Linux Road

Ubuntu 11.04 promises to bring many changes to Ubuntu Distro. Default applications have undergone a lot of changes recently and this trend continues. Banshee is the next major application that is set to replace the current default music player Rhythmbox. Rhythmbox replacement is subjected to the size of Banshee so that it can fit in the CD along side other applications.

Other major changes to default applications are:

• Shotwell, Evolution, Totem will remain as default applications
• Thunderbird was considered to be a potential alternative to evolution as default mail client but dropped from this cycle because of issues regarding calendar, contact, integration with appmenu and messaging menu
• Firefox 4 instead of Chromium as default web browser as Chromium needs better integration with    desktop and some security issues. 
• Oneconf integration
• Gnome Dictionary has been dropped.
• LibreOffice if it is ready for Ubuntu 11.04

Synapse is a quick launch application for Linux. It can search for applications, documents, pictures, videos, and other files on your local machine for quick access. Synapse make use of Zeitgeist engine.

Synapse is quite similar to GNOME Do, but is far more powerful. Search capabilities are good and normally shows relevant results. Synapse can be launched by using following short-cut key at anytime:

crtl + space

Once Synapse is launched simply type, search, and go.

Results are sorted per frequency of use. Means that the applications that you use more often will be displayed first.

Plugins are available to find other stuff as well:

• Applications - searches your desktop files
• Banshee - allows you to play/enqueue music files in Banshee
• Commands - runs any command (ie. "sudo apt-get update")
• Devhelp - search documentation using Devhelp
• Dictionary - find definitions of words
• Directory search - allows opening of commonly used directories
• Gnome session - log out, shut down, restart
• Hybrid search - complete Zeitgeist results by searching for similar files
• Rhytmbox - play/enqueue music files in Rhythmbox
• UPower - suspend & hibernate your computer
• Zeitgeist - search anything logged by Zeitgeist

Other than default theme, three more themes are available, shown as follow:

Mini

Virgilio

Dual

Get Synapse

Ubuntu users can get Synapse by using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:synapse-core/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install synapse

For other distros follow the official link.

Ricardo López announced the release of Asturix 3. Asturix is an Ubuntu-based distribution that tends to focus on ease of use and a full support for social networking. Asturix allows you to legally download music via Jamendo.

Feature List

The official feature list, posted on Asturix 3's official web site lists the following features:

• Elegant and proffessional interface, combined with an amazing design easy of use
• Total integration of social and microblogging networks as Twitter, Facebook or Identi.ca
• Asturix Bridge lets you to add, remove and execute web applications as native applications
• Face login. Write your password to login now is from the past
• Libre and free music thanks to Jamendo, and it is legal!

Download

To Download Asturix 3 follow the following link: http://asturix.com/download

Donate

If you like the project and are able to help the project financially then you are requested to donate something to the project. To donate follow the following link: Donate

Screenshots

Canonical has decided to change the interface of the next release of Ubuntu (Natty Narwhal 11.04) from GNOME to Unity. Unity is an open source project that focuses on simplified interface and three dimensional displays.

Canonical has to make this decision because the views of developers at Canonical were starting to diverge from the views of the GNOME team. Canonical had different ideas about how a desktop interface should look and operate, according to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth.

"We were part of the GNOME shell design discussion, we put forward our views and they were not embraced by designers," Shuttleworth said during a press briefing. "We took a divergent view from the GNOME shell folks on key design issues, for example how application menus should appear on the system, how one should search to find applications, [and] how one's favorite applications should be presented."

Ubuntu's next release Natty Narwhal (11.04) is set to be launched in April 2011. Natty Narwhal (11.04) will have Unity shell that will support three dimensional interface. Shuttleworth announced on Monday, at the company's Ubuntu Developer Summit, being held this week in Orlando, Florida. For previous desktop versions of the software, Gnome was the default shell.

Canonical and the developers of GNOME, an open source project led by the GNOME Foundation, have had an increasingly disharmonious relationship over the past year due, in part, to these design issues.

Because Canonical was already developing Unity for netbooks for OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers, "We went ahead and did the engineering" for a general desktop interface for the next release, Shuttleworth said. "Essentially, it is a very different product from the GNOME shell, and has a very different way of organizing things," he said.

Even though Canonical will switch from GNOME in the next release of Ubuntu, but according to Mr. Shuttleworth users will have little problem. Shuttleworth has also promised that all GNOME application will run without any modifications.

"We have no plans for proprietary extensions to Unity whatsoever," Shuttleworth said.

Most of the times it happens that Ubuntu Netbook becomes agonizingly slow. Checking the RAM usage shows that only half of RAM is used (and quite obviously half is still free not being utilized) while SWAP memory usage is above 50%. This confuses many (including me) because SWAP memory is a lot slower than RAM and since RAM is available why Ubuntu even bother using SWAP.

What is SWAP?

Before moving to why this happens I will like to tell a few things about SWAP. SWAP is a portion of your hard disk dedicated to work as RAM. RAM is a fast piece of hardware and works more efficiently and so it is preferred that most of the process run in it. But, since RAM is very expensive, Linux makes use of SWAP that actually fakes to be a RAM and is used if RAM memory is not sufficient enough to hold the running processes.

