Introducing GUFW the Uncomplicated Firewall GUI for Ubuntu Linux Hardy Heron!!
I just woke up this morning and found a great comment on my blog introducing me to a promising new project by marcoscostales called gufw and he has taken his time to create a .deb package for us all. This application looks promising and can only get better with our suggestions.
So far 1200 people on Ubuntu Brainstorm voted for an application like this, see here
Features: Enable/disable Firewall via 1 click access
Deny all inbound/outbound connections with 1 click
Allow all inbound/outbound connections with 1 click
A nice allow/deny drop down box.
Easily add/remove firewall rules
Block ping replies to show up as having a stealth/invisible ip on the lan/inet
Screens:
Download GuFw here
See here for updated packages
Double click the .deb file and click install.
You will find ufw with a nice shield icon via Applications->Internet->gufw
For support see here
Help improve this application by submitting bug reports and ideas here
News: Announcing GNOME Do 0.5: “The Fighting 0.5″
Article and pics via David Siegel's blog:
It has been 41 days since we released GNOME Do 0.4.2, and today I’m honored to present GNOME Do 0.5: “The Fighting 0.5″. Without further ado, here are the main improvements and new features, accompanied by plenty of sexy screenshots (click for larger images).
First off, the Open with… action has been re-enabled!

The biggest new feature in GNOME Do 0.5 is our new preferences window and plugin manager. You can now browse, download, install, and enable or disable all available plugins from right within Do thanks to Mono.Addins:

You can also visit a wiki page with information about each plugin, and you can do plugin-specific configuration. This means no more configuration files, and no more editing preferences through Configuration Editor (gconf). As an example, here is the configuration window for the Files and Folders plugin:

We’ve added a plugin category called “community plugins” that contains cutting-edge plugins written by many different contributors. If a developer were to write a great new GNOME Do plugin today, we could have it in the community plugins repository and available to Do users everywhere by tomorrow. That being said, community plugins are not rigorously screened or held to the same quality standards as official plugins, so users beware.

One of my favorite community plugins is the new Skype plugin, which allows you to make calls, initiate chats, change your status, and more. The Skype plugin is also fully integrated with Do’s contact system, so you can simply type a contact name, and then chose to send an instant message to that person with Pidgin, email them, or initiate a Skype chat or call:

There’s an awesome new plugin by Jason Smith called “WindowManager.” It lets you manipulate and rearrange windows on your desktop. You can focus, shade, minimize, maximize, tile, and cascade your windows. This plugin is so feature-packed, I don’t even know everything it does yet! Check out these screenshots, then try the plugin for yourself.

Minimize all Firefox windows.

Bring a GIMP window into focus by searching for its name.
Alex Launi has done some amazing plugin work, making great contributions to the Twitter, File and Folders, and Pidgin plugins to name a few. He also wrote new Flickr, Gmail contacts, and Google Calendar plugins. Here’s a preview of his work:

Twitter plugin now supports replying to Twitter friends.

Set Pidgin status (also searches saved statuses).

