A small demonstration of the windows management in GNOME 3 shell.

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 !

So, while roaming around on the internet , we found something really interesting on Jonobacon’s blog and so we are sharing this idea with you all. Its about Ubuntu’s new direction towards regular desktop users which the existing Community think is parting ways with the Power Users of the community. With a very nice solution in mind, here is excerpts of what he writes -

Over the last few months there has been some concerned feedback in some parts of the community about how Ubuntu is focused more and more on attracting new users to Ubuntu by providing a streamlined and simplified user experience. Much of this is being achieved with Unity; a new desktop interface delivered in Ubuntu 11.04, which will continue to be refined and improved upon based on user testing and feedback.

One key piece of feedback from some Unity users was a concern around the lack of configurability in Unity, and a feeling that it is a little too simple and does not expose enough of the system, for which many more expert Ubuntu users enjoy.

One take-away amidst this feedback is that the general focus of Ubuntu is evolving. While traditionally we set out to provide the simplest and easiest to use Ubuntu desktop environment, and this has not changed, this focus is become more and more prevalent as we shave off more and more rough edges on Ubuntu to make it ready for the prime-time. The problem is…some folks don’t want to loose the lack of configurability and control as we move towards the prime-time. [Visit  Jonobacon's Blog]

Building On a Strong Foundation

At the heart of Ubuntu, a layer-cake of components is shipped like this :

Most people, even expert and power users, will typically only care about a particular layer and just want the other layers to work. As an example, a Kernel fan just wants his/her desktop to work without any poking, but wants all the power and configuration potential afforded at the Kernel layer.

For most end-users they don’t care about, nor should they care about, any of the layers in the above diagram. This is why Unity is shipped on top of it:

Here Unity is designed to hide all of the complexity of the underlying layers. Unity is instead designed optimize the user experience for what most end-users need; finding and starting apps, finding files, managing windows, installing new software, seeing when notifications appear etc.

Where we have seen the disconnect in these recent discussions is that some Ubuntu users feel Unity does not expose enough of the underlying layers and therefore the system is less configurable than is desired. Some suggestions as solutions to this problem are to change the focus of Ubuntu to power users and not end users, but this is how he thinks can be solved…

Optimizing For Power Users

Suppose these two are broad types of user developers want to satisfy here (end users who are resistant to complexity and configurability, and power users who thrive on configurability), he believes it will satisfy both by delivering a simple system optimized for the former out of the box, but then build tools and community to allow power users to add the configurability they desire post-installation. He believes that power users are better equipped to build on a simple default installation than end users simplifying a more complex and configurable default installation.

One of the most wonderful elements of Linux is that in the vast majority of cases, power user orientated functionality is already exposed under the covers on the system (e.g. you can tweak Compiz setting with CCSM, you can re-compile your kernel if you like, you can tweak hard drive parameters with the terminal etc), it is just not exposed by the GUI.

As such, think of it this way:

So, think of the workflow a little like this (from the perspective of a power user):

1. Joanne Bloggs installs Ubuntu 11.10 on her computer. She is presented with a simple default experience, but she desires more configurability.
2. Joanne discovers an Ubuntu Power Users community where she can engage with like-minded power users who like to hot-rod their Ubuntu systems.
3. As part of that community, configuration kitchen-sink tools and functionality is created and packaged inside the Ubuntu Software Center. Joanne is really interested in configuring Compiz and desktop effects so she installs an ubuntu-expert-desktop package to get this additional functionality (this package would install an expansive control panel of options for her, possibly inside a unified configuration application).
4. In a few clicks Joanne is now part of a community of like-minded power users, complete with the additional configurability she desires.

Creating a Power Users Community

He recommends that this community should have three core components:

1. Providing a place for power users to communicate – I am sure the Ubuntu Forums folks can help with this, and an IRC channel (#ubuntu-experts?) and mailing list could be a great place to encourage people to participate.
2. Document configuration functionality – the team could work together to explain how users with a free Ubuntu system can trick it up for this extended level of functionality.
3. Provide tools – I think it could be awesome for this community to produce tools and package existing tools so they are only a click away in the Ubuntu Software Center. A good first step here could be a PPA.

In the end, he adds -

Unfortunately, I don’t have a huge amount of time to contribute to this community, and I think it would be great if some folks who are interested could step up to form a team to lead this work. I would be happy to provide some guidance and mentorship to those experienced in leading such a team.

