HUD: Unity's awesome bar!

HUD or Heads UP Display is an intelligent search bar in Ubuntu, unveiled by Mark Shuttleworth today, which promises to search anything under the sun! Well, sort of!! Actually, HUD is the new search bar which will enhance finding of menu and submenu items . It will replace the existing global menu and integrate into the search bar of Unity.

This is the HUD. It’s a way for you to express your intent and have the application respond appropriately. We think of it as “beyond interface”, it’s the “intenterface”.  This concept of “intent-driven interface” has been a primary theme of our work in the Unity shell, with dash search as a first class experience pioneered in Unity. Now we are bringing the same vision to the application, in a way which is completely compatible with existing applications and menus.

Mark Shuttleworth

The project is still at a very nascent stage and is available for testing only. There will be a lot of addition/ removals of features, e.g. integration of voice navigation.

From the initial demos of the application I feel it will make it extremely difficult for novice users to find any menu items. And, it will also annoy users who does not like to use the keyboard to find stuff. 

Below is a video showing a working demo.

Installation


If you want to test HUD on your system, use the following repository. Please remember, it will replace your current unity search bar.


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/hud

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade


Uninstall


If you do not like HUD, you can remove it by the following commands:



sudo apt-get install ppa-purge (if you dont have ppa-purge)

sudo ppa-purge ppa:unity-team/hud

Please share your thoughts on HUD!

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Cinnamon 1.2: Bye bye Gnome Shell; Hello Gnome 2

We covered Cinnamon desktop 1.0 a few weeks back. Yesterday's release of version 1.2 has taken us by surprise. We were not expecting another stable release until next month!

Nevertheless, a good desktop is always welcome! This release is a major release for Cinnamon as it removes all dependencies of mutter and hence moves away further from Gnome Shell. On the other hand it starts to resemble Gnome 2 layout even more.

Major changes in this release of Cinnamon includes :

• 2 new animation plugins
• 30 transition styles

• a brand new cinnamon settings menu to change basic settings
• 3 desktop layouts ( traditional, flipped, classic)

• 5 new applets
• improved main menu
• 130 bug fixes

Changes under the hood

• Cinnamon now uses its own window manager (Muffin forks and replaces Mutter in Cinnamon 1.2)
• Cinnamon is no longer compatible with Gnome Shell themes. It is possible however for a theme to define styles for both Gnome Shell and Cinnamon and to be compatible with both desktops.
• Newly open windows are focused by default (instead of appearing in the back with an annoying “Your window is ready” notification)
• Closing windows on an empty workspace no longer triggers the overview.
• The overview was replaced by a desktop Scale plugin (similar to the old Compiz Scale). In future release, this plugin will be associated with CTRL+ALT+DOWN and a new Expo plugin will be mapped to CTRL+ALT+UP.

Installation

Ubuntu PPA

The Ubuntu ppa for Cinnamon is not yet updated. However, it is better to keep the ppa added for easy future upgrades.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:merlwiz79/cinnamon-ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cinnamon muffin 

Direct Download

You can download individual .deb files and install by double clicking on the .deb files. You would need all the files listed below to install Cinnamon.

Cinnamon ( 32bit | 64 bit )

Muffins ( .tar.gz file . it includes all the files )

CLI command

sudo dpkg -i cinnamon_1.2*.deb *muffin*.deb

Uninstalling

If you do not like Cinnamon, you can uninstall the ppa using the following command.

sudo ppa-purge 

ppa:merlwiz79/cinnamon-ppa

If you have installed only the .deb files then

sudo apt-get remove --purge cinnamon muffin

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

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How to add optirun mode to applications in unity launcher

Some users are terrified of the terminal and some simply do not want to type on the keyboard to launch an application. However, if your laptop has a hybrid graphics card and you want to make use of it by installing bumblebee, you would need to get your hands dirty!

Firefox launcher with optirun mode

However, there is a way to get past the terminal. If you are running the program from the unity launcher, just add the command to the unity launcher. It needs a little bit of work.

1. Choose the program you want to run using optirun. In this case we take the example of Google Chrome. 

2. Go to ~/.local/share/applications

cd ~/.local/share/applications

gedit google-chrome.desktop

Add Optirun to X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts so that  it looks like this:

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Optirun;NewWindow;Incognito;

now add the following lines right below X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts

[Optirun Shortcut Group]

Name=Optirun Mode

Exec=optirun google-chrome

TargetEnvironment=Unity

3.Save the file. 

