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Trying Out Ubuntu 10 04 On A Desktop PC Part Two

This blog describes the multimedia playback capabilities (both audio and video) of the standard Ubuntu 10.04 - that is, what this 64-bit OS can play out-of-the-box. Let us start with the audio capabilities first.

Multimedia - Audio Playback

It was obvious from the start that Ubuntu can handle sound - but what format? A quick peek into the /usr/share/sounds directory gave me some answers. The sound file formats that Ubuntu can handle out-of-the-box are .wav and .ogg type files. The wav format is an uncompressed PCM one while the ogg format is a lossy compressed one. Both are free formats and that is the reason they were included on a standard Ubuntu (which has a strict policy regarding non-free or propriety formats - they simply are not included).

A test was carried out by plugging in a USB drive containing several audio and video files of various formats, into the Ubuntu 10.04 PC. The USB drive was recognized by the OS and mounted automatically - an icon for that drive appeared on the desktop. The OS also obligingly open the Nautilus file browser showing the contents of the USB drive. Hovering the cursor over the various audio files on the USB drive, I discovered that Ubuntu can indeed play back wav and ogg type audio files plus it also can play back flac type audio files. This format is a lossless compressed PCM type and it is a free format (flac = free lossless audio codec) - hence it was included in the standard Ubuntu. However, out of the box Ubuntu CANNOT play back mp3, mp4, aac, m4a and ape formatted audio files. Obviously, extra non-free or propriety codecs need to be installed to handle these formats.

A quick check with the official Ubuntu 10.04 document did not help much but checking the community document on restricted formats gave instructions on which package to install in order to get support for the other audio (and video) formats. The package is appropriately named ubuntu-restricted-extras and besides the codecs necessary for play back of the other formats, also includes Microsoft TTF fonts, Java runtime environment, Flash plugin, LAME (to create compressed audio files), and DVD playback. Opening the Synaptic Package Manager, I installed this package - which took a while - mainly due to the downloading of the various TTF fonts from a busy server.

After the ubuntu-restricted-extras package was installed, another test was performed on the other audio files on the USB drive. Hovering the cursor over the files I can now play back mp3, mp4, aac, m4a and ape formatted audio files. This package indeed took care of the most popular audio formats found. By the way, I also found out that the popular Microsoft TrueType fonts (like Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New, etc) were also installed on my system - a big plus and another reason to install this package.

Another audio capability test was then performed - the audio CD playback capability. Inserting an audio CD into the drive resulted in it being recognized and mounted (a icon will appear on the desktop). A message box will also pop-up telling me that I have inserted an audio CD and asked which application to use the CD with - the default is Rhythmbox. Note that I can make this the default action also - however, for this test I accepted the default application by clicking on OK. Rhythmbox, the music management and playback software for GNOME, was launched and I was able to play the CD by clicking on the Play button. The details about the CD (album name, artist, and track/song title) was also displayed. This test confirmed that Ubuntu was indeed capable of handling audio CDs.

Thats it as far as my needs for audio playback on Ubuntu 10.04 goes. In my next blog, I will be describing the video playback capabilities of the OS, so stay tuned.

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UBNUTU LINUX 8 10 DESKTOP Free Download

UBUNTU 8.10 (home website download location (mirror))
http://mirror.cs.umn.edu/ubuntu-releases/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Server i386 (torrent)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-server-i386.iso.torrent
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alternate amd64 (torrent)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-alternate-amd64.iso.torrent
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alternate i386 (torrent)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-alternate-i386.iso.torrent
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Server amd64 (ISO)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-server-amd64.iso
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Server i386 (ISO)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-server-i386.iso

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Unable to install AOL Desktop with blank error message Windows Vista

I recently was asked to resolve another problem with AOL Desktop - the Main.idx had disappeared from the AOL profile folder within ProgramData and the program could not start. After some checks, I decided to completely uninstall and reinstall the AOL software. Although the removal was straightforward, I could not reinstall the software no matter which way I tried. The following error message kept appearing, followed by a completely white square that could only be closed using Task Manager.

Honestly, could this error be any more helpful?

Fortunately, the solution was simple - uninstall Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer (ActiveX). As the customer was using Windows Vista, this was unlikely to cause a problem since the latest version of Internet Explorer that runs on Vista is 9.0. This is too old to be useful, and another browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla FireFox is required for regular browsing. I did not try reinstalling Flash Player after successfully installing AOL Desktop, so Im not sure if similar problems would have returned or not.