So, anyone interested in leading such a community and making this vision happen?

We think this is really a great idea and it should be worked out with some more idea put together. What do you say ?

[Source: Jonobacon's Blog]

Ubuntu Unity is a desktop experience designed for efficiency of space and interaction. It maximizes usability and minimizes complexity. Everything is available just 1 click away and almost everyone enjoys working with it. But the problem is, you cant get Unity working everytime on your computer because it needs 3D effects enabled by-default. That means … those who are having low config computers, cant run Unity ? No, Unity 2D is here to the rescue. Unity 3D as we know is going to be the default interface for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. If you dont want to use Unity 3D or you are unable to use it, then just get yourself Unity 2D with Gnome in parallel.

Installing Unity 2D

Open the terminal and type this PPA to get unity 2d working on your desktop with Ubuntu 10.10 or Ubuntu 11.04.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-2d-team/unity-2d-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-2d

After the installation, all you need to do is logout/reboot and when you reach ‘Login screen’, select to boot into ‘Unity 2D’ session rather than ‘Ubuntu Desktop’ session which is by-default selection. And thats it. You are now in Unity 2D without losing anything in your Gnome 2.32 desktop or Gnome 3.

Unity 2D First Look

At first Unity 2D looks almost like Unity 3D but its lighter and faster. There are no 3D effects enabled by-default taking much resources from your system ,so things are darn fast. The Panel is translucent with Ubuntu Netbook like interface. Its more polished and stable than 3D. So if you want to test Unity, safely Unity 2D is a way to go. Take a look -

Unity 2d vs Unity 3D

Unity 3D has got all those cool 3D effects enabled by-default that takes too much of system resources. Those who dont have much system power, cant run Unity 3D at all as it requires 3D effects enabled for Compiz to work. But Unity 2D is not like that, it can run on any system whether it has got 3D effects or not. It works on everything ranging from old computers to Netbooks to Desktops. Unity 2D as compared to Unity 3D is

• Lighter
• Faster
• Easier to use
• More polished
• Stable
• Flexible

Unity 3D

Unity 2D

So, Unity 2D is a way to go. It can easily work on Virtual machines too. So if anyone willing to use it on hypervisors is raedy to go. Just hit the PPA in the terminal and enjoy Unity.

For any queries regarding Unity 2D or 3D, or any other regarding Ubuntu, ask here freely.

Njoy !

Banshee 2.0 has been released after a long wait and to be frank we’ve lost count of days we waited for it . Surprisingly, this Media player has replaced Rythmbox and made it to Ubuntu’s Default Media application & will come preinstalled in Ubuntu 11.04. Banshee 2.0 will be available in Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 2 onwards. So regular Natty testers will get it in an upgrade. Talking of Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 users, PPA is available to get it easily on your system. This release of Banshee includes UI improvements, Ubuntu One Music Store extensions, Music Library improvements, Subtitles & numerous bugfixes.

PPA Install

Banshee can be easily installed or upgraded from the following PPA. Just type the following in your terminal, type root password when prompted and you are good to go.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:banshee-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install banshee

Wait for it to complete. After the install or upgrade is done, fireup Banshee from Applications>Sound and Video and enjoy the latest version.

Improvements to Banshee

UI Improvements

Many changes hasve been made towards a cleaner and more usable UI. Search is now beside the volume button. The source list has smaller icons, hidden counts for the libraries, and named group-separators. The seek slider and search entry are resizable via their grips. Podcasts episodes are now shown in a grid, with several lines of description shown to help you find an appealing episode to enjoy.

Ubuntu One Music Store and SoundMenu Extensions

These two extensions have been moved from Banshee Community Extensions and are now core Banshee extensions.

‘Play After’ Queue Options

The ‘Play After’ option will insert it another album into the queue to help you listen to your music right after the present album/track.

Subtitles

Added support for embedded and external-file subtitles.

Artist/Album Browser Track Actions

Track actions (play, queue, remove, delete, edit, properties) now work for the artist and album browser too! Right click an artist or album to act on it, or click an album and press ‘q’ to queue it.

For details, you can check the release notes.

Njoy !

