Xubuntu 14.04

Just like my prior Xubuntu install, this version 14.04 went very smoothly. It is a fast and simple Ubuntu distro to install and setup. Installed the Nemo File Manager, Deluge, Audacious, Synaptic, Chrome, and Screenlets. Also got to the try the new Rhythmbox, Banshee, and Yarock music players. Compiz is working fine as well when using the Docky launcher. A very good XFCE distro for those not crazy about Unity, or the current Gnome desktops.

 

 

You can download Xubuntu 14.04 here:  http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/

9 Beautiful Alternatives To The Default Linux Icon Sets

Danny Stieben,On 23^rd April, 2014,Linux

Some of the default icon sets that come with Linux distributions are just plain ugly. Have you ever looked at the default icon set for Gnome – the real one? While it works, it could look so much better. Thankfully, we can fix this rather easily. Here’s how you can switch icon sets, and which ones I recommend trying out.

How to Install

To install an icon set, you’ll first want to install Gnome Tweak Tool, a utility that allows you to access more configurability settings. This will allow you to switch between installed icon sets. Next, find your desired icon set and download it. Extract the contents of the zip folder, and place them in /home/<user>/.icons. Different icon sets should be in their own folders within the .icons folder. If you can’t see the .icons folder, you’ll need to enable visibility of hidden files and folders. In Nautilus, you can do this by simply hitting Ctrl + H on your keyboard.Then, you can go to the Interface tab in Gnome Tweak Tool and switch to the icon set you want. The change should apply immediately.
If you’re a KDE user, you don’t have to install anything extra. Just go to System Settings –> Appearance –> Icons and choose the icon set you want.
There are loads of icon sets available, but which ones are good and worth trying out? Take a look at these 9 icon sets.

Moka

Moka is currently the hottest icon set available. It’s clean and very well designed — all icons have the same size and square shape with rounded corners. It’s also one of the more complete icon sets available, with a number of icons made for various third-party applications, and not just for generic items or default applications.

Faience/Faenza

Faience/Faenza are a pair of icon themes by developer tiheum that are also wildly popular, although their heyday was roughly around the time when Gnome Shell was first released. The design concepts are actually very similar to Moka’s, but this theme also includes darker themes that can fit in well with light desktop themes.

Awoken

Awoken follows a completely different design concept that doesn’t use square icons for everything. Instead, Awoken first gained popularity from its original mono mode of icons. It has since evolved to include colored icons as well as dark and white themes. I think they look a little cartoony, but it’s not a bad thing — the icons are still cleanly designed.

Numix

Numix goes back to the square icon concept, and offers some of the flattest icons around. The colors used in this one are also a bit brighter — sometimes intentional to add exaggerated effects. However, its simplicity is attractive.

Unlike other icon sets, you have a choice between square or circle icons. They look the same; only the shape is different. I welcome this option since (as you might already be able to tell) there’s an abundance of square icon sets.

Nitrux

The icons found in the Nitrux set also follow square design principles, but these look much more three-dimensional and glossy. Yet again, this set also has its own style that works great and gels well among itself.

Candy

If you like the type of icons that come with most distributions, but just don’t like their style, the Candy icon set is for you. Icons here aren’t all squares or circles, but rather just in the shape of whatever the icon depicts. It’s straightforward and not too fancy.

Elementary

Elementary OS has been getting a ton of attention from my colleague Akshata, and the broader Linux community, over recent months. Part of the reason: it looks fantastic. The distribution’s icon set has something to do with that, so thankfully you can get it for your own Linux system without having to install Elementary OS. This one is similar in style to Candy, but it does come off as slightly more elegant. Or maybe that’s just the prestige talking.

Mac

You can’t deny that the icons in Mac OS X look pretty nice, so it’s no surprise that someone made an icon set based off of Apple’s operating system. This isn’t a perfect copy of the icons used in Mac OS X, but the inspiration is clear enough. If you like Apple’s icons, then this is a good icon set for you.