Why Ubuntu uses SWAP when RAM is available

The problem here is RAM is available and Ubuntu is still using SWAP memory. This is due to the fact that the default value for swappiness is 60. Now what is swappiness? Swappiness is a parameter that controls the likelihood of the kernel to move the processes from RAM to the SWAP (a sort of virtuall ram). This value can be altered from 0 to 100. The higher the value the higher will be the chance of processes being moved to SWAP area and vice versa. So, here we are simple going to lower the swappiness value. A swappiness value of 10 is recommended but the default value is 60

How do I decrease swappiness value

To change the swappiness value just follow the following instructions. :

To see the current swappiness vaule type this in Terminal (to open terminal goto Application > Accessories > Terminal) and type the following command

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

To temporarily change the swappiness value (lost on reboot) type:

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

To change the swappiness value permanently type the following to open sysctl.conf in editor:

gksudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Now search for vm.swappiness and change it to vm.swappiness=10. If vm.swappiness is not found then add following at the end of the file:

vm.swappiness=10

Save and reboot your system, you will notice the increase in performance.

Source:

• Ubuntu Wiki

To give it a more neat look Computer, Home, Network, and Trash icons are hidden on Ubuntu desktop by default. Most Linux user prefer not to have these icons on the desktop as they are easily accessible from the Places menu from the top panel. But, a user coming from Windows background might like to have these on the desktop. There is an easy way to make them visible on the desktop, just follow the following simple steps:

First you have to open Ubuntu's Configuration Editor. To open configuration editor press Alt + F2 (hold alt button and press F2). This will open a Run Application windows, now type the following command in the input box:

gconf-editor

Now press the run button, it will open Configuration Editor's window.

From the tree menu on the left, click the plus button besides apps, and search for nautilus. Open nautilus and click on desktop.

On the right hand side you will see the options, computer_icon_visible, home_icon_visible, network_icon_visible, and trash_icon_visible, check all (or some) of them. Close the windows and you will see the icons on the desktop.

Robbie Williamson has announced the availability of the beta release of Ubuntu 10.10, code name "Maverick Meerkat". The Maverick Meerkat Beta is the beta release of Ubuntu 10.10, bringing with it new features for the next version of Ubuntu. The final and stable version of Ubuntu 10.10 will be released on October 10, 2010.

New features in Maverick

• Updated Packages

• All Ubuntu versions that are released, packages--applications and software of all kinds--are updated in it. Many of these packages used to come from an automatic sync from Debian's Unstable branch, but according to the Ubuntu website this sync has stopped now. So, one would expect few changes to that.

• GNOME base platform updated to version 2.31

• The GNOME base platform has been updated to the current 2.31 versions. This particularly includes the new dconf and gsettings API.

• Evolution updated to the 2.30 version

• Evolution was updated to the 2.30 version, which operates much faster compared to the version in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

• F-Spot out, Shotwell in

• Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager.

• Gwibber Improved

• Gwibber has been updated to support the recent change in Twitter's authentication system, as well as changing the back end storage to improve performance.

• Better Sound Indicator

• The Sound Indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls.

• Ubuntu Software Center, improved look and feel

• The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new "Featured" and "What's New" views for showcasing applications, an improved package description view, and a "For Purchase" software category has been added. You can also now easily access your package installation history too.

• Changes to Ubuntu One

• Ubuntu One: Polished desktop integration with new sign up and sign in process. Tighter integration with Ubuntu SSO. Nautilus enhancements for managing folder sync preferences. Faster file sync speed. Share links to music within the Ubuntu One Music Store.

Note: For a list of all packages being accepted for 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, please subscribe to maverick-changes:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/maverick-changes

News Source

Bisigi Themes are a result of Bisigi Project, and are arguably some of the more attractive set of themes available for GNOME (one can disagree, because it is all about choices in the end). The aim of this project originally was to improve the visual appearance of Ubuntu. But since they are made for GNOME desktop they can work very well on any distribution that uses GNOME.

Major Objectives of Bisigi Project

• Making GNOME / ubuntu visually more attractive
• Making Gnome customization more accessible
• Doing promotion of Free Software and Participate to this ecosystem

Bisigi Themes Guidelines

• Submitting Several Atmospheres:
• All Bisigi themes should submit several atmospheres. Colors palettes must allows user to change his desktop atmosphere very quickly.
• Simplicity and Coherence:
• Created themes must be simple, coherent and homogeneous. Mainly based on optimized themes engines (for gtk) like murrine or clearlooks. It has to allow to design powerful themes.
• Ease of Installation and Update:
• Making themes available on a Launchpad repository to facilitate themes installation and update.
• Out of the Box:
• When a theme is installed, it must be directly usable on the default gnome desktop (without user intervention).
• Keeping Gnome Philosophy:
• Themes must follow Gnome philosophy. Guidelines of this page: http://www.gnome.org/about/ must be the basis of each theme creation.

Available Themes

Installing Bisigi Themes on Ubuntu

1. Add the repository

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bisigi && sudo aptitude update

2. Install Themes

• sudo aptitude install bisigi-themes

Installing Bisigi Themes on ArchLinux

• Bisigi themes are available on ArchLinux, in AUR repository. You can install those themes by using yaourt for example

• yaourt -S nomdutheme

• To list available themes, you can use this command:

• yaourt gnome-theme

Installing Bisigi Themes on Frugalware

• To install a bisigi theme on frugalware, you just have to do:

• pacman -S nomdutheme

• You can find the package list here: http://frugalware.org/packages/?op=pkg&arch=i686&ver=current&srch=gnome-theme

Installing Bisigi Themes on Mandriva

Open a terminal window, type su, press Enter, type root password, press Enter. Then we strongly suggest to install all 14 Bisigi themes, with the following script:

• Mandriva 2010.1 – 32 bit

• urpmi.addmedia --update MIB-basic http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.1/32/basic/
  urpmi -a task-bisigi-gnome-themes
  urpmi.removemedia MIB-basic

• Mandriva 2010.1 – 64 bit

• urpmi.addmedia --update MIB-basic http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.1/64/basic/
  urpmi -a task-bisigi-gnome-themes
  urpmi.removemedia MIB-basic

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