Coincidentally, my very next job was also for someone running Windows Vista with a similar problem, though this was with the software for a Brother scanner. Instead of the usual controls for scanning images and files, a white space in the shape of the original program appeared. As before, uninstalling Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer did the trick, although the customer did comment that the program looked a bit different than it did before.

I think its likely that there is a problem with Adobe Flash Player 20 and Windows Vista, or perhaps with Internet Explorer 9, or perhaps with any number of different programs - who knows?

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Trying Out Ubuntu 10 04 On A Desktop PC Part One

As mentioned in several of my previous blogs, I use Ubuntu Netbook Remix exclusively on my netbooks (a Lenovo S10-2 and an HP Mini 2140). After playing around with the relatively new UNR 10.04 on the HP, I grew to like the OS - so much so that I decided to install it on a spare PC that I had around (which was mainly used for testing) and play around with it some more. The PC is built around an Asus M2N-E motherboard and the CPU I had installed is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+. The amount of RAM on the motherboard is 8 GB of DDR2-800. Clearly the 64-bit flavor of Ubuntu 10.04 was the choice of OS here. To top up the hardware, I also installed a ATI HD 4670 video card, a 550W power supply and a 320GB SATA hard disk. The display was an Acer 23 inch wide screen LCD. With all the hardware pieces in place, I ventured into the world of 64-bit Linux computing. This blog and more will describe my journey in that world.

After downloading the ISO image of the DVD, I burned it to a disc and used it for the installation. The actual installation was painless - the only unusual item of note is that I partitioned the hard disk manually and used ext3 filesystem instead of the default ext4. I also used my normal (normal for me, that is) partitioning scheme - i.e., a small boot partition, the root partition, a swap partition and a home partition. The reason for using the ext3 filesystem was mentioned also in my previous blog - it enables me to backup or clone my hard disk using the Arconis Home 2010 software, which at the moment can only handle ext3 type filesystem.

The first boot-up went without any problem and after logging in, was presented with the purple-colored desktop. The first thing I did was to change the screen desktop background to a more pleasing one - right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Change Desktop Background, I was presented with several choices. I selected Maraetai before sunrise as my background - at least it does not hurt my eyes as much as the default! :)

The second thing I did was un-mute my sound system, which, for some reason or other, the Ubuntu team decided to initially start off muted. I also adjusted the volume level sliders to a reasonable value. Note that the Sound Preference dialog box that appears upon clicking it, do not have the option to test the sound levels - a shortcoming which I urge the Ubuntu team to fix.

The next (and somewhat irritating) thing I fixed is the placement of the windows control (maximize, minimize and close) buttons from the top left side of the windows to the usual (and familiar) top right side.

As with my previous installation of UNR 10.04 on my HP netbook, I was prompted to update my system and it also indicated that propriety drivers were available for my system. Putting aside the drivers for the time being, I updated the system via the Update Manager - which took a while since there was a fair amount of updates that needed to be applied. Once completed a re-boot was required - this was done and the system restarted - this time it was accompanied with the Ubuntu startup sound.

The Firefox Browser

The first software I tried out on the Ubuntu 10.04 was the default web browser that come with it - the Firefox. I started it and changed my home page to news.google.com.my and then checked the installed plugins by executing about:plugins via the address bar. All the necessary multimedia and java plugins were installed except Shockwave flash-player and pdf-reader plugins.

The Shockwave flash-player plugin package (named flashplugin-nonfree) can be installed using the Synaptic Package Manager but note that this is a 32-bit plugin - the 64-bit one is still in beta and was not included in the standard installation of Ubuntu 10.04. As it is a 32-bit package, there was a lot of dependencies for it - the major ones being nspluginwrapper and ia32-libs. These are required to make the 32-bit plugin work on 64-bit Ubuntu. A lot of work to get one plugin to work - I just wish Adobe would get the 64-bit one working as soon as possible. However, the plugin worked - I verified it by playing a YouTube movie (my favorite HQ movie of Sarah Brighman singing Harem). The command about:plugins also verified that the shockwave flash is indeed installed.

