We play with a lot of Linux distributions, and plenty of them leave us wanting more. NimbleX, on the other hand, leaves us screaming for less.
How much awesome can you cram into a 200MB live CD? A whole lot. NimbleX comes with 550 packages preinstalled, and you'll find the usual Linux apps here: Firefox, K3B, XMMS, MPlayer, Gimp, Kopete, Transmission, Klam AV, and K Office, to name a few. Boot times are wicked fast, even from CD, and installation to a hard drive or USB flash drive is dead simple.
Desktop performance is equally impressive, even on our shabbily-equipped VirtualBox setup (256MB memory, 8MB video, 8GB hard drive). On that note, it's worth mentioning that NimbleX also comes with VirtualBox installed just in case you decide you want to get Windows XP running in it.
Totem Destroyer is a fun little Flash-based physics game that is one part Indiana Jones, and one part Jenga.
The game play is simple; click on blocks to destroy them, while ensuring that the golden idol never touches the ground. There are three types of blocks: brown, green, and black. The brown ones are regular blocks and can be destroyed. The green ones are both bouncier than the brown ones, and have less friction, and they too can be destroyed. The black ones cannot be destroyed.
Each level starts with the idol balanced precariously on a stack of blocks, and your goal is to destroy the prescribed number of blocks without breaking the idol. There are 25 levels of mostly increasing difficulty, so this time waster should last you through your coffee break and part of your lunch break.
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has big dreams for Linux. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been following the progress of Ubuntu, which releases a major update every six months and keeps getting more and more user friendly. But user friendly is just the beginning. Shuttleworth wants Linux to be prettier too. In fact, he's calling on open source developers to make desktop Linux more attractive than OS X within 2 years.
Shuttleworth's remarks came yesterday at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, or OSCON. Open source developers have been making great strides in this area recently. Many Linux distributions include support for Compiz desktop effects which add a bit of visual bling to the desktop experience while also making things like switching virtual desktops a bit easier. And the developers behidn the KDE desktop environment have scrapped the Windows-like interface of KDE 3 and replaced it with a whole new paradigm in KDE 4 -- we're note entirely convinced that KDE 4 is easier to use than KDE 3, but it's certainly prettier.
On the other hand, it's a bit funny to hear Shuttleworth talk about making Linux more beautiful. After all, Ubuntu is frequently mocked for its default dull brown color scheme. But the operating system and its user interface are already extraordinarily customizable.
What do you think? Is it possible for desktop Linux to become as "beautiful," and user-friendly as OS X within 2 years? What would it take? And keep in mind, it's not like Apple is going to just sit still while Linux developers are working on the challenge. Who knows what the Mac OS will look like two years from now?
Flock has released a second public beta of Flock 2, a web browser based on Firefox 3. What sets Flock apart from Firefox is the integration with a ton of social networking services including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, del.icio.us, YouTube, PhotoBucket, and more. There's a blog editor for updating your web site from the browser, and a media bar for viewing images and videos shared by your friends without navigating away from your current web page.
Flock has always been based on Firefox, but what sets Flock 2 beta apart from Flock 1.x is that the beta version is built on Firefox 3. That means you get a redesigned location bar, a new bookmark manager, and a new rendering engine that helps most web pages load faster.
The Flock team has addressed over 175 bugs that were found in the first beta of Flock 2. Aside from bug fixes, there aren't many new features in Flock 2 beta 2. But the browser is based on Firefox 3.01, which means it also includes some important security updates. So if you're using Flock 2 beta 1, we'd recommend upgrading.
Have you ever looked in a real DIYers toolbox? Or maybe even the toolbox of someone who's pretty handy, but who has a messy streak? So all the hammers might be together, or all the screwdrivers will be together, maybe even with some sort of arrangement as to Phillips or Torx heads... but there is almost inevitably, in some corner compartment of the toolbox, or some drawer (and maybe several of them, even) an area set aside for what amounts to a whole lot of miscellaneous "everything" bits. These pieces might logically be found with hammers, or dry wall tools, or about a million other things... But they aren't quite the same, and they aren't always used in the same manner. So they end up in a big pile, that you hope stays manageable enough you can find them again.
This week's Linux switch, the last of the web development stuff for a bit, is like that compartment. These are all nifty little tools, and great when you need them. But they are mostly small, and have a strange distinction of not always being associated with any one particular type of task.
Some, like FTP programs and plugins, are associated with other programs. But what if you love your editor and hate the uploading functions it has? Image maps can be a nuisance to set up, and we think that's probably part of the reason why you don't see a lot of them. But sometimes, they just fit the project at hand.
And you know how we said we'd go easy on the editors? Seriously, we meant it. However, there's one more editing tool we want to mention that's probably beyond most casual users, but will make Linux users who want to develop SWF9 applications pretty happy. We are not covering it in any great depth, because we are not any sort of whizzes with Flash development -- but we have to point it out. It's been a long time coming!