4. Open file manager and navigate to ~/.local/share/applications. ".local" is a hidden folder under your home folder. You can view the hidden folders by pressing Ctrl+H.

5. Once you locate the google-chrome.desktop file, drag it to the launcher. 

6. Now you will be able to launch optirun mode in Google Chrome by right clicking on the Google Chrome icon as shown in the screenshot .

Google Chrome launcher with optirun mode

The same method can be applied to other applications which has a launcher icon or a desktop icon. 

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Gnome Pie reaches 0.4!

Gnome Pie, the new , innovative circular menu reached version 0.4. Two important changes were made to the new version.

• Gtk 3 port

Gtk3 port is an important step forward as most distributions have started shipping Gnome 3 or Unity. Hence the application looks more native in Unity and Gnome3. 

Gnome-Pie menu

According to the developer, "When configuring, Gnome-Pie automatically detects whether the GTK3 development files are installed. If so, it will use them..".

• New settings menu

Settings Menu

The new settings menu is a major overhaul when compared to its previous version. It was rewritten from scratch. Now, it offers editing the pies with preview; very intuitive.

Gnome Pie in action

Gnome-Pie 0.4 from Simon Schneegans on Vimeo.

Installation
There is a PPA with a recent version of Gnome-Pie. If you simply want to test it, it's very easy to install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-pie

Uninstall
If you want to remove gnome-pie and the ppa, type the following in an open terminal
sudo ppa-purge ppa:simonschneegans/testing

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Bumblebee to the rescue of Optimus!!

Seems like we are watching the "Transformers" movie (starring Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox)!  Bumblebee has come to the rescue of the great Optimus Prime! 

logo courtesy: Nvidia

Although Transformers was a work of fiction, something similar has come true in real life. Nvidia's Optimus technology is finally getting support on Linux  via the bumblebee project!

Optimus? Bumblebee?

GREAT BATTERY LIFE AND GREAT PERFORMANCE. IT'S THAT SIMPLE.

NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology intelligently optimizes your notebook PC, providing the outstanding graphics performance you need, when you need it, all the while extending battery life for longer enjoyment.

Nvidia  Website

In simple words :

Nvidia Optimus is an optimization technology created by Nvidia to save battery life by automatically switching the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) off when it is not needed and switching it on when needed again. The technology mainly targets mobile PCs such as notebooks.When the GPU power is off, the driver redirects graphics commands to the integrated graphics chip (e.g. Intel GMA). Currently only Windows 7 is officially supported, however the open source project Bumblebee brings support to Linux.

Wikipedia

After months of development, Bumblebee has a new release available; version 3.0 was released on the Ubuntu ppa approximately eight hours ago. There were speculations that the project was dead. All the rumours were quashed with the release of the new version. The developers are saying this is a much improved and more stable release. The code the been rewritten in C. 

Features of this new release are :

• bbswitch power management, allows for fast and reliable power switching which also survives suspend
•  vga_switcheroo power management is supported but only available for nouveau.
•  by default the card is switched off if no optirun program is using it.
•  Better detection of errors as well as reporting those to the user running optirun.
• Automatically detect the correct PCI Bus ID, removing the need for manual configuration.
•  recovery from drivers getting loaded while the card is off which would result in "No such device" errors (nvidia).
•  Standard autotools build system, allowing for better dependency checking and a more comfortable way to install/uninstall the program.
•  manual pages for optirun (a client) and bumblebeed (the daemon/server)
•  optirun --status will now show the current status of Bumblebee and the secondary GPU on your system.
•  Includes example initscripts for SysV init, systemd and Upstart.

You can view the full release notes here.

The project is still under heavy development.  As for now, if you wish to make use of the Nvidia graphics card, you need to run the application from the terminal eg.

optirun firefox
optirun google-chrome

The project wiki can be viewed at https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki. 

Installation

Installation instructions for Ubuntu based distributions  (Also available at 

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee) :

Open a terminal and enter the commands below.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable

If you are on Ubuntu 11.04 or older versions of Ubuntu and want newer drivers (recommended) than the ones available in the official repos, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

sudo apt-get update

Install Bumblebee using the proprietary nvidia driver:

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia

sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee $USER (change $USER to your username)

sudo reboot

If you intend to run 32-bit programs like Wine and using Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric or later, install 32-bit libraries with: 

sudo apt-get install virtualgl-libs:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libc6:i386

Difference in performance?

We have a Nvidia Optimus graphics card powered laptop and we were able to make a quick frame test after installing bumblebee.

