GNOME 3.2 has been released and is the first follow-up release to its ground-breaking GNOME 3.0. It has undergone a major redesign and now has the user interface for the next generation of the desktop. From 3.2, GNOME is refining the project and starting to introduce new, modern GNOME applications that will deeply integrate with the GNOME 3 experience and which are designed for modern users.

Get Gnome 3.2 Here

Features at a Glance

Online Accounts

Documents, contacts, calendars — They can be stored locally on the computer, but storing this type of information online is becoming increasingly popular. In GNOME 3.2, Online Accounts provides one place to manage these online sources.

GTK+ 3.2

GTK+ 3.2 is the latest release of the GTK+ toolkit, which is at the heart of GNOME. GTK+ 3.2 includes new features for developers, as well as extensive bug fixes.

Clutter 1.8

GNOME’s graphics library for hardware-accelerated user interfaces Clutter that has been updated to 1.8.

Web Applications

Certain web sites are used as if they are applications. GNOME 3.2 makes it possible to use a site as an application thanks to Epiphany, our standard web browser. To do so, press Ctrl-Shift-A, or access the File menu and select Save as Web Application. Once the web application has been created, it can be launched from the overview.

Contacts

Contacts is a new application focused on people. The goal is to provide one overview of people, whether the contacts are stored online, within Evolution or the chat application Empathy.

Documents and Files

When dealing with a lot of documents, it can be hard to keep track of them. In GNOME 3.2, steps have been taken to make this easier.

Quickly Preview

File Manager can now quickly preview movie, music, picture and other files. The preview can be shown and hidden again by pressing space.

Login screen

The GNOME 3 login screen has been integrated with the rest of the user experience.

Media Hotplugging

GNOME 3 now features integrated media hotplugging notifications.

Even more improvements

• It is now easier to resize a window as the area for this has been increased.
• System Settings now includes links to related settings found in other locations. For instance, the Keyboard section now has a link to the keyboard layout.
• Titlebars, buttons, and other controls are less tall, making it easier to use GNOME on small screens.
• Notifications in the lower-right corner now include a counter. This makes it easier to see how many emails are waiting for you without having to open your email program, or to determine how many messages you have missed in a particular chat.
• The highlight effect that indicates that an application is already running has been made more obvious.
• In the user menu, notifications can be configured independently from the chat status.
• The workspace switcher in the overview remains expanded by keeping its full width displayed when you are using more than one workspace.
• Instead of assuming Evolution, the application for the calendar drop-down can now be customized.
• The battery power status is now shown using a bar.

There’s a lot more but we leave it to you, get it, discover it and live it. From Ubuntu 11.10 onwards, Gnome 3.2 will be 1 click away.

Njoy !

Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 has been released and is ready for downloads. This release has Unity based upon the Gnome 3 desktop, Ubuntu Software Center has been redesigned and many applications have been upgraded to their latest stable versions. Curious fanatics of Ubuntu may run upgrades to get their beta 2 right away but we still recommend to wait for the stable release for production machines and test this one in VMs.

Download Beta 2

Features & Updates

Under the Hood

• Ubuntu 11.10 beta 2 uses Linux kernel 3.0.0-11.18 based on v3.0.4.
• It now includes the new Xorg server 1.10.4.
• This release improves support for installing 32-bit library and application packages on 64-bit systems.

Ubuntu Software Center

Ubuntu Software center has got a whole new look. Its more usable now as most of the alignment issues are solved and it now includes Oneconf as well.

One Conf

This ‘Sync Between Computers’ feature of the Ubuntu Software Center lets you synchronize applications installed on one Ubuntu computer to another. Awesome !

Other Updates

The rest of the notable changes in Beta 2 are as follows : -

• GNOME 3.1.92
• Unity bugfixes
• Firefox 7 Beta
• Deja Dup 19.92
• Ubuntu Software Center 4.1.23.4
• Nautilus 3.1.92
• Shotwell 0.11.1
• Banshee 2.2.0
• Thunderbird 7

Njoy !!

Fuduntu is a light weight and fun Linux distribution that earns its name by its design to fit somewhere in-between Fedora and Ubuntu. It is designed to be aesthetically pleasing, and is optimized for Netbook and other portable computers. The quarterly installation i.e Fuduntu 14.11 is now available for downloads.  As with all Fuduntu releases, this release continues the tradition of small incremental improvements.  It is important to note that existing Fuduntu users will roll up to this version through the normal update process, and do not need to download or install from this media to benefit from this release.  This release is considered the first official Fuduntu “rolling release” ISO.

