This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish), we posted a brief tutorial about installing XBMC on Ubuntu 8.10. As you certainly know, XBCM is a complete Media Center based on Ubuntu. This program is multiplatform (Linux, Windows, OS X and also XBOX – not officially supported-) and, in our opinion, is the most efficient and complete open source media center you can find today on the Internet. Moreover, XBMC has developed a special version that could be installed on a USB Key on a Live CD to freely test the application before installing on your PC. The post is brief but contains all the complete instructions to quickly install XBMC without problems. Please, be sure to digit sudo apt-get update in Terminal after you install the new repositories. Recommended!!

Tag Archives: Linux
Save your money! Install DeLi Linux on your old (or “ancient”) PCs!
Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we added a post about DeLi Linux, an interesting distribution which allows you to use your old PCs and save money. The first time we tested DeLi we sincerely did not believe to obtain so interesting results. In fact we were able to install DeLi on very old PCs and laptops (486) with at least 64MB of RAM. About the RAM, we found some screenshots on the DeLi website where it runs on laptops with just 16MB of RAM. Moreover, DeLi is very light, 251.1MB for the ISO and 750MB of hard disk when installed. This particular version of DeLi Linux, the 0.8, is very flexible and complete if we think that it contains all the main programs that a medium user can ask. When we try to install it on the PCs, we have not found particular matters: the installation was easy and enough fast. When used, DeLi is fast and stable; in few words we could affirm that DeLi represents a strong reality for all that people which are looking for a PC or laptop and do want to spend just few bucks… Recommended!!

How to install the WI-FI Realtek RTL8187SE drivers on Ubuntu 8.10 – Intrepid Ibex
Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have added a brief post to install the Realtek RTL8187SE WI-FI card on Ubuntu 8.10. Surfing Internet we found different possible solutions and well done manuals to solve our problem but at the end we decided to select only the most effective. In particular we would like to focus your attention on the third discovered link http://boskastrona.ovh.org/download_en.html which contains the most effective solution we have tested. Useful!

How to solve a boring Firefox crash when you upgrade it on Linux
Firefox is the most flexible browser you can install and use on your computer. It is always upgraded, easily customizable and full of add-ons you can choose to satisfy all your needs but sometimes, after an upgrade it crashes and does not run. Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have added a brief post about solving this problem. First of all, start Firefox in its Safe Mode (open Terminal and then type: firefox -safe-mode or if you prefer Alt+F2 and then type as described before). Immediately you will see a menu window with five different options. Click on the button which allows you to “Disable all the add-ons” and you will able to launch Firefox. This happens because some add-ons are not compatible with the new version of Firefox. To completely solve the matter you have to separately enable each add-ons and restart the browser after having added any single add-ons. In this way, you will be able to understand which is the “guilty add-ons”. Useful!

NoteCase: a simple multiplatform (Linux, Windows, OS X) freeware to preserve the privacy of your notes!
Today in our Freeware Page we added a brief post about NoteCase a powerful note editor for Linux. In our tests we installed NoteCase on a Ubuntu 8.04 with positive results. This free software allows you to write complex notes dividing them between “nodes” and, if you need, it is also possible to easily create child notes at each level. Moreover, using NoteCase you can insert images and links to your text. Using NoteCase, for complex projects, you can decide to insert tag in each node and find them in just few clicks with the “Find” feature. Last, but not least, when you save your notes, you can decide to save them into an encrypted file. In few wordsNoteCase is one of the best freeware to manage notes using different OS without risks. Recommended!

Three interesting extensions to enjoy a real Web 2.0 experience with OpenOffice 3.0
After more or less a month from its release, the new OpenOffice 3.0 is receiving tons of positive comments. Anyway, this week, in our Freeware page, we have posted some brief notes abut three different extensions which are able to improve your effectivenss in office routines. First of all we have ooo2gd a simple menu bar which allows you to directly upload or download all kind of documents from Google Documents and Zoho. The second one is the Sun PDF Import Extension which has been created to allow minimal but useful changes to PDF documents. After few minutes we were able to make some interesting changes to a complex PDF documents with just a couple of clicks and export the result “into a hybrid PDF file, which is a PDF with the embedded source file asODF “. Last but not least we tested Sun Presentation Minimizer: an effective extensions which cuts the size of presentations reducing, for example, the image sizes. Using Sun Presentation Minimizer you will be able to simply and freely decide what kind of changes you want to make to your multimedia files contained in the presentations. To conclude it is necessary to focus your attention on the feature that also allows Sun Presentation Minimizer to work on Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. In few words we think that these extensions are guaranteed to be 100% satisfactory!!

MobaLiveCD: how to test Linux distros directly from Windows
Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we posted a brief review about MobaLiveCD: a freeware which allows you to freely test new Linux Distro using Windows. MobaLiveCd uses Qemu to work; personally, I think that Qemu is one of the best and lightest open source processor emulator and virtualizer you can find today. Qemu is easy to use and, also more important, it “achieves near native performances by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU” so the results you can obtain using MobaLiveCD are very impressive and I believe that the performances are really comparable to a complete installation. MobaLiveCd allows you to spare your time because all the new Linux distros can be tested with just few clicks running the .iso through it. I personally recommend this freeware also because it light and it can be directly used from a USB key. Something really interesting!

Appnr: an useful webpage where to find the best -ready to be installed- programs for Gnome, KDE and XFCE!
Today in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we have posted a brief review about http://appnr.com/ an online resource page where it is possible to find a huge amount of programs ready to be installed. In few words it is possible to directly install them with just a click on the the download button on the right of the page. To take advantage of this feature please, check (once a time) to have apt url installed. If you have not apt url on your PC you can install it by terminal with sudo apt-get install apturl. Moreover the appnr.com website is very easy to explore with a very intuitive graphical menu on the left side of the screen and a powerful internal search engine. Appnr.com also contains a very practical search option which allows you to find the programs already separated between Gnome, KDE and XFCE. To sum up it is possible to affirm that appnr.com could be very useful especially when we don’t find .deb packages and don’t want to spend time manually installing programs. Anyway, to keep always my Ubuntu updated, I personally prefer to directly add repositories in Third Party Software (in System – Software Sources). Something to try!

Unetbootin: a revolutionary multiplatform (Linux and Windows) software to create bootable Linux USB OS (and not only…)
This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish), we have described UNetbootin: a powerful software which allows you to install many different Linux OS (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Debian, ArchLinux and many others) on a bootable USB key. The use of UNetbootin is really simple and after a couple of tests everyone is able to create his/her own portable OS on USB. Moreover can be used to easily install a new Linux OS directly on the local hard disk. In fact, this software properly manages Linux and Windows bootloader without causing side effects. I personally recommend UNetbootin to all the people who always desires testing the last OS versions and do not want to install them directly on their PC. Last but not least, UNetbootin is available in the followiing languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Hungarian. Easy, useful tool!

Ex Falso: the best audio file metadata editor for Linux!
Today, in our Linux Page (in Spanish) we posted some brief notes about Ex Falso: a very useful software which allows you to manage your mp3 collections with just few clicks. When saving my CDs on my hard disk, I convert them into mp3 files and then I change their metadata order (or simply I add some more information) using Ex Falso. This software is very simple to install (in Ubuntu, for example, you can add it directly from the “Add/Remove” function contained in the Application menu) and very easy to use. Ex Falso is graphically divided in three main areas: Folders, Songs and a menu area where you directly decide what and how to change your metadatas. After few tests you will able to rapidly use Ex Falso and (we hope) enjoy all its features. Strongly recommended for all that people who have big mp3 collections!


