Category Archives: GNU/Linux

Ubuntu 10.10 is here but perhaps something is going wrong…

Since few hours, the new Ubuntu 10.10 is available for the download and installation. This version has some new tasks as a better look and a powerful Software Center that seems to be easier than ever also thanks to the feature “where is it?”. Moreover, F-Spot has been substituted by the more powerful and complete Shotwell as main photo manager. The new sound menu included in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat displays more useful information and song you are playing in Rhythmbox. Last but not least, some new delightful Themes and Backgrounds have been added.

On the weaknesses side, we focus our attention on the first paid application (It is really necessary? Do we need it?) and the hardware requirements. In fact reading the Ubuntu wiki the only requirement is a RAM of more than 256MB but Pleia2 and WebUpd8 believe that the 10.10 version does not run properly on processor below i686 and this is a real uncomfortable limitation! Ubuntu has always run on all types of hardware (this is one of its main key features) and this news, if confirmed by tests, could influence users choice to other distributions as Knoppix or Fedora. We really hope that Ubuntu 10.10 will have just the declared 256MB of RAM limitation but today we have to ask ourselves if a new Knoppix era is coming.

PPASearch: la mejor herramienta para buscar repositorios PPA en Ubuntu

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Hay veces que queremos instalar alguna aplicación y no sabemos muy bien cuales son los repositorios correctos PPA de Launchpad. gracias a PPASearch esto se hace todo muy muy fácil. Lo primero que hay que hacer es instalar esta aplicación en nuestra Distro con los siguientes comandos:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wrinkliez/ppasearch
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ppasearch

Cuando ya tengamos instalada esta aplicación, podemos buscar el repositorio que mas nos interese, para hacer eso lo único será ejecutar PPASearch y el nombre del programa de lo cual buscamos el repositorio: ejemplo

ppasearch skype

Buscando por los repositorios de Skype me salieron diferentes repositorios y cada uno identificado con un numero, para instalar alguno de ellos, lo único será elegir el numero correspondiente y PPASearch se ocupará de instalar el repositorio seleccionado. ¡Muy buena herramienta!

Agradezco mucho el Blog Ubuntulife por su labor y por todas las informaciones y ayuda incluida esa entrada http://ubuntulife.wordpress.com/

Calibre: el mas versátil gestor, conversor y visualizador de eBooks

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Los E-books están ganando cada vez mas espacio a los libro de papel y seguramente en un futuro no muy lejano llagaran a tener el mismo mercado que los libros de papel. Entre las varias aplicaciones para gestionar vuestra biblioteca digital y vuestros E-reader, he encontrado Calibre, que me parece una de las aplicaciones mejores al momento y es disponible para diferentes SO (Windows, Linux y Mac). Yo la he instalada en mi Kubuntu y tengo que decir que funciona a la perfección; tiene una interfaz gráfica muy intuitiva y aunque sea la primera vez que uso un gestor de E-book no le encuentro ninguna dificultad en moverme en las diferentes opciones que ofrece. Con Calibre es posible administrar nuestros libros en diferentes categorías: Fecha, Autor, Titulo, Editor, Tamaño… y también permite la conversión a diferentes formatos: ePub, PDF, MOBI, oeb, pdb y mas. Es posible también la sincronización con diferentes dispositivos: Kindle, Nook, Papyre, Sony. En el caso que algún libro tenga mas de un formato disponible, el mismo Calibre elige cual el mejor formato para nuestro lector. Calibre es disponible también para Iphone, Ipad e Android. Otra preciosa opción que ofrece es la configuración como lector de noticias y RRS pasándolas a formato de libro electrónico, Para concluir, os aconsejo de probar esta aplicación porque seguro que os puede ayudar mucho en gestionar vuestra Biblioteca Digital.

How to speed up Firefox on Ubuntu 10.04 (or Windows and OS X)

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In the past three months Firefox was updated more than we were used in the past also because it had some “speed problems” expecially on Ubuntu 10.04. Now, after the last updates, Firefox seems to go fast but for people who like to try some hacks we have collected some tips from the web:

– start Firefox

– in the address bar type about:config

– find and modify these lines:

– network.http.pipelining > Make it True

– network.http.pipelining.maxrequests > Make it 8 or 10 (we made it 30 and it really works fast especially on websites as ebay)

– network.http.proxy.pipelining > Make it True

– network.dns.disableIPv6 > Make it True

– last but not least restart and Firefox should work fine and a little bit faster.

Before trying these changes, please consider that changing advanced settings on Firefox can be harmful to the stability, security and performance of the program. Take notes of all the changes you are doing in case you need to revert them later.

I2P a real versatile anonymizing network for Linux and Windows

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This week for our Freeware Page, we tested I2P a freeware which let you to surf internet without revealing your IP and encrypt your data. As described on the I2P Homepage, this freeware is a “anonymizing network, offering a simple layer that identity-sensitive applications can use to securely communicate. All data is wrapped with several layers of encryption, and the network is both distributed and dynamic, with no trusted parties”. During out test we used bothXP and Ubuntu because I2P is a java file even is it seems to be a exe file and it could be used on all the Linux OS. On Windows XP it is very simple to use I2P but at the beginning it is really slow and for this reason we suggest to keep it run for about twelve hours because this freeware needs to build its own network and for this it takes some hours. When ready you have to setup all the software you want to filter through it. For this reason, we setted Firefox (Preferences-> Advanced -> Network -> Settings) Manual Proxy Configuration to HTTP Proxy as localhost, port 4444. Then we put a tick on “Use this proxy server for all protocols” and we finished indicating “No proxy for” as localhost, 127.0.0.1. After some seconds we discovered that our IP was now in the northern part of the France (far away from our real location). To setup I2P it is necessary to point Firefox on http://localhost:7657/index.jsp because, by default, I2P tries to launch Internet Explorer also when it works on Linux. After a week of tests we can say that I2P is a little bit slower than TOR but it can easily be integrated on your browser, mail client, chat and others programs. For our (limited) experience I2P is the most complete anonymizing network we know. To conclude, as already discussed also on this post none or nothing can create a perfectly anonymous software but I2P can help to better improve our privacy. Recommended!

