Tomorrow the beta of Ubuntu 9.04 should be released. The alphas have been great, so I’m really looking forward to the beta. I wonder if they got the last little hickups out of the alpha and will deliver the usual quality that we’re used to.
Actually I’ve had very little problems with the alpha so far. I run it as a dual boot next to my stable 8.10 and start it every now and then to play with it. I found so little bugs that I’m wondering if anything has changed since 8.10. But obviously it has, it’s much faster and runs so much smoother then 8.10.
The only real problem I’ve encountered was a total freeze at random moments. That sounds severe, but I’m sure this will be fixed in the final release. The hardware support is great, I didn’t have to tweak anything to make it work on my Sony Vaio TZ21MN.
There are a few challenges that are not directly linked to the 9.04 release. Compiz still doesn’t support a desktop larger then 2048×2048, annoying since I usually connect a second monitor to my machine which brings my desktop to a width of 3414 px. Too bad, but I can live with Metacity and it’s composite settings.
Entourage finally supports the MAPI connect to Exchange. A challenge is that at our company we’re using a SSL connection to get to Exchange, this makes sense but the latest release of the MAPI connector doesn’t support it. Shame, I would have loved to drop my Windows XP in a VirtualBox that only runs Outlook.
Ah well, I’ll wait a bit more until these issues are also fixed. Until then I’ll keep using the most stable, fast and feature rich operating system there is.
Ubuntu
There is a repository that contains the daily build of Chromium. It’s easy to add: no building required! For details you can look at the PPA page.
The only thing that took me some time was the PGP file. I’ve created a file for your convenience.
Open Software Sources and add the key in the authentication tab. Then add the following to the Third Party Software tab. Click close and reload.
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
The browser is FAST, but it’s not 100% stable. You can play with it, but at this moment it won’t replace Firefox.
Ubuntu
The people from Gnome Global Menu have made their installation more convenient then it was before. No more compilation required, just add the repo to your software sources.
Gnome Global Menu gives you a menu bar for the active application in a gnome panel like Mac OS X has it. This saves you some vertical screen space since the menu is removed from the application window.
It works fine, but only for GTK applications. That doesn’t sound so bad, but my main applications, firefox and openoffice, are not genuine GTK applications. This means that their menu is still shown in the application window itself. Too bad.
A clear description of the installation is on the project install page. The only flaw on there is that you need to import the GPG key before you reload the repository list.
After the installation you need to add the global menu applet toyour gnome panel and right click it to open the preferences. There you can enable the global menu.
GUI, Ubuntu
I’ve been having problems with the wifi reception in my apartment for a long time. As usual I started looking for solutions in the software direction: installing some linux on the router and pushing up the wifi signal with that. However, I never thought about a hardware solution. There is a very easy solution that is so simple I would never think of it: create a parabolic mirror.
After some searching I found a little movie on Youtube that explains how to make one with aluminum foil and some cardboard. The mentioned diagram can be found here.
[Update March 10, 2009]
I’ve done some work with cardboard, aluminum foil and scissors. My wifi is still working and it appears a bit stronger. There is not a huge difference, but there is a difference. Now I can only wait to see if it’s more stable then it used to be.
Personal
The alpha 5 of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope has been released. I’ve installed it on my Sony TZ laptop for a little test drive.
Downloading went very smooth, it looks like Canonical has added some servers for the alpha downloads. When I started the live CD it worked as we’re used to. From the boot I went straight into to the installation. I read that there were some issues with the partitioner, but it gave me no problems at all.
Booting into the freshly installed Ubuntu I was confronted with a layout which is very similar to 8.10. I found the 
only visible difference after connecting to the wireless network: the new notification system. It shows nice, half transparent, notifications in the upper right corner of the screen. Strangely they fall over the top Gnome panel, I couldn’t find out if that is meant to be or a bug. A little alpha bug: the contents of the notification window showed a couple of times and then died. When I change the volume or the brightness I only see a black filled rectangle.
There are hardly any changes in the preferences panels. But the system itself works great. It boots fast, works very smooth when started. Compiz performs good, nothing special, but that’s good enough. This release feels like an update of the ‘bottom’ of the system: everything works smooth and fast, but there are no obvious changes.
Overall I’m looking forward to April when the final will be released.
Ubuntu
The name for Ubuntu 9.10 has been revealed: Karmic Koala.Now, I’m fond of koalas, but what kind of name is that? Ah well, Ubuntu holds its ‘weird name’ status.
Ubuntu
You can register as a linux user, and/or you can register your machine(s).
Linux
There have been a number of posts about Gnome Do 0.8 already, but I’ve been late with installing… I must say: it’s brilliant! They’ve combined the normal Do GUI with a dock and that works just great.
The dock works as a dock should: it’s at the bottom of your screen and it shown applications that you can open, or have open. The settings for the dock can be changed by right cliking on the most left icon (summon Gnome Do). There you can change settings like auto hide and whether you want a Mac like zoom in the dock. Adding applications is easy: just drag an icon from the Gnome menu to the dock.
The good thing is that Gnome Do hasn’t lost it’s command line. When you press the keyboard shortcut (Super-Space) or select the “Summon Gnome Do” icon the dock changes into a typing area as you know it from Gnome Do.
To install just update your Software Sources with the following:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-testers/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-testers/ubuntu intrepid main
If you have Gnome Do already installed then you’ll get an update notification pretty soon. If you hot not then you should do the following:
sudo apt-get install gnome-do
To enable the dock you have to select the Docky theme in the appearance preferences.
If you are never satisfied with the amount of settings they are offered: You can find Gnome-Do in the Gnome Configuration Editor at the following path:
/apps/gnome-do/preferences
In the Docky folder you can edit some settings like the IconSize, the monitor where it’s shown and the SummonTime.
GUI, Linux, Opinion, Ubuntu
You can download and build it like I described in my previous post.
wget http://google-gadgets-for-linux.googlecode.com/files/google-gadgets-for-linux-0.10.5.tar.bz2
sudo apt-get install libdbus-1-dev libmozjs-dev libxml2-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libltdl3-dev libxt-dev libxul-dev libgtk2.0-dev librsvg2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install
To start Google Gadgets:
ggl-gtk
Ubuntu
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