Poll Results: Best Linux Backup Tool / Software

The best Linux backup software poll is over. This is the first time since we started our weekly poll that a command line utility wins over all GUI alternatives.

You guessed it, the winner is: rsync (34.67%), with Back In Time (25.83%) on the second place, these 2 applications getting more than 60% of the total number of votes. However, Grsync was also mentioned quite a few times in the comments as being used with rsync so not everybody who voted for rsync uses it from the command line.

Here are the exact results for the "best linux backup tool / software" poll:

There were quite a few votes for other software (80), but scattered over many apps, most notable being:

-Bacula (8 votes)

-Grsync (5 votes)

the rest getting 2-3 votes each.

Browse all our weekly polls.

Best Linux Backup Tool / Software

WebUpd8 reader Phil sent us an email suggesting "best Linux backup software" for this week's poll, so here it is.

The contenders are: Back In Time, fwbackups, Deja Dup, rsync (command line), luckyBackup, Simple Backup Solution (sbackup).

Vote for the best Linux backup software:

There are A LOT of backup tools for Linux so I skipped some from the poll (especially enterprise solutions since this is mostly about best Linux backup software for home users) but as always you can vote for an application not listed in our poll by selecting "Other" and then entering the application you would like to vote for.

Do not forget to tell us why you find a certain tool to be the best, using the comments form below!

Ubuntu Sources List Generator Available For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx

Ubuntu Sources List Generator is now available for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

What is Ubuntu Sources List Generator? It is a website where you can generate a sources.list file with a lot of useful repositories. Besides the usual Ubuntu main, restricted, universe, multiverse, updates and so on you can choose from many others such as repositories for: AWN, Ailurus, Banshee, Cairo Dock, Chromium, Deluge, GetDeb, Ubuntu Mozilla Daily, OpenShot, Skype, Pidgin, PlayDeb, PlayOnLinux, SMPlayer, Terminator, Ubuntu Tweak, XBMC and many more.

To use the Ubuntu Sources List Generator, all you have to do is select the applications for which you want to generate a sources.list, then click the "Generate" button at the bottom, then open your sources.list file with admin rights:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and paste the generated repositories, then do:

sudo apt-get update

And finally install / upgrade your favourite applications.

Go to Ubuntu Sources List Generator.

Special thanks to jellykernel

GetDeb: Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Repository Available

GetDeb is an unofficial project with the mission to provide the latest open source and freeware applications for the current Ubuntu Linux release, in an easy to install manner.

The GetDeb repository extends the official repositories by providing latest versions and new applications. Unlike the official packages, GetDeb packages do not have a predefined release schedule - new software versions are provided as they become available from their authors. There is a short and limited testing phase instead of a full testing cycle to ensure packaging quality, however it is less strict than Ubuntu's official requirements.

The GetDeb.net website has not been updated for Ubuntu 10.04 yet, however the GetDeb repository is already available for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx users. There are not a lot of packages available for now, but more should be updated soon:

The getdeb repository for lucid was created past weekend, a few packages have been already uploaded.

I think we should focus on having a significant number of packages available for lucid on the 29th, even if that means stopping testing/publishing for 9.10 right now.

(João Luís Marques Pinto, GetDeb Team Leader)

To add the GetDeb.net repository in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, simply paste this in a terminal:

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu lucid-getdeb apps' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

uTorrent 2.0 Released, Brings UDP Support, Transfer Cap, Improved uTP

uTorrent, the most popular Bittorrent client for Windows has reached version 2.0. The major changes in uTorrent 2.0 include:

• UDP tracker support
• uTP has been improved significantly, with many bugs fixed and performance improvements. It can be found in the preferences as "Enable bandwidth management" (but don't worry, you can still control caps!).
  
• The setup dialog has been overhauled to make it much easier to use and with a built-in speed test. More presets were added and it automatically scales settings for high-upload connections.
  
• A new transfer cap feature has been added to track bandwidth usage, along with graphs to show your usage.

Full release notes


What do UDP, uTP and Transfer Cap mean? In short:

- UDP trakcer support means a lot better performance for both the tracker and you - the user.