Frames measurement using Nvidia Optimus graphics card

~$ optirun glxspheres
Polygons in scene: 62464
Visual ID of window: 0x21
Context is Direct
OpenGL Renderer: GeForce 310M/PCI/SSE2
107.483984 frames/sec - 119.952126 Mpixels/sec
102.987323 frames/sec - 114.933852 Mpixels/sec
100.554701 frames/sec - 112.219046 Mpixels/sec
106.141690 frames/sec - 118.454126 Mpixels/sec
108.439915 frames/sec - 121.018945 Mpixels/sec
125.309435 frames/sec - 139.845330 Mpixels/sec
173.557035 frames/sec - 193.689652 Mpixels/sec

Frames measurement without the use of Nvidia graphics card(Using Intel graphics card)

~$ glxspheres 

Polygons in scene: 62464

Visual ID of window: 0x93

Context is Direct

OpenGL Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile 

20.397656 frames/sec - 22.763784 Mpixels/sec

19.941670 frames/sec - 22.254904 Mpixels/sec

19.958508 frames/sec - 22.273695 Mpixels/sec

19.950185 frames/sec - 22.264407 Mpixels/sec

19.952660 frames/sec - 22.267168 Mpixels/sec




As you can see, when using Nvidia, the frame rates shoots up to 100+ compared to when using Intel grahics.




Future releases will support a gui based launcher which will make it easier to launch applications which will make use of the Nvidia graphics card.




Uninstall



If you did not like Bumblebee or may have run into issues while installing it, you can uninstall it by the following method:




sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:bumblebee/stable




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Libreoffice releases new beta and stable builds

A flurry of releases have been announced by the developers of LibreOffice in the last two days. First of them is a release for the current stable branch 3.4. The new version is 3.4.5 , released on the 16th of January. There are no new features but an array of bugs have be quashed. For a detailed list of bug fixes please follow the link here.

The second stable release was for the 3.3 branch . Released today, there were minor fixes in the release. Release notes for this release can be found here.

The upcoming major release 3.5 also saw a beta release yesterday. This is the third beta release and contains a series of bug fixes and regression fixes as well. For the full list of fixes follow the link here.

If you want to download the stable releases, you can download from the link below.

LibreOffice 3.3.4 and 3.4.5 : http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

You can download  the 3.5 beta3 release from http://www.libreoffice.org/download/pre-releases/.

Please note, the beta release is not fit for mission critical production systems. 

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Cinnamon: Gnome-Shell with a twist

As we continue with the intense debate of Gnome Shell vs Unity, which is more user (un)friendly, a  new fork of Gnome 3 released by Linux Mint lead developer and founder is quietly gaining stability and maturity.

The Cinnamon Desktop

Cinnamon, that's the name of the fork, was released with Linux Mint as Mint Gnome Shell Extensions. It was then merely a few extensions on top of Gnome Shell. On December  22, 2011, Clement Lefebvre officially released the  new desktop based on Gnome 3 christening it Cinnamon. 

Cinnamon is an interesting project. It tries to cash in on the goodness of Gnome 3 while keeping the simple desktop layout of Gnome 2. All those avid drop down menu users can now use the new Gnome 3 and stop complaining about loss of productivity. 

Traditional menu

The Cinnamon desktop is a clean interface. On logon, is presented with a lower panel with all the tray icons on the right and a menu on the left. The default desktop theme is a theme based on the default Gnome Shell theme, Adwaita. 

The application menu is a recreated Linux Mint menu present in gnome 2 . It  houses a favourites bar on the left and a search bar on to quickly search for applications and system settings options apart from the regular application categories. Right clicking on the icons in the menu will open options to either send the icon to the desktop, panel or the favourites bar. 

 On the panel , quick launchers are available for Show Desktop, Firefox, Terminal and File Manager by default. Others can be added by right clicking application icons from the menu. Cinnamon is still at an early stage of development, so options to add items to the panel by right clicking is missing. 

Window selector

As you can see from the picture on the left, the window picker from Gnome Shell is still present in Cinnamon, which I really liked. I think that is one of my favourites of Gnome Shell. I will be really disappointed if this option is removed from future versions of Cinnamon. The window picker can be activated by moving the mouse to the top left hand corner of the screen where an infinity icon is present.

Theme selector

The Cinnamon desktop also supports themes and they can be selected easily from the themes menu. It also supports switching of multiple desktops and also supports all unity indicator items. All the indicators that can be seen in the screenshots are Ubuntu Unity indicators. 

Cinnamon can be downloaded from githut repositories. Although it is at a nascent stage, the desktop is exceptionally stable. I was able to take screenshots, write a whole document and play some videos without a single visual glitch or a crash. According to me this fork holds great promise if developed properly.