Download

Fuduntu 14.11 – Direct link – 32 bit & 64 bit.

System Requirements (min.)

• 900 MHz or faster processor
• 384 MB RAM
• 5 GB available hard disk space

Chief Features

• The latest stable Linux Kernel (3.0) at the base.
• Aesthetically pleasing design makes it user-friendly.
• Unbelievable Performance is guaranteed.
• Unparalleled battery life assured.

Latest Updates

• Linux Kernel 3.0.3.
• Chromium Browser 13.0
• Flash 10.3.183.7.
• VLC Media Player1.1.11.

Take a look -

This quarterly release also includes a roll up of the latest patches. So Njoy this new OS folks !

Backtrack 5 codenamed ‘Revolution‘ based upon Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has been released and is all set to pwn. With major upgrade to the UI and application lists, Backtrack now serves as a good platform for all type of Security professionals, ethical-hackers, from newbies to pros. Its very carefully selected big list of hacking tools is the largest available toolkit in single os till date. Backtrack as a matter of fact is based upon Ubuntu to improve simplicity and responsiveness. Whether you’re hacking wireless, exploiting servers, performing a web application assessment, learning, or social-engineering a client, BackTrack is the one-stop-shop for all of your security needs.

Download Backtrack 5

Gnome

• 32 Bit – Direct Link | Torrent
• 64 Bit – Direct Link | Torrent

KDE

• 32 Bit – Direct Link | Torrent
• 64 Bit – Direct Link | Torrent

For VMware images and more, visit the Official Download Page.

Installation Tutorial

Download the .iso image and make a CD-DVD/USB bootable. Boot the live mode and

1. Fireup the installer and read the instructions.
2. Now, Select your laguage and proceed fruther.
3. Select Region & Timezone and click ‘Forward’.
4. Select Keyboard Layoput and proceed.
5. Select Manual Partitioning and select an empty partition of minimum size 20GB & follow the instructions-
   • Create a root partition by selecting ‘New Partition’, make it ‘Primary’, set the size to 15GB (min.), Filesystem type should be ‘ext4 Journaling Filesystem’ and mount point ‘/’.
   • Create another partition by selecting remaining free space and set it ‘Logical’ and its size should be double to that of your RAM, Filesystem type ‘swap’.
   • This is your basic and final partition setup.
6. Click Forward and in the end (step 8), check all the setting and ‘click install’. Now wait for the installation to complete.
7. After that, reboot your system and login as -

Login ID – root
Loin Pass – toor

Now type ‘startx’ to enter the KDE GUI environment. This is your Backtrack 5.

bt5 Features

• Its on Ubuntu Lucid (10.04 LTS) but with Kernel 2.6.38 and now will support 64bit and ARM in addition the 32 bit architectures.
• Streamlined ISO downloads of each Desktop Environment.
• Support KDE 4.6, Gnome 2.6, and Fluxbox.
• Metasploit Framework 3.7.0
• Stealth Forensics Mode.
• Tool list has completely been revamped and refreshed.
• Offensive Security software repositories
• Source Code in repository.
• Each tool’s functionality was assessed and decided upon before inclusion to BT5.

and much more… Backtrack 5 is best choice if you want to even start ethical hacking from a total newbie but are going to need some basic skills regarding Bash to perform almost every task at hand. Dont worry, we will be providing a comprehensive guide towards Bash which will help you in mastering backtrack easily.

The promo-video will take you to a quick Backtrack 5 tour -

The Basics

Coming to the basics, we have an installed version of Backtrack 5 now and we are looking forward to tweak it in the best of our interests. The following steps will help getting started with Backtrack a little easier.

1) Logging In

Well, logging into Backtrack 5 is a little different. You are not directly welcomed at the login screen, instead a shell is presented. Here, type

startx

after logging in as root. By default,

Username – root
Password – toor

Start Networking srervice before you get the UI -

/etc/init.d/networking start

Note: If you create another user afterwards and want to login, then type

sudo startx

even if your new account has administrator priviledges.

2)Change ‘root password’ (necessary)

It is highly recommended that when you first login to your Backtrack 5, the first thing you do is to remove the default password woth a strong one of your choice. A good password contains atleast 10 characters which are ciombination of numbers, alphabets and special characters making it hard to break via basic brute-forcing. So, tp change your root password, open the terminal and type -

passwd root

and follow the instructions and done.