- uTP automatically regulates the bandwidth usage so you can download your torrents without slowing down the network for others—no messing around with preferences required.

- The transfer cap keeps track of how much bandwidth uTorrent is taking up over a defined period of time and tells uTorrent to stop once you reach certain limits.

Download uTorrent 2.0 | via lifehacker

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.1 Released!

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.1 was released today, with the major change being the support for Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.

Other changes include:

Dependencies and conflicts of source - meaning that you will be notified if a certain PPA depends on another:

Window Control - you can move around the close, minimize and maximize buttons and also the Titlebar Action added two new options: Maximize Horizontally and Maximize Vertically:

(image via Ubuntu Tweak blog)

One thing we are a bit proud of is the inclusion of WebUpd8 PPA in the latest Ubuntu Tweak:

Detailed changes in Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.1:

* Overview changes:
- Online data supports mirror.
- Add dependencies and conflicts check in Source Center.
- Add more options to tweak Metacity
- Add option to arrange the button layout of Metacity
- Add option to disable the synchronous notification (LP: #510504)
- Add support for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid
- Translation updates

* Bugs fixed:
- LP: #505544 Ubuntu Tweak crash on start with KeyError
- LP: #505605 [0.5.0] “Manage Templates” produces error message
- LP: #508811 Duplicated item with Unicode option in GNOME settings
- LP: #509961 script-worker not installed with package. Scripts don’t work
- LP: #513310 app center category mistake?
- LP: #509009 Ubuntu Tweak crashes when update because of non-apt-cache

For a complete list of changes and additional info, see the Ubuntu Tweak blog.


To install Ubuntu Tweak, firstly make sure you have the Ubuntu Tweak PPA added to your software sources. If not, add it (remember, Ubuntu Tweak 0.5+ will only work on Ubuntu Karmic or later):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

Then install it:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

or just upgrade if you have it already installed:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Alternatively, download Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.1 .deb from HERE.

10 IP Privacy Licenses Giveaway - Winners Announced

Last week we made a "contest" (random) for 10 IP Privacy licenses.


The winners are:

1. Zorro
2. bruceingalls
3. MakavelliRo
4. maheshmohan.mu
5. Kaoss
6. janet
7. linkxs
8. mahdif62
9. rwayp
10. gabi

The license keys have already been sent to the lucky winners. Sorry for those who didn't win, if I could, I'd give you all a license (like we did with Google Wave invites). But don't worry, more giveaways will come!

AutoDeb Automatically Installs Dependencies Needed To Build Software, Making Compiling A Lot Easier [Ubuntu / Debian]

AutoDeb is an experimental script which completely automates compiling and installing software created using autoconf (most programs). It can either directly use the archived source code (.tar.gz or .tar.bz2), or a folder where the application was unpacked or downloaded from svn, bzr, etc. Once the software is compiled, a .deb file is automatically created and installed using checkinstall.


This script is very interesting because it automates the configure process by automatically installing the dependencies needed to build software. That works by running "./configure" and tracking all of configure's attempts to access files. When configure fails, AutoDeb uses AutoApt (more info on AutoAPT) to find out what package needs to be installed and then it runs configure again.

The AutoDeb wiki page explains why it is better than AutoApt:

Contrary to AutoApt, AutoDeb does not just install every file that 'configure' happens to peek at. Instead, it lets 'configure' run and fail, at which point it installs only the last package that 'configure' required, and repeats the process.

Using AutoDeb

Once you download (actually copy the script code to a file called autodeb.sh) AutoDeb - download link at the end of the post-, make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x autodeb.sh

And then use it like this:

sudo ./autodeb.sh --gnome /path/to/software.tar.gz

You can replace "gnome" with "kde" and "/path/to/software.tar.gz with a folder location instead of an archive.



[Video] I've created a small video with AutoDeb in action, just to see how easy it is to use:




To learn how to create a distributable .deb package, see our "How To Create A .DEB Package [Ubuntu / Debian]" post.


