Filed under: Linux

If you're looking for an easy way to port some of your favorite Apple fonts over to Ubuntu, here it is! I've just started to get exposed to alternative OSes like Ubuntu and was really excited to find a way to easily get some of my favorite fonts over to it quickly and easily. TechSource has provided a really great tutorial on how to access those fonts without a lot of fuss.

To get started, open up the Linux terminal and download the required font files with this command:

$ wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/macfonts.tar.gz

Next, you'll need to extract the files:

$ tar zxvf macfonts.tar.gz

Move the fonts to the /fonts directory:

$ sudo mv macfonts /usr/share/fonts

Then just reload the font cache to start using them:

$ sudo fc-cache -f -v

That's it. To use or test the fonts, head over to System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts.


If you're looking to implement a secure, private chat environment in your company, have a look at what's going on at Ignite Realtime with their OpenFire real time collaboration server and Spark cross-platform IM client.

Being that they are open source, both OpenFire and Spark are free; that makes it easy to convince management to give it a try.

But the open source nature of the products also means that if they almost but don't quite suit your needs, you can always modify them to fit the bill.

Ignite Realtime also hosts a number of other related projects including SparkWeb, Smack API, Tinder API, Whack API, and XIFF API. If you're an IT manager or developer looking to implement a secure private chat environment, have a look at OpenFire and Spark.

Have you ever wished that you could have a photo booth running at your wedding reception, engagement party, or kegger? If so, you might want to check out Party Booth.

Party Booth is a desktop application that runs in full-screen kiosk mode that allows party guests to walk up to the computer, simply press the spacebar, and pose for pictures. The process is entirely automated. The app allows you to use custom graphics for a border or banner on the prints, allowing you to commemorate your event for your guests. It can also optionally automatically upload photos to Facebook, img.ly, Mobypicture, Posterous, ScreenTweet, TweetPhoto, TwitDoc, Twitgoo, TwitPic, twitrpix, TwitSnaps, and tumblr.

Party Booth is available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X and Linux due to it being a Flash application distributed in in Adobe's AIR Runtime. Party Booth will set you back $38US, which is far less expensive than renting an actual photo booth, and you can run a trial of the app for free.

It looks like KDE 4.4, the newest version of the popular Linux desktop environment and app suite, is on track for its scheduled February 9th release. A second release candidate just became available for ambitious experimenters to try out, and that milestone was only a few days off schedule. A bump from 4.3 to 4.4 doesn't sound like it would be a big deal, but don't discount it just because it's not a nice, round version number: KDE 4.4 includes new widgets, enhancements to existing apps, multitouch support, and even some entirely new apps.

Bloggers will be glad to hear that there's a new blogging tool, Blogilo, included in this release (I was kind of expecting them to call it Klogger, but hey). Konqueror, the KDE browser, now has a history sidebar. Akonadi, the personal information manager that plugs into apps like Kontact and KOffice, has been updated with POP3 support. There's also an onscreen keyboard and multitouch for hardware that supports it.

The watchful eyes at Phoronix noticed that a pair of small changes were announced yesterday on the Ubuntu dev list. Both will affect the browser in Lucid Lynx -- and both have to do with search.

The more subtle of the two is a small tweak within Firefox. When a user changes his or her default search, the Ubuntu start page's search box will send queries to that provider. While most users may never see this in action (just about everyone sets a custom home page, right?), it's a nice change and keeps the search experience consistent.

Now on to the not-so-subtle change.

In the same post, Canonical's Rick Spencer also announced that a revenue sharing deal has been reached and Yahoo! will replace Google as the default search option. Spencer stresses that the deal in no way affects the user's ability to change to a different engine and I'm fairly confident that most Ubuntu users are savvy enough to know how to do that.

The deal will provide additional income for Canonical -- which Spencer says will "will help Canonical to provide developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Platform." That's certainly good news. After all, if you allow users to download your OS for free, it's fairly critical to have alternative revenue streams to fuel your business.

One reply on the dev thread noted that it would be nice for Yahoo! to remove the "unsupported OS" warning from Yahoo! Mail since they're snuggling up to Linux. Seems like a good idea to me...

Communication software Skype is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. As you probably know, Skype lets you send instant messages or make voice or video calls over the internet. What you may not know unless you're a Mac or Linux user is that the Windows client tends to get all the cool new features first. But eventually they tend to make their way into the clients for other platforms.

This week Skype introduced Skype 2.1 beta 2 for Linux. The most noticeable change is that the Linux client now supports screen sharing, a feature that's been available in the Windows version of Skype since the middle of last year.

