MyUnity is a Unity Tweak tool for Ubuntu that is used to adjust, tweak and customize Unity desktop. MyUnity is also available for the Ubuntu 12.04 in the repositories so it can be installed right from Ubuntu Software Center. It is very simple, lightweight, and user friendly.

Install MyUnity

Type the following commands in the terminal is sequence and you are good to go.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:myunity/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install myunity

Unity Settings

With MyUnity, the following things are at your fingertips :

1) Unity Launcher – You can edit the behaviour and looks to our comfort.
2) Dash – Changing size and look of the dash has never been easier.
3) Panel – Adjusts the transparency of the panel.
4) Desktop – To manage desktop icons of your Ubuntu system.
5) Fonts – Set Font size and styles according to your taste.

Njoy Unity !

The all new version of popular tweak tool Ubuntu Tweak has just been released which supports Ubuntu 11.10  Oneiric Ocelot having Unity Interface.The software comes up with its old feature set improving just in the terms of supporting Unity and providing all new Interface which looks much better than the previous one.The whole software has been divided into small plug-able “Clips” providing one functionality or the other.Unity support includes tweaking for both 2D and 3D desktops along with support for Compiz.Source list features backup functionality for easy backup and recovery or source lists.Janitor is another feature that has been added allowing you to keep your system clean .

Over all a much awaited release with lots of killer features and a futuristic approach .. Our thumbs up …!!!
Read more about Ubuntu Tweak here .

INSTALLATION

The Old Style

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

The New Affair

Just Download the Deb Package and double click to install

Here are few screenies

Enjoyy

Software used:

• Hashcat for CPUs
• oclHashcat-lite for AMD graphic cards
• cudaHashcat-lite for nVidia graphic cards

Results:

MD5

SHA1

AMD’s VLIW architecture owns nVidia’s Fermi and older architectures in this case. More parallelized and that’s what Cryptography is all about. Would be interesting to see how AMD’s Graphics Core Next fares up for this purpose.

What does 5 billion MD5 brute forces per second mean?

MD5 Hash of a 7 char string containing only lower-case alphabets and numbers cracked within 30 seconds. Think how fast 8 x HD 6990s would be.

Note: oclHashcat-lite didn’t work for nVidia cards. Don’t know why. Could be either – software or driver issue. Don’t consider this an Apples-to-Apples comparison. But still this is the best what each platforms can offer.

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Recently, VirtualBox 4.1.4 has been released and is ready for Ubuntu 11.04. This release has come up with basically bugfixes only as it is a maintenance release. So, no goodies for anyone, atleast for now. But many annoying bugs like memory leak, GUI bugs while running KDE, add support for X.Org Server 1.11, fixed compiz bugs and numerous others. For details regarding the bugfixes please see the changelog.

Download – VirtualBox 4.1.4

Simple download the file and open it with Ubuntu Software center and it will install your Virtual box and start your OS testing lab .

Preview

Njoy !!

Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 Beta is finally out after a long wait. We wish you all the very best to Tualatrix Chou from the entire open-source community as despite of the hardships he faced in the previous weeks, he is still on the way to get UT 0.6 working. Thank-you very much !

Moving along, this release came up with -

• New sleek UI.
• New clips feature: first screen information.
• All features are plug-able.
• Specific tweak: Compiz Settings.
• Package Cleaner becomes a new major part feature as tbe “Janitor”.
• At Preferences, you can manage the plugins, enable or disable,  or install new plugin.
• Tweaks and Admins, designed like GNOME Control Center, but with a more easy to use “back” and “forward” arrows.

Installation

Open the terminal and type the following to test the beta version of UT 0.6 in Ubuntu (11.10 is there ofcourse) -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/next
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Since there are no ‘app center’ and ‘source center’ in this version, so you can use ‘sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak-0‘ to install UT 0.5 alongside to keep things under control.

Take a look -

Image courtesy – Ubuntu Tweak Blog

Njoy !!

So those of you who were eagerly waiting (like me ) for a GUI for adding Burg or Plymouth to Ubuntu ..Your Wait is Over…!!!
Presenting you the ultimate toolkit ( do I sound like Steve Jobs ) for customizing Ubuntu Bootloader  Super-Boot-Manager (or SBM you may call it in short)
SBM has an integrated

• BURG Manager - For Installing , customizing & configuring Burg
• PLYMOUTH Manager – For Installing , customizing & configuring Plymouth
• GRUB Manager - For Installing , customizing & configuring Grub

INSTALLATION

WARNING : Customizing BootLoader may render your Ubuntu system useless.You’ve been WARNED

Since the PPA is already there most of our job is already done.You need to install the buc before installing the Super-Boot-Manager(SBM).Fire up your terminal and type :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ingalex/super-boot-manager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install buc

After installing buc you will be able to install the Super-Boot-Manager

sudo apt-get install super-boot-manager

After installation is done you can access it from Applications>System>Super Boot Manager

Note: Though some of the users are facing the installation issue with libc6 dependency error but on my Ubuntu 11.04 test machine we never got that error

FEATURES

SBM supports installation of burg and plymouth including many amazing themes with comprehensive restore/recovery options.The whole GUI is built providing great details so that even a novice user can install and customize bootloader within few clicks . There is a language support for around 15 languages with auto-update feature included in the GUI and the customized theme creator is cherry on the top.
We are leaving you with couple of screenshots to take a sneak-peek

For more information, please refer this link . Any queries regarding these or any other regarding Ubuntu or SBM  etc can be asked here.
Enjoyy..!!!