Download AutoDeb | More info and concept

Giveaway: 10 IP Privacy Free Licenses [Surf The Web Anonymous Using Premium Proxies]

If you've been reading Web Upd8 in a while, you must have noticed that we like to hand out licenses and other useful things to our readers. Here is another giveaway in which we'll send 10 IP Privacy licenses (6 months free) your way. All you have to do is post a comment using a valid email address (email, not logging in with Twitter and such) requesting a license, and on Monday (February 1st) we'll make a draw and send the licenses to the lucky winners.

Why would you want an IP Privacy license? IP Privacy normally costs $39.95 and it's an Windows application which you can use to hide your IP address and stay anonymous. Using IP Privacy, not only your IP will be hidden, but it will also "unblock" websites for you (if your ISP has blocked websites and such), will bypass firewall and block invasive code. Even more, IP Privacy will clean your online tracks.

One very interesting feature is that you can choose a country specific proxy. I would love to try this feature and see if I could get Spotify to work (Spotify is not available in my country), but I've managed to install Ubuntu at work so I don't have any Windows PC anymore and IP Privacy doesn't work in Ubuntu.

Here are some of IP Privacy features:

• Premium proxies: high quality proxies included in IP Privacy allow you to surf the Web safely without affecting your browsing speed.
• Add Proxy: manually adding a specific proxy to the current list is an important feature of online anonymity. If you feel the need of using a proxy from a specific country you can find a proxy from that country and get it to the list.
• Live Update: even if you add proxies into the list, you can periodically check whether IP Privacy developers had embedded some new proxies to the list.
• Already tested proxies: when testing the availability of a specific proxy you can find out the proxy’s response time so you can decide whether to keep it or not. To make this easier there is a list where all the already tested proxies are saved for further use
• Online Privacy and Protection: like I said, IP Privacy will also clean your online traces: Internet history, typed urls, clean temporary Internet files, clear cookies, clear auto complete form and password history, clear favorites, block ActiveX and JavaScript attacks.
  

All these make IP Privacy a great application to secure your online privacy and anonymity.


Contest rules: like I said, the winners should receive their licenses on Monday, February 1st. You must comment using a valid email, and only one comment per person is allowed. The winners will be random, so it's a matter of luck. That is all.

More info and download IP Privacy.

[image credits: lisisoft.com]

New Gloobus Preview And CoverGloobus Ubuntu PPAs

Gloobus Preview and CoverGloobus now have 2 new PPA repositories. There aren't a lot of changes to Gloobus for now, but the PPA will be updated with big changes in a few days, as the Gloobus blog points out.

To add these repositories, run the following commands in a terminal (command available for Ubuntu Karmic only, because there aren't any packages available for older Ubuntu versions; Lucid packages will probably be available soon):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gloobus-dev/gloobus-preview
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gloobus-dev/covergloobus

And then to install both Gloobus Preview and CoverGloobus:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install covergloobus gloobus-preview 

[image via gloobus.net]

Fetch And Check Proxies With ProxFetch [Linux]

ProxFetch is a networking tool for fetching different proxies from websites and you can then check to see if they are working.

ProxFetch can grab HTTP proxies, web proxies and socks 4/5 proxies; it can also export these proxies to a text file in the IP:PORT format, which is very useful for some applications which can use such proxy list text files.

The application does not require installation and is very easy to use. After extracting it, double click the "ProxFetch" file, then simply click on the "Find" button on the proxy type you want to find and a huge list will be downloaded instantly. To check if a proxy works, select it and click on the "Information" button.

Download ProxFetch

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5: An Early Look

A post on the Ubuntu Tweak blog points out that the new 0.5 version release should come today [it seems Ubuntu Tweak will not be out today - see the update at the end of the post] (as well as the new website):

I plan to make it online at the the last day of 2009: I don’t want to take this task to the new year, because I’ve been developed for them over half year!

