April 26, 2016

How Ubuntu 16.04’s New Package Format Makes Installing Software A Snap



Ubuntu’s long-term support releases come with a trade off. New versions come every two years. During that time, your system stays consistent and receives the latest security updates. Unlike regular releases, you don’t have to update them every nine months.
But don’t try installing the latest version of software. Chances are your libraries will be out of date.


This isn’t a problem limited to LTS releases or Ubuntu in general. Even distributions running cutting edge code start looking dated before the next release. And some software never makes it into the repositories, regardless of age.
In version 16.04, Ubuntu is hoping to strike a balance between having stability and staying up-to-date. You won’t just have the option to install applications via debs. You will also be able to use snaps.
UbuntuSnap-Snap

What are Snaps?

Snap packages can contain application binaries and any dependencies needed to run. They stem from click packages, which Canonical developed to package apps for Ubuntu Touch.
Snap packages are coming to Ubuntu 16.04 as a technology preview. Debs will continue to form the core of the classic desktop and its Unity7 interface. Click packages will remain the default in Unity8 (which is also a technology preview for now). Consider 16.04 a chance to meet snaps before developing a more intimate relationship in the future.

What are the Benefits?

Canonical views snaps as the next generation of apps for all Ubuntu devices. Here are some of the reasons why you may want to get excited.

1. Faster and Easier Access to Software

With snaps, developers will no longer have to supply a PPA for Ubuntu users to get an application and its dependencies. Instead, people can download a single package and know it will run on their system. This saves them from having to copy and paste lines of code into a terminal that they may not understand.
This doesn’t just apply to applications. Snaps could improve access to new versions of desktop environments like GNOME or KDE.

2. Long-Term Reliability

Linux desktop environments and libraries tend to change rapidly. As a result, software that worked in 2012 may not run on the same computer four years later. Don’t even bother trying to install an old version of Firefox, for example.
This is a pain for developers and discourages some of them from creating software for Linux. After creating an application once, they have to modify it regularly to keep working in a year or two. And that’s not even considering all the variations between different distributions.
Since a snap package provides its own dependencies, the application should have what it needs to run today, tomorrow, and a couple of years from now.

3. Isolation and Security

 

 

UbuntuSnap-Mark-Shuttleworth


Snap packages run independently of the rest of the system. This means you don’t have to worry about installation impacting the rest of your setup. A developer can also patch a vulnerability and immediately send the fix out to users.
This is a double-edged sword. Since snap packages can make you run multiple copies of the same dependencies, you have to update each one when an issue is disclosed. If one developer doesn’t update an application, you’re left with a compromised version. Traditionally that would have been fixed when your distribution sent out security updates.

4. Paid Software Support

When you pay for an application, you expect it to work. This makes maintaining software for Linux especially unappealing to people selling software. Users expect you to support multiple distributions, with each changing in unpredictable ways every six months or so.
By using a snap package, a developer knows they have a version that works. It’s also easier to troubleshoot issues when each copy is the same.
For these reasons, Canonical plans to migrate paid applications to snaps by autumn of this year.

5. Familiar Development Experience

 

 

UbuntuSnap-Snapcraft


The mobile market has changed expectations around how software gets developed and distributed. The specifics may vary between working with Google Play, the Apple App Store, the Windows Store, and other marketplaces, but you’re still developing a package and uploading to a distribution center for review. Snapcraft, Canonical’s tool for building and packaging snaps, brings a similar experience to Ubuntu developers.

6. You Can Rollback

Not every upgrade goes as planned. Sometimes newer software introduces bugs that hamper the experience. In some instances, applications no longer launch at all. In these cases, developers can undo an update, and users have the option to re-install an old snap that worked.

How Will This Impact Other Distros?

Snap developers have built the format to work with Unity. Technically, this means the software can work on other distributions. But like Unity itself, snaps probably won’t see much adoption outside of the Ubuntu ecosystem.
This could stir interest in alternative but similar package formats. One example is AppImage, which you can already install on your Linux desktop today. A number of apps are available, such as Atom, Blender, Chromium, Firefox, and VLC.


UbuntuSnap-AppImage


AppImage is a continuation of Klik, which released back in 2006. It’s not the only one. PortableLinuxApps descended from Klik to create software you can boot from a flash drive.
Regardless of whether snaps appear elsewhere, they could encourage developers to distribute apps in a package format that works across distributions and regardless of dependencies. That’s the dream, anyway. What form reality takes remains to be seen.

Oh Snap, This Could Be Good

Installing software on Linux can be a pain. If it’s in the repositories, great! If not, you’re left hoping the developer provided a way to install software on your distribution. Each project has its own preferred method of managing applications and updates. It’s challenging to support them all. However at present, we have to be aware that the snap system could represent a security risk.

Image Credit: conveyor belt by Vivi-o via Shutterstock

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubuntu-16-04s-new-package-format-makes-installing-software-snap/

April 17, 2016

Clementine Music Player Scores Juicy New Update

Can you believe that it’s been over 2 years since the last stable release of Clementine?
It’s also been over 4 years since we last mentioned the popular open-source music player on this site!

