Slashdot Mirror

When the OS has a built-in Ads API

Three words: Unity shopping scope.

Budgie is a desktop environment. Can be tried for 16:04 without reinstalling.

According to >http://www.webupd8.org/2016/03/how-to-install-budgie-desktop-in-ubuntu-ppa.html"Budgie is a modern GTK-based desktop that was written from scratch, with simplicity and elegance in mind." and http://www.webupd8.org/2016/04/a-quick-look-at-budgie-remix-1604.htmlsays "Budgie is a shell for GNOME". Both links have more to say about this desktop based on GNOME.

I'm still not clear why this needs an entire disk image rather than continuing on as a personal package archive (PPA).

According to >http://www.webupd8.org/2016/03/how-to-install-budgie-desktop-in-ubuntu-ppa.html"Budgie is a modern GTK-based desktop that was written from scratch, with simplicity and elegance in mind." and http://www.webupd8.org/2016/04/a-quick-look-at-budgie-remix-1604.htmlsays "Budgie is a shell for GNOME". Both links have more to say about this desktop based on GNOME.

I'm still not clear why this needs an entire disk image rather than continuing on as a personal package archive (PPA).

It appears to be simply Ubuntu using a desktop environment called Budgie (which none of us have ever heard of I bet).

It seems Xubuntu is doing something wrong. They are supposed to be more light-weight, not eat more memory! This might be an experiment error but until this is debunked I am staying away from Xubuntu.

You can run pepper flash in firefox on linux

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/05...

Before anybody suggests it: browsers are for viewing web pages, not playing videos.

There's no need for a Mac or Windows native client either. A desktop isn't really ideal for playing HD videos. Get a Roku. And when you're streaming, you download the show/movie every time you want to watch it anyway.

But really, on a modern computer, running a second browser or second window just for video - especially hardware accelerated HTML5 video (which Netflix now supports) - is not a major issue. No need to install Silverlight or involve Wine. HTML and Javascript is not much worse than some other Linux UI frameworks for resources.

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11...
Well, Lennart Poettering, a RedHat developer replied to Linus Torvalds on a maling list with an alternative to this patch that does the same thing

He's been employed by RedHat to develop systemd for several years - thus RedHat is creating systemd or you could say he's creating it for RedHat. You would have been aware of that if you were following the issue at all instead of just making an assertion in ignorance.
We're supposed to be setting a good example here instead of blatantly lying to the kiddies and making shit up to push some utterly trivial agenda. I don't get what the agenda is - hero worship of a drama queen who pretends to have a loose grip on reality just to push a point?
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?107338-Lennart-Poettering-On-The-Open-Source-Community-A-Sick-Place-To-Be-In/page11

Please, if anyone knows of something similar for Linux, let me know. I cant overstate how much of a difference a winnowed-as-you-type list makes for me. Even instant search times after you hit the button don't compare.

This might be what you're looking for:
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/01...

Worth noting that the Ubuntu repo still has the 6.0.1 version, which has critical security issues, and the developer can't get it removed or updated.

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/10...

http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08... It should read use Netflix in your Linux browser, because who uses Silverlight for anything but Netflix?
It works. It just doesn't work officially.

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/03...

* I can't use it on any of my many Linux machines.

Pipelight: Use Silverlight In Your Linux Browser To Watch Netflix, Maxdome Videos And More

The problem is that you don't get a killer operating system but a garbage operating system. I actually want to pay the $100 to Microsoft to not have to constantly worry about shit breaking.

Linux is good for many purposes, but the desktop environments are essentially alpha quality software. Just the other day I tried adjusting the time of the Magic Lamp effect in its properties dialog under KDE. Whooptidoo, using anything than the default value gives me two magic lamp effects. And how about looking at the latest Xubuntu release, it shipped with broken sound indicator and broken power management. These are just completely silly and unnecessary regressions. If we start to talk about the Unity desktop (which represents a de facto Linux experience to many), it's just a huge bugfest which I don't even want to begin to talk about. It is also extremely slow.

The declining quality of the Linux desktop should be taken very seriously. These are similar experiences to why I hated Windows back in the day when it still sucked. I want to use the most stable and fast software available.

