October 31, 2012

2 Updated Linux Music Players: Audacious 3.2 and Xnoise 0.2.13

Audacious 3.2


audacious 3.2

Audacious 3.2 has finally been released. You probably already know what's new since Audacious 3.2 beta was already available in our unstable PPA, but here's the changelog again, just in case:

  • New music library plugin which lets you search your whole music collection and easily create playlists.
  • MPRIS v2 support which allows Audacious to integrate with the Ubuntu Sound Menu or GNOME Shell (via extensions like GNOME Shell Mediaplayer).
  • GTK interface improvements: a new button to toggle the new quick search on/off, buttons to close and add new playlist tabs, a drop-down menu to enable and disable visualization plugins, and a menu item to remove unavailable files from the playlist
  • Many changes related to handling large playlists (tens of thousands of entries) efficiently
  • Startup time, memory usage, and disk writes reduced signigicantly

To install the latest stable Audacious 3.2 in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04 from our main PPA, use the commands below:


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install audacious

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/updates-audacious-32-gnome-pie-04.html
_________________________________________________

Xnoise 0.2.13 has been released today, introducing a new Album Art view, similar to the one available in Banshee or in Rhythmbox through the CoverArt Browser plugin, along with a new application icon created by Reda Lazri.

The new Album Art view can be accessed from the toolbar/menu or by using the CTRL + B keyboard shortcut. There's an integrated search too, which supports searching for artist, album or track name so you don't have to exit the Album Art view to find out on which album you can find a certain track:


xnoise media player
New Xnoise album art view

Other changes in Xnoise 0.2.13:
  • Revamped 'Now Playing' image rendering with reflections
  • Add weblink to keyboard shortcuts in help menu
  • Use symbolic icon in volume slider
  • Implement MPRIS 2 seek
  • Enable support for more media types
  • Mingw compatibility fixes

new xnoise icon
New Xnoise icon


Xnoise is a fast GTK+ media player written in Vala, which supports both music and video files. It features automatic album art fetching, a nice "Now Playing" pane, media keys sypport, plugins for online services like UbuntuOne Music Store, Last.fm, Lyrics as well as Ubuntu integration such as Quicklists, HUD support, SoundMenu integration and notifications.

Here's a video recorded by the Xnoise developer, demoing some of the features available in the latest Xnoise 0.2.13:


(direct video link)


Install Xnoise in Ubuntu


xnoise media player

To install the latest Xnoise in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal or 12.04 Precise Pangolin, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shkn/xnoise 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install xnoise


For other Linux distributions, get Xnoise source via GitHub.

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/xnoise-media-player-gets-new-album-art.html

October 21, 2012

Voyager Linux Review: Impressive XFCE Distro

Many current linux users are looking for Gnome alternatives and have been exploring XFCE desktop distros. Voyager was developed to be a complete XFCE Ubuntu based distro, with excellent appearance and applications built in as part of its DVD. There are also lots of wallpapers included. Below is review and link where you can download it from their French website. Their website says version of Voyager based on Ubuntu 12.10 will be available on October 25th. This is a very impressive distro !

Voyager Review: XFCE At Its Best

Kamil Nadeem's picture
The XFCE Desktop Environment has risen greatly in popularity over the past few years. Major credit for it goes to the XFCE team who has been putting out releases with incremental updates and advancements but there is a misconception among many people that XFCE is bland. I encourage you to come on a voyage with me and you may discover something splendorous.


Voyager


I present to you Voyager 12.04 , the Beautiful XFCE distro from France based on Xubuntu. Voyager is a highly customised, beautiful and user friendly Operating System. As you can make out from the screenshot, the default setup of Voyager features a single xfce4-panel, a simple Conky and a customised Avant Window Navigator with special text icons instead of the standard application icons which look quite cool and unique.


Conky Control is among one of the most prised features of Voyager 12.04 which enables anyone even a total new user to have a taste of Conky. All you have to do is right click on the desktop and select Conky Control from the menu. Voyager 12.04 comes with 21 great Conky configurations that you can enable with a single click.


Voyager


You can even choose to have multiple Conky running.


Voyager


The ISO size of both the 32-Bit and 64-Bit Voyager is approximately 950MB and it is an excellent out of the box distro as it comes with a great variety of software, codecs, wallpapers and themes with the exception of Flash but it is not a big deal as you can easily install it.


