As you might know, Firefox is also highly extensible. It's easy to add some features that were not originally bundled with the browser. Ubiquity is a über-extension, that a makes your daily experience on-line more agile and fun. I say über, because it provides multiple functionalities that are otherwise given by a plethora of other extensions or web applications.

Take maps for example.

There is no need to visit google maps. Tell Ubiquity "map 18 Brooklyn Ave, NY", and it will show you where it is. If you see the address on a page, it suffices selecting it and asking ubiquity to map it.

Plus, you get e-mail. If you're using Gmail type "mail I love you dear! your_spouse@gmail.com" and you're done.

And twitter "twitter Writing a blog post while showing how cool Ubiquity is." I actually did that.

Another remarkable feat you can impress your friends is adding an event to Google Calendar just by typing "Dinner with Katie on Friday". That's right, Ubiquity understands natural language. Check your calendar, someone's getting lucky this Friday night.

Also, select a piece of text on a page written in a incomprehensible (for you) language and type "translate this to English". You start getting all the potential. Additionally you can check the weather for a given location, watch a youtube video, define a word. The options are literally boundless, and Ubiquity can further be extended by developers to include any cool extension you might think of. Play songs using Grooveshark, for instance. All of this neatly integrated with your Ubuntu system, by using its eye-candy alert system.

Watch the intro video, or drop us a line with your personal experience with Ubiquity and with your favorite extensions!

Some of these minor changes are, better Ubuntu One integrations/sycing, Shotwell replaces F-Spot, the installer now gives you the option to install the mp3 codec (this is my favourite feature) and overall they did some more polishing on the desktop user interface (the menus look great).

You can download it here, however I'd recommend getting the torrent version because you'll probably get better speeds, here.

Note: If you don't have an Ubuntu One account already sign up here it's free.

Step 1
Launch Tomboy and open the Preferences under the Edit menu.

Step 2
Navigate to the Synchronisation tab and change the Service to "Tomboy Web" and the server will automatically be set to https://one.ubuntu.com/notes/.

Step 3
Now click Connect to Server, this will launch your web browser and you'll be prompted to log into your Ubuntu One account, do so.

Step 4
Once you've logged in with your Ubuntu One details, you'll be asked to "confirm computer access". What this is basically doing is linking your computer to your Ubuntu One account to sync your notes. Give the computer a name and click "add this computer"

Step 5
You'll be shown the following message:
"Tomboy Web Authorization Successful"..."Please return to the Tomboy Preferences window and press Save to start synchronizing."

Click Save back on the tomboy client and it will start syncing your notes up to the cloud.

Note: You don't need Ubuntu One installed to use the syncing, hence this process works cross-platform.

If you want more details on using Ubuntu Ones web interface for managing your notes, go here.

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Step 1
Navigate to your Dropbox/ folder and create a new folder called Tomboy.

Note: Remember you actually need Dropbox for this to work.

Step 2
Launch the Tomboy application from Applications->Accessories and then right click on the Tomboy icon in the system tray, click on Preferences.

Step 3
Navigate to the Synchronization tab and make the server Local Folder and the folder path the Tomboy folder we created in Step 1.

Step 4
Check the automatically sync box and adjust the time, I've got mine set to 5 mins, save and exit.

Your done! Now you can have access to your tomboy notes on all your systems.

Note: Tomboy is cross-platform as is Dropbox and I've tested this between Windows and Ubuntu and it works great!

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Surf to alternativeto.net and learn what you can use instead of the application you use to have on your older system. Who knows, maybe you'll even find a fresh new approach to the task at hand that will boost your productivity!

Step 1
The installation is pretty straightforward. If you're using Lucid Lynx, all you have to do is go to Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center, search for Miro and proceed with installing it. Once installed, you'll find it under Applications -> Sound & Video.

Step 2
The first thing to do after running Miro is to subscribe to some content. Miro divides this into 'Video' and 'Audio'. An example of video would be Euronews 'No Comment', and The New York Times Front Page an example of an audio program (also called Podcast). To add No Comment as a show, copy their link, and inside Miro go to Sidebar -> Add feed (on the top menu). Paste the link, select video, and you're good to go!