Upload images to Flickr

Search and create events on Google Calendar
These are only a few of the new features and improvements in GNOME Do 0.5. We’ve also fixed tons of bugs, and we’re going to have some intensive wiki-updating sessions over the next couple weeks to bring documentation up to speed. There are a few more changes that just barely missed the cut, so you can expect to see a 0.5.1 release within a few weeks. Special thanks to Alex Launi, Jason Smith, Chris Halse Rogers, Jorge Castro, Jason Imison, Jason Jones, Jacob Andreas, Guillaume Beland, Ken Simon, Mathieu Cadet, Rick Harding, and all the rest. Ubuntu users may get 0.5 packages from our Launchpad PPA, and you can find source packages on our downloads page.
Finally, GNOME Do is free software, and we work on Do because we love it. Do is free to use, but if you could spare a few hundred yen to help us cover hosting costs and other Do-related expenses, please click the ugly yellow donate button at the bottom of the page and we will be forever grateful. Thank you and enjoy!
Howto Install in Hardy Heron:
Add these sources via System->Administration->Software Sources->Third Party-> +Add:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu hardy main
Click here to install within Firefox or sudo apt-get install gnome-do via the command line
Firefox 3 RC1 now available for download!
Please note: The Firefox 3 Release Candidate is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes new features as well as dramatic improvements to performance, memory usage and speed. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this release.
The first Firefox 3 Release Candidate is now available for download. This milestone is focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3 can be followed at the Firefox 3 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #granparadiso.
New features and changes in this milestone:
- Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
- Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatibility and stability.
- Continued performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.
(You can find out more about all of these features in the “What’s New” section of the release notes.)
Testers can download the Firefox 3 Release Candidate builds for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in over 45 different languages. Developers should also read the Firefox 3 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.
Here is a quick n dirty way to run this on Linux w/o ruining your current profile
Click here to download it to your desktop or another directory
Right Click firefox-3.0rc1.tar.bz2
Select Extract Here
Enter the firefox Directory
Press Alt F2 and enter the directory path like
/home/myname/Desktop/firefox -P
Introducing FlyBack v0.5.0 svn - Apple's Time Machine for Linux Snapshot-based backup Solution based on rsync!
Did you ever try Apple's Time Machine for OSX? Well if you have and you like it, and switched from Apple to Linux you will want to give this nice little application a try, this application is currently being developed here at Google Code
How Does FlyBack work?
FlyBack is a snapshot-based backup tool based on rsync It creates successive backup directories mirroring the files you wish to backup, but hard-links unchanged files to the previous backup. This prevents wasting disk space while providing you with full access to all your files without any sort of recovery program. If your machine crashes, just move your external drive to your new machine and copy the latest backup using whatever file browser you normally use.
Note that this means you can selectively delete specific backups and still retain files stored in previous ones. (ie., you can delete tuesday's backup and keep monday's, without screwing up wednesday's)
Ways FlyBack Differs from Time Machine
1. There is no inotify mechanism in Linux, so FlyBack scans your entire directory structure when performing a backup.
2. No hard-linking
This morning I created a install package for everyone running gnome, it should work, let me know if you have any issues.
Lets get to installing shall we?
Click Here to install the necessary packages with apt-url or via Applications->Accessories->Terminal:
sudo apt-get install python python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-sqlite3 rsync python-pysqlite2Click Here to download flyback to your desktop or any directory
Right Click on flyback.tar.gz and select "Extract Here.."
Once extracted enter the flyback directory
To Install double click install and select run, enter sudo password then click ok twice
To Uninstall double click uninstall and select run, enter sudo password then click ok twice
The slideshow is an good example of these steps.
Y can access Flyback via Applications->System Tools->flyback
-
(optional)Alternate svn install:
Make sure you have the following packages installed for your correct distro:
Debian:
sudo apt-get install python python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-sqlite3 rsyncUbuntu:
sudo apt-get install python python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-sqlite3 python-gconf rsyncRedhat/Fedora:
yum install pygtk2 gnome-python2-gconf pygtk2-libglade python-sqlite3Then download via svn you will need to:
sudo apt-get install subversionsvn checkout http://flyback.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ flybackcd flyback/srcTo Run:
python flyback.py
Introducing Entertainer Easy to use Media Center Solution For Ubuntu!
Explore the world of the entertainer project:
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Entertainer aims to be a simple and easy-to-use media center solution for Gnome and XFce desktop environments. Entertainer is written completely in Python using object-oriented programming paradigm. It uses GStreamer multimedia framework for multimedia playback. User Interface is implemented with Clutter UI-library, which allows sleek OpenGL animated user interfaces. Entertainer also uses other great projects like SQLite, pyIMDBb and iNotify.
The ultimate goal of the project is to create the best media center solution available for any platform. This means that Entertainer should be the best looking, most easy to use and most feature filled media center solution available. Not the easiest goal to achieve. It's a long way, but we have a good start here!
If you are interested in participating in the project, please send me an e-mail to lauri@taimila.com.
RSS-feed of the developer's blog. Get the latest news of the project easily!
Here are some Features:
Movies and TV-series
You can watch movies and TV-Series from your harddrive. Entertainer automatically searches and downloads metadata like cover art from the Internet.
Music library
