The first Ubuntu Desktop News has been published.
It contains an overview of all the work being done on the upcoming 6.04 Dapper Drake release of Ubuntu, specifically around desktop improvements.
With lots of topics, including speed improvements, being able to install packages by just double-clicking on a .deb file (!), Rhythmbox mention, and an interview with Sebastian Bacher, if you’re an Ubuntu user, this is worth a read!
Back in July, I blogged about Icculus starting a port of Second Life.
About a month ago, I signed up for a Second Life account as it was: a) free and b) you need an account to get on the Second Life forums. I was looking for an answer or update on the Linux port. I didn’t find anything, but I headed back today, and found this post by Andrew Linden on the Linden staff:
_Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Zaius
I think LL’s contractor has gone walkabout. We saw some initial screenshots, then nothing._
Actually, he [ed: Icculus] did go missing. As far as I know the project was started on his own initiative. He wanted to work on it in his copius spare time and LL’s stance was, “If you can do it, great!”. He made some rapid progress, then got sidetracked and never got back to it. I prodded him twice but he didn’t reply.
Which is very unfortunate. I don’t even have access to SL at home anymore since our Windows computer finally succumbed to a virus. I transferred all of the important data over to a Knoppix/debian machine and haven’t had time to rebuild a fresh Windows installation.
I would love to work on a GNU/Linux port of SL but I already have a full plate of stuff to do that I can’t get done fast enough. 🙁
Very interesting. Nice to have an update, and I’m intrigued that Icculus started the port on his own. I’m curious if he had the source from Linden Labs, or used the Mac client to port it to Linux. I’m disappointed that it never got finished, but I more than understand getting sidetracked when you were working on it for free.
Icculus.org is down (just today) switching ISPs, and I think Icculus has a FAQ up about contacting him – and this is one of those topics that are probably taboo. Bummer.
What would happen if you dressed as a homeless person, held a sign, and tried to give away Linux CD’s?
People would see what they want to see – and ignore the sign. Worth the read, a sigh and a chuckle.
I don’t think of myself as a neophyte when it comes to Linux or Ubuntu, but the All About Linux Blog covers 10 things that make Ubuntu great for a new Linux user.
I won’t cover them here, as he does a great job of explaining them. And I whole-heartedly agree – Ubuntu is the only distribution I would recommend for someone new to Linux. Or even to a user who’s used Linux for a while. By far the best distribution I’ve ever used, and it’s still my day to day OS at home on my two primary machines.
I had picked out the Silverstone LC16M (in black) case for my upcoming Home Theater PC.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn, via a blog on Planet GNOME yesterday, that the Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) on the Silverstone case is Linux compatible. Linux drivers, linked from Silverstone, take you here: to the Imon page that has integrated Lirc support for the remote, and the VFD.
Bonus!
LinuxDevCenter.com: Installing and Configuring Ubuntu on a Laptop. Jeremy Jones of the Weather Channel purchases a Dell, and installs Ubuntu on it.
It’s a pretty good overview, and he runs into a couple quirky things that installing Linux on a laptop always seem to have, but no more than desktop installations now. Linux installs on laptops have come a long way in the last two years or so. While I had a similar experience with HP dv1000, it always comes down to the little things. The only big thing I’m still stuck on is suspend support.
Pretty good article if you’re looking to install Linux or Ubuntu on a laptop, especially a Dell.
Courtesy of digg.com: a nice collection of linux related podcasts.
I’ll need to dig out my podcast client again.
Ubuntu Blog has one of the most useful tips yet: How to mount a remote filesystem using SSH.
This is going to be big for me: I can mount my different webservers, hack my Terrastation and mount that using SSH, and all my other boxen.
Why use GNOME-VFS now? SSH is much more stable.
Thanks Ubuntu Blog!
Today is the day Ubuntu Breezy Badger is released and becomes Ubuntu 5.10!
Lots of good stuff built in to this release, some big, some small. (Release Notes). Bluetooth support, better partitioning, Edubuntu/OEM/Server versions (all new!), graphical boot and even editable GNOME menus.
The Linux & GNOME communities are all abuzz with the announcement yesterday of BetterDesktop.org and the Tango Desktop Project.
Better Desktop has published many usability videos of folks trying to do basic projects, and share those videos to make the user experience better. (Better Desktop is sponsored by Novell).
The Tango Project goal is:
While the look and feel of an application is determined by many components the initial work has been done on unifying the look of the individual icon sets.
Sponsored by Novell/Suse, it’s interesting to see them moving forward with this, as one of my constant complaints with SUSE is it’s KDE-centric icons. Yup, I’m a user not a developer, so I like my eye candy. I have high hopes, as the team involved crosses distributions, including Novell (Ximian), Red Hat, and Mozilla developers to just name a few.