Step 3
Next thing is to download some episodes from that show. The show will appear on the left sidebar, and clicking on it will reveal the available episodes for download. Choose those that interest you and once they're downloaded, they will show under Video, on top.

Note: The same procedure applies for Audio. Try it out with the NYTimes Front Page feed!

Step 4
Now that you have successfully subscribed to some shows, you can manage their download behavior. The 'Auto Download' menu on top allows you to get all the episodes, hand-pick those you want, or simply have Miro grab the freshest ones every time they come out. This way they'll sit quietly on you Hard-drive waiting to be watched by you.

Finally, peruse the Miro guide (sidebar, on top) and explore some shows that might interest you. Here is a list of some of my favorites.

Audio
Thinking Allowed.
Guardian Daily.
The Monocle Weekly.

Video
Democracy Now! (I got introduced to Miro by these nice folks)
Bleed.
Global Pulse.

Share those you've learned to love on the comment section. I'll lay down some more advanced Miro tips and tricks on a future post.

Step 1
Go to www.dropbox.com/downloading and download the appropriate .deb file.

Note: If you don't have a dropbox account sign-up for one here

Note: If you're not sure which one to download, you'll notice just above the download links they recommend which one you should download.

Step 2
Once downloaded, locate the file and double click it. You'll be presented with a package installer, just follow the on screen prompts.

Step 3
Another window will pop up, again just follow the prompts. This will restart nautilus for you.

Step 4
Go to Applications->Internet->Dropbox from your menu. This will start the final stage of this installation, click OK, wait for it to download and install the daemon.

Step 5
All you've got to do now is to put in your Dropbox account details (assuming you have an account) and follow the rest of the prompts and you're done.

Enjoy stupidly easy file syncing, cross-platform!

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Note: Due to a recent update, you can now install Skype via the Ubuntu Software Centre, just do a search for it. You can also install it via the command line with the following: sudo apt-get install skype

Step 1
Go to www.skype.com/download and get the appropriate 8.10+ version for you (32/64-bit).

Step 2
Launch the Skype install .deb file (just double click it) and follow the on screen prompts.

Note: If you have a dependency error or the installer fails, install a missing dependency using the following: sudo apt-get install libqt4-dbus
Step 3
Launch Skype from Applications->Internet menu and press either Ctrl+O or press the Skype symbol at the bottom of the window to open the options menu.

In the menu you'll see a option to Choose style: change that too "Desktop Settings or GTK+". Then apply the changes and next time you open Skype it'll be using you native theme.

Note: I'd advise doing a Test Call to make sure everything is working okay. I found that sometimes Ubuntu by default mutes your mic so if you go into your sound preferences under System->Preferences->Sound and then go to te Input tab you should make sure that the mute box in unchecked.

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What changes would you like to see in Beta 2 if it's not already been changed in this release? (I'm sure a lot of people are going to say, "buttons")

I'd like to see Rythmbox get support for Audiobooks and have better Podcast functionality. If they fixed that and then in 10.10 added a Podcast directory which you could browse and subscribe to Podcasts (like Miro), it would complement the UbuntuOne Music Store perfectly.

I would also like to see ATI get their arse in gear and support the new X version, but I'd be surprised if that'll happen before 10.04 is released. However that isn't really in the Ubuntu developers hands, the current workaround is to use the open source driver -ati driver.

Please leave a comment bellow and tell me what you'd like to see in Beta 2? or 10.10?

Step 1

Go to "Applications"->"Wine"->"Wine Configure" and go to the "Audio" tab, it takes a moment to load up. The settings that I found worked well for me was as follows:

Uncheck "ALSA Driver" box
Check "EsounD Driver" box

Hit Apply, OK and then "Test Sound" and if you can hear the sound clearly try running Spotify again and see if that fixes your sound problems, worked great for me haven't had any problems since.

Note: If that didn't work for you can try the Spotify suggested configuration here.

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Step 1

If you don't have wine installed open up the "Ubuntu Software Centre" in the "Applications" menu and do a search for wine and install it from there.