There you go! Those were nine great icon sets that you can try out with ease. Be sure to check out the installation instructions for the icon sets above — while my instructions at the beginning of this article apply to all Linux distributions, there are some icon sets that provide Ubuntu PPAs that make installation easier.
What’s your favorite icon set? What do you like most about it? Let us know in the comments!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-beautiful-alternatives-default-linux-icons/

Lubuntu, Xubuntu and Kubuntu 14.04 Available to Download — Here’s What’s New

By Joey-Elijah Sneddon

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS has been released and so has its family of flavours.
In this post we’ll give you a quick overview of what’s new and improved in each, along with all the info and links you need to get them.

Lubuntu 14.04 LTS

The Desktop

Firefox & PCManFM

The Lubuntu Menu

New Dual Pane Mode

Based on the lightweight LXDE desktop environment, Lubuntu 14.04 LTS is a cracking choice for those whose computers would otherwise creak under the weight of resource intensive desktops, such as Unity.

This release is the first to be badged ‘Long Term Support’, which sees a commitment from developers to providing three years of support and critical security and stability updates.

Those upgrading from earlier versions of Lubuntu won’t notice too many obvious changes. The emphasis has been on stabilising and improving what’s already there rather than adding new features. That’s not to say it’s not worth upgrading to; on the contrary. The files app now sports a dual-pane mode for advanced file management, plus a bunch of new folder settings; menu editing tools have been added, and the latest version of Firefox is included for web browsing. AbiWord and Gnumeric take care of office needs.

Download Lubuntu 14.04 LTS

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS

Xubuntu 14.04 Desktop

Sitting between the lightweight Lubuntu and the more resource heavy Ubuntu is the Xfce-based flavour Xubuntu.
The 14.04 release of Xubuntu uses the latest xfdesktop 4.11 and has added a new menu editor and the ‘Mugshot’ app that lets you edit user account details in a fuss-free way.
More notable changes include a brand new application menu for launching and finding your apps and system settings and the introduction of a new lock screen called ‘Light Locker’ that matches the login screen.
Updated artwork, including new wallpapers, are also included.

Download Xubuntu 14.04 LTS

Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS

Activities Overlay

New Apps

Refined Menu

Wallpapers

Ubuntu’s GNOME-flavoured sibling ships with GNOME 3.10, released last autumn. While this isn’t the latest version of the popular open-source desktop (version 3.12 was released earlier this year) it still has a decent bunch of improvements that anyone upgrading from an earlier release will appreciate.
For example, there’s a reworked system status area that combines several applets – like volume, logout, etc. – into one unified menu. There’s also a ‘classic’ session similar in layout to the old GNOME 2 desktop that ships by default — simply select ‘GNOME Classic’ from the session box before logging in.
There are also new applications available to install, including a desktop mapping application, photo manager and elegant (if not fully featured) music player.
To use Ubuntu GNOME you’ll need to be running a PC with a 1GHz or better CPU, have at least 1.5GB RAM and 7GB of HDD space.

Download Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS

Kubuntu 14.04 Desktop

Kubuntu 14.04 comes rocking KDE 4.13 and all of the goodness that it brings with it. Expect to see a more stable desktop and the latest core KDE software.
Elsewhere, there’s Mozilla Firefox 28, an all new ‘Drivers Manager’ to help get all your hardware set up and running nicely, and the ‘Muon’ software centre has been upgraded to version 2.2
A new network plasmoid makes managing connections easier than before, and new touchpad configuration tools let you tweak your touchpad settings just right.

Download Kubuntu 14.04 LTS

Source: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/whats-new-in-lubuntu-kubuntu-14-04?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+d0od+%28OMG!+Ubuntu!%29

Xubuntu 13.10

I was looking for an Ubuntu variant that I could just install and be up and running quickly. Xubuntu seemed to do the trick. I tried the latest version 13.10. Once I added all my familiar programs that I was used to, it was a fun distro. I added the Nemo File Manager to replace PCMan which looks smilar to the Nautilus File Manager from Gnome.  Also added Docky, Deluge, and Screenlets. Below are my screenshots.

You can download Xububuntu 13.10 here: http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/

GNOME 3.12 is Released : Come with New Look and Performance Improvements

The development team of the popular open graphical environment, GNOME, has announced the release of the final versionGNOME 3.12 bringing many new changes, performance improvements and updates.