3) Installing Hardware Drivers

We have covered a detailed post regarding Hardware Driver installation in Ubuntu which is also to some extent is directly applicable to Backtrack also. But as per the basics are concerned,download your respective drivers from these links – nVidia for Linux  & ATI driver for Linux.

For nVidia, use this -

Simply type this after you logout from backtrack UI session with internet working-

sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver

OR Use the above file you downloaded to install nVidia drivers to your system -

cd ~/downloads
chmod a+x nvidia-driver-filename.run
./nvidia-driver-filename.run
shurdown -r 0
startx

Now brose to nVidia-Xserver-Settings and configure your screen resolution and refresh rates.

For ATI, use this -

After the download, type

cd ~/Downloads
chmod a+x ati-driver-installer-11-?-x86.x86_64.run
./ati-driver-installer-11-?-x86.x86_64.run
shutdown -r 0
startx

and its done. Set your screen resolution and enjoy backtrack.

4) Setting up the Internet

Now comes the important task, setting up the network connection. Its not that difficult but will take a little time. So lets do it -

Configuring Network Interfaces

This is necessary for all users as internet connectiviry is very much necessary to work on Backtrack, for updates, latest exploits and testing purposes. So, lets get moving -

STATIC -  To start networking in Backtrack 5 issue the following command.

/etc/init.d/networking start

This will attempt to start all the interfaces in the /etc/network/interfaces file.

cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

If you don’t have or don’t want some of these interfaces then simply remove the from this file and they will not start.

If you need to set a static IP just set the variables in the /etc/network/interfaces file

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1

You will also need to make sure you set a nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf

cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.0.1

DHCP – If all you have is eth0 and wlan0 on your system and you want them both to get a address via DHCP then remove every thing else for the file with the exception of the lo interface. Here is a example.

cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

To make all this to start at boot you can simply issue this command as root

update-rc.d networking defaults

This will create all the proper sym-links. Well thats enough to get up and running. If this doesnt seem wroking, then keep reading -

Using PPPOE

If you are on DSL connection and want to configure your internet connection, then PPPOE is the best and fastest way to get it done. Here it goes –

Open the terminal and type

sudo pppoeconf

and follow the instructions and respond accordingly. After the settings are save,type

sudo pon dsl-provider

to start the service and

sudo poff dsl-provider

to disconnect from internet.

Using WICD

If you have a wireless network setup and want to configre your wifi connection in Backtrack, then just follow the instrctuons given below and you are set.

1. Install wicd

First you will need to install wicd and remove the standard network-manager (if installed). wicd is an open source wired and wireless network manager for Linux which we will use later to configure your wireless connection.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get purge network-manager
update-rc.d -f networking remove
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get install wicd
/etc/init.d/wicd start
update-rc.d wicd defaults

2. Determine Wireless Card

Next you will need to determine the make and model of your wireless card within your system. This is achieved by running the following command :

lspci | grep Network

3. Download Drivers

Download proper wireless drivers for your hardware and install it.  Yo can find wireless drivers for Backtrack 5 for your network card at this page.
4. Confirm MODULE LOAD

Once your system has rebooted confirm that the driver has been loaded by running the following command.

lshw -C network -network
description: Wireless interface
product: XXXXX Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
vendor: XXXX Communications Inc.
physical id: 0 logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=x.x.x firmware=N/A ip=10.1.1.35 latency=0 link=yes module=ath9k multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

(Replace x with proper information regarding your network card)

You can also check to see if the module (driver) is loaded by running the command – lsmod | grep ath9k

5. Configure WiFi Connection

Next you will need to configure your connection, adding your settings such as keys, encryption etc etc. To access the Wicd Network Manager go to “K Menu” –> Select “Internet” and click on “Wicd Network Manager”.

Once you have configured your settings you should have the required wireless connectivity within Backtrack.

BUGS

The main issue I faced when configuring the above was that after adding my wireless key and then trying to connect I would get the message

Unable To Get IP Address

If I then configured a static IP address I received the message,

Connection failed: Could not contact the wireless access point

SOLUTION

To resolve this I removed the following file and rebooted.

sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
??

Thats it ! Now your wireless card should be working.

