Richmond Open Source Community - Ubuntu

A new user's review of Linux

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:17:25 -0400

Local blogger Becky McKimmy has published A new user’s review of Linux.
She clears out some key pros and cons she sees with Linux and concludes "All in all I have been very impressed with Ubuntu Linux 7.10 and would recommend it to anyone who is willing to learn a new operating sytem.". read the full article

Browse, E-mail and launch applications faster with Deskbar

Sat, 03 May 2008 21:32:22 -0400

Deskbar is feature built-in to Ubuntu Linux that speeds up common tasks by letting my type just a word and having it "do what I mean". Some examples:

If I want to use my chat program, I don't no longer have to think about whether it is already running or not, to decide whether to use a "task launcher" or a "task switcher". I just type "chat", and Deskbar will do the right thing-- Switch to it if it is open, or launch it if it is not.

The ability to "just think of the application" is the core elegance of the Mac OS X Dock, yet so many imitations of it get it wrong and continue to separate the concepts of task switching and launching. Deskbar thankfully allows you to just think of an application without being concerned about whether or not it is already open. But that said Deskbar is not a dock and the similarity with the OS X Dock ends there.

Use F11 for Full-Screen in Ubuntu

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:33:10 -0500

With the increasing popularity of laptops, getting the most out of small screen sizes has become a priority for computer users.

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon helps with this by providing a consistent keyboard shortcut for a "Full Screen" mode. Pressing "F11" in many standard Ubuntu applications allows you to to toggle the application in and out of a full screen mode. Today I tested that the following key applications support this:

Firefox
Gimp Image Editor
Eye of Gnome Image Viewer
Evince Document Viewer
Totem Movie Player
Rhythmbox Music Player
Terminal

Now that I realize the shortcut exists and is widely supported I use it regularly to get the most out of my 14" laptop screen. I did find one key application had a full screen model and used a different shortcut. Open Office mysteriously uses "Ctrl-Shift-J". I have filed a bug to suggest that Ubuntu make this consistent as well.

Ubuntu tip: Automatically turn off streaming music at night

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:33:29 -0500

I've been known to accidentally leave a stream of music running all night when I'm not there to listen to it anymore. That wastes bandwidth and energy.

Here's a quick tip to prevent from happening, by causing any music playing to be turned off at 7:00 pm each night.

On Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10, add these lines to "/etc/crontab". You can edit this file with "gksudo gedit /etc/crontab":

Note that "rhythmbox" and "vlc" are the names of the music players I use. Change as needed.

# stop streams from playing all night. 0 19 * * Mon-Fri killall --quiet rhythmbox vlc

Hidden Gem in Ubuntu 7.10: "Run Command"

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:10:36 -0500

For several years Linux has enabled to run a command by name with a little "Run Command" application, often accessed by pressing Alt-F2.

This is my favorite way to launch applications since it can be done with the keyboard by just remembering the name of the application.

In Ubuntu Gutsy, this little tool has become more useful.

No longer do I need to remember that the program run by OpenOffice is called 'oowriter'.

Now I can just start typing "OpenOffice", and it will show me the icon and name for "OpenOffice Writer" as an option.

If I type "Mail", it shows me the options for the "Thunderbird" and "Evolution" e-mail programs. Great!

Okay NOW you have no reason not to not try Linux

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:02:20 -0400

Look we (the Community) have tried to make Linux easy for everyone, non-text installs, Live CD's and DVD's, LUG's, install-fest's, etc, etc. But now we have done the one think that makes trying Linux as brainless as installing Windows apps.

Now I'd like to show you Wubi.

Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.

Wubi is Safe

It does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader.

Dell Sells Computers with Linux Pre-Installed

Fri, 25 May 2007 19:50:13 -0400

When Dell surveyed their customers to see what they wanted on their IdeaStorm feedback site, one answer was loud and clear: "We want Ubuntu Linux pre-installed". And now, only about two months later, they have it.

Dell is now offering Ubuntu pre-installed on three machines. Not only is the open source foundation of Ubuntu a great choice for consumers, the price is lower than buying the machines with Windows Vista, and having Dell pre-install the software means that they have certified and support this specific hardware to work with Linux.

