introduce the whole "mini Atom Netbook" thing -;). Although they do have the never AMD Dual-core versions but it costs a bit high at the moment... but this model is another netbook under $250 range and comes with powerful hardware and is certainly more powerful than the above mentined models since this one comes with a dual-core processor!.

*. Intel® Atom? Dual-Core N570 1.66Ghz with 1MB L2 cache.

*. 1GB of DDR 3 Memory.

*. 250 GB Sata HDD (5400 rpm).

*. 10.1 WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite LED-backlit Display.

*. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 (64MB dedicated).

*. 4 Hours of battery life (will change according to your application usage, etc).

*. 3 USB 2.0 ports.

*. Card reader.

*. About 1.2 kg of weight. 

*. 0.3MP front camera and Wi-Fi are among the main hardware details.

So as said these are actually a few cheap netbooks under $200 - $250 range (more likely under $250 actually)  and if you have more suggestions or recommendations, I'm more than willing to hear. Good luck.

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