Let's play music! Entertainer allows you play your favourite tracks easily. Navigate music by artst, album, genre or make your own playlists. Entertainer also automatically downloads album art and lyrics of the tracks.
Photographs
Watch your family photographs from the big screen. Entertainer includes a photoraph library, which allows you easily find your best shots.
RSS-reader
Entertainer includes a simple RSS-reader which allows you to read feeds right from your couch. In Entertainer RSS is called Headlines since it's easier to understand for people who are not IT oriented.
Themes
Entertainer supports themeing! Make your media center look just like you. Creating themes is relatively easy.Howto Install in Hardy Heron!
Open a Terminal via Applications->Accessories->Terminal
Grab the dependencies...
sudo apt-get install python-notify python-feedparser python-pyvorbis python-pyogg python-eyed3 python-pysqlite2 python-gtk2 python-glade2 python-clutter python-pyvorbis python-imaging python-pyinotify python-imdbpy python-cairo-dev gtk-doc-tools python-cddb subversionLets grab the source:
svn checkout http://entertainer-media-center.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ entertainerChange to entertainer directory
cd entertainerLets copy the configs to our home:
cp cfg ~/.entertainer -ROk great! Still with me? word...
Lets set our media folders with this nice gui:
cd src./entertainer-content-management.pyA window will pop up like this:
Click add in each tab to add your media folders, rss feeds, and weather!Now once your done click close.
Lets execute the backend, which processes the media directories/gui:
./entertainer-backend.pyOnce that is setup lets execute the Frontend which is our gui to play with :)
./entertainer-frontend.pyNow you will need the keybindings to play with the gui:
Entertainer can be controlled only with keyboard at the moment. Here is a list of all keys:
- F - Toggle fullscreen on/off
- P - Toggle pause/play when video or audio is playing.
- S - Stop playback
- H - Navigate to home screen. Press this anywhere and main menu will be displayed.
- I - Toggle information view when watching photograph in fullscreen mode
- 1,2,3,4 - Change video playback aspect ratio
- Arrow keys - Navigate menus
- Enter - Select current menu item
- Backspace - Navigate to previous screen
Please note that this is a pre-release and work in progress program, so it will have tons of bugs and will be slow, because it isnt optimized/finished yet.
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Replace Nautilus with the Faster New PCMan File Manager 0.4.1.1 stable (2008-05-12) which was just Released!
Tired of how slow nautilus is? Check out PCMan File Manager its simply amazing!
PCMan File Manager - Simply Rocks, It is an extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface and more...
Features:
Replaces Nautilus in Places Menu
Extremly fast and lightweight
Can be started in one second on normal machine
Tabbed browsing (Similiar to Firefox)
Built-in volume management (mount/umount/eject through HAL)
Drag & Drop support
Files can be dragged among tabs
Load large directories in reasonable time
File association support (Default application)
Thumbnail for image files
Bookmarks support
Handles non-UTF-8 encoded filenames correctly
Provide icon view and detailed list view
Standard compliant (Follows FreeDesktop.org)
Clean and user-friendly interface (GTK+ 2)
Story - Why Hon Jen Yee made this software via his site:
This morning I packaged the new PCMan File manager via checkinstall, so im not quite sure if it will work well on other users systems.
Here is how to install PCMan File Manager:
Download PCManFM Here to your desktop
Then double click the file and click install, once installed you can access PCMan File Manager via Applications->System Tools->PCMan File Manager
Please visit the developers site here for any updates/news, and source code
The Heron has landed: a great review of Ubuntu 8.04 by Arstechnica.com
Ubuntu 8.04 was released last month with highly-anticipated features like PulseAudio, GNOME 2.22, and Wubi. Although this release is a strong incremental improvement over its predecessor, we found some serious bugs that detract from the overall user experience. Ars takes a close look to find out if Hardy Heron raises the bar.
read more
KDE 4.0.4 Released
KDE continues to release updates for the 4.0 desktop on a monthly basis. Version 4.0.4 comes with several bugfixes and performance improvements. KDE 4.1, which will bring large improvements to the KDE desktop and application will be released in July this year.
Enhancements
KDE 4.0.4 comes with several bugfixes and performance improvements. changelog. KDE continues to release updates for the 4.0 desktop on a monthly basis. KDE 4.1, which will bring large improvements to the KDE desktop and application will be released in July this year. A first Alpha is already available for those that want to take a sneak peak at new features.
KDE 4.0.4 stabilises the desktop further, users of previous KDE 4.0 versions are encouraged to update. Improvements revolve around lots of bugfixes and translation updates. Corrections have been made in such a way that results in only a minimal risk of regressions.
read more
Banshee Music/Video Player 1.0 Beta 1 Released with PPA Repository For Hardy Heron!
Picture and info from Gabriel Burts Blog:
Both MTP and iPod support album artwork, on-the-fly transcoding (converting between file formats), and video support!
Release Notes
Other features and fixes include:
This release also features default smart playlists, created for new users and users with zero smart playlists. There is a more extensive list of predefined smart playlists, including the defaults, available in the New Smart Playlist dialog.
Howto Install Banshee 1.0 Beta 1 in Hardy Heron:
Add the apt sources.list entries listed below to your "Third Party Repositories" in System->Administration->Software Sources, and click reload when prompted.
Alternatively, you could just add the entries listed below to the bottom of your /etc/apt/sources.list file, then run "sudo apt-get update".
Hardy Heron Repository:deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ubuntu hardy main
Gutsy Gibbon Repository:deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ubuntu gutsy main
The latest release of Banshee is 1.0 Beta 1. To install it click here, or use the command:sudo apt-get install banshee-1
Alternatively, you could install "banshee-1" through Synaptic Package Manager. The installation of Banshee 1.0 Beta 1 from this repository can co-exist with 0.13.x stable versions.
Ipod support in Banshee 0.13.2 requires manual installation of the podsleuth package:sudo apt-get install podsleuth
OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta Released!