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 will come with a redesigned UI (but version 0.6 will suffer major UI changes), XFCE specific features and most importantly: the ability to fetch online database to keep the ppplication information up-to-date. That means that you will be able to keep your applications and sources up-to-date without updating Ubuntu Tweak.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 will be fully compatible with all Ubuntu 9.10 or 9.10 based Linux distributions. Some of the tweaks will not work with older Ubuntu versions.

A look at the most additions in Ubuntu Tweak 0.5

Under Startup > Session Control, you can now specify the default file manager or window manager (Compiz, etc), as well as 2 new tweaks we've previously posted about: suppress the dialog to confirm logout, restart and shutdown and also the option to disable the user list in GDM.

New gconf tweaks have been added to the "Gnome settings" menu too, such as enabling the icons in menus and buttons (which have been disabled by default in Gnome 2.28+), as well as changing the menu logo.


The "Advanced Power Manangement Settings" tab has gained a new option which allows you to set the LCD brightness when on AC power and when on battery.

But probably the most interesting new feature is "Task install" which you can use to set up a full-function environment with just one click. Task install includes: Ubuntu server, Cloud Computing Cluster, DNS server, Edubuntu server, LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) server, mail server, OpenSSH server, Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (instance), audio creation and editing suite, video editing and creation suite, 2D/3D creation and editing suite, a large selection of fonts, Edubuntu desktop, Xubuntu desktop, Kubuntu desktop, Kubuntu netbook, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and many others.


My review does not include:

• Application Center which is supposed to be a "simple but more efficient method for finding and installing new packages
• Source Center - 3rd party repositories included in Ubuntu Tweak

The reason for not including these is because these 2 sections are empty in the Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 git I've tested. The new Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 will not be released with these 2 sections empty, of course.

Also, I've tested a GIT version so, although highly unlikely, Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 may include more new features.

Install Ubuntu Tweak 0.5

Like I said, Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 should be released sometime today (hopefully). I posted this earlier because there is a party waiting for me =).

When Ubuntu 0.5 will be released, you can install it by adding it's Launchpad PPA:

-Ubuntu Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

-Older Ubuntu versions:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 0624A220

Replacing "jaunty" in the first command above with "intrepid" or "hardy", depending on what you use.

Then, for any Ubuntu version, to install it:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

or to upgrade to version 0.5:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Ubuntu .deb files should also be available soon, HERE.

Update 1: http://ubuntu-tweak.com/ is now live but it seems Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 will not be out today after all, contrary to what the blog post was saying.

Update 2: If you want to try out the latest version, I built a .deb from GIT, but please note that the third-party software (now named Application Center) is not ready yet - so use it for test purposes only (or for the tweaking part only)! DOWNLOAD

Do not install version 0.5 from the old Ubuntu Tweak PPA, as that's more than 2 months old.

Since this is probably our last post in 2009, I wish you all a happy new year!

Update 3: Ubuntu Tweak 0.5 has finally been released!

VideoLAN Movie Creator Pre-Release Coming Very Soon [Screenshot]

The VLC team has been working (or actually, they call it "support" so they might not do this entirely on themselves) on a new project for quite some time, called VideoLAN Movie Creator, a free video editing software offering features to realize semi-professional quality movies, but with the aim to stays simple and user-friendly.

VLMC (VideoLan Movie Creator) pre-release will be coming soon to Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, but until then, you can fetch the current working tree using Git:

git clone git://github.com/VLMC/vlmc.git

I tried building it, but got an:

launcher/Launcher.cpp:44: error: no 'void Launcher::stopped(int, int)' member function declared in class 'Launcher'
make: *** [Launcher.o] Error 1

Update: I managed to compile, see this: How To Build VideoLAN Movie Creator (VLMC) In Ubuntu

But thanks to radarsat1 user @ reddit, here is a screenshot with VLCM in action:

Update: and here is also a video with VLMC in action (thanks to pseudoruprecht!):

via reddit (make instructions inside - but failed for me).

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More Info On Firefox 4 For Windows [And New Mock-ups]

We've already seen some early concepts for Linux and Windows and there's even an easy-to-install Strata 4 theme (called Strata40) for current versions of Firefox, but let's take a look at some new mock-ups (for the Windows version), shared by Mozilla contributor Stephen Horlander on his personal blog (via dsq).