5) Man pages and Help

Man pages are Ultimate guides to Bash and all the commands used in bash. Type

man man

to get a comprehensive detail of bash inside bash. Use navigation keys to make way to your content. Go through this many times so that you get all these in your mind to some extent.

Using ‘man pages’ to study about different commands and their usage is also easy, just type

man <command>

Eg- I want to know more about ‘apt‘, so i will just ype

man apt

and i am presented with this information. Type ctrl+z to get out of the prompt and proceed further.

Using man, any tool info can allso be extracted

man <tool name>

So, working with ‘man’ is easy and highyl useful.

Now over to help. Getting “usage” information of any command or tool is really easy in bash. Just type

command -h
command -help
command –help

and a lot of information about it, its uage and various arguements and their fuctions in the command are presented for your understanding of actual concepts.

6) Tutorials and Howtos

There are a lot of basic tutorials of Backtrack on youtube, blip.tv etc. but the documentation available with Backtrack official site are really useful to all the users. Beginning can be very difficult but once you geton with it, then it will be really a fun working with Backtrack 5. All the tools used in backtrack have their official website (most of them atleast) which are having a very good documentation regarding the usage of the tools properly. Even then, we provide you with a sit e that will take your from a newbe to pro in Petesting.  – IronGeek Security. For a widerange of collection of videos on backtrack and regarding hacking, pentesting, visit – SecurtiyTube.net.

7) The Backtrack Community

The Backtrack Comunity is very big and there are a lot of professionals over there to guide you while you prepare yourself as an ethical hacker. We recommned you to join the Backtrack Forums right away and keep going through the tutorials and various sections. Go through the forum rules and keep asking questions in case you have douibts. Ofcourse you can also ask us about your doubts but there the community is well managed, so there you will find better solutions.

To get the latest exploits, we mean ZERO DAY exploits, keep visiting -  ExploitDb.

Thats it for now folks ! We will be back with more stuff soon. Till then Njoy Backtrack !

Happy Hacking !!!

Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, the KDE 4.6.2 desktop that brings new stunning look and feel to the table has been released. This release is greeted with KDE 4.6 and many other usability improvements to Ubuntu. This release of Kubuntu has come up with a great UI, an awesome default wallpaper and many other feature improvements.

Download Kubuntu 11.04

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

For installation instructions and details, please refer our previous post.

Behold KDE 4.6

KDE 4.6 is the latest upgrade to the famous desktop environment for eyecandy lovers. This time, its more polished, more shiny, more classy and its simply more awesome than ever.

Plasma and KDE Applications 4.6.2

KDE SC 4.6 brings users many new features and improvements, including:

• KWin sees significant performance improvements and better detection of graphic driver capabilities
• You can now associate programs with specific Plasma activities
• The power management configuration area has been given a new, easier natty narwhal no release candidateto use interface
• Improvements in the User Interface, including the creation and management of Activities and improved search functions in Dolphin.

OwnCloud Packaged

OwnCloud, the remote file storage server from KDE, has been packaged and is available to install from the Kubuntu archive. Owncloud serves as a viable replacement for Ubuntu One is Unity interface. OwnCloud helps you keep things under control

• Store your files centrally on a hardware controlled by you.
• Access it from all your devices
• Online and offline (syncing)
• Cross Platform
• Automatic versioning
• Desktop Integration
• Plugins for a MediaPlayer, PhotoGallery, RSS Catcher and more.

GTK Oxygen Theme

GTK applications such as Firefox or Inkscape now fit in with KDE’s Oxygen artwork. This adds more shine to the KDE desktop. Even Libreoffice works fine with it.

Games

By popular demand Kubuntu devs have squeezed a game of patience onto the CD. There are few fun games to play with when youa re tired and want to keep your mind off things.

New Samba Filesharing

Kubuntu now have a working Samba filesharing system. You can now right-click on a folder in Dolphin, select “Properties” and easily share it with other computers on your network. It will even offer to install the Samba server if you do not already have it.

New Language Selector Module

Kubuntu now supports System Language Selector, now integrated into System Settings’ Locale section. Now you can easily add, remove and manage languages wish extra security because it does not run as root.

