Ubuntu 10:10 Meerkat Software Centre UI continues to evolve!

The Ubuntu Software Centre developments for Ubuntu 10.10 are continuing and those users currently testing out Maverick will likely have spotted a more dramatic visual over-haul of the Software Centre of late: -

To break the design down a bit – the layout of ‘Departments’ is excellent and more prominent in this iteration. The ‘featured applications’ section is still animated but looks much better in its new position. As for the ‘What’s new’ section – count me sold! I cannot wait to see applications – ‘new’ applications introduced post-release, start to populate that.

Another feature now working, which has been present for a while, is the ability to ‘tweet’ your favourite applications, complete with apr:url for one-click install via Gwibber directly from the software centre itself.

Original post featured @ OMG! Ubuntu!

Help fix paper cuts, and improve Ubuntu’s usability

If you are looking for a great way to help improving the usability of Ubuntu and the projects it uses, then the One Hundred Paper Cuts project is something for you!

This project was set up to collect bugs reporting small usability issues in the default installation of Ubuntu. The One Hundred Paper Cuts is all about polishing Ubuntu and getting rid of those small, perky issues. Including marvellous projects like the Software Centre and Empathy isn’t enough. If we want to give the users a smooth experience we need to look at the small problems as well.

For more on this article by Sense Hofstede, click here.

A guide to running your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud

Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is the product, powered by Eucalyptus, that allows you to easily run your own Amazon-EC2-like private cloud. It’s a lot simpler than you may think.
This is 3 a part tutorial you can use to Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud

Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 1

Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 2

Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 3

Ubuntu Is Safer Than Windows! says Dell

In a brief but bold statement, Dell’s U.S. website suggests that Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows, especially for customers looking to avoid viruses. The statement, spotted by TheVARguy.com, also suggests that Dell will begin shipping Ubuntu 10.04 on selected U.S. systems sometime in mid-2010. Here’s an update.

Loyal WorksWithU readers know that Dell has a mixed history with Ubuntu. On the one hand, Dell is the only major PC maker to openly endorse Ubuntu from time to time for desktop, mobile and netbook systems. But on the other hand, Dell’s U.S. website has offered a very limited selection of Ubuntu systems. In fact, the number of Ubuntu options from Dell seems to have fallen since 2007.

Even so, Dell’s web site (www.dell.com/ubuntu) now includes a top 10 list that describes why Ubuntu may appeal to customers. Among the reasons listed: Ubuntu, Dell says, is a safer choice than Windows because so many viruses are written to target Windows, notes The VAR Guy blog. Dell also hints that Ubuntu 10.04 preloads could arrive on Dell U.S. systems in mid-2010. That certainly represents some progress for Dell, which typically sticks with older Ubuntu releases as its preload options.

But back the story at hand: Is Dell’s statement — suggesting Ubuntu is safer than Windows — really news? Perhaps not. But it does take guts for a major PC vendor to endorse Ubuntu at a time when Microsoft is aggressively pushing Windows 7. by Joe Panettieri

Bob Young. The “open-source” entrepreneur

Bob Young is a self-confessed contrarian with a strong desire to change the world by allowing people to share and collaborate. The approach has served him well and has helped turn the Canadian into a multi-millionaire.

From the outset, his software company Red Hat bucked the trend set by the big players like Microsoft which stubbornly guarded every line of code and charged whopping fees to maintain it.

Red Hat’s approach was unusual at the time and relied on free software developed by an open-source community. Customers were given the right to change the code any way they liked and Red Hat sold services to make sure it all worked.

In those early 1990s, many businesses feared that open source would not be stable and often opted for the proprietary model being sold by the likes of Microsoft. Today, the Redmond giant has seen its market share erode; Red Hat has become the world’s open-source leader. Click here to read more.

Is this the ultimate guide to how Linux works?

Ever wanted to learn how the internals of your Linux desktop work? Yes, we’ve already published detailed “how it works” articles about things like sound, the kernel, LVM, PAM and filesystems, but in this article we’re going to take a wider view and explain how everything in a modern Linux distro works, start to finish.