1) Apps Button: One of the benefits of the App Button is that it is similar to the way Microsoft is treating its native apps and Office. Another benefit is that the placement is closer to where the Menubar would be and therefore it is more familiar. Several variations of the App Button have been explored:

Various factors of consideration include what color to make it, whether or not to have an icon, just an icon, icon and text, part of the tab bar, a separate button or attached to the top of the window.


2) Refining Toolbar Button Appearance: Some initial work has gone into making the toolbar buttons more visible on light backgrounds and more crisp and dimensional (pressable).

3) Location Bar: Some very early visuals have been created for reevaluating site identity. Also the location bar is now properly recessed instead of floating.

4) Retain Separate Search Bar: With the LocationBar containing an increasing amount of functionality it may be best to retain a clear distinction between the two fields.

5) Bookmarks Widget: On a default profile or existing profile that hasn’t modified the Bookmarks Toolbar it will be hidden by default and the Bookmarks Widget placed in the Navigation Toolbar.

One more thing: if tabs-on-top is not desirable you can change to the classic tabs under the navigation bar:

Tabs on top:

Classic tabs:

As you can see, Firefox will remain fully customizable so if you don't like something in Firefox 4.0, you can always use the classic appearance of a certain Firefox feature. Another thing to consider is the themes: you will always be able to change the way Firefox looks by using a theme.


What do you think of these new Firefox 4 (Windows version) mock-ups?

eToolz: Check The PageRank, DNS, Whois, Traceroute And More [Windows]

Linux users have a tool called Network Tools which comes by default in most distributions which allows you to check the Whois of an IP or domain, traceroute, ping and so on (sure, all these are available as cli-tools, but I'm talking about GUI here).

Windows users, however, don't have a similar tool built-in, but for this, they can use eToolz, a portable, free application which includes some of the most important networking tools like NS-Lookup, Ping, TraceRoute and Whois. It allows also to check E-mail addresses (MX-Server) and to search/convert domain names showing DNS entries (A, PTR, NS, SOA). eToolz supports also international domain names.

Note: the application starts in German, but you can immediately change the language under the "Sprache / Language" option in the window.


Download eToolz

[via 140 geek]

Grsync: Rsync GUI For Easily Synchronizing (And Backing Up) Folders [Windows, Linux, Mac OS X]

Grsync is an open source rsync GUI (Graphical User Interface) which works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Rsync is the well-known and powerful command line directory and file synchronization tool.

You can use it for easily data backup. For instance, since Dropbox does not have it's own back-up tool (that's why I really like SpiderOak for this job), you can use Grsync to syncronize some folders you want to back-up with your Dropbox folder. Obviously, you can also use it with Ubuntu One or a network drive.

Grsync is VERY easy to use: just choose the origin and destinations folders.


Grsync features:

• Most commonly used rsync options available, additional options may be specified by command line switches
• Saves multiple settings with customized names (no limit on number of "sessions")
• Can do simulation or normal execution
• Captures and prints rsync output nicely on a own window and log to a file
• Parses rsync output to display progress bars and other information
• Highlights errors and show them on a separate window, for better and faster control over rsync runs
• Can pause rsync execution
• A good number of translations available
• Can run custom commands before (and stop in case of failure) and after rsync
• Shell script for batch, crontab use etc. provided (grsync-batch)
• Can import and export sessions on file; i.e. share your settings with people!
• Rsync backup made easy!
• Needs rsync installed on the system (command line tool only, no need for server-side daemon) and GTK
• Available for free and with sources!

Once you install it, Grsync is available under Applications > System > Grsync.

Note: to sync files outside your home folder, you may want to run Grsync with sudo!

