Ubuntu Open Week October 07

By boredandblogging | Published: 2007-10-11

Mon 22nd Oct – Sat 27th Oct @ #ubuntu-classroom on Freenode

With the up-and-coming release of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon coming, we’re pleased to announce another Ubuntu Open Week, this time taking place the week following the Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon launch – Mon 22nd Oct – Sat 27th Oct on #ubuntu-classroom on Freenode. The sessions take place from 15.00 UTC to 21.00UTC

Ubuntu Open Week is a week full of 42 IRC tutorial sessions on a range of subjects, designed to help people get involved in the Ubuntu community. It is given by many of the brightest, most capable members of the Ubuntu community, and covers a range of subjects including packaging, bug triage, translations, accessibility, automated testing, loco teams, mentoring, Launchpad, kernel team, desktop team, training team and much more. In addition to this there will be sessions for Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and the newest member of the Ubuntu family, Gobuntu.

There will also be a special Ask Mark session (Wed 24th Oct @ 16.00UTC) in which you have two hours to ask Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, your burning questions. Jono Bacon will also be providing a Community Q+A session (Wed 24th Oct @ 15.00UTC) in which you can ask your questions about the community, Ubuntu, Canonical and anything else.

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10 Rocking Features in 10 Days: Day 3: Sharing your computer with Fast User Switching

By boredandblogging | Published: 2007-10-11

Yesterday we took a look at all the handy new features of X in Ubuntu 7.10 and today we turn to Fast User Switching which allows you to easily share your computer with others

What is Fast User Switching?

Having different people access your computer using separate user accounts is one way to keep your computer safer. It’s convenient too because different people’s settings can be stored separately. But if you find it annoying to have to keep logging off and logging in all the time to switch user, then Fast User Switching is the feature for you!

In a nutshell, Fast User Switching allows multiple users to switch quickly while staying logged in.

So how do I use it?

Well, first you need at least one other user on your computers. If you are uncertain about how to do that, please refer to this excellent wikipage on it or for the more visually inclined, there is a screencast (which also covers how to switch new users).

Once you have your users, it is pretty simple. On the upper panel, click on your name and you will see a list like this:

Choose the other user and you will get to a login screen. When they are done and logout, you are back to your screensaver. Unlock the screen and you are back on your desktop. It is that easy.

And yes, tomorrow, we will cover Desktop Effects with Compiz Fusion, as promised. Until then!

10 Rocking Features in 10 Days: Day 2: Bulletproof X and Graphical X configuration

By boredandblogging | Published: 2007-10-09

Yesterday we kicked this whole thing off and took a look at Deskbar and Tracker. Today we turn our attention to X, the graphical subsystem of any Ubuntu (or Linux or Unix machine). As any existing Ubuntu user knows, not only do you need to configure X, but breakages can happen. Thankfully with Ubuntu 7.10, there comes a few new features to help out with these problems, including better auto detection and configuration, Bulletproof X and graphical X config, for those times when you really to play with something. But first, some explanations

So what is X?

X, or X windowing system, is “a networking and display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays”, according to Wikipedia. It is also the basis of 99% of the GUIs on Linux and Unix systems such as Ubuntu.

So what is this “autoconfiguration” stuff?

Thanks to the awesome work of all the X.org developers, Ubuntu 7.10 now is able to detect your video hardware and monitor better, meaning in most instances, everything should just work. But what about those times that it doesn't?

So I can config this graphically, right?

With 7.10, yes! The new displayconfig-gtk, written primarily by Sebastien Heinlein and based off the KDE systemconfig work, allows you to easily change the resolution, add another monitor, change your driver and more. Take a peek:

Graphical X configuration with displayconfig-gtk
Saving your broken X.conf with BulletProofX

Of course, not everything can always be roses and champagne. Sometimes things break, including X. Like most software, X reads off a configuration file to determine how to start up, including what monitor(s) and video card(s) you have. If this file gets corrupted, things can break, very very badly:

X breaking, badly

But hey, all is not doom and gloom any more. With 7.10, you are no longer given a useless and arcane error dialog, you are now shown displayconfig-gtk to allow you to fix that broken config and get back on your feet:

displayconfig-gtk and BulletproofX saving the day

If you want to read a bit more, check out the X.org maintainer for Ubuntu, Bryce Harrington's, article on BulletproofX

Tomorrow, it's off to explore all the new shiny with Desktop Effects, as brought to you by Compiz Fusion. Until then!

