Filed under: Linux

Mac4Lin brings OS X eye candy to Linux

by Jay Hathaway Jun 17th 2009

There are plenty of people out there who would be willing to give Linux a try if Linux UI designs looked more like Mac OS X. Mac4Lin brings Apple's UI design to a Linux install near you, including great details like app icons and even the Dock. It looks like the Mac4Lin project had been stagnating for a while, but it's finally at v1.0, and looking good.

Mac4Lin works on a variety of Linux flavors, including Ubuntu 9.04 and GNOME 2.26, but there's no KDE version (yet). A lot of third-party apps that use GTK for skinning, like Firefox and Songbird, look great in Mac4Lin. An unstall script is also included in the latest version, in case you decent you don't like the OS X look, and you'd rather go back to your default UI.

Tags: linux, mac4lin, os x, OsX, skin, theme, UI

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Freeware, Social Software, web 2.0, Browsers

With Unite, Opera 10 becomes both a browser and a content server

by Lee Mathews Jun 16th 2009

Everyone had a bit of a chuckle when Opera coyly announced that they were about to "reinvent the web," the other day. I certainly had my doubts. After all, we had nothing to go by other than a bright red background, a little cloud, and some comments buried inside HTML code.

While I'm not certain I would call what Opera has done with Unite (version 10 of its browser) a reinvention of the web, it's certainly a clever, inventive twist on the run-of-the-mill web browser.

So what is it?

Unite sits in Opera's side toolbar and adds various server features to the browser. By default it includes file, media, and photo sharing, a web server, chat room, and "fridge" for storing notes. There are no additional Unite services available yet, though it's safe to assume that community-produced options will start appearing soon (developer resources are listed here).

You configure your sharing options - choose a base directory, set access permissions - and Opera provides a URL you can provide to your friends. Sure, there are hundreds of websites we already use to share media, leave each other messages, and chat, but Opera Unite lets you do it with a single registration and without uploading any of your content to a remote server.

Unite's sharing pages render just fine in other browsers, so you friends don't have to be running Opera. As with previous Opera releases, it's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

The browser itself hasn't changed - it's still Opera 10, love it or hate it. The new Unite functions are very clever and do add a certain amount of cool factor. It will be interesting to see if the new features can increase the size Opera's fan base.

Take Unite for a spin and share your thoughts, or have a look at the gallery (work in progress)!

Tags: opera-10, server, unite, web-browser

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Stream your iTunes music on the web using pulpTunes

by Jay Hathaway Jun 10th 2009

If you've been looking for a way to stream music from your iTunes library on the web that "just works," you should give pulpTunes a look. With pulpTunes, it's extremely easy to set up a stream at a private URL, and even password protect it. Even better, it's available on all platforms.

The basic premise of a web server for your music is pretty cool, but pulpTunes throws in a lot of other iTunes-ish perks, including AAC support, album art, and iTunes DJ support. You can also download songs from your iTunes, or share a direct link to a song or playlist with your friends. That's a lot of features for an app that's so simple to set up.

[via AppScout]

Tags: audio, itunes, music, pulptunes, server, streaming

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Red Hat, Open Source

Fedora 11 released, features OpenChange MAPI link to Exchange

by Lee Mathews Jun 9th 2009

I've enjoyed using the preview releases on my MSI laptop (due in no small part to its ability to sleep and resume better than Ubuntu on my system), and at long last the big day is finally here. After being pushed back, Fedora 11 is now available to the public.

The new version ships with either Gnome 2.26.1 [torrent] or KDE 4.1.2 [torrent]. One of the biggest additions to Fedora 11 is OpenChange, which provides full MAPI connectivity to Microsoft Exchange servers. It's the first open source implementation of the MAPI protocol.

For a complete list of what's new, check out the release notes from Fedora - they're available in 40+ languages at Fedoraproject.com. The US-English overview is presented here and a list of changes for desktop users is right over here.

It's not a lab-quality demo, but you can see the Fedora 11 preview outrace Ubuntu 9.04 in the video above. It's a solid distro, and well worth downloading.

Tags: fedora-11, OSS, red-hat

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Firefox 3.5 beta 99 is out

by Brad Linder Jun 9th 2009

Mozilla has just pushed out a new version of Firefox 3.5 beta, which it's dubbing beta 99. Now, the last public beta was Firefox 3.5 beta 4, so either Mozilla went through 94 builds that they didn't feel like telling you about, or this is pretty close to the final product.