Mozilla Firefox is your default web browser and it comes with the option of 9 customised startpages, many useful extensions and bookmarks. There is also a bookmark Install Flash which basically launches the Ubuntu Software Center for you to install Flash.
Then you have Thunderbird, Pidgin, Transmission, Hotot(which is my favourite Micoblogging client) with the PPA added so you get the latest version, GIMP, Darktable, Movie Player(Totem), VLC media player, Clementine, Audio-Recorder, Kazam for your screencasting, Pitivi Video Editor, Cheese, AbiWord, Gnumeric, the Synapse Launcher and much more.


The default theme of Voyager 12.04 is Ambiance-Voyager-Dark which in combination with Faenza-Dark-White icons looks stunning.


Voyager


There are many more themes available and as the developer is into travel photography you have slew of picturesque wallpapers to choose from.
I highly recommend Voyager 12.04 as it is an excellent lightweight, feature packed, beautiful OS plus it is a Long Term Support release as it is based on Xubuntu 12.04 which makes it a super fine distro to try and use.

For the download links you can check the Voyager website here which is in French but Google Translate is present there so you can check the website in a language that suits you.

Source: http://www.muktware.com/3612/voyager-review-xfce-its-best#.UIPxG3ahMhI








A uTube video review can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VjRCf6gq54&feature=player_embedded


Another uTube video review can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w42mymC1reI




Voyager Website: http://voyager.legtux.org/

October 19, 2012

Ubuntu Gnome Remix - more info from WebUpd8.org





Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 has been released!

Ubuntu GNOME Remix, a Linux distribution which aims to become an official Ubuntu flavour, uses GNOME Shell as the default "shell" and tries to provide a "mostly pure GNOME desktop experience built from the Ubuntu repositories".


Learn more about Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 by watching the video below:


(direct video link | for more videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel)




GNOME Shell by default


Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 uses GNOME Shell 3.6.1 by default, along with most of the GNOME 3.6 application stack, so it basically has the features you've seen in our GNOME 3.6 post.

Here's the new GNOME Shell 3.6 message tray:

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots


Since GDM 3.6.1 is included as well, you'll also get the cool new GNOME 3.6 lock screen:

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots
GNOME 3.6 lock screen
ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots
GDM 3.6.1



Here are a few more GNOME Shell screenshots:

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots



Default packages


As you would expect, Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 tries to offer most of the GNOME 3.6 applications: Web (Epiphany) 3.6, Evolution 3.6, Gedit 3.6, etc.

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots
Evolution 3.6

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots
Web 3.6

But there are some packages which aren't updated to version 3.6: Aisleriot, Nautilus, System Settings, and Totem:

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots
Nautilus 3.4.2
That's because Ubuntu itself uses older versions of these apps, so Ubuntu GNOME Remix is stuck with them as well. But you can update Nautilus or Totem to version 3.6 by using the GNOME3 Team PPA.


There are also some GNOME applications which aren't included by default, like Boxes or GNOME Documents. And you won't find any of the Ubuntu-specific applications as well: Ubuntu One or Ubuntu Software Center aren't included in Ubuntu GNOME Remix since they aren't official GNOME apps.

Instead of Ubuntu Software Center, it uses "Software" (gnome-packagekit), which includes its own update manager:

ubuntu gnome remix 12.10 screenshots

Applications included by default: Web (Epiphany) 3.6.0, Nauilus 3.4.2, GNOME Tweak Tool, Abiword and Gnumeric, Evolution 3.6.0, Cheese, Gwibber, Rhythmbox 2.97, GNOME games, Shotwell, Simple Scan, Transmission, GNOME Packagekit.

The classic (fallback) session is included by default as well, but is only used if your hardware can't run GNOME Shell.



Artwork


As you would expect, Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 uses the default GNOME 3 artwork: Adwaita for the GTK theme and the GNOME icon theme, along with the official GNOME 3.6 wallpaper.

But, at least compared to the beta, there is now a Plymouth theme as well as an Ubiquity installer slideshow:



The slideshow uses images for all the slides except the last one, which is common with the other Ubuntu flavours (which tells the user where he can get support). That's probably because the work was done by a small team and there wasn't enough time to get everything ready, this being the first Ubuntu GNOME release.