Instructions are here: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/pipelight-use-silverlight-in-your-linux.html

I've been using it for several week with Netflix on Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.10. It also works with Eurosport Player.

Great. Now get it working on QNX, and my blackberry playbook is useful. In 2011.

Blackberry offered to develop it for netflix themselves, netflix I guess doesn't want it? http://www.techvibes.com/blog/research-in-motion-desperately-wants-netflix-on-blackberry-2012-05-22

Instructions are here: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/pipelight-use-silverlight-in-your-linux.html

I've been using it for several week with Netflix on Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.10. It also works with Eurosport Player.

Great. Now get it working on QNX, and my blackberry playbook is useful. In 2011.

Instructions are here: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/pipelight-use-silverlight-in-your-linux.html

I've been using it for several week with Netflix on Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.10. It also works with Eurosport Player.

This is why you should be using KDE, not Gnome. In KDE, you have an applet (it's part of the standard build) called "Klipper"; it's a LIFO buffer of everything you Ctrl-C or highlight.

You mean like GNOME Clipboard Manager, from about a decade ago in Gnome 2? Or GPaste, actively-maintained for current Gnome Shell?

These Google trends are only part of the picture.

Once you have found what you are looking for (e.g. Qt or Gtk+ documentation), you are likely to bookmark it and go directly to it, so your search result will only apply once even if you visit the Gtk+ docs a lot. Also, if you have downloaded and installed the Gtk+/Qt/KDE documentation, you don't need to search Google to find it!

Q: What are the Debian, et. al. popularity contest stats for the Gtk+, Qt and KDE libraries? What about the dev packages? Documentation packages? Applications making use of these libraries?

A user is not likely to search for Gtk+ or Qt (and maybe not even KDE or GNOME). They are more likely to search for things like "Amarok", "Natilus" or even more likely things like "PDF viewer for Linux". Even then, if they are looking for a specific application they are likely to go through something like the Ubuntu Software Center, or follow the instructions to install a cool new app from a blog/review site like http://www.webupd8.org./

A developer is also not likely to perform a generic search for the UI framework or desktop environment either. They will either search for a specific query mentioning APIs or packages such as "How do I set the value of a GtkProgressBar?", "gtk_label_set_text HTML styling" or "libqt5-gui". Even then, they are likely to try sites like stackoverflow first. They are also likely to ask questions on the relevant forums, IRC channels, etc.

Q: What are the search/question trends for gtk+/gnome and qt/kde tagged questions on stackoverflow?

Q: What are the visitor stats like and comment counts like on the various Qt/KDE/Gtk+/GNOME pages, blogs and wikis (e.g. Allen Day's GNOME blog).

Q: What are the trends for the number of commits and developers to the Gtk+/GNOME/KDE/Qt source code repositories?

Is difficult to measure users when you are usually measuring sales, not people actually using it. Indirect hints (like i.e. Steam or browsers stats) still have to play with the amount of people that follow one trend in one platform vs the amount on another platform (do linux users visit the same sites of the being measured ones? are more or less likely to use steam?), but if we focus in one trend (i.e. in w3counter stats, to have enough historical data) has increased usage over the last years, so, not just absolute numbers has increased, percents too. But yes, numbers are still too low if your intended target is desktop domination.

This article is nothing but Softie cheerleading without any meat. You have to go to the report itself for any real facts.

Indeed, this paragraph explains *why* Java exploits are common in the wild.

Java vulnerabilities were exploited in more than 50% of all attacks. According to Oracle, different versions of this virtual machine are installed on more than 1.1 billion computers. Importantly, updates for this software are installed on demand rather than automatically, increasing the lifetime of vulnerabilities. In addition, Java exploits are sufficiently easy to use under any Windows version and, with some additional work by cybercriminals, as in the case of Flashfake, cross-platform exploits can be created. This explains the special interest of cybercriminals in Java vulnerabilities. Naturally, most detections are triggered by various exploit packs.

In other words, if you do auto-updates of java and stuff like it, you are far less vulnerable. I don't think Windows even has a facility to do this, one must roll one's own for each package.

Keeping up to date with Oracle Java on Debian style systems:

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/install-oracle-java-8-in-ubuntu-via-ppa.html

--
BMO

In a word, money.