There's not a lot of information about the changes between 3.5b4 and 3.5b99. But several users have reported problems displaying some web content including errors with Wordpress 2.7.1's admin pages and problems displaying some elements of web forum pages.

You might want to hold off on upgrading until the kinks have been worked out. But if you just can't resist, you can upgrade from Firefox 3.5 beta 4 to beta 99 by clicking the Help button in the menu bar and then selecting "check for updates." You can also download Firefox 3.5 beta 99 from Filehippo and several other file download sites, although it's not yet available from Mozilla's Firefox beta download page.

Update: It looks like the preview release includes bug fixes, JavScript engine updates, and improved support for OGG based audio and video playback.

Tags: firefox-3.5, firefox-3.5-beta-99

Filed under: Windows, Linux, Apple, Beta, Browsers

Safari 4 exits beta, Apple claims it's the "fastest" browser

by Brad Linder Jun 8th 2009

Apple is taking the beta label off of Safari 4 today amid a flurry of news at WWDC. A public beta of the web browser has been available for Mac and Windows since February, a~~nd in fact when you go to the Safari download page, you're still greeted with a beta version of the browser. We're guessing the full version will be available later this afternoon.~~ Update: It's available now.

Apple claims Safari 4 runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3, 4 times faster than Firefox 3, and 8 times faster than Internet Explorer 8. The company says the browser loads HTML web pages 3 times faster than Firefox 3, although the company admits that performance can vary from system to system. I'm going to venture a guess that it may differ from web page to web page as well.

When OS X Snow Leopard is released later this year, Apple says Safari will be able to run as a 64-bit application, boosting performance by up to 50%.

Safari 4 features a Google Chrome/Opera style new tab page which provides you with thumbnail shortcuts to pages you visit frequently. The browser also features full page zoom, and a smarter URL bar with auto-complete functionality.

Safari 4 is available for Windows XP, Vista, or mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer.

Update: It's worth pointing out that Safari 4 is also the first non-beta browser release to get a perfect score on the Acid3 test.

Update: Nope, sorry, nope...Chromium still beats Safari on V8 (rather soundly, at that)...Dromaeo results in in a few minutes! --Lee

Update: Ok, on Dromaeo the results were much closer. My Chromium Nightly Build won 26 categories while Safari claimed 23. I tried several Chrome Experiments, and they generally run much more smoothly on Chromium. --Lee

[via Engadget]

Tags: safari, safari-4

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Time-Wasters

Hedgewars: multiplayer weaponized hedgehog action, now with a Mac port - Time Waster

by Jay Hathaway Jun 8th 2009

The first line in the game description of Hedgewars is "each player controls a team of hedgehogs." Ok, where do I sign up? Hedgewars is similar to old-school games like Worms Armageddon or Scorched Earth, in that your weapons can remove chunks of terrain from the playing field, deforming the game board and destroying your opponents. Your hedgehogs take turns moving and attacking with everything from baseball bats to dynamite.

The game would be pretty fun to play against a computer, but it gets better with the addition of multiplayer online games, and even tournaments. Go tap into the community at Hedgewars.com to find teammates and opponents. Hedgewars is free and open source, and also has a recent Mac port, so friends on all operating systems can get in on the hedgehog-battling action.

Tags: game, hedgehogs, hedgewars, multiplayer

Filed under: Macintosh, Linux, Google, Freeware, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Chrome alpha finally ready for Mac, Linux users to download!

by Lee Mathews Jun 5th 2009

Non-Windows users have been poking and prodding Google for quite some time now, wondering when they would be able to get their hands on an actual Google-branded browser for their operating systems. ~~You may not have to wait too much longer~~

Google has taken the wraps off the alpha versions for Mac and Linux! In the official blog post, however, Google advises that you don't download the alpha unless you have a browser deathwish. Which you do, so the download links are at the bottom of this page.

I'm wondering what took so long, especially on Linux where the coders behind the PPA for Ubuntu Chromium have been hard at work. The open source project has been usable for quite some time, and I've been running it in Crunchbang and Ubuntu for almost two months. Considering its supposed alpha state, the core of the browser is very stable and feels just as fast as its Windows cousin.