Download Grsync (packages available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux: Maemo, Suse, Mandriva and Slackware). Ubuntu users: Grsync is available in the Ubuntu repositories. To install it, simply open a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install grsync

Tonido: Access And Share Your Files From Any­where Through A Web Browser [Windows, Linux, Mac OS X]

Tonido is an extensible personal web application platform (I guess you could call it a "home server" or your own personal 'cloud'), that offers an set of rich and powerful browser based applications. The files are hosted on your computer and you (or somebody else if you allow it) can access them remotely, through these web apps. It works on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX and comes with the following free applications (you can install / uninstall them through the web store):

• Tonido Backup - Backup files and folders to any computer running Tonido!
• Tonido Photos - Allows you to send photos directly and privately via Tonido P2P network to your friends and family. Photos are automatically sent to your friends when you add new photos to your folder.
• Tonido Jukebox - Gives you quick and easy access to your personal mp3 music collection from anywhere via a web browser. Enjoy your music from multiple PCs in your home or while you are at work or away from home.
• Tonido Webshare - Allows you to share large files (documents, music, home videos and photos) that are too big to email, directly from your desktop to anyone with a web browser.
• Tonido Workspace - Allows you to setup a collaborative workspace in a matter of seconds to sync tasks, notes, contacts, calendars and documents with anyone across the world via the Tonido P2P network. In standalone mode it is a Personal Information Manager.
• Tonido Thots - Is a personal blog or journal to record your ideas, notes and other random information. It has Twitter integration.
• Tonido Search - Allows you to search your Desktop files from anywhere.
• Tonido Torrent - A web-based bittorrent client that allows you to manage your bit torrent file transfers from any device with a browser.
• Tonido Screenshare - Allows you to share your computer's desktop screen with anyone via a web browser.

Some notes:

- People with whom you want to share files, etc., must also have a Tonido account. I would have found it a lot more useful if that was not the case.

- Tonido Jukebox was pretty slow at indexing my music. Also, support for some other music formats would have been nice since I have a lot of .flac files.

- You can use Tonido with a dynamic IP easily, as you are assigned a Tonido URL (http://yourusername.tonido.com:10001) so you don't necessarily have to use your IP for connecting to Tonido.


Tonido also comes with 3 Firefox addons (you will find them on the same download page as Tonido - link at the end of the post):

• TonidoFox allows you to monitor your Tonido server for new invites and messages (Tonido icon color will change). It also provides quick shortcuts for the Tonido plugins.
• ClipThots Firefox plugin allows you to easily bookmark and copy clipped text from web pages when you are browsing.
• You can use TonidoTorrents Firefox plugin to easily upload torrent files from web pages when you are browsing.

Tonido is a really nice concept which resembles somewhat with Opera Unite (the "Unite" feature I mean). Using it, you will basically have your own server from which you can access all kind of data, without having to know anything about servers and such, and keep everything in Sync. I guess you can call it a more complex Dropbox or SpiderOak to which you are in complete control of both the server (runs on your computer) and client.


If you own both a Desktop and a Netbook / Laptop, you will love Tonido!


Download Tonido (Linux - Ubuntu .deb and OpenSUSE installation instructions, Windows, Mac OS X).

Giveaway: Get SoftMaker Office 2008 For Free Until December 31 [Windows and Linux]

Until December 31, SoftMaker is giving away full versions of SoftMaker Office 2008 for Linux and Windows, permanently usable and entitled to future upgrades. For every download, SoftMaker donates EUR 0.10 to charity. The normal SoftMaker Office 2008 price is $80 for the Windows or Linux version and $100 for both.

You will probably think "I have MS Office or OpenOffice.org, why would I need SoftMaker Office?" but if you are looking for speed, you should really try SoftMaker Office. It starts in about a second on my PC and I can't wait to try it on my work computer which is very old and OpenOffice takes forever to start.

Also, SoftMaker Office 2008 reads and writes all your MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files seamlessly. The same for OpenOffice formats.


SoftMaker Office for Linux comes in .deb, .rpm and .tgz archive with install script. There are no 64bit files, but you can either force the .deb (dpkg -i --force-all) or .rpm installation or simply use the install script which should work on 64bit too.

