After installing MacPorts 1.7.1 and running sudo port install meld you will have Meld installed. But, most likely, when you try to run Meld it will give you an error similar to this:

Dynamic session lookup supported but failed: launchd did not provide a socket path, verify that org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist is loaded!

To fix this simply run this command in Terminal:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist

Now, when you try to run Meld in OS X you will get this:

Meld 1.2 Running on Mac OS X 10.5.7 using MacPorts 1.7.1

“France’s Gendarmerie Nationale, the country’s national police force, says it has saved millions of dollars by migrating its desktop software infrastructure away from Microsoft Windows and replacing it with the Ubuntu Linux distribution.”

“…has saved up to €50 million on licensing and maintenance costs as a result of the migration strategy”

“The Gendarmerie migration also demonstrates the significant cost savings that governments can get from adopting open source software. As the global financial downturn continues to put pressure on budgets, governments are going to increasingly look to open source software as a way to cut IT costs. We have recently seen moves in this direction from Canada and the UK.”

I found it interesting that they state the biggest difference between Ubuntu and Windows, from their point of view, was the icons

“Moving from XP to Ubuntu, however, proved very easy. The two biggest differences are the icons and the games. Games are not our priority.”

I am also very encouraged that they’re concerned about open standards. I wish more businesses and institutions though this way and I hope the Gendarmerie’s example promulgate open standards.

“[The Gendarmerie] has found that open source software is better at handling open standards.”

Mac Software: $3,622.55
Linux Software: $0.00

The only real requirement is your post must be relevant to the Ubuntu community and this blog’s focus on productivity. Some ideas are:

• Shortcuts
• Tips and tricks
• Resources
• Software tools
• Methods and workflows

Just to be up front about it, there’s no money involved. I just do this for fun and education. Your reward will be similar, including the enjoyment of sharing your experience + a link to your blog/site/whatever you want.

sudo update-alternatives –config java

You will be asked to select from a list of available java engines. Simply type in the number of your choice and hit enter.

Choosing the java engine on Ubuntu 8.10

Then I found Bespin.

While I have a lot of questions about this tool/service (like how secure is it to store code in “the cloud”?) I have to admit I am very impressed with the initial preview release and can hardly wait to try it on a real project. Some of the features that really intruige me are:

• Syntax highlighting
• Collaborative editing
• Open source code base
• A very nice dark color scheme
• Innovative and productive file browser
• True cross-platform performance and predictability
• Fast performance, even on a text file with 30,000+ lines of code

Give it a try at http://bespin.mozilla.com/.

Bespin, a Mozilla Labs code editor

My empty Add/Remove… software list

Synaptic and apt-get via the terminal worked great, but Add/Remove… was broken. A bit of searching turned up this little gem that did the trick of restoring the list. Just run these two commands in your terminal:

sudo apt-get remove gnome-app-install
sudo apt-get install gnome-app-install apturl ubufox ubuntu-desktop

Here is the original

Google Docs with the logo Visible

Here is Google Docs with the logo removed:

Google Docs with the logo removed. It frees up about 25 pixels.

To do this I simply added one line to my Firefox userContent.css file. Here is where to find the Firefox profile folder. The userContent.css file is located in xxxxxxxx.default/chrome/userContent.css. Add this line of css to the file and restart Firefox.

#logo-section {display:none;}

It’s not much, but every pixel helps