The pdf-reader plugin, on the other hand, is not such a simple package to install. First the lucid partner repository need to enabled - this is done by editing the /etc/apt/sources.list file (as root) and un-commenting the two lines for the lucid partner repository. Then the Synaptic Package Manager need to be restarted and the package database refreshed by clicking on the Reload button. Alternatively, the command sudo aptitude update can be run from a console. Then a search for acroread need to be done and once found that package need to be installed. Note that this will also install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader and if you choose so, make it the default pdf type file reader. Once the plugin (and reader) has been installed, the Firefox browser has to re-started. The command about:plugins has also to be executed to verify that the pdf plugin is indeed installed - which in my case, was. In order to test the plugin I used a web page containing a pdf test document and it verified that the installed plugin worked. However, for some strange reason, the Acrobat Reader was not listed in the Applications menu list. Loggin out and then back in solved this - Acrobat Reader 9 was now listed in Applications -> Office.

Next I installed some extra essential (to me!) plugins - Adblock Plus, Download Statusbar, Webmail Notifier and Yoono (a social neworking app to mintor my twitter and facebook account). Once these were installed I now have the Firefox browser that I can use productively. In fact, I use the same setup for my netbooks and my Windows 7 workstations. Later I get my bookmarks synchronized across all my computers. I wonder if there is an application that will allow me to do so.

Next, I will check out the multimedia capabilities of Ubuntu 10.04 ... stay tuned.

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Ubuntu 14 Desktop Install Fira Sans And Fira Mono Fonts

Mozilla has created its own font family, Fira Sans and Fira Mono. Something that makes the mono font fairly useful/unique is that it appears to have a lot of vertical spacing. This means it could be a "workaround" for the fact that you cannot set line spacing in gnome terminal.

Install

Run the command below and it will do everything for you.

wget -O - http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=f89cQkcV | tr -d | sudo bash

References

• WebUpd8 - Try Fira Sans, A Free Font Family Commissioned By Mozilla

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Ubuntu 7 10 Desktop Linux on Steroids

Ubuntu 7.10 was released a few days back and being an avid and passionate user of Ubuntu Linux i downloaded the distribution on my slow college internet connection , It took me over 30 hours to download the distribution [:(] So i was really looking forward to the new Ubuntu 7.10 and here is the review of the Linux distribution :-

Ubuntu is one of the better known Linux distribution , that is making mark on the desktop front from the deal with Dell to topping distrowatch there have been ominous sign that Ubuntu could actually challenge likes of Mac OS and Windows on the desktop . Ubuntu 7.10 is one step forward in this direction . It is probably one of the most polished Linux distribution that is very well supported by community on the internet . Ubuntu 7.10 builds on previous releases and adds new features , functionality, features ,customization that truly make it a interesting desktop Linux distribution to try.

Installation : -

I have been using a really old laptop (Cel 1.4Ghz , 256 MB etc etc) so as recommended on the Ubuntu website (they recommend not to use Live CD for installation on system with less than 320 MB of RAM) I downloaded alternate installation CD which is basically text mode installation cd for Ubuntu which provides a bit more customization of installation . Now initially the installation did go well , i didnt have any kind of problem but when actually it started copying files onto the system and configuring various devices on the computer for some strange reason entire installation screen looked garbled with all kind of strange text ( i guess it happened because of some bug in graphic card detection system because it was doing that when this happened on my system) anyways so since alternate installation CD didnt work out the way it should have i downloaded normal Live CD .

Some Clips of Installation using alternate installation CD

This is how alternate installion CDs installer froze

I booted into Live CD , now to my surprise Ubuntu 7.10 had automatically mounted swap partition unlike the previous Ubuntu distribution which for some strange reason had removed automatic mounting of swap drive making entire Live CD installation painful on my rickety old system .

Now because of mounting of swap partition , the Live CD and Installation was atleast responsive (unlike Ubuntu 7.04 :( ) and i was able to install Ubuntu on my computer in around 1 hour . The installation program hasnt changed a lot from the previous release of Ubuntu 7.04 . There is a migration assistant that could be of particular use to Linux newbies who would be using their computers as dual boot system , it basically allows one to have the same kind of desktop configuration (fonts , wallpaper , user account etc etc) as Windows on their newly installed Ubuntu Desktop . Also, since in the Live CD installation you are booted into a full fledged Linux desktop so if you have sufficient amount of RAM you could easily use other applications while installation is going on .

Over the past 8-9 years i had been using Linux , Linux installation has improved a lot from a time when it was the most difficult part for newbies to a time now when installation of certain flavor of Linux distribution like Ubuntu,Freespire,etc are even simpler than popular Windows operating system , things have surely changed a lot .