So welcome to our odds and ends compartment of web tools!
Sure, the name makes you sound like you have some kind of horrible ocular infection, but vee-Dee Eyes has a massive collection of prefab Linux distros ready for you to run in VirtualBox.
VMware has been ruling the virtual machine game for quite a while, but Sun has made great strides with Virtual Box of late. Performance is very good (there's really no appreciable lag, even on our virtualized Windows Vista install), and it is free, after all.
You could also download five or six Linux iso images and install them yourself, but that requires a lot of additional time and effort. Since we're all about slack efficiency here, we figure why not take advantage of the virtualization community's efforts and grab some .vdi's that are ready to rock.
It's a great way to check out new alpha and beta releases and lesser knowns like Mandriva 2009.
Hey, we know some people really did care very much about the Mozilla world record for Firefox 3 downloads on Download Day. And hey, yeah, we'll concede mad props to the Mozilla team for getting out there and getting those downloads.
But OpenSUSE just upped the "let's get lots of new users" ante. Record books are all well and good, but what about stakes that are a little higher, a bit more exotic? For instance, what would happen if OpenSUSE hit a million installs of the OpenSUSE 11.0 release by the SourceForge Community Choice Awards at OSCON next week?
Now, a million installs is a lot. You can't really blame Zonker though, as a tattoo is a pretty big deal, depending not only on one's pain tolerance, but the idea that one day you will have to explain to your grandkids why any given image is on your back (or arm... or...). We suppose he had to set the bar pretty high so that even the jaded future generations would be duly impressed. Zonker is still willing to amuse us, though, and has said that a more attainable 300,000 registered installs would get him to leave OSCON with green hair.
But c'mon, a tattoo is so much cooler. If you were thinking you'd like to try OpenSUSE 11.0, but needed just that little kickstart to try it, this is a pretty fine reason to at least give the LiveCD a whirl. If you like it enough to install it, you will have to register (no cost or spam involved) the install in order for it to count towards Zonker's new tattoo.
And no, no word yet on prospective placement of the geeko.
The newest version of the VLC media player isn't ready for the streets yet, but if you're they type who doesn't mind risking your precious computer for the sake of satisfying a primal curiosity for experimental software, the pre-release of VLC 0.9.0 is now available for both Windows and Mac. Unfortunately, anybody with a Windows 98/ME or OS X 10.3.9 machine is out luck since such technology is no longer socially acceptable as those operating systems are no longer supported.
It now supports Last.fm (AKA Audioscrobbler) straight out of the box disk image, so it'll update your Last.fm account as you play music through VLC. To enable Last.fm support in the 0.9.0 release, enter your username in the preferences pane under Audioscrobber, but don't forget to visit Control interfaces to check the box labeled "Submission of played songs to Last.fm."
Other changes also include better tag support, more subtitle support, improved mouse gestures, album art support, Shoutcast TV listings, and a lot more that we don't want to bore you with, but you're more than welcome to check out the whole list on the VLC forums.
TokBox is a video chat service that lets you communicate via instant message, video, or audio. But unlike other services such as Skype, there's no need to install any software. You can run TokBox from a web browser. The software will automatically detect your computer's camera and/or microphone and adjust all the appropriate settings for you.
But sometimes you don't want to leave a browser window open just so you can chat. Or you might want to do other things with your web browser while chatting. So a desktop client can come in handy. And doday TokBox released one. The desktop version of TokBox is built on Adobe AIR, so it looks and acts almost exactly the same as the web version. Because essentially it is the web version. You just don't need to launch a web browser to use it.
It took us just a few moments to register for a free account and download and install the software. Our only complaint was that you still need to access the web site to accomplish some tasks. For example, when we wanted to add friends to our contact list, we hit the "find friends" button in TokBox AIR. But when we started the search, TokBox fired up our web browser to show us the results.
There's no shortage of desktop clients for Twitter and FriendFeed. But Posty goes a few steps beyond popular clients like Twhirl and Alert Thingy by adding support for Jaiku and Tumblr as well as Pownce.
Posty's main window features a list of supported services with check boxes next to each. Just enter a status update and select the networks you want to send the update out to, and you can post simultaneously to all 5 places. You can also select the individual tab for each service to see recent updates from your contacts or from the public timelines if they're available. You can also respond to comments or send direct messages directly from Posty.
One of the only complaints we had with Posty is that while the window is resizable, it starts out at 550 pixels wide and there's no way to make it smaller. Bigger, yes. But smaller? Not so much. So it takes up a fair bit of screne real estate.
Like most applications built on Adobe AIR, Posty is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
WattOS is a new Linux distribution that's based on Ubuntu, but designed for low-power machines. It has low system requirements, which means you can run it on older hardware. But the developers are also hoping to build advanced power management features into the OS so that you'll have a full Linux desktop experience without consuming much power (by today's computer standards).