Desktop Linux generates very little on its own. Red Hat manages to rake in about a billion dollars in revenue, but Canonical only manages $30 million (wikipedia). Android doesn't have to make money per se as it has other avenues of monetization (e.g. advertising). It also lives or dies by its UI.

You can also contrast this to the embedded Linux, server, and HPC markets, for which I don't have numbers, but Linux has a dominant position.

Linux is more often optimized for workflow than graphics. The former is generally excellent and highly configurable. While Linux advocates like to tout the number of individual contributors to the kernel, a large number of these are corporate contributors wishing for anonymity. There's not a lot of ROI in shiny buttons. Also, low-end graphics run on more platforms.

That said, I like the way my desktop looks (earth image with weather and sunlight, updates every 1/2 hour). Dunno what you object to with yours, but it can probably be remedied if you have some free time.

KDE4 caused me to switch to Gnome... and then unity came along and I'm not sure where to go next!

Here?: http://mate-desktop.org/

e.g.:

http://www.howtogeek.com/110052/how-to-install-the-mate-desktop-go-back-to-gnome-2-on-ubuntu/

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/04/mate-desktop-12-released-install-it-in.html

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/mk802-new-usb-thumb-drive-sized-android.html

The link alone should tell you what the device is. Price per unit is supposed to be $74, not quite RasPi class.

(Sorry to reply to my own post, but I'm the anon from above)

Here's a few screenshots of the Fedora 17 Live CD - the most recent version, and the version that was okay for RedHat and the community to release as "good enough". I have to admit things have improved since I last checked, but there are still some issues.

Screenshot 1: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/snapshot1wv.png/
Here we see the network applet menu and an overlay on mouseover. If the network applet menu is being shown then I would say that overlays should be disabled, because it's typical for me to click on the applet, move my mouse (unintentionally), and leave it there for a bit. This shows the overlay, which is pointless and distracting. This is not an issue in Ubuntu.

Screenshot 2: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/snapshot2mx.png/
Here we see the default file browser, notice the bookmark sidebar? Notice how it is ridiculously small? I would argue that the sidebar should take up as much space as it needs (up to a maximum, I would say 30% of the width of the modal window or until all of the bookmark names are shown entirely - you don't need to show blank space if there's nothing to take it up and _use_ it). Also, notice all of the flat grayness everywhere? This looks okay, but I think it could look better if the gradient didn't extend all the way down the window. Doing that indicates that the window "object" is curved from the top to the bottom. This is one thing Gnome got right - the borders are gradiented, but the inside is flat - see http://www.webupd8.org/2010/01/nautilus-elementary-simplified-nautilus.html for a good example.

Screenshot 3: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/26/snapshot3bz.png/
Here is the textbox for Slashdot, brought up in Konqueror. The scroll bar on the right is drawn incorrectly - this is 2012! Why is the default browser not rendering a simple fucking scrollbar correctly?

Screenshot 4: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/snapshot4p.png/
Here we see a window popped up by Konqueror that let's me download Flash from adobe's website. First of all, Adobe has stopped supporting Flash on Linux, especially x86_64 (which the LiveCD and computer are). Second of all, Konqueror should handle this like Firefox in Ubuntu does - it prompts the user to enable the appropriate repository, and then to install Flash - all without needing the admin password. But, in Fedora, apparently I would have to mess with Flash to get it to work in a web browser that can't block popups and popunders (I had a few while typing this) or render fucking scroll bars correctly. WTF Fedora KDE devs? Who is your target audience? Why should 10000 nerds waste 2 hours of each of their lives messing around with Konqueror and Flash to get it to work? Or do you expect people to simply install a usable web browser like Chrome/Chromium or Firefox? If that's the expectation, then why make Konqueror the default web browser, or why include it on the LiveCD to begin with? It seems to me that it would be much less jarrring for normal people to use Firefox (with good KDE integration) than a crappy web browser that they've never heard of and don't know where every option is at. Either Konqueror needs to be not the default web browser, or it needs some drastic improvement. I'm in favor of using Firefox by default because that is one less thing for people to relearn when they switch to Linux. The lower the barrier to entry to using Linux, the more (normal) people we get using Linux, the more pull we have with hardware manufacturers (read: video cards, printers, wireless cards, and every other device that doesn't have Linux driv

Yes, set LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0.