Sandboxing has caused a bit of a hangup on Linux, plugins are not yet supported, and the options screen is MIA as well. Ok, so there's plenty of work to be done, but it's serviceable, and has been fun to use for weeks.

Those same features won't be working in Chrome, either, so don't expect to be able to do all your typical web browsing. No plugin support means no Flash, so YouTube and most of our addictive Time Wasters are all out of the question. Update: the options page is there in Chrome, and it's (partially) working!

It's a start at least, and shows that Google is, in fact, going to deliver a finished browser at some point.

Hey, they only promised "sometime in the middle of 2009," after all, and we're not quite there yet.

Linux gallery coming up after the break!

[via CNet]

Tags: chrome, chromium, linux

Filed under: Linux, Open Source, Browsers

SRWare brings Iron's Chromium-based privacy to Linux

by Lee Mathews Jun 2nd 2009

It's no secret the Chromium development is proceeding nicely on Linux. It's been easy to install via Launchpad for quite some time, and is very usable in its alpha state. That progress has opened the door for SRWare to bring Iron to Linux as well. The German-based crew first released the privacy-enhanced Iron for Windows back in September of last year.

Iron is built on Chromium 2.0.180.0, and, of course, everything that's been working in Chromium works in Iron as well. That also means that there's plenty of functionality still missing from Iron as well - most notably plugin (like Flash) support and the options screen.

Other than that, Iron works very well. It's speedy, stable, and it doesn't apprise Google of your browsing activities. Personally, I'm more excited about Iron's progress than I am about Google's official release of Chrome.

Tags: chrome, chromium, privacy, srware-iron

Filed under: Audio, Video, Windows, Linux, Open Source

Open source media center Elisa becomes Moovida

by Brad Linder Jun 2nd 2009

Moovida is a cross-platform, open source media center application that runs on Windows, and Linux. A Mac version is in the works. Up until recently the project as known as Elisa, but the team behind the application have given it a new name and a new look.

Some of the new features in Moovida include auto-completion of your media library using the Yes.fm plugin, and the ability to show fan art for media files.

The interface has a sleeker, more professional look, that frankly looks a lot less like Apple's Front Row than the original Elisa user interface. Like Elisa, Moovida provides a 10 foot interface for managing your music, movies, and pictures. You can also use it as a media browser for internet video, music, and photos from a handful of sites.

[via instant fundas]

Tags: elisa, media-center, moovida

Filed under: Linux, Open Source

Customize your distro before you download with Slax

by Lee Mathews Jun 2nd 2009

One of the features I always enjoyed about Slax was its use of modules. Want to add some apps to your Live CD? Just download the module, add it to the folder in the Slax ISO, burn, and away you go!

That was ages ago, and Slax has come a long way since then. The system is even more slick now, allowing you to customize your ISO before you even download it.

To get started, just head over to the Slax: build page. Apps are organized by category and the collection is fully searchable as well. When you're done adding, head back to the build page to review your selections. If you're missing any dependencies, the page will alert you. At some point in the future, you'll also be able to add them all in a single click.

It's an excellent tool for putting together a lightweight Live CD or USB image tailored to your specific needs.

Tags: live-cd, slax

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Office, Open Source

Open source office suite KOffice hits 2.0, gets Firefox-like addon support

by Brad Linder May 29th 2009

KOffice is the open source, cross-platform office suite that isn't OpenOffice.org. You may not have heard much about KOffice unless you've used a Linux distribution using the KDE desktop environment. But KOffice and KDE have come a long way in recent years. You can run KDE apps like KOffice in Windows, although installation is still a lot simpler in Linux distributions like Kubuntu or OpenSUSE.

This week the KOffice team released a preview of KOffice 2. It's not really aimed at end users yet, and KOffice 2.0 is actually missing some of the features found in KOffice 1.6. Most of those features will return in versions 2.1 or 2.2. But the new version does have a number of new features, including:

Better integration between applications
New GUI designed to work with widescreen monitors
Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux
Native support for OpenDocument Format

It's also much easier for third party developers to create add-ons that will add new features and customizations. The goal is to make these add-ons as easy to install as Firefox extensions.

KOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet utility, presentation manager, project management softwre, a vector graphcis editor and a raster graphics editor.