Skype 2.1 beta 2 for Linux also supports quoting messages in chat, has a new "report abuse" option, and adds support for localized time formats and UI styles.

You can read about all the changes since the last beta in the release notes.

[via Lifehacker]

It's finally official! Mere days after it hit Release Candidate 2, the finished version of Firefox 3.6 comes out tomorrow. It's been confirmed over at Mozilla's official blog, where there's also an intro video from Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox. (Or, you can watch the video after the jump.)

Beltzner runs through all the new features in 3.6, including quick theming with Personas - which is up to a whopping 35 THOUSAND themes now. Firefox now also scans for plugins that need to be updated, for extra stability and security. Beltzner also focuses on designer features like CSS gradients, accelerometer support and web standards support.

The timing of this release is perfect, since IE is currently shedding users thanks to its role in China's attack on Google. If Firefox is going to take a bite out of IE and hold off the WebKit contenders like Chrome and Safari, now's the time to do it. So, along comes Firefox 3.6, marketing itself as the best choice for security and stability ... looks like a good sales pitch to me, even if you're not in love with add-ons.

Boxee is a media center platform that helps bring internet video to your TV. The software runs on Mac, Windows, or Linux, and works great if you have a PC next to your TV. Soon you'll also be able to pick up a Boxee Box from D-Link which is a small A/V device that you can stick next to your TV, no PC required.

The company has gotten a lot of hype over the last few years, and the software is pretty slick. But I've kind of been wondering how the folks at Boxee plan to make money. Clearly the Boxee Box will help a bit, but just a bit. Today Boxee unveiled what may be a much larger revenue stream in the long run: Boxee Payments.

Basically, Boxee is making it easier for content partners to hide some or all of their content behind a paywall. Right now, virtually everything available from the Boxee interface is free (with the exception of services that require separate payment a login such as Netflix video streaming). But Boxee's upcoming Payment Platform will allow users to pay for content with a click of the remote control.

The idea is to offer both pay-per-view and subscription content. Boxee will take a cut of the action, and if the company can line up partners interested in selling videos and subscriptions, Boxee might have a bright future.

For the second time in just three years, China is planning to build a supercomputer using its own home-grown Loongson family of processors.

Loongson processors were meant to be used in the Dawning 5000a supercomputer back in 2008, but as they lacked Windows compatibility they were ultimately switched out for AMD processors. This year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences intends to make good on its promises and build a supercomputer using Chinese processors -- and it'll run Linux!

The actual technical specifications are mind boggling (take a look if you like), but I'll try to boil it down to something you can make sense of. It's safe to assume they are going for #1 position on the Supercomputer TOP500. To reach that, they need to beat the current leader -- the Cray Jaguar -- which clocks in at 1.75 petaflops -- 1.75 thousand trillion calculations per second, or 1,750,000,000,000,000 if you like numbers with lots of zeros

Take a moment to comprehend how many operations per second that is.

One analyst estimates that only 782 16-core Loongson processors would be required to break 1 petaflop -- but it's usually the infrastructure that's the real challenge with supercomputers. You need motherboards and controllers that can harness the power of 1,500 CPUs. Ultimately it's all for nought if the operating system is unable to utilize all of the resources -- and that's where Linux comes in! Since 2000, Linux has grown from obscurity in the supercomputer segment to almost 90% of the TOP500.

[via Technology Review -- if I got that 1.75 petaflops figure wrong, please correct me in the comments. I hate maths.]

Mozilla is already making good on its promise of more frequent updates to the Firefox browser, pushing out an update to the release candidate of Firefox 3.6 just a week after the first RC became available. As we told you last week, Firefox 3.7 has been dropped from the development cycle to make these more frequent updates possible. Is Firefox delivering significant new features, though? Indeed it is!

Although 3.6 RC 2 is a "security and stability" update, it includes all the things that make Firefox 3.6 great -- faster load times, improvements to JavaScript, no-restart theme changes with Personas -- and it also fixes some stability issues caused by the way third-party software interacts with Firefox. Linux users should pay special attention to this release, as it fixes a Javascript bug that only affected the Linux version of RC1.

Firefox 3.6 is on schedule for final release on January 26th. Looks like this "frequent updates" thing is working out for Mozilla so far.

[via CNET]

To say Ubuntu has a dedicated fanbase is probably a bit of an understatement. As the most widely-recognized Linux distribution, Ubuntu has helped push Linux beyond the fringe of desktop computer use.

But because it's Linux -- and because Linux and open source are intertwined so tightly in the minds of many -- things get a little dicey when there's mention of closed source software being packaged with Ubuntu by default.