After months of development, Unity is ready for mainstream usage as Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal stable version has been released. We have come a long way from alpha testing to public betas and now the final release. We have seen many important applications coming up like Firefox got upgraded to 4.0 and came out to be a big success, Banshee made its way to Ubuntu as a default Media player, LibreOffice 3.3.2 now servers a default Office suite or Ubuntu lovers and much more.

Download Ubuntu 11.04

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal –

• 32 bit – Direct link / Torrent
• 64 bit – Direct link / Torrent

Kubuntu 11.04 with KDE 4.6 -

• 32 bit – Direct link / Torrent
• 64 bit – Direct link / Torrent

(For installation procedure, please refer our previous post carefully)

The Unity Interface at a Glance

The Ubuntu developers has made Unity a Perfect User Interface for Desktop as well as Netbook users. Unity is now the default Desktop environment so all Ubuntu users are going to experience something brand-new, totally different. Unity Environment provides users a very nice interface to work with. It has been designed to be simple, fast, and stable. So, are you ready for Unity ? Lets have a quick look -

The Unity Launcher

The Unity launcher on the left side of the screen here is provided to have quick access to almost every system resource in Ubuntu. Now you no more be going to serach out for everything. Ubuntu and its resources are now just 1 click away from you. Here are a few features of this launcher -

• Drag n Drop features for Applications etc.
• Items can be easily rearranged.
• Launcher activation through keyboard shortcuts made it faster.
• Right-click context menu quick-lists for easy control.
• Switching between running applications is fun to do.

Unity Dash

The Applications, Places, and System menus of Ubuntu versions past have been replaced with the Unity dash. It basically works as ‘MS Windows’ Start-menu. It has been designed to make things easier and quicker.

Everything has been put just 1 click away. Users are required to just got Dash and start working on whatever they want.

• The Main Dash gives you access to basic system resources.
• Search features lets you find any program or file or directory inside Ubuntu within seconds.
• Folder view gives you access to your home directory on the go.
• Applications are all featured and organized in 3 main categories – Most used, Installed ones and Featured.
• There is a full Lens implementation for applications and files now, in addition to the “Dash” start screen (which will come up when clicking on the Ubuntu logo on the top-left of the screen) for the most common actions, such as searching. Also, icons can be dragged and dropped from Dash to the Unity Launcher.

So, Unity Dash is the way to go.

Desktop Workspaces

Another cool feature and more of an eyecandy and a show-off is Workspace switcher. All the Unity Workspaces can be arranged in 3D easily and anything on a different workspace can be accessed mere by double clicking the desktop. This feature requires 3D effects enabled in your system.

3D Effects with Compiz

Compiz has been installed by default and has provided Unity with the elegance and shine it is having now. There is a lot more to than just basic effects. Compiz cubes are not available by default but there is an easy fix for that.

We will talk about that later. Slick switcher, and Shift switcher in Compiz make things more classy. What you need to do is to browse to CCSM and configure them to work according to your requirement. There are many other effects to play with. We leave you and Compiz alone. Play on !

Universal Notifications

Notifications have been updated. A Universal Notifier has been added to Unity that notifies if anything on the desktop need user-attention. This blue-triangular-curve comes on the top right corner of the screen everytime you have any notification from any running  application.

Top Panels

The Ubuntu Panel on the top contains Global menu and other applets. The Unity Top panel includes -

• Redesigned indicator area.
• New sound menu, session menu, and clock.
• System settings in menu.
• Window controls in the panel for maximized applications.

Overlay Scrollbars

The Radiance and Ambiance themes have been updated slightly to add sugar to taste. Overlay scroll-bars are the next best thing happened to Unity. They make it 3D and keep it like that until you are done.

Application SuperMarket

Ubuntu Software Center now contains more that 35,000 Applications which are just 1 click away. It also shows Featured applications that you might need for day to day usage. Application ratings have been added. Even you can buy software from here if you want to. So the Ubuntu Software Center is like an Application Supermarket.

Basic Applications & Feature Updates

Besides Unity, this release has gone through some serious development is past 6 months in matters of features & applications as well. There are many new things to be happy about like Firefox 4.0 that has broke all records and has set up a new one, Libreoffice Suite that just won a fight for the opensource community against Oracle who were commercializing Openoffice has now left the project for opensource development only, Python 2.7 – the newer, the better, the Latest Linux kernel 2.6.38 that does wonders. So lets have a look at them -

• Linux kernel 2.6.38 is the base of this release.
• Mozilla Firefox 4.0 is the default browser.
• Banshee 2.0 is the default Media player.
• Libreoffice 3.3.2 is serving as Ubuntu’s Office suite.
• Unity is the new Desktop environment.
• Python got to version 2.7.
• Shotwell 1.9.1 is the Photo Manager for Natty.
• Evolution 2.32.2 is the default mail client.