WinFF: the best mkv to avi converter for Ubuntu

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This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we posted an essential manual about the best software to convert a video file from mkv to a more common (and readable) avi format. First of all we tried with a well known line program: ffmpeg but we had different problems and we did not succeed. For this reason we tried to install the specific libavcodec-unstripped-51 package but we were not able to convert our file. For our second test we installed avidemux but also in this case the mkv file resisted. Then we read in a post that VLC contains a powerful converter and we used it to transform the mkv file to avi. Unfortunately we succed only for the audio part of our file but we were not able to obtain a complete video file. Only during our last test we transform the mkv video to avi using WinFF. This program, based on ffmpeg, has a very clear graphical interface and it is very intuitive to use. After ten minutes of trials we were able to correct our settings and to start the file conversion. In the WinFF menu you can easily choose between many different video and audio formats (in our test we chose AVI) with a Device Preset setted to XviD in AVI (16:9) and decide the output folder you prefer. WinFF -does not work- if you do not insert the mandatory data in the below part of the menu. In our test we setted:
Video Settings
Video Bitrate = empty (null = we did not write anything)
Frame rate = 25
Video Size = 592 x 320
Aspect Ratio = 16:9
Audio Settings
Audio Bitrate = 118
Sample Rate = 48000
Audio Channels = 2
Additional Command Line Parameters (advanced)
null = we did not write anything
We recommend WinFF to all that people who are not very clever with line command programs and need to easily transform video files to a different formats!

Basket Note Pads: a powerful multi-purpose note-taking application for Linux

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This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have posted a review about Basket Note Pads, a well developed note-taking program for KDE Linux. Basket is nice to look and very well structured. One of the first things you notice are the import – export features which allow you to easily manage text, hiperlinks, images from many different notepad applications. In particular we were really impressed by the Tomboy notes imports on Kubuntu. Moreover, Basket has detailed setting menus you can use to set a password to a specific group of notes or use any PGP key stored on your PC. Unfortunately our tests on Ubuntu – Gnome were unsuccesfull because the program crashed many times and we decided to come back to NoteCase, more graphically simple but stable on every desktop environment. Recommended for Kubuntu!

Best 10 Freeware Sites

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This week, in our Freeware Page, we would like to share our personal list of the 10 best freeware websites. Of course, this is just our personal opinion but we are 100% curious to learn new website from your comments!

#1 http://sourceforge.net/
In our opinion FileHippo is the #1, a lighthouse for all the other freeware distribution sites. The programs here are open-source and you can find freeware for all the most used OS: Linux, Windows and Mac

#2 http://www.filehippo.com/
Full of real freeware, well structure and it has developed a powerful “update checker” http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

#3 http://www.techsupportalert.com/
Well organized, contains brief but effective review about each software

#4 http://download.cnet.com/
The software is categorized between Windows, Mac, Mobile and a very interesting Webware category for the online stuff. Use “The Download Software Finder” to be sure to surf between real free programs

#5 http://majorgeeks.com/
Good site, full of stuff and Shareware programs are clearly labeled!

#6 http://www.tucows.com/
An evergreen site; it was one of the first to share freeware, interesting but it does not contain a huge variety of freeware as others site

#7 http://www.nonags.com/
Elementary graphics but it contains a site menu and the proposed software is really freeware so….

#8 http://www.freewarefiles.com/
Interesting site but sometimes you find old version of proprietary software distributed as free…

#9 http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/
Well structured, easy to navigate and updated. Watch the tags (freeware or free trial) before downloading programs!

#10 http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Freeware/
Basic graphics; it has many freeware but you have to dig them from the lists.

We wait your comments!

How to manage podcast and RSS reader on Firefox!

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This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish), we posted some lines about editing and changing the feed/podcast reader on Firefox when you have previously chosen a specific program to automatically subscribe to podcasts. If you are using Firefox 3.5 on Linux, you can simply go to Edit -> Preferences and type Feed in the search bar. At this point you have a button menu with all the different options; we suggest to select the Preview in Firefox one. If you have an older version of Firefox that does not allow you to follow the above path (or for some reason, by default, you prefer the most difficult way) you have to open a new Tab and type about:config in it. After a brief warning message you can type Feed in the location bar and find the browser.feeds.handler line. At this point it is necessary to change the value field to Ask and next time you will decide to subscribe a podcast you will free to choose your favourite program. We hope this few lines could be useful and easy to execute for you all!

How to create your personalized Linux OS using SUSE Studio

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This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we uploaded a brief post about SUSE Studio an online service which allows you to create new distribution based on openSUSE 11.2. The online OS builder allows you to choose between 32 bit or 64 bit system based on SUSE, GNOME, KDE, Minimal X or text only Server. In the next menu you will be asked to choose all the software you prefer (7,876 different packages). After this, you can also choose and personalize, for example: language, keyboard, network, firewall and users. Moreover, you can personalize the boot-up and all the programs you want to automatically autostart. SUSE Studio is very interesting and allows you to create the best Linux OX for all your needs. Recommended!