The operating system comes in four flavors:
wattOS: The core operating system which features a Gnome desktop
mWattOS: Uses the Xfce interface
µWattOS: Features a command line interface and a light-weight GUI
Substation: A server edition
WattOS is currently available as a public alpha, which means there's still a lot of work to do, but the operating system is perfectly usable, if a little rough around the edges. It comes with a stripped down set of applications. For examle, instead of OpenOffice.org you get AbiWord and Gnumeric. But WattOS supports apt-get and the Synaptic Package Manager, which makes it easy to add additional applications.
Seriously guys, we love you. Okay, fine, maybe not in the way your mom loves you, or your dog loves you, or your significant other loves you. But we definitely love you in that totally uncomfortable, care-free, "Hey, let us buy you a Red Bull and Pop Rocks next time we're at the convenience store" sort of way.
We don't just love you for your looks, or your superior intelligence, or because you can totally creep out little kids with that thing you do with your left eye. We will even go so far as to say the fact that you use Linux doesn't play into it one bit.
We love you because your suggestions rock. We scour the web ourselves daily, but you know, it's a big place, and we just can't know every single bit of software or tech goodness out there. We think it's way cool when we get suggestions from readers about applications for Linux (or Windows, or Mac, or Palm...) because you aren't only cluing us in on applications we may not be familiar with, but a lot of you are avid users, and can vouch that the application you are suggesting really works for every day use.
This week, we think it's only appropriate to wrap up the editors section of our Linux web tools discussion with a couple of reader suggested gems. So a big thanks to Tim for suggesting we look at Komodo Edit and kingkool68 for pointing us towards Aptana.
Like many other versions of Linux, Ubuntu is available as a free download. In fact, if you don't want to download a 600+ MB disc image, you can even request a free CD. It'll take up to 10 weeks to ship, but you don't have to pay a penny. So it's kind of baffling to see Best Buy selling Ubuntu for $19.99. There's nothing preventing anyone from charging for Ubuntu. But since it's available for free, why would you pay?
It's possible that customers who had never even heard of Ubuntu before could come across an Ubuntu package in a Best Buy store or on the company's web site and be persuaded by the low price (compared with other operating systems like Windows or OS X). So the move could help grow the market for Ubuntu and other open source software. And of course, it'd be hard to get a store like Best Buy to carry software without charging for it.
Canonical's director of corporate services, Steve George, says that the goal is to provide Ubuntu to customers who are looking for software and support. The version sold at Best Buy comes with 60 days of support service.
What do you think? Is the fact that Best Buy is carrying Ubuntu good news for the Linux distro and open source software in general? Or is this like asking people to pay for air?
TweetDeck is a desktop client for Twitter build on Adobe AIR. Nothing new there. That sentence could have described Twhirl, Snitter, or Alert Thingy. But TweetDeck has a few features up its sleeve that other Twitter clients lack.
The most noticeable difference is that TweetDeck has a multi-column view. You can glance at all of the latest tweets from your contacts in one column, see replies in another, and direct messages in a third. Or you can create groups of contacts (for example, a group of all your favorite Download Squad bloggers on Twitter), and see just updates from those contacts in a column.
You can customize the display by adding up to 10 columns, or removing columns you don't need. The display is also resizable. There are no themes and no way to adjust the font yet. But the application is still in beta.
Truecrypt has been a trusted name in on-the-fly encryption for ages (v5 arrived in February). What's new in version 6? Plenty.
One of the biggest advances is support for multiple processors, which provides a boost in the encryption/decryption speed equal to the number of processors/cores in use. Other tweaks have increased the overall speed by as much as 20% in some operations - on top of the parallel processing gains.
And - holy crap - how about being able to run a fully encrypted, hidden OS? Yeah, version 6 can do that, too. There's even a handy guide on Truecrypt's website. It'll also hide volumes, and on Vista and Windows 2008 you can even hide a system volume (not on XP, though).
They've really done it right this time. If you don't have Truecrypt, get it. We've all got some data on our PC that deserves a little extra privacy and protection. Mac and Linux versions are also available, so everyone's invited to the Truecrypt party.
Totem Destroyer
Have you ever looked in a real DIYers toolbox? Or maybe even the toolbox of someone who's pretty handy, but who has a messy streak? So all the hammers might be together, or all the screwdrivers will be together, maybe even with some sort of arrangement as to Phillips or Torx heads... but there is almost inevitably, in some corner compartment of the toolbox, or some drawer (and maybe several of them, even) an area set aside for what amounts to a whole lot of miscellaneous "everything" bits. These pieces might logically be found with hammers, or dry wall tools, or about a million other things... But they aren't quite the same, and they aren't always used in the same manner. So they end up in a big pile, that you hope stays manageable enough you can find them again.
Seriously guys, we love you. Okay, fine, maybe not in the way your mom loves you, or your dog loves you, or your significant other loves you. But we definitely love you in that totally uncomfortable, care-free, "Hey, let us buy you a Red Bull and Pop Rocks next time we're at the convenience store" sort of way.