If you've been looking out for OpenOffice.org 3.0 or are just looking for a new software package to try out this afternoon, OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta has been released. OpenOffice.org 3.0 integrates ODF 1.2 support, Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters, charting enhancements, improved note capabilities in Writer, new icons, enhanced pdf export, multi-monitor support for impress, and a start center. For Mac OS X users, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will now run without the need for X11 to be installed. In addition, there are bug-fixes and other minor features that make up this beta release.
OpenOffice 3.0 release candidate is expected on July 25, while the final release isn't expected until September 2, 2008.
Release Notes Here
Full Feature List Here
Download the Ubuntu Version here
Download the Linux rpm w/o Jre Here
Download the Linux rpm w/Jre here
Download for all other Operating systems and get extra info here
Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.60 Just Released for Ubuntu Hardy Heron and other Os's!
Sun xVM VirtualBox is an X86 virtualization software package originally developed by German software company innotek GmbH. As such it is an application installed on an existing host operating system; within this application, additional operating systems, each known as a "Guest OS", can be loaded and run, each with its own virtual environment. For example, several Linux distributions can be "guest" hosted on a single virtual machine running Windows XP as the "Host OS"; likewise, XP and Vista can run as "Guest OS" on a machine running Linux as the "Host OS", and so on.
Supported host operating systems include Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp (experimental OSE builds), Windows, and Solaris/OpenSolaris.
Supported guest operating systems include FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD, OS/2 Warp, Windows and Solaris.
The application was initially offered under a proprietary software license. In January 2007, after several years of development, VirtualBox OSE (Open Source Edition) was released under GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. Currently, there is a proprietary version, VirtualBox, which is free only for personal or evaluation use, subject to the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL) and an Open Source Edition(OSE), VirtualBox OSE, which is free for commercial and private use, subject to Copyleft and other requirements of the GPL license.
Compared with other established commercial virtualization software such as VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC, VirtualBox lacks some features, but in turn provides others such as running virtual machines remotely over the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), iSCSI support and USB support with remote devices over RDP and also Has Seamless Desktop Integration which no other Virtualization Solution has!
VirtualBox supports Intel's hardware virtualization VT-x and has experimental support for AMD's AMD-V, but does not use either of them by default.
According to a 2007 survey by DesktopLinux.com, VirtualBox is the third most popular software package for running Windows programs on Linux desktops.
VirtualBox 1.6 is a major update, incorporating over 2000 improvements. Among the highlights:
- Solaris and Mac OS X host support
- Seamless windowing for Linux and Solaris guests
- Guest Additions for Solaris
- A webservice API
- SATA hard disk (AHCI) controller (
- Experimental Physical Address Extension (PAE) support
- In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:
- GUI: added accessibility support (508)
- GUI: VM session information dialog
- VBoxHeadless: renamed from VBoxVRDP
- VMM: reduced host CPU load of idle guests
- VMM: many fixes for VT-x/SVM hardware-supported virtualization
- ATA/IDE: better disk geometry compatibility with VMware images
- ATA/IDE: virtualize an AHCI controller
- Storage: better write optimization, prevent images from growing unnecessarily.
- Network: support PXE booting with NAT
- Network: fixed the Am79C973 PCNet emulation for Nexenta guests
- NAT: improved builtin DHCP server (implemented DHCPNAK response)
- NAT: port forwarding stopped when restoring the VM from a saved state
- NAT: make subnet configurable
- XPCOM: moved to libxml2
- XPCOM: fixed VBoxSVC autostart race
- Audio: SoundBlaster 16 emulation
- USB: fixed problems with USB 2.0 devices
- MacOS X: fixed seamless mode
- MacOS X: better desktop integration, several look'n'feel fixes
- MacOS X: switched to Quartz2D framebuffer
- MacOS X: added support for shared folders
- MacOS X: added support for clipboard integration
- Solaris: added host audio playback support (experimental)
- Solaris: made it possible to run VirtualBox from non-global zones
- Shared Folders: made them work for NT4 guests
- Shared Folders: many bugfixes to improve stability
- Seamless windows: added support for Linux guests
- Linux installer: support DKMS for compiling the kernel module
- Linux host: compatibility fixes with Linux 2.6.25