GNOME Shell was the missing piece and now, with 12.10, Ubuntu has all the popular DEs covered: from Xfce, KDE and LXDE to GNOME Shell or Unity (although these last 2 are not DEs but "shells"), even though Ubuntu GNOME Remix is not official yet. But let's hope it will become an official Ubuntu flavour with 13.04 Raring Ringtail.


Download Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10


Download Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 - and remember to read the official release notes!

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/prefer-gnome-shell-download-ubuntu.html

October 18, 2012

Ubuntu Gnome Remix - Gnome Shell Remix ends

Below is the posting off the Gnome Shell Remix Blog post. Sad news...
Ubuntu has forked an official Ubuntu Gnome Remix to take its place.
We have to give credit to the Gnome Shell Remix team for showing there is a significant user community for the classic gnome shell.

News About The Quantal Quetzal: 12.10 by jan on 16.10.2012 at 19:34:03

With Ubuntu GNOME Remix coming together with Ubuntu 12.10, there won't be a new version of my own remix anymore.If you want to continue to use the software collection of Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 12.04 and 11.10, you can do so. The commands below will install the following software on Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10:
LibreOffice Suite and GNOME Documents (replacing Abiword and Gnumeric)
Software Center and Update Manager (replacing GNOME Software Manager)
Remmina Remote Desktop Client

# apt-get update
# apt-get -y purge gnome-software-manager abiword gnumeric
# apt-get -y install libreoffice gnome-documents remmina \
update-manager update-notifier software-center
# apt-get -y --purge autoremove

Optionally, you can add the PPA by the GNOME 3 Team to install more up to date versions of some system applications:

# apt-add-repository -y ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
# apt-get update
# apt-get -y upgrade
# apt-get -y dist-upgrade

If you want, you can also install the custom blue-colored boot splash from the previous Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix. Just download the package and install it from here:

https://launchpad.net/~jan-hoffmann/+archive/gnome-shell/+files/gnomeshell-plymouth-theme_0.1_all.debTags: quantal - No comments

Updating from Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10by jan on 29.05.2012 at 17:27:29

This is a guide that may help you upgrading Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix from version 11.10 to 12.04. Please note that it is easier and recommended to upgrade by doing a fresh install. This guide involves using the command line.

The Upgrade Guide

Open the software properties application by typing the following command in a terminal window and disable all PPAs except the GNOME Shell Remix PPA, as packages from PPAs may cause problems during the update.

software-properties-gtk

After doing that, enter the following commands. This will change all the package sources from the 11.10 ones to the new ones from 12.04.

sudo sed -i 's/oneiric/precise/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i 's/oneiric/precise/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

Update the package information:sudo apt-get updateNow you can start the upgrade:

gksu "update-manager --dist-upgrade"

The following procedure is very similar to the update procedure of a Ubuntu installation with Unity. Please note that you may have to open the command window in the upgrade dialog to complete the upgrade.

Source: http://ubuntu-gs-remix.sourceforge.net/p/blog/

Ubuntu Gnome Remix (Official Release Now)

The Ubuntu GNOME Remix is a mostly pure GNOME desktop experience built from the Ubuntu repositories. The Quantal Quetzal Beta Release of Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 is a developer snapshot to give you a very early glance at the next version of Ubuntu GNOME Remix.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/ReleaseNotes/12.10Beta


























 

 

 

 

What's Included


  • The Ubuntu GNOME Remix ships with the GNOME 3.6 release candidate, but GNOME 3.6.0 will be available as updates immediately after the Beta release. Please see the GNOME Release Notes to see what's new in 3.6.
  • GNOME Shell 3.6 and GDM 3.6. Among other improvements, the login and lock screen have been redesigned.
  • Web (epiphany-browser).
  • Abiword for word processing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets.
  • Evolution as email client.
  • Software (gnome-package-kit), which also includes its own update manager. You can install updates by opening Software and clicking Check for Updates in the Software app menu.
  • GNOME Classic (gnome-panel 3) is included but GNOME Shell is the default session if your hardware supports it.
  • Tweak Tool and dconf Editor are provided for customizing advanced settings.
  • Cheese is a fun webcam app.
  • Gwibber allows you to easily connect via social media.
  • The complete GNOME Games collection.
  • Rhythmbox is the default music player.
  • Shotwell is the default photo manager.
  • Useful utilities like Simple Scan and Transmission.