[via Slashdot]

Tags: kde, koffice, koffice-2.0

Filed under: Linux, Open Source, Beta

Who wants Linux with sex appeal? Not this guy.

by Lee Mathews May 27th 2009

Moblin beta 2 just dropped a week ago, and things are looking good for the lightweight Linux distribution. It's innovative, sexy, and has already received loads of praise from reviewers for its ease of use, integration of activity streams, and uniqueness.

Tech Republic's Gary Marshall, however, thinks Moblin has to be stopped - now. Why? Because he's afraid developers (and the inevitable Moblin remixes) are going to ruin a good thing. "...naturally, somebody's going to bugger it up. Of course they will. It's Linux!" Later he states "Again and again, we've seen early promise ruined because people don't know when to stop."

Perhaps someone can explain to me how Ubuntu has suffered because of projects like Mint and Linspire, because it sure seems like the project keeps moving ahead and getting better with each new release. A promising Linux distribution continues to show more promise - like the possibility of running Android apps.

To claim that shutting the project down will turn Moblin into a kind of Linux martyr is utter nonsense. Projects like Moblin and HP's MIE are creating the kind of buzz Linux needs if it's ever going to gain mainstream acceptance. Kill them off, and people are left thinking "That was a cool idea. Pity it never amounted to anything."

Get Moblin on devices. Let developers innovate. Because as concerned as Marshall is about "buggering it up," someone could just as easily create something amazing.

Unrelated, but he's wrong about the Stone Roses, too. If they'd have quit after the first album, I would never have gotten hooked on the wicked guitar riff from Love Spreads.

Tags: linux, moblin, Op-Ed, opinion

Filed under: Linux, Canonical, Android

Coming soon: Google Android applications on Ubuntu

by Brad Linder May 26th 2009

While Google Android is built on the Linux kernel, all of the applications for the mobile operating system actually run on a custom Java runtime. In other words, Google Android doesn't run most native Linux applications, and most Linux distributions can't run Google Android apps... yet. But Canonical is working on software that would allow Google Android programs to run natively on Ubuntu Linux.

Right now that wouldn't really be that exciting, because most Android programs are designed to run on a cellphone. After all, would you really want to run the iPhone version of Safari or the Windows Mobile version of Word on your desktop computer when there are far better word processors and web browsers designed for desktop operating systems?

But in the long run, this could expand the developer community for both Ubuntu and Google Android. If you develop an app for one, it might not be that much work to get it to run on the other. The move could also make it much easier to come up with ways to synchronize the data on mobile devices running Google Android with a desktop computer running Ubuntu.

Development is still in the early phases, so it's possible that the whole project could lead nowhere. But the screenshot above (grabbed from Scott James Remnant's Twitpic stream) of Google Android programs running on a machine with Ubuntu Netbook Remix installed certainly suggests a world of possibilities.

Tags: android-on-linux, android-on-ubuntu, google-android, ubuntu

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Google

A meaningful tribute to fallen soldiers, on Google Earth

by Jay Hathaway May 25th 2009

I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but one of the most moving tributes to fallen American servicemen and women you can see this Memorial Day is a layer on Google Earth. Map the Fallen shows you the hometowns and places of death of the more than 5,000 soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq to date. Rather than being a crass and hollow tribute, Map the Fallen represents each of these people as more than a statistic or an icon on a map.

When you're zoomed out, those clusters of little icons do a good job of visualizing the sheer magnitude of the human sacrifice involved in war. Clicking on each of those icons shows details about each person, aggregated from several different sites that have been documenting the casualties. As a geek, I can't think of a more fitting way to honor each one of these people for their service. It's both educational and emotional.

Tags: google, google-earth, map-the-fallen, memorial-day, military, war

← Previous Page|Next Page →

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	116	6
2	Lee Mathews	83	33
3	Sebastian Anthony	55	182
4	Brad Linder	40	7
5	Jason Clarke	27	0
6	Grant Robertson	8	8
7	Dolores Parker	8	2
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	7	1
9	Nik Fletcher	3	0
10	Matt Heerema	3	3
11	John Burke	2	0
12	Paul O'Brien	2	0
13	Download Squad Staff	1	0

More Tech Coverage

Control Shift It's all about the experience
Somewhat Frank Perspectives on tech as it fuses in everyday life
Switched Gadgets, web news and commentary
Urlesque Exposing bits of the web

Download Squad