GNOME Shell is the defining technology of the GNOME 3 desktop user experience. It provides core interface functions like switching to windows and launching applications. GNOME Shell takes advantage of the capabilities of modern graphics hardware and introduces innovative user interface concepts to provide a delightful and easy to use experience. The GNOME Shell is currently in active development and while many planned features are not yet implemented it is stable enough for everyday use.

Download

Gnome 3.0 32 Bit & 64 Bit

Testing Live

1) Download the USB image writer (here) and extract it
2) Open a terminal and navigate to the extracted image writer folder

cd ~/Downloads/abock-image-usb-stick-f3b1002

3)Prepare the image writer by running

chmod a+x ./image-usb-stick

4) Remove any USB storage devices that you might have connected to your computer and insert the empty USB stick that you want to write to.
5) Run the image writer script

sudo ./image-usb-stick path_to_the_live_image.iso

Eg- If the image resides in our home folder, then we use

sudo ./image-usb-stick ~/GNOME_3.i686-1.0.0-Build1.1.iso

6) To run the live image, reboot your computer with the USB stick attached and enjoy

Note :- This image is not working with UNetBootin, not right now ! So for testing, you have to follow the above procedure.

New Features

For GNOME 3, the GNOME Project has started from scratch and created a completely new, modern desktop designed for today’s users and technologies. Here are some of the things that you can expect from the new GNOME:

Yo! Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Beta 1 is now ready for download and testing. This release of Natty has gone through rigorous development and is now shining with Unity 3.6.8, latest Linux kernel, New wallpapers, Unity panel updates and much more. Ubuntu 11.04 has reached feature freeze and user-interface freeze. All the updates regarding new features and improvements in UI are almost done. There is another good news that Ubuntu Netbook Edition is not separate now, Unity for desktops is the same Unity for Netbooks, that means Unity has united Ubuntu Desktop edition and Netbook edition. So conclusion is that Unity has got something for everyone.

Download

Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 CD images

Download x86 CD Image | Torrent Download
Download x64 CD Image | Torrent Download

Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 DVD Images -

Download AMD- x64 DVD Image |  Torrent Download
Download Intel-x32  DVD Image |  Torrent Download

New Features & Updates

Apart from enhanced stability, this release has come up with a lot of enhancements in Unity, wallpapers updates and many bug-fixes.

• Unity 3.6.8 integrated.
• Linux Kernel 2.6.38.
• LibreOffice 3.3.2 comes default.
• Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Final is now in effect.
• New Default and Community Wallpapers.
• Banshee 1.9.4 is the default Music Player.
• New Icons arrived for Ubuntu One, File browser, Application browser etc.
• Main Ubuntu Panel icon is also brand new.
• Panel Network Manager also shows ‘Connection information’ including your current Ip-address, Connection speed, DNS, Subnet mask etc.
• Nautilus 2.32.2.1 is up and running.
• Unity Panel now shows only Mounted Partitions in the list.
• Unity now has ‘Intellihide’ panel.
• Latest packages of Python 2.7 and GCC 4.5 are also up and running.

Testing

Testing Unity is easy as a testing previous versions. If you are having integrated graphics like a Laptop, then Unity will run by default. For Nvidia and ATI users, there will be a bit of wait after which Unity will be shining on their desktops/laptops. All you need to do is follow these simple steps :-

• Run the LiveCD, you will be shown Ubuntu Gnome UI.
• Just install Ubuntu 11.04 on your desktop as you have done before.
• After booting into Ubuntu, run the update manager. After the updates will be completed, restart the computer.
• Now install ‘Additional Hardware Drivers’ from Unity-Panel > Applications.
• After that open software center and download ‘Ubuntu Restricted Extras’ and install them.

And now you are good to go. Alpha 3 testers can simple run an upgrade via the Update Manager and they will be good to go.

A Quick View at Ubuntu 11.04 Unity Interface

Any queries regarding Ubuntu 11.04 can be asked here.

Njoy !

Ultimate Edition 2.9 has arrived for KDE users. This has been build above Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat but also includes Gnome, Openbox & Xfce Desktop environments with an option to select at login. This version is more alike Ultimate Edition 2.8 as discussed earlier which was also based on Ubuntu 10.10. The updates include new kernels, software updates and some bug-fixes. There is a big list of preinstalled themes to choose from and tons of inbuilt softwares are available making it an offline KDE experience a go yet again !