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-disable-overlay-scrollbars-in.html

Hope it helps!

I did some testing with DEs lately and I my best friend I found from GNOME3 + Gnome Shell. Everything is nicely in its place, providing an intuitive, minimalist desktop. I had to hack the theme though, to not display titlebars when maximized, as the title is shown in the top bar anyway (tutorial). However the whole thing is quite similar to Unity, but for some reason Unity runs dog-slow (?). If you want a more full-fledged desktop, KDE4 seemed very snappy and smooth too.

Just install gnome-session-fallback package (nice instructions here) :

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

then select "Gnome classic" into login screen. You'll get an UI resembling Gnome 2.x and much faster than Unity.

I see what you mean about "User menu". For an alternative, try the repos described here: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/indicator-applet-ported-to-gnome-3-can.html - basically there's a combined indicator app that includes the user menu. You may not like it because it's a combined thing (ie includes indicators), I don't know, but it looks a whole lot better. It includes an indicator strip.

I'm not having a problem with workspace switcher. You may find the problem is with your theme because the switcher is using the current theme's highlight colors, albeit in an opposite form (background of switcher and of non-current workspaces is highlight color, for some reason, while background of current workspace is regular background workspace.) On my screen the highlight color is close enough to the regular background color with the current theme that it's somewhat subtle.

Hopefully the ported indicator applet will fix things for you. What annoys me is that Canonical doesn't include this in the main repository.

You can easily use gnome classic with Ubuntu 11.10.

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback, and pick gnome classic when you log in. This is gnome classic on gnome 3.

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/08/installing-using-classic-gnome-desktop.html

Gnome shell is also available on Ubuntu 11.10

will this be available up stream for oh say Ubuntu or will i have to switch distro? perhaps there could even be a unity variant.

I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 and installed Gnome. It installed Gnome3 and something called Gnome Classic. It has the same look and feel as Gnome2, but it's still Gnome3. In other words, I can't right click on the bar up top and add system monitors or any "widget" like items. I am able to drag applications up there, however, but as far as I can tell, that's about it.

I believe THIS is what I'm talking about.

SparkleShare is a free open-source Dropbox-like GUI for GIT repos. Once setup using passwordless PGP keys, non-technical users see and use SparkleShare exactly as they would DropBox. While under the hood is tried-and-true GIT source code version control. You can even set it up as PCI DSS since it only uses your own infrastructure.

On Ubuntu I also installed Rabbit VCS which gave me a range of right-click GIT options (like check-in, merge, etc.) Seriously, I failed earlier attempts setting up either Bazaar or GIT, whereas trying to get SparkleShare setup I finally succeeded and wow, this is a seriously cool project.

http://sparkleshare.org/
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/set-up-sparkleshare-with-your-own.html
http://www.moosechips.com/2011/02/sparkleshare-testing-ubuntu/#comments
https://github.com/hbons/SparkleShare/wiki/How-to-set-up-your-own-server
http://is101507.students.fhstp.ac.at/?p=33
http://www.instructables.com/id/SparkleShare-for-OSX-a-Dropbox-alternative/

[Note: To 'remove' a SparkleShare client from the infrastructure pool, revoke the PGP keys at the server-level.]

I've been mostly unimpressed with Unity. Gnome3 is a bit unfinished for my tastes. I tried Kubuntu and felt like I was back in the '90s, but with widgets... I'm giving both Unity and Gnome3 a chance, only because I found a useful site with documentation on making them useable http://www.webupd8.org/ has tutorials and tips on how to make these new interfaces almost worth using. I would be done with Ubuntu by now, were it not for that site.

Gnome Shell now available in Ubuntu 11.10 repositories. This might make a difference, if only they would keep Gnome 2...

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/gnome-shell-is-finally-available-in.html

Blargh. I guess they're removing the classic desktop option in 11.10 and falling back to Unity 2D instead. Depends on exactly how that plays with GLX Dock, because that's what I use at the moment... I might have to look into XFCE.