To download click the link below https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/downloads or copy paste the url in your browser.

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Remastersys 3.0 for Ubuntu 11.10 released

Popular remastering software, Remastersys, which was discontinued a few months ago has been revived and a new release has been added to the repository. The current release is 3.0 and supports 10.04, 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10 versions of Ubuntu and all its derivative operating systems.

 UPDATE: As you can see from the screenshots, remastersys 3.0 has gone through as major overhaul in terms of UI, thus making it easier for users to change the settings. 

To download the latest version of the software simply visit http://www.remastersys.com/repository/lucid/ 

on your browser and download the software. If you want to add the repository to your list of repositories then follow the steps.

1. Open Software Sources by pressing Alt+F2 and typing software-properties-gtk

2. Add deb http://www.remastersys.com/repository lucid/ to the list

And then update the repositories. Be Sure to uncheck the sources repository of remastersys (as shown below in the screenshot) as it will keep throwing up errors.

Once repositories are updated, install remastersys from Ubuntu Software Centre .

For command line :

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install remastersys

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Happy new year everyone!!

As 2011 comes to an end, we look forward for better news from Linux and Open Source community in 2012. I take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a Very Happy New Year . May 2012 be a great year for you and all your loved ones and for Linux as well!! Enjoy!!

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Codeweaver's Crossover does the job!

Recently I downloaded the latest trial version of Codeweavers Crossover 10 after getting seriously frustrated with Wine. The recent updates of wine broke my MS Office installation so many times that I nearly went back to Windows !! 

Moreover, I was so tired of Evolution not working with MS Exchange and all those organisations who refuse to give up MS Exchange as their mail servers! 

I had to look for an alternative. I had three choices; 1. Buy a Mac. 2. Go back to the Virus World i.e. Windows  or 3. Use Codeweaver's Crossover Linux.

I couldn't afford to buy a Mac! Too expensive! And I like to stay away from virus infection. They are such a pain! So, I decided to try Crossover 10. 

The installation was easy; downloaded the 30 day trial version and  installed it within my home directory. 

After installation I encountered a minor but serious issue. The Unity Dash does not like Crossover!  The application does not show up in the applications list. If you search for it, it shows up icons without any text, and the icons do no respond to clicks. So, anyone who is using Unity without Classic Menu Indicator or Gnome-pie Menus is out of luck!

No text below the icons 

Luckily I had both installed, so I navigated to Crossover Menu and fired up the interface for installing windows applications. The interface is very confusing for a novice user. It is also not very visually pleasing.  One advice if I  can give to the devs is to improve the UI. 

After getting past the initial hurdle, I selected Microsoft Office 2007 from the supported applications list. I selected the location for the installer file and clicked Install to start the installation.

The installer automatically creates a bottle called Microsoft Office 2007 and downloads all the required fonts and install .Net executables before the installation. After that the installer automatically continues with the MS Office Installation. You will have to enter the serial number for the product to complete the installation.


Once the installation was complete, I compared the installation with MS Word installed in Wine, and I was surprised to see the difference in font rendering, stability and handling of files. Crossover Linux clearly handled the large files very efficiently and the fonts looked much crisper than in Wine. 


I was most impressed because MS Outlook 2007 runs flawlessly in Crossover Linux 10. I setup my MS Exchange account and now I can send and receive emails just as I do it in Windows. I can fireup Outlook from my  menu without any crashes and all MS Office files automatically now open with Office instead of Libre Office.


If you have noticed, due to exclusion of Evolution, currently there is not default calendar application for Ubuntu 11.10. If you look in the default applications, it is set to Text Editor ( gedit). I think this is seriously lame. The Ubuntu devs could have atleast synced it with Thunderbird Lightning. Now, Outlook takes care of that. 


As you can see from the screenshot, the MS Outlook 2007 is performing perfectly fine, retrieving and sending emails. 

It can also archive emails and can import .pst files without a hitch. 

Running MS Office is very essential for me unlike many others. And no, I cannot use LibreOffice just becasue the formatting goes so horribly wrong for a .docx document. For a 40 page document, it is beyond repair! I just dont have the time. And Evolution is painfully slow, doesn't work most of the time.

I have not played any games using Crossover and I dont think I can any time soon. All I needed is MS Office to work flawlessly and it does. I am happy about it. The last time I used Crossover was in 2008 when it  was on version 7.0 and I must say the support of applications has improved drastically since then. I might get one of these Crossover applications soon!

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