Features & Updates

The New Features & other Application updates are listed below -

• Linux kernel 2.6.38.2 is the base of Kubuntu.
• LibreOffice 3.3.2 is the default office suite.
• GCC 4.5 comes into Natty.
• Python 2.7 package is present now to do the wonders.
• dpkg 1.16.0 for a faster application control.
• Upstart 0.9 is here.
• X.org 1.10.0 and Mesa 7.10.1.
• Firefox 4.0 works as standard web browser.
• Evolution 2.32.2 is basic Email Client.

Kubuntu 11.04 Desktop

[To be Continued]

Njoy !

A good news for everyone ! The much awaited Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Minefield has now been finally released. This release has come up with many new features and updates and is set to redefine the browsing experience. Wtih more than 400 Million Users, Mozilla is one of the most widely used cross-platform browser. Firefox 4.0 Final is now live on the Mozilla’s FTP servers, and the release has been announced here by the Mozilla developers today.

Download

Firefox 4.0 Final

System Requirements

Please note that Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.

• Firefox will not run at all without the following libraries or packages:
  • GTK+ 2.10 or higher
  • GLib 2.12 or higher
  • Pango 1.14 or higher
  • X.Org 1.0 or higher (1.7 or higher is recommended)
  • libstdc++ 4.3 or higher

Easy Upgrade

If you want to upgrade from your existing Firefox, then use this PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

This PPA upgrades your Firefox 3.6.x to Firefox 4.0 instantly.

Installation

PPA Method

Open the terminal and type in the following

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox ubufox

done. This PPA also updates Alphas, Betas and RC’s of Firefox 4.0 besides a fresh install.

Basic Method

1) Simply extract the file, its name is ‘firefox-4.0′ , now copy that folder. Now type :

sudo nautilus

2) In the Nautilus window, browse the Filesystem to /usr/lib. Paste the file there and close Nautilus.
3) Now, goto System > Preferences > Main Menu and link the directory /usr/lib/firefox-4.0/firefox and add the link to Applications > Internet.
4) Its all done. Now you can enjoy your Firefox 4.0 without losing your bookmarks or any of your data.

Take a look :

The release has been announced and Mozilla website has also been updated.

What’s New

• Firefox 4.0 is based on Gecko 2.0 Platform.
• Graphics and video performance has been optimized in Firefox 4.
• In terms of modern web standards support, Firefox 4.0 is one of the most compliant browsers out there, designed by default to play nice with HTML5, CSS3, SVG, WebM, and others.
• Blacklisted a few invalid HTTPS certificates.
• New HTML5 parser.
• Firefox 4.0 is now available in 83 different languages.
• The Firefox Sync setup experience has been greatly improved across desktop and mobile devices.
• Additional polish for the Firefox Add-ons Manager.
• Uses JägerMonkey, a new, faster JavaScript engine.
• Improved web typography using OpenType with support for ligatures, kerning and font variants.
• HTML5 Forms API makes web based forms easier to implement and validate.
• Support for the new proposed Audio Data API.
• Updated sleek GUI.

For further details, see Release Notes.

Here, take a look –>

Firefox 4.0 Promotional Video

Njoy !

UberStudent (uber meaning “productive“) is a free, and opensource Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for working, learning and teaching academics at the higher education and advanced secondary levels. It is supported by a free Moodle-based virtual learning environment. It is also for Lifelong learners, researchers, and knowledge workers of all types.

UberStudent fundamentally is the best Ubuntu Derivative for education. It is developed by professional educators around a core skills approach. These are research & writing, study, and self-management skills, essentials to students regardless of their academic major. It can additionally be extended for specific academic disciplines using its on-board tools to finding and installing additional software. While main focus is academic computing, UberStudent also contains stuff for multimedia, graphics, messaging, and gaming, all with the needs of students in mind. Its the best Ubuntu derivative for students out-of-the-box.

Download

UberStudent 1.0 Full DVD

• Direct Link
• Torrent

UberStudent 1.0 LXDE

• Direct Link
• Torrent

Installation

Installing UberStudent is same as installing Ubuntu, easy and safe. All you need is a bootable UberStudent DVD or USB and a 20GB free Disk space on (obviously) a separate partition.

1) First, just start the installer and select your language.

2) Select Time-zone & Location and click next.

3) Select Keyboard Layout and proceed.

4) This is the most important part of the installation i.e. Partitioning disks.

• First, select Manual Partitioning.
• Click the 20GB (recommended) partition i.e Empty space.
• Click ‘create partition’ and put the size “15gb” or “18GB” and select filesystem as “ext4″  and set mount point as “/” i.e root.
• Now ‘create’ another partition using rest of the empty space and set mount point as “swap space”. It should be double the size of your RAM.
• All is done and we are ready for the installation. Remember, 20Gb is min. recommended size but you can allocate more to it.