First Looks

Here is a quick look at Ubuntu 11.04 Unity.

Any queries regarding Ubuntu or any other regarding Unity can be asked here anytime.

Njoy !

A nice maintenance Update from Oracle for the thier hypervisor yesterday. VirtualBox got updated to version 4.0.6 and now Virtual box packages are available for Ubuntu 11.04 as well. It is a very useful application for testing different distros while keeping the mainstream OS intact. All you need is good hardware. This release has gone through a lot of updates and bugfixes including support for X.Org Server 1.10 final, Linux kernel 2.6.39-rc1 fixes, improved auto-run support, fix mouse support on SUSE 11 SP 1 guests, allow snapshots to be stored in the VM directory and much more.

Download Virtual Box 4.0.6

Ubuntu 11.04 – i386 / amd64
Ubuntu 10.10 – i386 / amd64
Common Extension Pack

Download the specified file and open it with Ubuntu Software Center and install it. After that Access Virtual Box from Applications>SystemTool>Oracle VM VirtualBox and goto File>Preferences>Extensions and select the Extension pack and install it. (It will ask you to read the license agreement, read it and aprrove). Done ! If you want to go the terminal  way then you can use these dpkg command (sudo dpkg -i *.deb) to install it.

• Snapshots: allow snapshots to be stored in the VM directory
• Storage: fixed access to iSCSI targets over internal network
• Storage: automatically create a diff image when attaching a streamOptimized VMDK image to a VM
• Host-Only & Bridged & Internal Networking: fix for processing promiscuous mode requests by VMs, defaulting to switch behaviour
• Buslogic: fixed emulation for certain guests
• Linux kernel 2.6.39-rc1 fixes
• Improved auto-run support
• Webservice: use own log file, with log rotation to limit size

For full details, see Changelog.

Njoy !

Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 – The next version of Ubuntu tweaker is about to be released. As the release of Ubuntu 11.04 is coming closer, things are getting better. According to the developers, a public beta testing will be available soon, and our shiny Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 will be released as Ubuntu 11.04 Natty comes out. Thats awesome ! So lets take a look at whats about to come in Ubuntu Tweak 0.6

The above is the Welcome Window of Ubuntu Tweak 0.6. Cool huh ! It had been re-designed from bottom. The upcoming Tweak will not only improve UI but will also add System Tweaking features. A design is to be added named “Recently used”as a list to the right side, which will enable you to easily access the target features. A “Search” feature may also be included. The final mockup of Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 is below -

Here’s how the new Tweak will look on Ubuntu 11.04 with Unity interface.

Cant wait for it to come huh! Dont worry, a public beta is on its way. Ubuntu Tweak can be installed on Ubuntu 11.04  even now but its version 0.5.11 which has been prepared specially for Ubuntu 11.04 to work with Unity easily. A lot of bugfixes and updates are there on this release making it a worth installing.

Download Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.11

Simply install the file using Ubuntu Software Center and you are good to go.

Else, you can use the following PPA -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Just type above in your terminal and done. Browse to Unity panel>All Applications>Click More and scrool down for Ubuntu Tweak, else you can simply type ‘ubuntu-tweak’ in the terminal and hit enter. Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.11 works fine for Ubuntu 11.04 Unity Interface.

Note: This PPA will install Tweak 0.5.11 in 11.04 Natty only. For 10.10 and 10.04, Tweak 0.5.10 package is available which is the currently the stable version.

[Credits : Ubuntu-Tweak Blog]

Njoy !

Ubuntu Control Center or UCC is an application inspired by Mandriva Control Center and aims to centralize and organize in a simple and intuitive form the main configuration tools for Ubuntu distribution. UCC uses all the native applications already bundled with Ubuntu, but it also utilizes some third-party apps. In all, it serves like a Control Panel to your Ubuntu desktop giving your enough power to control each and every part of your system whether it be installed Software, Hard Disks, User accounts, Network, and also allows you to upgrade to the latest development release to take part in Ubuntu testing. So, we can conclude that this application is worth installing.

Download

Jstest-gtk-0.1

Ubuntu Control Center 0.5.1

Installing & Testing

GUI Method

The installation is really simple.But there is a dependency for this build. So follow the instructions carefully.

• Download the above files and locate them.
• First open Jstest-gtk.deb via Ubuntu Software Center(10.10) or GDebi(10.04) and install it.
• After that, install UCC 0.5.1 via USC / Gdebi.
• After successful install, access and test UCC from Applications>System Tools>Ubuntu Control Center.

Terminal Method

This one is also simple but i would prefer the first one

wget http://ucc.googlecode.com/files/jstest-gtk_0.1.0-1%7Egetdeb1_i386.deb
wget http://ucc.googlecode.com/files/ucc_051_i386.deb
cd ~/Downloads
sudo dpkg -i jstest-gtk_0.1.0-1~getdeb1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i ucc_051_i386.deb
exit

done. After that you can access UCC from Applications>System Tools>Ubuntu Control Center. So go on and start testing it.

Njoy !