Here it is a guide on how to enable the WebGL support on Firefox 4.

First you need to install libosmesa6. On Debian/Ubuntu and other apt based distributions, you can use the following command:

sudo apt-get install libosmesa6

On other distributions you have to use the relative package manager instead of apt.

Then, on Firefox 4 open the following address: “about:config”; accept the security warning and then search the following setting: “webgl.osmesalib” and set its value to “/usr/lib/libOSMesa.so.6″. Finally, close and re-open Firefox 4.

To test if it works,  visit the dedicated page on Mozilla Fondation.

Few days ago the final version of Firefox 4 come to life.

With this guide I will show you how to install Firefox 4 on Ubuntu and its variants with the official repositories.

Open a terminal and add the Firefox’s repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable

Than update the package manager’s database:

sudo apt-get update

If you already have Firefox, you can just give the upgrade command:

sudo apt-get upgrade

Otherwhise you can install Firefox 4 with the following command:

sudo apt-get install firefox

Here it is a guide on how to keep Mplayer updated on Ubuntu.

First you need to add the dedicated Mplayer repository; open a terminal and run;

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:motumedia/mplayer-daily

The update the package manager’s database:

sudo apt-get update

Than you if you have Mplayer already installed, you can get the update by:

sudo apt-get upgrade

Or, if you don’t have Mplayer installed yet:

sudo apt-get install mplayer

Here it is a guide on how to keep VLC updated on Ubuntu.

First you need to add the dedicated VLC repository; open a terminal and run;

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/vlc

The update the package manager’s database:

sudo apt-get update

Than you if you have VLC already installed, you can get the update by:

sudo apt-get upgrade

Or, if you don’t VLC intalled yet:

sudo apt-get install vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc

Few days ago the final version of LibreOffice 3.3, the spin-off of OpenOffice born after the the issues between Document Foundation and Oracle, come to life.

With this guide I will show you how to install LibreOffice 3.3 on Ubuntu and its variants with the official repositories.

Open a terminal and add the LibreOffice’s repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

Than update the pacakge manager’s database:

sudo apt-get update

If you have OpenOffice, it is best to uninstall it to avoid conflicts:

sudo apt-get purge openoffice* && sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo apt-get autoclean && sudo apt-get clean

And finally install LibreOffice:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice libreoffice-gnome

Of course if you have Kubuntu, instead of libreoffice-gnome, install libreoffice-kde.

First you need to enable the Kubuntu’s backports repository, open a terminal and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

Once you have done that, to download and install KDE 4.6 run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

KDE Plasma Desktop, Gwenview and KRunner in 4.6

Plasma Workspaces Put You in Control

The KDE Plasma Workspaces gain from a new Activities system, making it easier to associate applications with particular activities such as work or home tasks. Revised power management exposes new features but has a simpler configuration interface. KWin, the Plasma workspace window manager, receives a new scripting and the workspaces receive visual enhancements. Plasma Netbook, optimized for mobile computing devices receives speed enhancements and becomes easier to use via a touchscreen interface. For more details read the KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.6 announcement.

KDE’s Dolphin Adds Faceted Browsing

Many of the KDE Application teams have also released new versions. Particular highlights include improved routing capabilities in KDE’s virtual globe, Marble, and advanced filtering and searching using file metadata in the KDE file manager, Dolphin: Faceted Browsing. The KDE Games collection receives many enhancements and the image viewer Gwenview and screenshot program KSnapshot gain the ability to instantly share images to a number of popular social networking sites. For more details read the KDE Applications 4.6 announcement.

Mobile Target Makes KDE Platform Lose Weight

The KDE Platform, on which the Plasma Workspaces and KDE Applications are built also gains new capabilities available to all KDE applications. The introduction of a “mobile build target” allows for easier deployment of applications on mobile devices. The Plasma framework gains support for writing desktop widgets in QML, the declarative Qt language, and provides new Javascript interfaces for interacting with data. Nepomuk, the technology behind metadata and semantic search in KDE applications, now provides a graphical interface to back up and restore data. UPower, UDev and UDisks can be used instead of the deprecated HAL. Bluetooth support is improved. The Oxygen widget and style set is improved and a new Oxygen theme for GTK applications allows them to seamlessly merge into the Plasma workspaces and look just like KDE applications. For more details read the KDE Platform 4.6 announcement.

Spread the Word and See What Happens: Tag as “KDE”

KDE encourages everybody to spread the word on the Social Web. Submit stories to news sites, use channels like delicious, digg, reddit, twitter, identi.ca. Upload screenshots to services like Facebook, Flickr, ipernity and Picasa and post them to appropriate groups. Create screencasts and upload them to YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo and others. Do not forget to tag uploaded material with the tagkde so it is easier for everybody to find the material, and for the KDE team to compile reports of coverage for the KDE SC 4.6 announcement. Help us spreading the word, be part of it!

You can follow what is happening around the 4.6 release event on the social web live on KDE Community live feed. This site aggregates what happens on identi.ca, twitter, youtube, flickr, picasaweb, blogs and many other social networking sites in real-time. The live feed can be found on buzz.kde.org.

An annoying issue about those pre-built virtual machines is that often they are built just for Vmware since it is more popular than VirtualBox, and if you are a user of the later you are sitting duck.

But fortunately there is a solution.

First, open a terminal or the command prompt if you are under Windows; in the later case move to “C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox”.

Then run the command

VBoxManage clonehd source.vmdk output.vdi –format VDI

Where for “source.vmdk” you should input the file name (and eventually the path) of the original VMware file and for “output.vdi” the name (and eventually the path) of the VirtualBox file.

Easy, isn’t it?