After partitioning has been done, check again and proceed.

5) Now, select Username & Password of choice and proceed.

All work has been done. Check everything and click Finish to start the installation. Now, sit back, relax and be patient because the installation will take a while to complete.

After installation is complete, reboot the system and remove the DVD/USB and boot into your newly installed OS.

Main Features

1) Basic Applications & Programs :- UberStudent is loaded with hundreds of nicely chosen Applications and Programs for students to help them in every way. A few of them are listed below :-

- Mozilla Firefox > Makes browsing the web easier, safer and faster.
- Virtual Box OSE > Test Operating systems on the go.
- Gparted > Create,resize or delete your partitions.
- GIMP > A great image editing tool for advanced users.
- Pinta > A Paint.net like Image editing tool for Linux (recommended for beginners).
- Google Chrome > Browse the Web faster than anyone.
- Deluge > A nice Bittorrent client to manage all your torrent downloads.
- OpenOffice > For your daily needs.
- Calibre > Ebook reader.
- Google Docs > Create, share and access your work from anywhere.
- Ailurus > Makes it easy to configure your system.
- Bleachbit > To Free-up disk space by removing unwanted files and packages.
- Thunderbird > To keep all your mails and feeds synchronized.
- Scribus > A great desktop-publishing tool for linux.
- Inkskape > Graphics editor for linux.
- VLC > For a better multimedia experience.
- Banshee Media Player > Another awesome tool for multimedia
- Wine > To run windows apps in linux.
- Uber Control Center > Servers like a Control Panel to your OS.

There is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Its a never ending list o applications, so we leave rest to you to discover. Here are some desktop screenshots :

2) Integrated EyeOS :-

Another best thing about UberStudent is that it contains a preinstalled EyeOS for cloud computing on the fly. This will bring the students in synchronism to each other and they can share notes, project work etc. and can access it from anywhere they want without any risk of losing their precious data and research. Cool feature ! Here….take a look :

Njoy !

It’s been a while since we posted about LibreOffice’s development (beta release). Since then, LibreOffice has gone through rigorous development and now here we have the first stable release of LibreOffice with a lot of updates and bug-fixes. LibO as we know it now has the PPA so its easy for us to download it and keep it up-to-date. The Document Foundation has announced the release of LibreOffice 3.3.0 Final, all set for production machines. This release is fully stable and ready to use.

Download

LibreOffice 3.3.0 – Direct link

• Download x32 .deb (Download Torrent)
• Download x64 .deb (Downlaod Torrent)

Installation

PPA Method :-> Installing Libreoffice is now really easy because PPA is here. Just type in these lines in the terminal :-

sudo apt-get remove libreoffice*.* openoffice*.* && sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libreoffice libreoffice-gnome

For KDE  >_

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-kde

Note:- If you choose PPA method for installing LibO 3.3, then there is no need to download anything at all.

.deb Method :-> Simply download the files and extract it from the archive and install i like the old times

cd $home/Downloads
tar xvzf LibO_3.3.0_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz
cd LibO_3.3.0rc4_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US/DEBS
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

New Features & Updates

• 1 million rows in a spreadsheet in Calc
• Improved slide layout handling in Impress
• Useful bundled extensions, such as the Presenter View in Impress
• Lotus Word Pro import filter
• Import SVG pictures into Draw and edit them interactively
• New easy-to-use dialog box for title pages
• Navigator lets you unfold one heading as usual in a tree view
• “Easy-to-find “new sheet” tab button
• MS Works import filter and more…

For details, see this page.

Preview

Here are a few screenshots of LibO 3.3 in Ubuntu 10.10, take a look :

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

Njoy LibreOffice!

Another Twitter Client I was just checking and this one is really awesome (you heard me).Hotot as the name goes is gonna be really hot pretty soon that I predict . Amazing well built this Twitter client almost all the features a user intends to use in its sleek interface.It will be pretty early to judge since its not officially available at its official site Hotot.org but I’m already in love with it. While I’m to figure out how it got the name Hotot you can go ahead and install it.