With a total of 34236 changes and approximately 1140 employees, the GNOME development team has announced the release of the final version of this popular open graphic environment, used a lot of Linux distributions.

These are the new features and enhancements that are part of GNOME 3.12:

New features and enhancements in the software application (equivalent to Ubuntu software center) as are the screenshots of applications, automatic assessment of applications, the possibility to install software packages individually as well as their own repositories improvements in reviewing and installing programs and more..

New re-design of the video player which will among other things: Explore both local and network videos, ability to add channels own videos in a simple way, Integration with Pocket service which allows you to watch the videos that are saved for later viewing, concealment of floating controls when they are not used and more..

Gedit text editor brings a more compact interface, offering a larger workspace. The use of pop-up to select the format of the document and the width of the flanges replaces the use of dialogs and menus, and controls in the sidebar also give more room for the content keeping the original functionality.

We have new keyboard shortcuts to open the last closed tab using Ctrl + Shift + T to switch between upper and lower case.

Information about the status of the wired network in the area of ​​system status and the ability of the user to create own sections within the board to group application launchers as you want added.

The dialogues are shown in the view of activities. Visual theme and icons are small changes, were redesigned to give a more consistent look and beautiful. Developers also claim there performance improvements, including faster boot and less memory consumption.

Gnome 3.12 includes 3 new applications Polari, Sound Recorder, and Records

• Polari is a new client of IR.
• Sound Recorder is a tool for recording computer sound.
• Records is a new application to inspect the records of your computer software, is designed to allow users and developers to easily locate the source of problems.

If you want to know all the details, You must refer you to the official release announcement, worth remembering that the next major update of GNOME (GNOME 3.14) arrive during the month of September.

Source:http://ubuntuportal.com/2014/03/gnome-3-12-is-released-come-with-new-look-and-performance-improvements.html?

Ubuntu 12.10 - Still my favorite linux distro

I have lately been exploring XFCE distros for their simplicity as Ubuntu pursues Unity and Gnome pursues its desktop, which I find similar. But I keep coming back to Ubuntu 12.10. With the support for Windows XP waning, Xubuntu and others are bringing back the Cinnemon start panel (below). And this is a nice compromise. For now, I'll keep on using Ubuntu 12.10 using the classic Gnome Shell. I've reposted my 01-2013 My Desktop posting below...updated with my current build today. The theme is Greybird with Lion Metacity icons.

Installed Ubuntu 12.10 on my Dell Core2-Duo 6750 test machine and it is running fine. Installed Gnome Shell classic desktop, Synaptic Package Manager, Chromium, Pidgin, Deluge, Screenlets, Docky, Picasa, Gmusicbrowser, Audacious Player, VLC video player, Advanced Settings Tweak Tool, Restricted Extras, and Wine. It is only using 260 mb of memory. The wallpaper is from OSX Lion and the theme is the wonderful Grey Bird theme available in the Shimmer Themes pack in Synaptic. Most of the tweaks are from my prior December post below. Removed overlay scroll bars. Below are links to where you can dress up the distro to look like mine. Happy Holidays....

Other suggested themes  - Get the Gnome Cupertino theme here:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-cupertino-gtk-theme

or here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Gnome+Cupertino?content=147061 

Below are some of my favorite theme libraries:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/noobslab/themes/ubuntu quantal main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/noobslab/themes/ubuntu quantal main

=======================
The GrayDay theme and can be downloaded here:

http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GrayDay?content=149310

The Elements-GS Gnome 3.x theme:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install elements-gs-theme

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/10/4-beautiful-gnome-32-compatible-gtk.html

========================

You can add the Elementary and Evolve PPA repositories below:

Then just search for Evolve theme from the Synaptic package manager.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install evolve-gtk-theme

==========================

To get the updated Ambiance and Radiance light themes

type the following on a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:victored/light-themes-evolved

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

You can also go into Synaptic and search for "light themes" to avoid upgrading everything.

=========================

The MAC OSX Lion "Mt.Fuji" wallpaper can be found here:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/02/24/mac-os-x-10-7-lion-fuji-mountain-wallpaper/