Alternatively you can just open up a Terminal window and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install wine

Step 2

Once that's done you'll need to download and install Spotify, download it here.

Find the download and just double click it and you'll be greeted with a very basic installer, follow the on screen prompts.

That's pretty much it, everything should be working fine. You'll have the Spotify application launch under "Wine" in the "Applications" menu. Enjoy 100% free and legal music streaming!

Note: If you're having some sound problems with Spoitfy I've written another piece with my configuration, it's easy to do and has been working perfectly for me, check it out here.

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Note: If you don't have Adobe Air installed please follow this guide first and then return to here.

Step 1
Go to tweetdeck.com and click the yellow download button.

Step 2
It'll take a second to prompt you to install click yes and it'll then take a few more seconds to open up an Adobe Air window asking you if you'd like to install this application. Press Install, Continue and then Agree.

Step 3
The application should open automatically after it's finished installing and you can just type in your Twitter, Facebook etc...

It's optional to sign up for a TweetDeck account, but I hope you enjoy this great application! You'll also notice that you have a TweetDeck launcher on your desktop (which you can remove if you like) and it's also under the Applications->Accessories menu.

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Step 1
Download adobe air here and save it to somewhere you can find it like the /Downloads folder.

Step 2
Open up a Terminal window under the Applications->Accessories menu and navigate to the folder you download adobe air to, in my case it was the /Downloads folder:

cd Downloads

Note: You can use the TAB button on your keyboard to auto-complete commands and file name, saves you having to type everything.

Then run:

ls

This will show you a list of all the files or folders in the current directory, you should see the AdobeAIRInstaller.bin file.

Step 3
Run the following command to make the file an executable:

chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

Step 4
Now it's time to install it, just run:

sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

Step 5
You'll be prompted with an Adobe Air window asking you to agree the there ToS do so and it show take a few seconds to install.

Congratulations! You can down install Adobe Air applications directly from your web browsers or just by double clicking .air files you've downloaded. You should also notice that you now have two new entries in your Applications->Accessories menu; Adobe Air Application Installer and Uninstaller.

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With Google entering the Operating System (OS), their initial strategy is to sell netbooks with Chrome OS pre-installed on it. Google has said that one of there biggest focuses is to get driver support for everything you'd want to plug into your netbook, this means cameras, mp3 players, e-book reader, etc...it all should just work! They aren't taking the project lightly and have partnered with several big hardware vendors to ensure that wireless cards, graphics card, etc...are all compatible and work perfectly out of the box. They have also partnered with Canonical (the people behind Ubuntu) to help them creating a great stable OS. Chrome OS is essentially a very lightweight stripped down version of Ubuntu.

So how is this going to help Linux? Google is too big to ignore, even if they are just starting off in a new space and vendors are going to want to make their products Chrome OS compatible. I'd like to see Google rewarding vendors and allowing them to put a “Chrome OS Compatible” badge of some sort on there boxes which will make products attractive to consumers. Google has really embraced open source and open standards which is not only good for there business, but is great for the consumer. I believe this could be a defining moment in Linux history if Google can encourage companies to release drivers and support products for Linux.

I'm interested in what you think of the impact that Google could have on Linux, post a comment below.

Note: Great disscussion happening on the Ubuntu Forums

Firefox 3.6 has just come out and for people that don't want to wait for Canonical to officially upgrade the default Firefox 3.5 install on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala follow these steps:

Step 1

Go to System->Administration->Software Sources and in the Software Source window navigate to the Other Sources tab.

Step 2

Click the Add button and copy and paste the either ppa into the dialogue box:

ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable (recommended)
OR
ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

Then click Add Source and then Close it'll update your sources list.

Step 3

Open up a Terminal window under Applications->Accessories->Terminal, then run the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6 && sudo apt-get upgrade

It'll take a moment to download and install.

Once it's done you should now find when you run firefox it might prompt you with a dialog box asking to import your settings, procced as you like.

Note: If you installed the daily build ppa you'll see a new icon under Applications->Internet in your menu. Click the program called Namoroka Web Browser and there you have it, firefox 3.6!