Besides the features of UE 2.8, UE 2.9 has some additional features viz Multiple Desktop Environments [KDE, Gnome, Xfce and Openbox], latest Linux Kernel & many more preinstalled softwares & plugins for a better linux experience.

Download

Ultimate Edition 2.9 – 32 Bit & 64 Bit

System Requirements

• CPU – 2.0 GHz or higher
• RAM – 512 MB (min.) – 1 GB(recommended)
• Graphics Memory – 64 MB (min.) – 256 MB (recommended)
• Hard Disk – 8 GB (min.) – 20 GB (recommended)
• Keyboard & Mouse

Take a look :-

In a few simple words it is a complete, seamlessly integrated, visually stimulating, and easy-to-install operating system. Single-button upgrade is one of several special characteristics of this distribution. Other main features include custom desktop and theme with 3D effects, support for a wide range of networking options, including WiFi and Bluetooth, and integration of many extra applications and package repositories. We are sure you all will love it.

Ultimate Edition 2.6.1 LTS

We have another good news for Ultimate Edition 2.6 LTS users that UE 2.6.1 has arrived and is available via Update Manager. Its based  upon Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS  & includes  many fixes and upgrades pre and post applied. The new Linux Kernel 2.6.32-27 has arrived (rebuild of vmlinuz and initrd.lz & purged all older kernels). All UE based themes rebuilt and replaced (this will add gigs of additional free space to the O/S in the future).

Download

Ultimate Edition 2.6.1 – 32 Bit & 64 Bit

The following bugs have been fixed

• Cursor / Compiz issue
• Broken repository removed
• Removed wine-doors (broken)
• Fixed metapackage
• Fixed progress bar going beyond 100%

Additional Softwares

• Ailurus
• Cairo clock
• Miro
• Moovida
• Exaile
• Gphpedit
• Chromium browser
• Sound juicer
• Rip off
• Ultimate Edition 2.8 themes

For any queries regarding UE or any other regarding Ubuntu/Linux, ask here freely.

Njoy !

GnoMenu is a consolidated menu for gnome that brings eye candy to the world of the Gnome menu’s in Ubuntu. Fully functional menu , supports themes , for a composited or non composited Ubuntu desktop. It can emulate the look and feel of the most beautiful menus of most modern desktops, and it can also use custom menus, due to its powerful theme XML engine making it a essential requirement for Ubuntu lovers.

Quick Install

Installing Gnomenu is simple because of the availability of PPA. Just open the terminal and type :-

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnomenu

and wait for the install to complete.

Playing around with Gnomenu

Working with GnoMenu is really easy. All you need to do is to right click your panel (top/bottom etc) and add ‘GnoMenu’ applet to it. move it to  a desired place and thats it. There are a few of Icons and themes to choose from so that you can have a desired styled Ubuntu menus. In case you want more themes and icons, you can find them at Gnome-look.org. You can now remove the old Menus from the panel if you don’t like them.

Njoy !

Sorry for being a bit late on this but the second major maintenance update to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has been released by the Ubuntu developer team. This release includes updated server, desktop, alternate installation CDs and DVDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures. This update also includes the official derivatives i.e Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc. Numerous updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Download

Ubuntu 10.04.2
Kubuntu 10.04.2
Xubuntu 10.04.2

This release has gone through many bugfixes and updates. Some important of them include :->

• On Wubi, it won’t ask for an install device, but just updates wubildr using the diverted grub-install.
• Mangle whether the ‘ui’ keyword is in syslinux.cfg based on the OS version.
• Fixed ‘crash’ on update/upgrade download error?.
• Install GRUB to the SATA RAID or multipath device when /boot is on such a device, rather than installing to the first hard dis.
• Added missing desktop files and icons.

Most of the fixes are hardware based that means the all-round hardware support have been improved. The following is a brief summary of bugs fixed between Ubuntu 10.04.1 and 10.04. –>> Ubuntu 10.04.2 Release Notes. This list includes all the secirity bugs that were fixed till this release –>> Ubuntu Security Notice.

(This summary covers only changes to packages in main and restricted, which account for all packages in the officially-supported CD images; there are further changes to various packages in universe and multiverse.)

Screenshots ->

For any queries regarding  can be asked here @ our forum.

Njoy !!