Booting into newly Installed Ubuntu System

After completing the installation on rebooting the system , i was presented with grub bootloader and to my relief it had configured my operating system properly ( i have Windows XP , Freespire , OpenSuse installed) . From selecting Ubuntu in grub bootloader to booting to Log in screen the entire thing took ----- minutes .

Ubuntu 7.10 Login Screen

After logging into , i was thrown into the familiar Ubuntu desktop with Human theme . Now the first thing you notice is that all your partition including NTFS windows partition are automatically mounted and even read /write support is automatically enabled unlike Ubuntu 7.04 .

Also , unlike previous releases of Ubuntu where one had to manually download and install Compiz Fusion (Compiz Fusion is composite window manager that provides best features of Compiz and Beryl) from Repositories if one wanted to have glitzy visual effects . In Ubuntu 7.10 Compiz Fusion comes pre-installed and on supported hardware offers a wide array of Visual Effect . Now depending on graphic hardware of computer one could chose from three level of Visual Effect (From System -> Preferences -> Appearance )

None : - This mode causes Ubuntu to use Metacity instead of Compiz Fusion , with no visual effect

Basic : - Has only simple visual effects like shadows , fading windows-menus etc

Advanced : - Recommended for PC with descent graphic hardware , enables effects like wobbly windows, transparency , animated workspace switching etc

Visual Effect Dialog Box

Now , the biggest advantage of Compiz Fusion is even on really slow hardware one can have descent set of visual effects even on my slow laptop i could use Extra graphics effects though it was painful while using application like OpenOffice because of my slow hardware.

Hardware Support

Hardware support is one area where desktop Linux has matured a lot over past few years most of the cameras,phones , ipod , printers ,graphic card etc all are very well supported out of box on Linux distribution these days , and Ubuntu has one of the best hardware support .

I Was able to use my phone Sony Erricson K750i and Nokia N73 ,Printer HP 1210 , Apple 30GB ipod , and few USB pen drives out of box without any hassle . Now besides this it recognized and configured almost all the peripherals on my laptop properly .

Another interesting addition to Ubuntu 7.10 is new Graphical Configuration Application (System -> Administration -> Screens and Graphics ), that simplifies configuration of things like graphics driver , resolution , monitor , dual screen , etc . Now this application is welcome addition as configuring via xorg.conf is really painful and difficult for Linux newbies . Also another interesting thing was support for wide screen monitor , in previous releases i had a significant trouble trying to configure widescreen monitor support using utility like 915resolution , Now in Ubuntu 7.10 it seems this application has done something to make it bit easier . Though because of unavailability of wide screen laptop i wasnt able to test this .

Screen and Graphic configuration application

Another interesting thing in this release of Ubuntu 7.10 is improved font support , the fonts look much better than previous release of Ubuntu and even in Firefox i must say fonts looked better than same web page rendered on Firefox running on Windows .

There is also significant improvement in printing .



Application Set

Since Ubuntu is a single CD Linux distribution , it comes with very basic set of applications . Some of the application included with Ubuntu 7.10 are : -

As a desktop environment Ubuntu uses Gnome 2.20 , if you are one of those who prefer KDE you could use Kubuntu .

As Email Client Ubuntu comes preloaded with Evolution, and for internet browsing Firefox Web Browser .

Application Menu in Ubuntu

Ubuntu comes loaded with OpenOffice 2.3 which is quite mature office productivity suite , with included applications for word processing , Spreadsheet ,Presentation , Database and Graphic designing . OpenOffice over years have matured a lot from its StarOffice days , especially in terms of Microsoft Office compatibility . One should be able to open Microsoft Office documents easily in open office with little or no loss of formatting .

For instant messaging Ubuntu 7.10 has Pidgin 2.2.1(Which was previously called Gaim ) , now Pidgin supports all the major protocols including AIM,Jabber,MSN,Yahoo,IRC etc .

Pidgin Instant Messenger

Though , One area where Ubuntu lacks a bit is Multimedia support it comes with basic multimedia application and only limited codecs are installed by default because of Licensing issues .However Ubuntu 7.10 has made it really easy to install codecs with wizard based installation of codecs.