What's Not Included


  • Some GNOME apps will not be upgraded to 3.6 for the 12.10 release. If you want these, try the GNOME3 PPA. Affected apps include Aisleriot, Nautilus, System Settings, and Totem.
  • Web does not support Flash in Ubuntu 12.10 (1001229). If you need Flash, try Firefox or Chromium.
  • Boxes is not included as it wasn't working earlier in the release cycle (1038763) . Also, qemu-linaro (qemu-kvm-spice) doesn't built on i386 in Ubuntu. qemu-kvm with spice support does build in Debian though on i386. (928432)
  • Documents is not included as it currently depends on LibreOffice, at least as packaged in Debian & Ubuntu.
  • LibreOffice is a more powerful office suite.
  • Ubuntu One is not included by default as it doesn't feel like a GNOME app.
  • If you want the GNOME Classic with-effects session to work, install compiz.
  • If you want Ubuntu-style notifications in GNOME Classic, install notify-osd.





UGR Linux
http://ugr.teampr0xy.net/

UGR Review at WebUPD8:
http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/ubuntu-gnome-remix-1210-beta-released.html

October 6, 2012

3 Fun XFCE Themes

One of the frustrations with the XFCE linux desktop is the lack of available nice themes. I spent some time tweaking my Xubuntu 12.04 install and found 3 nice themes which remind me of my old Gnome Ubuntu installs: a MAC-OSX like theme called Cratos-Lion, a silver Mint-X theme, and the Radiance theme. Also added the Docky launcher. Below are my results and links where you can get them. Enjoy.







You can get the Cratos-Lion XFCE theme here:

http://xfce-look.org/content/show.php/Cratos-lion?content=151866








|
You can get the Mint-X XFCE Theme here:

http://xfce-look.org/content/show.php?content=134015&PHPSESSID=9fd17e1a1b702f33737cf6f3603e0d5d









You can get the Radiance XFCE Theme here:

http://www.ravefinity.com/p/download-ambiance-radiance-themes-for.html

You can find more XFCE Themes at DeviantArt's extensive website here:

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/linuxutil/desktopenv/xfce/


October 5, 2012

Miro: An All-In-One Music Application To Manage All Of Your Media

We have a lot of media that we need to keep track of before we forget that we even have them. We’re also on a constant need for new, fresh media. Ideally, it’d be great to have an application which could do all of this for us, and become our “all-in-one media application”. For a large number of people, iTunes fulfills this role fairly well, but some people may not enjoy iTunes for a number of reasons, including its very closed nature (as it is closed source and tightly controlled by Apple, just like anything else they make or run).
But fear not, for there’s a great alternative which is much more open and well-developed.

About Miro

Miro can be seen as a decent competitor to Apple’s iTunes, as it manages all your music, videos, and podcasts with ease. It also offers support to download music from multiple stores, all of which is DRM-free. Miro is entirely open source, and highly values unrestricted media. This is very noticeable, as it isn’t able to play some of the DRM-protected music that I own.
While is may be a bad “feature” for some, it does incentivize you to move away from DRM-protected media.

UI & Your Media

 

 





























When you first launch Miro, you may notice that it actually looks a bit similar to iTunes. The design is very clean, and a side-by-side comparison reveals some similar UI features. However, it still stays unique and feels like a different app altogether. The first group of tabs on the left side are for browsing through your videos and music.





There is also a Video Search tab which lets you search through different providers such as YouTube, Google, and DailyMotion, and a Connect tab which allows you to stream, download, and sync between Miro instances on different machines.

Sources

 




In the sources section, you’ll find that you can easily access other services through Miro. Clicking on these sources leads you directly to that service’s website, so while it doesn’t integrate natively into the UI, it’s still a great addition so that you won’t have to switch to your browser just to go to them. Included are YouTube, Hulu, PBS, YouTorrent, and ClearBits.

Stores

 




The next section includes multiple stores from which you can buy music from. This should be fairly self-explanatory – you go to the store, you buy music, and it gets pushed automatically to your Miro library. I was surprised to see that integration included so that it’d be easy to get your media files as soon as you buy them. By default, the Amazon MP3 store, Amazon Android store, Google Android store, and eMusic store are all included. I’d be very surprised if the music you’re looking for cannot be found in one of these stores.