The recent built was stable enough for daily use and I’ve not experienced any errors whatsoever till now.Impressions were alike using a Twitter app on a Touch device though I really hope they get better sounds for notification .Rest at every level I see Hotot a real winner .Here are few features you really wanna know about

• supports Ubuntu Indicator Applet Notifications with sound
• supports single click Retweet feature
• supports extension support for additional features like Translation,Image Upload,Video Preview,URL Shortener & much more.
• supports Threaded view of Tweet conversations
• support all other standard features like Mentions,Inbox/Outbox,Favourite,Profile Customization & Search

Note : Hotot right now supports only Ubuntu 10.04/10.10/11.04

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hotot-team

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hotot

OUR RATING

Opera as we all know is one of the best browsers for Ubuntu because its fast, easy-to-use and stable. The good news for everyone is that Opera 11 is finally released and has brought too many cool features with it like Tab Stacking, Extensions, Visual mouse gestures and many more. From customization point of view, Opera now supports many beautiful skins and setups. And it gets better, an enhanced address field makes it easy to stay safe on the Web. So we can say that Opera 11 is all you need for all your internet activity be it your regular browsing, online shopping, and everything.

Download :- Opera 11 

Install :- Its just a matter of 2 clicks. To install Opera 11 Ubuntu 10.10, just download the above file and double click it and install via Ubuntu Software Center. Upgrade is also possible for existing opera users from the same file given above. All you need to do is a double click

Ubuntu 10.04 and earlier version users can use ‘Gdebi’ to install it.

For those who like to do it via terminal, here is what you need to do. Just open the terminal and access the download directory where you have Opera 11 downloaded, and use dpkg to do rest for ya’ :-

cd ~/Downloads

sudo dpkg -i opera_11.00.1156_i386.deb

and done. Access it from Applications> Internet > Opera and enjoy all new improved, fast and reliable browsing.

A Peek at the New Features :-

1) Tab Stacking :- Dragging one tab over another allows you to create groups of tabs.

2) Safer address field :- The address field has been improved to show “secure/trusted” web-pages and now hides the complexity of long web addresses.

3) Visual Mouse Gestures :- Perform many common browser actions with a quick flick of your mouse. Holding down the right mouse button on a webpage now shows a visual guide that indicates how to perform the available gestures. Enjoy Sleekness.

4) Extensions :- It is simple to extend Opera’s functionality by visiting the extensions catalog.

5) Mail panel :- When using Opera’s built-in mail client, you now can now drag accounts and mail items where you want them.

6) Tabs :- A lot of work on Tabs have been done that really improves browsing experience like by right-clicking a tab, you can pin it to prevent it from being closed by accident, you can open tabs that you accidentally closed or website pop-ups that Opera blocked. and you can save your open tabs as a “session” and load it later on to open these same pages. You can have multiple sessions and load each one based on what you are doing at a certain time.

7) Plugins :- You can choose to have plug-ins such as Flash and Silverlight load content only when clicked. This is helpful to speed up browsing.

Other major features include Bookmark & Profile Syncing , Speedial, IRC Chatting, Widget Support, Bittorrent Support, Custom Application Support via Opera Unite.

In simple words …Opera Just Got Better  :)

Tips & Tricks :-

1. Mouse Gestures :- Opera’s amazing mouse gestures lets you do frequently-performed browsing operations with small, quick mouse movements. For example, To go to the previous page : Hold “right-click” and drag left. To close current tab, hold “right-click” and drag right.
2. Extensions :- Just checkout the Extension page(Tools>Extensions>Get Extensions) and you will get Extensions Like Adblock, Flashblock, Video Downloader and much more.
3. Configuration Page :- Just type ‘about:config‘ and customize Opera settigns the way you like.
4. Speeding Up :- Goto Preferences(Ctrl+F12)>Advanced>Browsing>Loading and change it to redraw instantly.
5. Search Speedup :- Right Click and “Add to Search” for a faster searching next time ,right from your address bar or search bar.
6. Server Name Completion:- Goto Preferences(Ctrl+F12)>Advanced>Network>Server Name Completion and uncheck it.
7. Network Connection:- Goto Preferences(Ctrl+F12)>Advanced>Network and increase the “Max Connections to a Server” and “Max Total Connections”

Thats all, rest we leave to you. Use it , share it, discover it and distribute it cause its FREE.

For any queries regarding Opera, Ubuntu or anything regarding FOSS, just leave a post at our Forum.
Here is a quick video preview of all Opera Features

Njoy !