Wizard based Installation of codecs

For Music management it comes preinstalled with Rhythmbox which has good Ogg playback though mp3 support is lacking because of codec issues , For movie playing it comes pre installed with Totem which uses Gstreamer back end for playing video files . Though i would recommend installing of more mature and better multimedia application like MPlayer or Xine for playing video files .

For Photo management it comes preloaded with F-Spot and for graphics editing GIMP .


Desktop Search

One significant inclusion in Ubuntu 7.10 is inclusion of search tool called Tracker this tool coupled with search applet provides a very similar search functionality to Mac OS Spotlight . Now the application is still in early stage of development , but still it promises a lot . Now there have been similar tools available on Linux including Novell supported Beagle and Google Desktop but biggest advantage of Tracker over these tools is Tracker is extremely efficient and can perform well even on slow hardware .

Also one can easily adjust performance of Tracker from (System -> Preferences -> Indexing Preferences )

Tracker Performance Adjusting Dialog Box

Also Tracker is very well integrated with Gnome with Deskbar applet providing easy way of searching for files , Deskbar applet provides simple way of searching for files . Alt + F3 opens up Deskbar search box .

Tracker Deskbar Search Applet

Alternatively if you want to use Tracker search box , you could use (Applications -> Accessories -> Tracker Search Tool ) for searching for files .

Tracker Search Box

Conclusion

Overall Ubuntu 7.10 is extremely usable Desktop Linux distribution that could be ideal distribution for people making transition from Windows to Linux or Mac OS to Linux . Tracker search tool , Easy wizard based installation of codecs , Visual Effects using Compiz Fusion and easy installation of thousands of application in repositories all of this makes Ubuntu very appealing to linux newbies .

Brief of features in Ubuntu 7.10 : -
Kernel 2.6.22
Xorg 7.3
OpenOffice 2.3
Firefox 2.0.0.6
GNOME 2.20
Pidgin 2.2.1
GIMP 2.4.0-rc3
Tracker search tool
Compiz Fusion 3-D effects

Article Written by : -
Ambuj Varshney <>
For Linux On Desktop Blog (http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com)
(C) 2007 , Ambuj Varshney

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UKUI Desktop Environment Il fork di MATE del team di Ubuntu Kylin

UKUI Desktop Environment

Il calendario

Peony, il file manager di UK

Il centro di controllo di UKUI

Volete provare UKUI su Ubuntu 16.10?
Bene, vi � piaciuto e volete provarlo? Farlo � semplice, vi baster� aggiungere il PPA �Ubuntu Kylin Members� team, PPA compatibile oltre che con Ubuntu 16.10 anche con Ubuntu 17.04.
Personalmente per fare questa prova ho usato come base Ubuntu MATE 16.10.
Aggiungiamo il PPA dando da terminale:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntukylin-members/ukui

Aggiorniamo

sudo apt update 

ed infine insalliamo UKUI Desktop Environment dando da terminale:

sudo apt install ukui-desktop-environment

Una volta fatto baster� riavviare la sessione e selezionare UKUI nella schermata di login.

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Ubuntu Tip Adjust Navigation Hotkeys Creating Desktop Application Shortcuts

I was a hopeless Windows user - in fact, I still am. I stick to Windows XP until late 2010, because that was the only option and I was too busy with my exams and life (yup, I used to have a life...!) to play with Windows 7 when it first released.

Well, my first encounter with Windows 7 was on the laptop I bought for University. 2 weeks in my freshman year, I bought that Lenovo Ideapad laptop - I have to say, that was wonderful.

I wasnt really a hotkey person until I start using Windows 7, especially the navigation ones, this is one of the few things I genuinely appreciate on works from Microsoft.

Win + D and Win + Up/Down/Left/Right to resize the focus windows has been very important to my computer usage in the last few years - and also Win + 1-9, but Ubuntu comes with that by default so there isnt really much to say about it.

However, for some reason, Canonical has decided to add ctrl to every of these hotkeys I mentioned above, so Show Desktop is ctrl + win(super) + d, and snapping windows are ctrl + win + nav.

If youre an experienced Windows user like me, then you might develop a reluctant-ness to Ubuntu for being unable to use these hotkey like we used to.

Good news is we can change that - well, in fact, in the world of Linux, almost everything can be changed!

First, go to Software Center and search for "CompizConfig Settings Manager". Download it and it would got pinned to your taskbar automatically.

Just open the app, and go to Grid, under Windows Management. Go into it and you will see a list of hotkeys you will be able to change with the app.