We’ve opted for a top-down view, tackling each stratum of Linux technology from the desktop to the kernel as it appears to the average user. This way, you can descend from your desktop comfort zone into the underworld of Linux archaeology, where we’ll find plenty of relics from the bygone era of multi-user systems, dumb terminals, remote connections and geeks gone by. We’re also going to be showing you some commands you can use to poke around on your own system, because where’s the point of learning stuff you can’t use?

This is one of the things that makes Linux so interesting: you can see exactly what has happened, why and when. This enables us to dissect the operating system in a way we couldn’t attempt with some alternatives, while at the same time, you learn something about why things work the way they do on the surface. Sound awesome? Sure it does – read on!

The Ubuntu Advantage? Canonical Takes On Red Hat

There can be no doubt that Ubuntu has made shock waves around the world since its first release in 2004 (although their first Long Term Support release was not made until 2006).

It has quickly gained huge market share in the Linux desktop arena, but how has it fared in the commercial space?

When it comes to the commercial sector, there’s no question that Red Hat is the king. Canonical might not be deliberately setting out to challenge Red Hat with their new support offerings, but they are now competing in the same space. So with this latest move from Canonical, could the crown be possibly up for grabs? To read more follow this link

Synergy! Use a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers.

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Synergy is open source and released under the GNU Public License (GPL).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.

System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (the Windows 95 family)
• Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (the Windows NT family)
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
• Unix
  • X Windows version 11 revision 4 or up
  • XTEST extension
    (use “xdpyinfo | grep XTEST” to check for XTEST)

All systems must support TCP/IP networking.

“Unix” includes Linux, Solaris, Irix and other variants. Synergy has only been extensively tested on Linux and may not work completely or at all on other versions of Unix.

The Mac OS X port is incomplete. It does not synchronize the screen saver, only text clipboard data works (i.e. HTML and bitmap data do not work), the cursor won’t hide when not on the screen, and there may be problems with mouse wheel acceleration.

DOWNLOAD Synergy Now

EA Sports “FIFA Superstars” video game launched on Facebook

FIFA Superstars, the latest video game in the EA Sports FIFA Football series, has launched on Facebook rather than on games consoles.

The popularity of social media games has risen in recent years with up to 250 million global players logging on to various games each month.

Previous console FIFA games have retailed at around £30 but FIFA Superstars is free to play online. The footballers making up each player’s team are purchased in packs at a cost of £1 – £2 per pack.

Players pit their teams against those belonging to their Facebook friends. As the tournament progresses, each player earns points which can also be used to purchase team members.

Unlike console-based versions of FIFA games in which the player can decide to play as a manager, a player or both, on Facebook players can only be managers of virtual teams made up of real players from around the world. They can also opt to participate in league games outside of their “friends” network. Go to FIFA Superstars on Facebook now!

There will be a new edition of the console version of FIFA at a later date.

Social media games developer Playfish was bought by FIFA makers Electronic Arts (EA) for $300m (£170m) in 2009.

“Clickjacking” spreads across Facebook

Hundreds of thousands of Facebook users are falling victim to so-called “clickjacking” attacks, warn web security labs.

Facebook members see links to subjects such as “World Cup 2010 in HD” or “Justin Bieber’s phone number” that their friends appear to have “liked”. Clicking the link tricks users into recommending the site on Facebook too.

Security experts say the scam currently has no malicious intent but could be adapted to deliver malware. The link generally takes the user through to a page containing an instruction, such as asking them to click a button to confirm that they are over 18. However, wherever they click on the page it adds a link to their own Facebook profile saying they have also “liked” the site.

Currently the purpose of clickjacking is “trivial” and does not actively result in any malware or phishing attacks, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “At the moment the attacks which we’ve seen are more like old-school viruses – written for the heck of it to see how many fans they can get.

“But our feeling is that it would be fairly easy for the bad guys to introduce some revenue generation for themselves,” he told BBC News. Clickjacking works across all computer operating systems, added Mr Cluley.

The Facebook attack uses iFrames, which essentially places an invisible button over an entire web page, so that wherever the user clicks, they end up hitting the button – in this case a hidden Facebook “like” button. A free plug-in called NoScript, built for the Firefox web browser, includes pop-up warnings about potential clickjacks.

However, it will also query clicks on Flash videos, commonly used on many websites – and it is not easy to install, said Mr Cluley. “You have to be a little bit nerdy to configure it.”