Thanks for the heads up.

Aptitude hasn't been a part of the default installation since Ubuntu 10.10. http://www.webupd8.org/2010/06/aptitude-removed-from-ubuntu-1010.html

And what "bugs" are there in IPv6 that desperately need to be fixed?

None, it's the vendors (and administrators) that screw it up.

I'm NOT saying IPv6 is useless.
It's required, but convincing the financial guys to spend money so you can address something which won't help their bottom line THIS QUARTER is... difficult. Let alone something like IPv6 which still has (many?) years left for the ROI to make sense.

Honest question: Inside the firewall, what benefit is IPv6?
The geek in me wants to switch, but the lazy bastard in me doesn't see any use for it (and I know it'll screw with things like VPN and online games).

heh, if this is not customizable then i don't know what is;) i can only imagine what everything people will think of for extensions.

http://www.webupd8.org/search/label/gnome%20shell?max-results=10
http://blog.fpmurphy.com/

Isn't this the version that 200-line patch was slated for?

I'm pretty sure that's what "automatic process grouping" is.

Yup. Some links:

• This LWN talks about the switch from TTY-based grouping to session ID-based grouping.
• Lennart Poettering's alternative solution using cgroups, which works perfectly fine as long as you don't care the changes are in user space (i.e. you have to manually set this up on each computer).
• Another alternative is using Con Kolivas' BFS, which reportedly shows similar improvements, not to mention actually pays attention to nice levels. Of course you actually have to build your own kernel, or get it from someone else, or use a distro that uses it by default like PCLinuxOS or Zenwalk.

Here's a video and info on the latest Natty Alpha 1 released today: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/12/ubuntu-1104-natty-narwhal-alpha-1.html

My understanding of the original kernel patch is that it just puts stuff from different ttys into different groups for scheduling purposes so that they're less able to hog each other's resources. This alternative just makes your shell sort it out itself when it starts i.e. when you're running a new terminal. So this should basically be equivalent.

See this comment from the latest article for Linus' take on putting this stuff in-kernel:
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/alternative-to-200-lines-kernel-patch.html#comment-98834842

The comment here is very important to remember though:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1870628&cid=34241622
another comment on that article (which I can't now find - anybody know where it is?) basically said that the patch suits Linus's own use of compiling kernels whilst surfing the web. Sounds like a reasonably accurate assessment really so for now it's far from the magical boost to general interactivity some may have hoped for. In some sense there's no such thing anyhow.

Nonetheless the comment linked above also has Linus talking about increasing the scope of the automatic grouping heuristics in the future so hopefully the "just works" nature of this should become available to more people eventually.

The original kernel patch (and this alternative) aren't magically making everything respond better, they just improve certain usecases.

Most OSes would do the same thing, but I like Ubuntu's philosophy that notifications should simply be notifications, safe to be ignored if necessary.

Some apps don't make use of the built in notification system, they have their own obnoxious notifications.. I wish they wouldn't. For example the aMSN notifications stay on screen if your mouse happens to be over the notification area when they pop up. They stay there until you manually click close to get rid of them - like a damn Windows pop up balloon. I hate those things. You get them every time you create a new account on XP - would you like to take the tour? Oh no, you don't have any firewall/anti-virus! You have unused desktop icons, would you like me to put them in a folder for you, or just keep annoying you? Bleh.

It didn't take long to get used to the Ubuntu system at all. I don't try to click on the notifications, and I simply ignore them if I'm busy doing something else. This is made easy by the fact that mousing over makes it fade..

You can configure the notifications positioning and timeout using this app http://www.webupd8.org/2010/05/new-notifyosdconfiguration-version-gui.html

Your beef is with GNOME, not Ubuntu. Things should "just work", so, the logic goes, why make them configurable at all? Besides, you can't be trusted. Just ask the creator of gnome-screensaver.

Let's just hope the fellow responsible for this utility has a Meerkat version of his ppa up and going.

as seen by the Unreal trojan that sat undetected for almost a year. http://www.webupd8.org/2010/06/linux-trojan-goes-unnoticed-for-year.html

Mark Shuttleworth wants to de-clutter the right so as to add nifty new stuff on the right in the future.