Performance tip for Feisty and Edgy

I found this tip on the Ubuntu Forums and think it’s worth sharing. Open up the file /etc/hosts with root privileges, e.g. by typing sudo gedit /etc/hosts The file will look like this (instead of hostname it will include your host name): 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.1.1 hostname Now add you host name to the first line …

How to prettify the Firefox widgets

One thing about Firefox that always bothered me was the look of the default widgets. Fortunately there is an easy way to exchange them, and that is by following these steps: Download firefox-widgets-10.tar.bz2 and unzip it. Open a terminal and enter the newly appeared directory Execute the install script (by typing ./install), enter 1 to …

Proprietary drivers in Feisty: not by default but easy to activate

The use of proprietary drivers is quite controversial in the Linux community. Some argue that they have to be included to make Linux competetive, others warn that they compromise what Linux as free software stands for in the first place. Some popular distributions, for example Fedora and openSUSE decided to boycott proprietary drivers by not …

Manage your software packages offline with APTonCD

Most Ubuntu users will value package management as one of the top features of their OS. Installing and updating software with APT/dpkg and their respective graphical user interfaces (i.e. Synaptic, Update manager and gdebi) is a breeze once you are accustomed to it. However, the ease of use is dependent on the internet connection. If …

Install rpm packages by converting them to deb

Once in a while you might want to install software that is neither in a repository nor available as a standalone deb package. If you’re in this situation, there is another option for you, converting an rpm file and installing the so created deb. So if you do have an rpm file and want to …

Play Half-Life and other Steam games with Wine

Wine is a compatability layer for running Windows software on Linux. Of course, reimplimenting the whole Windows API is a very ambitious task and Wine is not able to run every software perfectly, if at all. A good example of software that does run reasonably well is Steam and the Half-Life series with their expansions …

Update on the new Gnome volume control

The Gnome volume control widget has changed again in the current Gnome development version. It now uses an icon from the current theme (Tango in my case) and features subtle changes in the general appearance. In short: It doesn’t look like the one from Mac OS anymore. Of course I prepared a little preview again: …

PowerPC support to become unofficial with Feisty

The Ubuntu Technical Board announced that the PowerPC architecture will be reclassified as unofficial with Ubuntu Feisty. The cause for this decision is obviously the declining number of PowerPC based computer systems after Apple switched to Intel processors. Older releases will still be supported within their whole life cycle, which ends as late as 2011 …

Proprietary video drivers not default in Feisty

The Techincal Board of Ubuntu announced that Ubuntu Feisty won’t come with proprietary video drivers by default. However, there will be an easy (graphical) way for the user to enable them if he wishes to do so. This decision has been made since Feisty won’t include either Compiz or Beryl by default and therefore the …