Podcasts & Playlists

 




The last two sections are for the podcasts you’re subscribed to, and any playlists that you’ve created. Miro includes a couple of podcasts to begin with, as well as an empty example playlist. These, of course, can be edited as you wish to make it your own. Podcasts of both audio as well as video are supported, and, depending on the podcast, can be downloaded regularly or via torrents.

More Cool Stuff

 




There are a couple of other cool features that come with Miro. It’s a great program to use for converting videos you already have into other formats or sizes which are optimal for the device you’d like to play it on. At the time of writing, Miro can support converting a video using 29 different profiles; all specifically made for different devices such as Android devices and iPod/iPad/iPhone. It can also use Echonest and 7Digital to “clean up” the metadata on your audio files to include the correct artist, song title, genre, and more. In the Preferences, you can enable extensions and international stores as well as many other options.

Installation

To install Miro, simply go over to their download page, and you’ll find downloadable files for Windows and Mac OS X. Linux users may find instructions here (such as the recommendation that Ubuntu users should use their official PPA), but for the most part, you can find Miro in your respective package managers under the same name.

Conclusion

As an iTunes alternative, I can highly recommend Miro because it works just great and has a lot of features to keep most people very happy. Of course, Miro isn’t the only good replacement, but I find it to be one of the most complete. Plus, its availability on all major platforms helps a lot too so all people can enjoy it.
What’s your favorite media application? What do you like most about it? Let us know in the comments!

To install Miro 5.0 in Ubuntu 12.04 and 11.10, run the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pcf/miro-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install miro


Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/miro-allinone-application-manage-media-crossplatform/

Linux Directory Structure

Linux Directory Structure (File System Structure) Explained with Examples

by Ramesh Natarajan on September 8, 2010
Have you wondered why certain programs are located under /bin, or /sbin, or /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin?
For example, less command is located under /usr/bin directory. Why not /bin, or /sbin, or /usr/sbin? What is the different between all these directories?
In this article, let us review the Linux filesystem structures and understand the meaning of individual high-level directories.


1. / – Root

  • Every single file and directory starts from the root directory.
  • Only root user has write privilege under this directory.
  • Please note that /root is root user’s home directory, which is not same as /.

2. /bin – User Binaries

  • Contains binary executables.
  • Common linux commands you need to use in single-user modes are located under this directory.
  • Commands used by all the users of the system are located here.
  • For example: ps, ls, ping, grep, cp.

3. /sbin – System Binaries

  • Just like /bin, /sbin also contains binary executables.
  • But, the linux commands located under this directory are used typically by system aministrator, for system maintenance purpose.
  • For example: iptables, reboot, fdisk, ifconfig, swapon

4. /etc – Configuration Files

  • Contains configuration files required by all programs.
  • This also contains startup and shutdown shell scripts used to start/stop individual programs.
  • For example: /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/logrotate.conf

5. /dev – Device Files

  • Contains device files.
  • These include terminal devices, usb, or any device attached to the system.
  • For example: /dev/tty1, /dev/usbmon0

6. /proc – Process Information

  • Contains information about system process.
  • This is a pseudo filesystem contains information about running process. For example: /proc/{pid} directory contains information about the process with that particular pid.
  • This is a virtual filesystem with text information about system resources. For example: /proc/uptime

7. /var – Variable Files

  • var stands for variable files.
  • Content of the files that are expected to grow can be found under this directory.
  • This includes — system log files (/var/log); packages and database files (/var/lib); emails (/var/mail); print queues (/var/spool); lock files (/var/lock); temp files needed across reboots (/var/tmp);

8. /tmp – Temporary Files

  • Directory that contains temporary files created by system and users.
  • Files under this directory are deleted when system is rebooted.