The ones we are looking for are the 4 at the bottom, they are: Maximize Key, Restore, Left Maximize, and Right Maximize.



Click on the Button with the current hotkey to change it, you can use the interface given to select a new hotkey, or you can choose to click Grab combination and go on and press the keys on your keyboard and they will be recorded as the new hotkey for a specific feature.

There is, however, another thing we need to do before closing the app, for some reason, Win + Down is not functioning properly just by setting the Win + Down here in the Grid menu, we will have to go back to the main menu of CompizConfig Settings Manager, choose General Options under General, then find the option "Unmaximize or Maximize Window" and change it into Win + Down as well.




After that, close the app and try to control a window with your newly-set hotkeys!

Oh, and there is still one frequently used hotkey I havent wrote about yet - the Show Desktop key.

To set this one, we dont have to use CompizConfig Settings Manager, simply to go System Settings in your dash (open by Win key and search system then you will see it.) Go to Keyboard and click the shortcut tab, select Navigation, in the list of options on the right, find the one named "Hide all normal windows", select it and press Win+D, the hotkey will then be set.




All done!

Update:

A few days after, I found that my show desktop hotkey wasnt working properly.

My situation was - everytime I use the newly-set win+D hotkey to minimize all windows, the hotkey doesnt restore all windows when pressed again.

The solution is simple - just go to the system settings, click on Appearance, then get into the Behavior tab, check Add show desktop icon to the launcher. After that, the hotkey show behave as in Windows.

Cheers!

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TrueOS Lumina Desktop Environment user experience overview Part 1

Your enjoyment of TrueOS and the default Lumina desktop environment is largely dependent on your experience with FreeBSD, and your tolerance for different work environments. Windows and macOS users will find the experience jarring especially when it comes to performing tasks they are accustomed to doing in a certain way. Even Linux users might find TrueOS uncomfortable, though veteran Linux users who had used early Mandriva, Knoppix, and Debian releases will be more open-minded.






If you stick to the command line interface, you will notice differences between TrueOS with Lumina and FreeBSD 11. If you work primarily on the desktop, then Lumina has a few traits similar to Enlightenment (E17) or a standalone IceWM install.

Aesthetics and customization

Users who like making minute changes to their desktop environment will definitely start work on changing Luminas appearance. Even serious users who dont generally change icon and window defaults will probably end up making changes. As always, its a matter of taste and preference.




For the most part, the desktop settings can easily be changed directly, but you can go one step further by editing the text configuration files using the Theme Editor.

Performance and graphics

The default Lumina desktop environment has a low overhead, but on my Zotac ZBOX Nano with an Intel Celeron, Intel HD chip, and 8 GB of RAM, there were brief pixel artifacts and shadowing when I dragged windows and applications. Moreover, observant users will probably notice a brief lag when performing tasks - its hard to tell whether its due more to FreeBSD or TrueOS Lumina.

Note: I run FreeBSD 11 with either Xfce or MATE on modest hardware and work mostly on the terminal for tasks, so performance is hard to assess and making comparisons would be inaccurate. Linux distributions on the same hardware, however, shrug off all tasks I perform daily with no impact on desktop user experience.


According to the System Monitor Lumina Plugin, basic tasks such as running Firefox, Chromium, and file managers never really pushes TrueOS. Basic photo editing, taking screen captures, and transferring files to my NAS only trigger a slight bump, though playback of media using VLC registered a considerable amount of resources.


Continued in TrueOS + Lumina Desktop Environment User Experience Part 2

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Trying Out Ubuntu 10 04 On A Desktop PC Part One Addendum

In my previous blog, I mentioned installing some extra add-ons. What I forgot to mention was that I had problem initially while trying to install ANY add-ons - an error #228 occurs eveytime. After researching the web, I found that this was a common problem with 64-bit Ubuntu and it had to do something with IPv6 support in Firefox. This has to be disabled before add-ons can be successfully installed.

Following the instruction, I executed about:config in Firefox and then clicked "Ill be careful" button on the warning that appeared. I then typed ipv6 in the filter box to get to the one and only line thats needed - that line will say network.dns.disableipv6. The default value is "false". I then double-clicked it to set the value to "true" (to disable IPv6). Once this was done and Firefox restarted, I could install the add-ons without any problems. Note that if you do require IPv6 support in Firefox you need to reverse the process.

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