Five Immediate Customizations for Feisty Fawn

Mon, 07 May 2007 22:22:32 -0400

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn is a great operating system, and I've already helped install it on a number of systems. Here are five customizations I make right away to make it a more pleasant system to suit my taste:

Install the Flash and Java plugins. Ubuntu already has packages for these, but I believe they turned on by default for licensing reasons. Go to Applications: Add & Remove Applications and search for "ubuntu-restricted-extras". This will install Flash and Java plugins, as well MP3 support and some nice free Microsoft fonts. Check the boxes next to the listing and click "Apply" to finish the job. The Java plugin installs some things into the menu system that I think I'll never use, so I remove the entries for them. To edit the menu, right-click on "Applications" and select "Edit Menu". The menu editor should be fairly intuitive, and allowing you to remove "Java Web Start" and anything else you want. (Note: removing the menu items doesn't un-install these applications).

Ubuntu Feisty is out!!!

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:33:55 -0400

Today is release day for Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn, which I've been playing with in beta for almost a month now. I must say this is the best Ubuntu release yet. I've never been happier with Linux on the desktop.

Most of the release notes are about upgrading fro Edgy to Feisty but they did say that the minimum memory requirement for Ubuntu 7.04 is 256MB of memory. With only the minimum amount of memory available, the installation process will take longer than normal, but will complete successfully, and the system will perform adequately once installed.

And here is a link to 11 things that are awesome in Feisty http://leetcode.net/2007/04/11-things-you-havent-seen-yet-in-ubuntu-feisty-fawn

Ubuntu and Kubuntu Edgy compared

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:24:24 -0500

Kurt has just installed Kubuntu Edgy on his laptop to replace Mandriva, so that gave me a chance to compare Kubuntu to Ubuntu.
I have Ubuntu on my laptop now, an almost identical model to his.

Having seen both Ubuntu and Kubuntu, I definitely prefer Ubuntu at this point. Read on for details.

Improvements Contributed to Mandriva, Ubuntu laptop sound

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:52:52 -0500

As part of my switch from Mandriva to Ubuntu, I had the opportunity today to contribute some improvements back to both operating systems.

Having just used Mandriva on this laptop, I knew it was possible for the sound to keep working after a suspend/resume cycle, but it quit working after the Ubuntu switch.

Since Mandriva's solution was made available under an open source license, I was able to review it adapt to work with Ubuntu, and Ubuntu can easily and legally accept this solution, if they choose.

Laptop switched from Mandriva to Ubuntu

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:44:06 -0500

After several years of being a satisfied user of the Mandriva Linux distribution, I've switched my laptop over to Ubuntu Linux.

The tipping point came when I couldn't get a VPN client to work on Mandriva, but Ubuntu just worked.

I had previously compared Mandriva and Ubuntu. Ubuntu looked as-good-as or better than Mandriva in every aspect except a couple of things: wireless and the laptop suspend/resume feature.

Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn Will NOT Have Proprietary Video Drivers

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:55:47 -0500

The Ubuntu Technical Board has decided to NOT include the proprietary video drivers from ATi, nVidia, and so on in Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn.

From the Technical Board's mailing list found here:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2007-February/000098.html

"There has been a great deal of discussion within the Ubuntu community regarding a technical proposal (the enabling of Composite support by default) which would necessitate the use of certain closed-source video drivers in a default installation of Ubuntu. In response to this controversy, a meeting was convened among representatives of the Technical Board and Community Council to evaluate the issues. "

VPN setup on Mandriva and Ubuntu compared

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:06:32 -0500

I recently developed a need to connect to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) from Linux at home. Here's the result of my experience, using both Mandriva 2007 and Ubuntu Edgy.

Performance Tips for Linux

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 13:01:56 -0500

Here are some easy tips to make your Linux desktop run even faster.

Give up the wallpaper Try right clicking on the desktop and selecting the "Configure Desktop" to find an option to use a plain color instead of a photo wall paper. Ubuntuclips.org has a video walk through of this task.
Disable File Previews UbuntuClips shows you how to do this for Ubuntu.
Avoid OpenOffice OpenOffice is powerful and easy to use. It's also a memory hog. Consider Abiword for basic word processing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets. You could still install OpenOffice, but only launch it if you need it. In Ubuntu, the abiword-plugins package adds support for more file formats, making it easier to work with Word and OpenOffice files.