Linux Software

As you might have seen in my previous post, I recently installed Xubuntu 8.04. One of the few visual improvements in this new version of Ubuntu is on the clock that sits on the Gnome panel. It now shows much more information. Apart from time and date, it now shows the weather conditions for your current location. But, the best part is when you click on it: it shows the usual calendar, but below it, appears the times of other world locations. Well, after you configure it, of course. First you need to set your home location and other optional locations. It also shows the weather conditions on those locations. And it looks great.

So, it was disappointing to see that Xubuntu didn’t have it. Instead the same old plain clock. The world clock is a gnome panel applet, so it’s normal that it doesn’t run in the XFCE panel. However there’s an easy workaround.

 Step 1 - Download Xfapplet, available in the repositories. This is XFCE applet that allows Gnome applets to run on the XFCE panel. It’s basically a wrapper for Gnome applets.

 Step 2 - Download gnome-applets, also available in the repositories. This will install a collection of gnome applets (sadly along with a bunch of Gnome libraries and applications…I miss Gentoo sometimes) and among those is the world clock applet.

 Step 3 - Right-click on the XFCE panel an add a new item. Choose the previously installed Xfapplet. As it loads, XFapplet will bring up a list of Gnome applets available. You just have to find the one named clock (surprise!).

And there you have it. XFapplet can be used to install any of the other gnome applets in XFCE, in case you miss some other applet.

I’ve been busy upgrading my Ubuntu machine to the new version Hardy Heron 8.04. Normally, it’s a painless process, but I had an hardware accident between the upgrade. And the result it’s not pretty. I then had to re-install Ubuntu from CD. So, after downloading the image and burning the CD, I couldn’t get it to install properly. Somehow, the installer always froze at some point in the process. Then, I decided to install the variant Xubuntu, which basically was what I wanted. I was using XFCE before as my desktop manager, but I had installed it normally from Ubuntu. Surprisingly, this time the installer didn’t froze and everything got installed smoothly.
The difference between Ubuntu and Xubuntu is not much. It’s the same base distribution with the same configuration options. The difference lies in the desktop manager and a few software choices. In Xubuntu, XFCE is the default desktop manager, instead of Gnome. It’s basically a lighter version of Gnome. I prefer it not only for that, but because it brings Thunar instead of Nautilus. I really like Thunar, it’s fast (unlike nautilus), intuitive and has everything I need.
Other differences in Xubuntu are the software that is bundled. I haven’t done any extensive comparison and the only big difference I spotted was the absence of Open Office in favor of Abiword and Gnumeric.
I didn’t find much differences in this new version. Many focus the inclusion of Firefox 3, but I was already using it :) One of the cool things related to Firefox is the Ubuntu Firefox Modifications. In the previous version, installing plugins (for flash or media files for example) was problematic. But in this version, everything worked fine. It gave me 3 options (3 different plugins to choose from) for flash and about 6 for handling media files.

This Ubuntu is more of a maintenace release, correcting some bugs and making a solid distribution not only for the ocasional geek, but for everyone, including companies.

Happy Ubunting

I’ve already blogged about VLC, a media player for watching your casual video. But VLC is not the best option for watching TV. And what do I mean by TV ? I’m not talking about watching video from an hardware TV card. I’m talking about internet TV. Miro allows you to subscribe to more than 4000 free channels gathered from around the web. These channels are basically video podcasts, and what Miro does is aggregate those podcasts into channels and simplify their subscription in a way it almost resembles TV.
When you first start Miro, you’re presented with the Miro guide. The Miro guide is a channel guide, where you can browse through all channels offered and select the ones you’d like to watch. After registering for a channel, its name will appear in the sidebar and it will download the information about the shows currently available for that channel. You can then see a small description for every show available and choose to watch the ones you like. Miro will then download the selected shows for you to watch later. This means that you can’t view the shows immediately. Miro doesn’t do streaming, it always downloads the video first. So you can’t use Miro to watch some streaming TVs available on the net. Remember, Miro works around the concept of subscribing a channel (like rss) and then watching the shows later, when you have the time.

Using Miro is supposed to be very simple, so you don’t have to manage files. All downloaded videos are deleted by default 5 days after you watched them (you can delete them manually before, if you like). Normally you don’t even have to ask Miro to download the videos. By default Miro automatically downloads new videos from channels you have subscribed. I don’t like that, so I configured to download manually. I prefer to browse the channels and select the videos I want to watch based on their descriptions. You can also organize your channels into categories, which simplifies this task even more. Normally I just browse and then download videos from one category at a time, depending on the mood.
Talking about categories, brings me to the best part: the content itself. At the time of this writing, there’s 4032 channels registered on the Miro guide, some of them with very good quality. Some of them in HD  :)
There’s all sort of channels, from amateur shows to things like CNN, National Geographic, Discovery, etc.
Finally, there’s also something I call "dynamic channels", in contrast with the regular ones I talked about. You can search videos from youtube (and other services alike) and then save that search as a channel. Next time Miro detects a new video that matches the search, the video will appear in Miro as if it were a new show from a regular channel. This is excellent.
Summarizing, Miro is a great way to watch shows from many sources on the net. And it’s also a bit addicting, because there’s so many channels in the guide to explore (and increasing everyday).

Here’s another application I used everyday: Gnome-Do. Gnome-Do is an application launcher that allows to start applications much faster than going through the menu. It’s not an application launcher for your favorite programs, it indexes all installed programs. It’s based on the concept that it’s be faster to type in the name of the application you want, than to search from an hierarchical menu.

You start Gnome-Do by pressing Win+Space. This will open a small window, waiting for you to input the name of the application you want. As you start typing, auto completion tries to guess the desired application, so that you don’t need to type the complete name. Gnome-Do also adapts to your usage, by learning the applications you normally launch. So after a while is normal that you only need to type the first letter to reach your favorite applications. And this is really a time-saver. But Gnome-Do offers more than just starting applications. Depending on what plugins you have installed, Gnome-Do indexes not only applications, but also documents, contacts, videos, mp3 files, etc. And the actions associated also vary, so that you can do things like: type a contact name and choose to write an email, or send an im message to that person. Or type the name of a song and start playing it in your favorite mp3 player. Or type the name of a file and move it to another directory. As soon as you get used to it, it really is useful and saves a lot of time.