- Windows host: support for USB devices has been significantly improved; many additional USB devices now work
- Windows Additions: automatically install AMD PCNet drivers on Vista guests
- Linux additions: several fixes, experimental support for RandR 1.2
- Linux additions: compatibility fixes with Linux 2.6.25
Click Here to Grab the binary, at the drop-down Select Your Operating System and follow the directions here for install in Ubuntu
For more help with the installation process in other operating systems, please see the
Dell releases custom Ubuntu 7.04 ISOs with drivers and fixes
Dell has released a custom "remastered" Ubuntu 7.04 installation CD ISO that can be used to install Ubuntu on an Inspiron 1420 or 530. The ISO automatically installs all of the drivers and fixes that are required to make Ubuntu fully functional on those systems. Dell Linux Engineering team has a remastered copy of the Ubuntu 7.04 Live CD available for download. It includes native system hardware support and many of the fixes listed below. The media will help you get the system installed and running with the necessary drivers. The media has been created specifically to resolve issues on the following system: DISCLAIMER: These images are both unofficial Dell recovery media. They are not officially Dell-supported. Do not call Dell Technical support with questions about this image, or software installed by this image, as they will not be able to help you. To get help, please send an email to the Dell linux-desktops mailing list.
Dell laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled currently ship with a regular Ubuntu 7.04 installation CD that can be used to reinstall the operating system from scratch after reformatting. Unfortunately, the default Ubuntu installation does not include the best drivers so dell has a new remastered custom ubuntu cd just for you.
The "remastered" installation ISO could also be used by Inspiron 1420 and 530 owners who didn't buy their laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled, but wish to install it themselves... Dell Remastered Ubuntu 7.04 ISO
Download Dell Ubuntu Image
NOTE: After installation, be sure to update to the latest system software.
NOTE: The CD image has been modified to remove components such as OpenOffice to make room for additional Dell specific drivers and fixes.
50 Things You Need to Know About Ubuntu (10-1)
Sorry for this belated post. Here is the final part of TechIQ’s five-part countdown, highlighting 50 trends and takeaways from the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Oregon. Some of the items are closely related to earlier portions of the list. Here we go…
50-41: Part One of the List
40-31: Part Two of the List
30-21: Part Three of the List
20-11: Part Four of the List
10. Winning On Alfresco: Roughly 22 percent of Alfresco developer downloads occur to the Ubuntu platform, a dramatic increase from last year, according to Alfresco GM Matt Asay.
9. Don’t Betray Your Audience: One speaker conceded that he was nearly booed off stage during another open source conference. The reason: He used PowerPoint rather than OpenOffice for his presentation.
8. Two Unsung Heroes: Two small PC suppliers, ZaReason and System76, won praise for their early commitment to the Ubuntu movement.
7. Play to Your Strengths: Instead of competing head-on against Microsoft, several speakers suggested that the Ubuntu community needs to continue exploiting niche applications and collaboration to attack market voids left by Microsoft.
6. Printer Drivers: It sounds so basic. But printer drivers are the number one problem university professors seem to complain about when they’re using Ubuntu, according to several speakers.
5. Repeat Performance: Canonical feels pretty confident about its prospects and is already planning next year’s event.
4. Global Focus: Rather than playing regional favorites, Canonical is striving to enhance its localization, training and certification initiatives across the globe. Traditional closed-source software companies simply can’t complete with the global network of developers who are committed to tweaking code for use in hundreds of countries.
3. Novell Is Worse Off Than Expected: Sure, Novell has gained some momentum with corporate customers who embraced the Microsoft-Novell relationship. But imagine if the American Red Cross lost all of its volunteers. That could be the situation facing Novell if it doesn’t take steps to win back open source developers who despise the Microsoft deal. Throughout the event, Novell’s “betrayal” of the open source movement was raised by multiple speakers.
2. Small Business Push: Watch for Canonical to work with at least one major hardware developer to promote an integrated small business server package. The suite will likely be based on the LAMP software stack, The VAR Guy hears. One suggestion: Partner with Zimbra or another open source email provider on this project.
1. The Numbers Don’t Lie: Some nuggets of info worth repeating: Ubuntu now has 6 million to 12 million users and Canonical’s staff has doubled to 100 employees since January. Impressive growth, to be sure... oh if you search google for "linux" Ubuntu is on top! check it out here