Download your free SoftMaker Office 2008 copy for Windows or Linux | More about SoftMaker Office

Install Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 Final In Ubuntu [From A PPA]

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 was released 2 days ago and it includes a lot of improvements, such as:

• New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools
• New Global Search Field with Autocomplete
• New Mail Account Setup Wizard
• Redesigned Mail Toolbar
• Tabbed Email Messages
• Smart Folders
• New Message Summary View
• New Add-ons Manager
• Performance improvements
• and many more

You are probably used to the fact that Mozilla doesn't yet release Ubuntu .deb packages yet, but there are still quite a few ways of installing Thunderbird in Ubuntu. I am going to tell you how to install it from the Mozilla Daily PPA.

Open a terminal and paste the following commands (depending on your Ubuntu version):

-For Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

-For Ubuntu Jaunty:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

-For Ubuntu Intrepid:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

-For Ubuntu Hardy:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

Then, Install Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 (a.k.a. Shredder):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.0

You will then find Thunderbird 3.0 under Applications > Internet > Shredder 3 Mail/News

This will install a Thunderbird branded as "Shredder". If you really want Mozilla Thunderbird branded version, you can download Thunderbird from HERE, extract it and run the "thunderbird" file inside the folder where you extracted it.


Note: the PPA in this post also has some Firefox daily builds (and further "Shredder" daily builds) so if you don't wish to use these, simply remove the ubuntu-mozilla-daily PPA after installing Thunderbird. To do this, go to System > Administration > Software Sources, on the second tab called "Other software", look for "http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/..." and uncheck it.

How To Install Bluetile In Ubuntu (Tiling Window Manager For X Based On Xmonad)

Update: you can now install Bluetile in Ubuntu 10.04 from a PPA repository!

Bluetile is a tiling window manager for X based on xmonad. Bluetile automatically arranges the windows to tile the screen, maximizing screen use. I really like Bluetile because you don't have to login to a different session: all you have to do is normally login into your Gnome session and start Bluetile.


Bluetiles features:

• Hybrid approach: Stacking window layout & tiling layouts available
• Maximizing & minimizing windows in all layouts
• All features accessible from mouse, as well as keyboard
• Good multihead support
• Designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment

Bluetiles is not very easy to install but that's basically because there is no how-to (or a decent one anyway) for this so I decided to provide a post with full installation instructions - for Ubuntu (I've only tested it in Ubuntu Karmic).

Before we get started, take a look at these screenshots I've just took with Bluetiles:

And a video provided by the Bluetile website:

Screencast - Bluetile from Jan Vornberger on Vimeo.

1. Firstly, let's install everything we need and is available in the repositories.

Open a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall libghc6-network-dev libghc6-parsec-dev libghc6-mtl-dev libghc6-zlib-dev libghc6-glade-dev libghc6-gtk-dev ghc

2. Download and install Gtk2Hs

Download Gtk2Hs from HERE. Or, you can use this command instead for downloading the file:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gtk2hs/gtk2hs-0.10.1.tar.gz

Then extract the archive and open a terminal, navigate to the folder where you extracted and run the following commands:

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --fstrans=no --install=yes --pkgname=gtk2hs --pkgversion "0:10.1-12ubuntu3" --default

The last command from above will create a .deb file and install it, so you can easily remove / upgrade Gtk2Hs later on.

3. Download and install Haskell Cabal-Install in Ubuntu

You can download it from HERE or just run this command:

wget http://haskell.org/cabal/release/cabal-install-0.6.2/cabal-install-0.6.2.tar.gz

Then extract it, navigate to the folder where you extracted and run these commands:

./bootstrap.sh

sudo ln -s $HOME/.cabal/bin/cabal /usr/local/bin/cabal

4. Installing Bluetile

Run the following commands in a terminal:

cabal update
cabal install bluetile

Now you may want to close any Avant Window Navigator, Docky or Cairo Dock instances you may have running and finally run Bluetile:

~/.cabal/bin/bluetile

5. Using Bluetile.

Take a look at the keyboard shortcuts available HERE.


Update: you can now install Bluetile in Ubuntu 10.04 from a PPA repository!

Credits for the image in the beginning of the post: Dons00