Take the recent survey they posted. It's a reasonable enough request - which apps would you like to see in Ubuntu which currently aren't available? Where the trouble arises is with the selections listed in the survey, apparently: Photoshop, iTunes, Skype, Hulu.

Oh god, no! What the hell are they thinking?!

I'll tell you what. They're thinking that Ubuntu needs those apps in order to appeal to a much broader group of people. Windows still owns the desktop computer market, and the lack of recognizable apps like iTunes keeps many people from even considering Linux as an alternative.

It's the truth, whether the Ubuntu community wants to admit it or not. I've tried to extol the virtues of Linux to plenty of retail customers and more than one has replied "can I run iTunes on it?" When I say no, their interest disappears completely.

Bringing apps like those mentioned would be a bold move by Canonical, but one that would indeed pay off in the long run.

[via webupd8]

Boxee is one of those magically delicious technologies that you may not "get" until you try it. Then you try it and you're hooked. I'm just talking about the old alpha builds here, which I tried on my non-techy mate and she loved Boxee, frequent crashes and all. With tons of free video and audio streaming content, plus the ability to add your locally stored multimedia wares, it's one of the least painful "media center" tools I've ever used.

Hot on the heels of their Boxee box unveiling at CES, Boxee now has the beta version of the Boxee application ready for download on Mac, Linux and Windows. Apple TV users still get the alpha version, but I keep wishing Apple would just bundle it (they never, ever will). There's a 64-bit version for Linux and some 64-bit lovin' for Windows as well. If you want to know more about the features in the beta, you can read Brad's writeup here.

And lest we not forget the humble browser origins from whence Boxee came, there's a bookmarklet that works on a handful of right-minded sites like Vimeo, Viddler, YouTube and such. The bookmarklet will add videos you want to watch to Boxee. Pretty handy if you see something you'd like to watch on your big HDTV instead of your teensy netbook.

Go forth and download!

If you're into getting the latest, greatest, most-untested updates to Google's Chrome Browser, the developer channel is the place for you. New updates to Chrome on all platforms just hit the dev channel, with a bug fix that should solve some problems with HTML5 audio and video. The big news is just for Mac users, though: Chrome Extension support is here!

That means OS X users now can share in the epic winningness of Download Squad's 10 must-have Chrome extensions, compiled by our own Sebastian, and a collection of 15+ extensions put together by Lee. Or, if you prefer to find extensions on your own, head over to Google's Chrome Extensions Gallery and start browsing.

This update to Chrome via the dev channel shouldn't be confused with the latest nightly build of Chromium, which is the open source browser that forms the basis for Chrome. As Nik pointed out, Chromium nightlies for Mac now have Bookmark Manager enabled by default. You can enable bookmark sync in the dev channel release of Chrome Mac, but a known bug crashes the browser on adding a new folder.

[via CNET]

A common complaint about Ubuntu is that its default Gnome themes (and the other selections it ships with) are unattractive. Personally, I think Dust is quite nice, but I'm always up for additional skins that are pleasing to the eye.

Bisigi has created a dozen very nice options, and they're dead simple to install. It's just a matter of adding a key and source to your software repositories. First, add the Bisigi PPA key via terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574de

Then, head over to synaptic (or hack it into your sources via the terminal) and add:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu [Karmic/Jaunty/Intrepid/Hardy] main

Then update your sources and search for zgegblog. Alternatively, you can just grab them from terminal:

sudo apt-get install zgegblog-themes

Once the command finishes, you'll be asked to select the correct aspect ratio for your screen (4:3 or 16:9), and then you're free to switch themes via your appearance preferences. That's Bamboo-zen in my screenshot above.

[via webUpd8]

Before I start: this is for Linux. Specifically, it's for Ubuntu and Debian, but it'll probably work on other Linux distros if you know what you're doing. With that out the way, I give you rTorrentWeb, the best BitTorrent client for Linux.

If you've heard of rTorrent, you've probably guessed what this is: a Web GUI layer for rTorrent. If you haven't heard of it, which is really unlikely, rTorrent is a command-line interface BitTorrent tool. rTorrentWeb basically straps a PHP-enabled web server to rTorrent. In this case Lighttpd is used, but you could use an existing Apache installation if you like.

After you install rTorrent, 'screen' (isn't this installed on every Linux system by default?), and a web browser, you need to install rTorrentWeb itself. This basically uses rTorrent's XMLRPC to hook in and provide you with a nice Web-based user interface.

Take a look at the full installation instructions if you want to give it a go -- it's fairly early days for the rTorrentWeb guys, as you can see, but they've just reached version 1.0 Beta! Hooray!