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[via webupd8.org]

Basically a symbolic link will allow a folder to be in two places at once. In my case I'd like to make a symbolic link of my /Documents folder and place it in my /Dropbox folder so it will be synced to my other machines.

Step 1

Open a Terminal and simply run the following command:

ln -s ~/Documents ~/Dropbox

It's that simple! There are many different ways you can use symbolic links, this is just one way I'm using it. Leave a comment below if you're trying/using them in a different way.

Note: The ~ represents the current users home directory.
Note: To remove the symbolic link just delete it the say way you'd delete a normal folder, so in this case you'd just delete the folder in ~/Dropbox/Documents. Don't worry I wont do anything do the actual ~/Documents folder.

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Step 1

Download the source files from here www.getdropbox.com/downloading and unzip it (right click and "Extract Here").

Note: If you don't have a dropbox account sign-up for one here

Step 2

We now need to install the dependencies in order to build our install files from source.
Open up your Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install libnautilus-extension-dev libnotify-dev python-docutils

Follow the prompts and it should a a few minutes to download and install everything.

Step 3

Navigate to where you created your /nautilus-dropbox folder (it'll probably have a version number after it) in the Terminal, in my case:

cd /Downloads/nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1/

Step 4

Once inside type the following commands into your Terminal:

./configure
make
sudo make install


Run each command one after another, they'll run for just a couple of seconds each.

Step 5

After installing it simply log out and log back into your system, navigate to Applications → Internet → Dropbox, click “OK” and it'll download and install the daemon and then prompt you for your Dropbox details.

As you can see it's a pretty easy install and it's been working great for me!

If you have any questions, comments or tips, please leave a comment below.

Note: I originally posted this guide for the Karmic beta, but seeing as it's release and dropbox have a .deb installer it'll have more use under this post.

Step 1

Download flash here (Source).

Note: Download it to somewhere easy to access it like your Desktop

Step 2

Navigate to the download and right click on it and Extract Here.

Step 3

A new folder will be created called /install_flash_player_10_linux open this folder and right click on the file called flashplayer-installer click Properties and naviage to the Permission tab and make sure Allow Executing file as program is checked.

Step 4

Now double click the file flashplayer-installer and then click Run in Terminal.

Note: You're going to need to close you web browser inorder to install flash properly do read ahead before installing, it's pretty easy though.

Step 5

You'll now be prompted with a terminal window asking to you press Enter on your keyboard to continue, do so.

It'll then ask you if you want to proceed with the installation, enter the letter y and hit enter.

You will then be asked you want to do another installation, enter the letter n and hit enter.

Flash 10.1 should now be installed fully!

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Step 1
Open up your Terminal under Application->Accessories menu and run the following command:

gksudo nautilus /usr/share/applications

This will basically open up your file manager as root so you can edit the Home Folder executable.

Step 2
Scroll down the list until you find the Home Folder icon and name. Right click on it and go to Properties and under Command change the line to the following:

nautilus --no-desktop --browser . <-- Note: Fullstop not a typo!

Note: After the word browser there is a space and then a fullstop, this is deliberate, make sure you do this!

Simple click close and exit the file manager, Terminal and now if you use Gnome Do to open up your home folder it should work!

Note: You may need to logout and log back in in order for this to take affect.

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Note: This tutorial is for Ubuntu 9.10 if you're using an older version of Ubuntu and thus GRUB see my previous artical - Howto: Speed Up Grub Boot Loader Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope.

Step 1
Open a Terminal window and run:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Step 2
Edit the GRUB_TIMEOUT variable to something like 3 which will give you enough time to access other OS's when needed, but isn't a painful to wait on when booting normal.

If you don't have multiple OS's then feel free to make it 0, if you need to access the GRUB2 menu you just have to be quick to press ESC.

Step 3
After you've changed the variable, save the document, then go to your terminal the run the command:
sudo update-grub

This will generate your new grub.cfg file located in /boot/grub/grub.cfg

If all went well your GRUB2 timeout will be whatever you set it to next time you boot.

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