New Features in Clementine 1.3

Ripened for release this weekend, Clementine 1.3 brings a punnet’s worth of improvements, features and bug fixes to the cross-platform Qt-based music player.
It is also the first release of the app to formally support Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, which is due for release next week.
More than 150 changes are present in all, with some of the more notable being:
  • Support for Vk.com
  • Seafile support (server >= 4.4.1)
  • Ampache compatibility (via Subsonic service)
  • New “Rainbow Dash” analyser
  • “Psychedelic Colour” mode added to all analysers
  • Various now playing widget tweaks, including option to hide song details
  • New & improved icons in various menus/dialogs
  • Option to remove missing/unavailable tracks from playlist
  • Various improvements to Spotify integration
  • Faster startup
  • Additional sources for lyrics
Podcast management also sees a selection of improvements:
  • Option to set podcast as listened sending to a device.
  • Order podcasts by age
  • Support for multiple podcast downloads
  • Cancel active podcast download
  • Option to hide listened podcast episodes
The app has also been updated to support GStreamer 1.0 and version 1.10.0 of the Taglib meta-data editor.
But it’s not all spit and polish. Some features are removed as part of the update, including integration with Canonical’s defunct Ubuntu One service and the recently retired Grooveshark music streaming service. Online music database Discogs is no longer used to fetch missing album artwork.
The full change-log for this release is available view on GitHub and gives a thorough overview of all the changes to ship in this update.

Download Clementine 1.3

Clementine .5
The official Clementine website hosts installer downloads for a number of Linux distributions, including .deb packages for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and up.
As a cross-platform app you can also download a Windows installers (including a portable version) and a Mac OS X disk image.

Clementine PPA for Ubuntu Users

Prepare to use PPAs?
Add the official Clementine PPA to get this latest version, plus automatically receive any subsequent releases as and when they’re made.
To add install Clementine from PPA run the following commands in a new terminal window:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:me-davidsansome/clementine

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install clementine
Once install has completed you will be able to open Clementine from the Unity Dash (or an equivalent app launcher).

Source: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/04/clementine-1-3-new-features-ubuntu-ppa

April 10, 2016

How to Install Rhythmbox Plugins in Ubuntu

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to install a list of plugins for Ubuntu’s default music player Rhythmbox in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and later.





The plugins currently include:
  • rhythmbox-plugin-artdisplay – display art covers as per v2.96 rhythmbox
  • rhythmbox-plugin-countdown-playlist – Countdown Playlist
  • rhythmbox-plugin-close-on-hide – really exit rhythmbox when click close button
  • rhythmbox-plugin-coverart-browser – Browse your cover-art albums in Rhythmbox
  • rhythmbox-plugin-desktopart – show cover art on desktop
  • rhythmbox-plugin-equalizer – rhythmbox sound equalizer
  • rhythmbox-plugin-fileorganizer – Intelligently move files to folders according to track tags
  • rhythmbox-plugin-fullscreen – This python plugin gives you a stylish full screen window
  • rhythmbox-plugin-hide – rhythmbox_hide
  • rhythmbox-plugin-jumptowindow – JumpToWindow
  • rhythmbox-plugin-llyrics – rhythmbox alternative lyrics plugin
  • rhythmbox-plugin-looper – Loop part of the song in Rhythmbox.
  • rhythmbox-plugin-opencontainingfolder – open containing folder
  • rhythmbox-plugin-parametriceq – parametric equalizer with up to 64 Bands
  • rhythmbox-plugin-playlist-import-export
  • rhythmbox-plugin-randomalbumplayer – Random Album Player
  • rhythmbox-plugin-rating-filters – Rating filters for the library browser.
  • rhythmbox-plugin-remembertherhythm – Remember the rhythm
All these plugins are developed by fossfreedom and available in his PPA. As some plugins were developed for old Rhythmbox 2.9x, it may or may not work on Ubuntu 14.04 with Rhythmbox 3.0.2.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboad to open the terminal. When it opens, run the
command below to add the plugins PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox-plugins
After that, you can install each plugin after checking for updates. Or install all of them by:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install rhythmbox-plugin-complete
Once installed, open Rhythmbox and go to Tools -> Plugins. Enable plugins you want from the list.

Source: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/07/install-rhythmbox-plugins-ubuntu-1404/

April 2, 2016

Where to download Chrome 32 bit since it has been discontinued by Google?


Many users have been looking for the last 32 bit build of Google Chrome browser. It is version 48. It came as part of Ubuntu Mate 15.10 recommended software from the Welcome Center. Below is a link where you can still find it.


http://mirror.ufs.ac.za/google-chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/



I am using Chromium, which is still being updated and is at version 49 currently. However, Chromium does not support the Adobe Flash Player and Google Chrome does. So that is one reason a lot of folks like it.



If you are looking for the open source Google Chrome equivalent called Chromium, in both 32 and 64 bit versions, they are available still. You can also find the Chrome "Canary" developer beta builds in both 32 and 64 bit versions for Windows and Linux there. You can find them below. Enjoy.

https://download-chromium.appspot.com/




And to install Chrome 64-Bit  via PPA try the following:

1. We use Google’s official Linux software repository (PPA) that will automatically install and configure settings needed to keep your chrome browser up-to-date.

Before installing repository, we need to download and install Google’s Linux package signing Key that will automatically configure your package manager to verify the integrity of packages before downloading and installing on the system.
On an Debian based systems (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.), use the following command to download the key and then use ‘apt-key‘ to add it to the system.


$ wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -


2.
After adding the key, run the following command to add chrome repository to your system sources.


$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

3.
After adding chrome repository, you must do a system update to update the newly added chrome repository, using the following command.


$ sudo apt-get update


4. Now, here Google PPA provides three chrome versions (stable, beta and unstable), so install whatever version you prefer.
Install Chrome Stable Version
$ sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

Installing Google Chrome Browser Using .Deb Package

1. Go to Google Chrome download page and select your package or you can use following ‘wget‘ command to download and install the latest version.

Note: Google Chrome ends support for all 32-bit Linux distributions from March, 2016.

$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb $ sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb 

2. Once it’s installed, launch Google Chrome Browser with normal user.

$ google-chrome-stable



 
Source: http://www.tecmint.com/install-google-chrome-in-debian-ubuntu-linux-mint/