10 Rocking Features in 10 Days – Countdown to Ubuntu 7.10 – Deskbar and Tracker

By boredandblogging | Published: 2007-10-09

As we close in on the release of Ubuntu 7.10, codenamed Gutsy Gibbon during the development cycle, we thought we would tell you a little bit about some of the new features and improvements that make the release exciting. So over the next ten days, we will talk about one rocking feature each day until the 18th of October, when Ubuntu 7.10 goes live.

So what is in store for you with 7.10? We’ll be looking at the following features:

  • Starting today, desktop search via Tracker and Deskbar
  • Improved usability for configuring the graphic environment, with features such as Bulletproof-X and Graphical X configuration
  • Spectacular desktop visual effects by default, brought to you by Compiz-Fusion
  • Improvements in Firefox plugins, including Gnash installed by default
  • Fast User Switching for those with shared machines
  • Printer auto-detection
  • Better handling of non-free drivers (including firmware installation)
  • Improved security with AppArmor
  • Easier access to your files on Windows with NTFS writing

    • Desktop search with Tracker and Deskbar

    As any of you know, once you use a computer for longer than 5 minutes, you start collecting files, a lot of files. Finding them can be difficult, especially as hard drives get bigger and the urge to keep everything grows. Thankfully, Ubuntu 7.10 has a solution for this, with the inclusion of an indexing program called Tracker and an easy way to access that data, via Deskbar.

    Deskbar LogoTracker Logo

    So what does Tracker do?

    Tracker does to your local files, including your documents, music, etc, what Google does for websites: it searches through the full text (and any tags) and compiles them into a giant database, for easy searching. So, if you are looking for all documents on the computer that contain a single word, such as “Ubuntu” or “music”, tracker already knows where they are and can show them to you in a blink of an eye.

    So how do I actually search for my stuff?

    Well, having your computer know where stuff is is only half the battle; you need to be able to tell the computer what you are looking for. This is where Deskbar comes in – a powerful, single place to not only tell Tracker what exactly you are looking for, you can also launch applications for it, run commands in a terminal and much more.

    For example, if you are searching for your music, open up Deskbar by clicking on the icon (as below) or by hitting F11. Then type in “music” and off you go.

    Search is not the only thing Deskbar can do. You can also launch applications be searching either on the application name or the actual executable name, look up a word in the dictionary, and if you configure it correctly, search your bookmarks, history, Google or Yahoo. And if that isn’t enough for you and you have a bit of programming skill, you can always extend Deskbar with your own plugin (to find out more about this, check out Deskbar’s page on live.gnome.org).

    Tomorrow we are off to visit the new X.org stuff, including BulletproofX and the new graphical config. Until then!

Weekly News #60

By boredandblogging | Published: 2007-10-08

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #60 for the week September 30th – October 6th, 2007 is now available.. In this issue we cover the freeze of the Gutsy archive, a Gutsy countdown script for websites, Philipp Kern joining the MOTU Team, the release of UbuntuBolivia by the Bolivian LoCo Team, Ubuntu Forums interviews, and, as always, much much more!

  • Archive Frozen for Gutsy Release
  • Gutsy Countdown Script
  • Philipp Kern Joins MOTU Team
  • Bolivian LoCo Team To Release UbuntuBolivia
  • Ubuntu Forums Interviews
  • In The Press and In the Blogosphere
  • Meetings and Events
  • Updates and security for 6.06, 6.10, and 7.04
  • Translation stats
  • Bug Stats

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News please submit it via email or on the wiki !

UWN is brought to you by the Marketing Team.