9. /usr – User Programs

  • Contains binaries, libraries, documentation, and source-code for second level programs.
  • /usr/bin contains binary files for user programs. If you can’t find a user binary under /bin, look under /usr/bin. For example: at, awk, cc, less, scp
  • /usr/sbin contains binary files for system administrators. If you can’t find a system binary under /sbin, look under /usr/sbin. For example: atd, cron, sshd, useradd, userdel
  • /usr/lib contains libraries for /usr/bin and /usr/sbin
  • /usr/local contains users programs that you install from source. For example, when you install apache from source, it goes under /usr/local/apache2

10. /home – Home Directories

  • Home directories for all users to store their personal files.
  • For example: /home/john, /home/nikita

11. /boot – Boot Loader Files

  • Contains boot loader related files.
  • Kernel initrd, vmlinux, grub files are located under /boot
  • For example: initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic, vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic

12. /lib – System Libraries

  • Contains library files that supports the binaries located under /bin and /sbin
  • Library filenames are either ld* or lib*.so.*
  • For example: ld-2.11.1.so, libncurses.so.5.7

13. /opt – Optional add-on Applications

  • opt stands for optional.
  • Contains add-on applications from individual vendors.
  • add-on applications should be installed under either /opt/ or /opt/ sub-directory.

14. /mnt – Mount Directory

  • Temporary mount directory where sysadmins can mount filesystems.

15. /media – Removable Media Devices

  • Temporary mount directory for removable devices.
  • For examples, /media/cdrom for CD-ROM; /media/floppy for floppy drives; /media/cdrecorder for CD writer

16. /srv – Service Data

  • srv stands for service.
  • Contains server specific services related data.
  • For example, /srv/cvs contains CVS related data.
Source:  http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/09/linux-file-system-structure/

October 2, 2012

Four key new features in Linux 3.6

Just a little more than two months after the release of version 3.5, Linux creator Linus Torvalds on Sunday unleashed the next new version of the Linux kernel.
Perhaps most notable among several key new features in Linux 3.6 is “hybrid sleep,” a capability much like one that has long been offered by Microsoft's Windows.
“When I did the -rc7 announcement a week ago, I said I might have to do an -rc8, but a week passed, and things have been calm, and I honestly cannot see a major reason to do another rc,” Torvalds began in the official announcement. “So here it is, 3.6 final.
“The changes in 3.6 since 3.5 are too many to list,” Torvalds added. “There haven't been any huge new architectures or filesystems, it's all 'solid progress.' That may not sound all that exciting, but the devil is in the details, and there's a lot of small fixes all over.”
Ready for a quick rundown? Here are a few of the highlights.


1. Hybrid sleep
Offering a combination of sleep mode and hibernation, what's commonly known as “hybrid sleep” involves both copying the contents of RAM to the hard drive, as in hibernation, and then entering sleep mode. The big benefit to using this technique is that the computer can not only resume immediately, but it also won't lose any data if power is lost.
If power is interrupted, the device will resume from the hibernated image; if not, it will resume normally and the hibernation image will be discarded. In Linux 3.6 this feature was added primarily with portable devices in mind, according to the official release notes.


2. 'TCP Fast Open'
"TCP Fast Open" is a Google-developed feature that tweaks the process of establishing a TCP connection so as to make it quicker in certain cases. In Linux 3.6, there is now support for this feature on the client side; server support is still to come. The result, according to the release notes, can be speed improvements of between 4 percent and 41 percent in page load times on popular websites.


3. More and better drivers
Linux kernel updates pretty much always add a raft of drivers for better hardware support, and Linux 3.6 is no exception. Of particular note among those included in this release are drivers targeting Sony and Apple vendor-specific devices.


4. Improved memory management
Among several changes designed to improve memory management, finally, is a new feature that allows swap read-ahead IOPS (input/output operations per second) to be merged, thereby improving throughput while also lowering CPU consumption.
Of course, this is just a tiny sampling of all the changes included in this new release. For a full listing, visit the release notes on KernelNewbies.org.
Top image credit: Adriano Gasparri on Flickr

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010923/four-key-new-features-in-linux-3-6.html

October 1, 2012

October Desktop

This month I'm running the Gnome Shell Remix 12.04 32-bit. It has the Mac OS-X Reloaded Theme, Docky, and Ubuntu Shine wallpaper.






















































The Mac OS-X Reloaded theme is here:
http://haniahmed.deviantart.com/art/Mac-OS-X-theme-reloaded-for-ubuntu-324479818

To install Mac-X-Reloaded Theme on Ubuntu/Linux Mint open Terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:

  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/themes
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get install mac-x-reloaded-theme


The Ubuntu Shine wallpaper can be found here: http://computerswallpapers.com/tag/1920x1200/page/2/