LibreOffice 4.0 Beta 2 is currently available by default in Ubuntu 13.04 Daily Build.

It has an impressive list of new features:

• now integrates with various CMS (Content Management System)
• uses Firefox personas to theme it
• contributing to LibreOffice is easy using Gerrit
• converting non-native formats is now improved
• can edit Visio and Publisher documents

Open up LibreOffice and go to Tools->Options->Personalization. Click the Select Persona button, and in the Persona address field, enter the link to the desired Firefox Persona (e.g. this example uses http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/462094).

Liferea
Also called the Linux Feed Reader, Liferea is a full-featured news reader built in GTK, so I’d warmly recommend it for GNOME users. By default, Liferea’s interface is pretty much the same as Akregator, following the same style with a tree view to the left, and the news list and displaying widget to the right side. However it has three different view modes which change the alignment of the widgets (normal, wide and combined view modes). It supports system tray integration and has an option to disable JavaScript as well as modifying the font size.

Blam
Blam is small with a clean interface and fewer options than Akregator or Liferea. It’s written in Mono GTK and it should fit those who don’t need an application with all the whistles and bells.

RSSOwl
Written in Java, RSSOwl is a very powerful feed reader with support for RSS, RDF and Atom feeds. The first time it starts RSSOwl will show a wizard from which you can import pre-defined feeds, feeds from Google Reader or from a certain website. Being Java-based makes the interface a little slow when it comes to response time, but this is balanced by the richness of features that it provides. The latest version is 2.1.2 and you can download it from Sourceforge. The package contains the binary and you will need Java Runtime Environment or any other compatible Java virtual machine to run it.

RSSNOW
OK, so RSSNOW is a Plasma widget for KDE which can be displayed on the workspace. Some find it very useful, making it a good choice since it just stays on the desktop, providing a very basic interface, appearance configuration and global keyboard shortcut.

Newsbeuter
This one is a simple console news reader that runs in command-line mode, so it doesn’t have an ncurses interface and you have to configure it manually.

BlogBridge
Yet another Java-based feed reader, BlogBridge offers some pretty cool features and a whole bunch of configuration options.

ThinFeeder
This one is also written in Java and comes with various options.

Canto
This is based on ncurses, so it runs in a terminal. You will have to use the keyboard in order to navigate in Canto, and press Q to quit it.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird is well-known for being the email client from Mozilla, but it also incorporates a feed reader.

In addition to these, there is also Gnus Rss, a feed reader for Emacs, or Sage, a Firefox add-on with support for RSS and Atom feeds. Of course, the browser-based ones like Google Reader or Bloglines are available too and Firefox itself can handle feeds in a simple way.

There is also another one for GNOME called Straw, but it looks like it hasn’t been maintained since 2008. And Raggle, a command-line reader which also seems dead since 2005.

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin is a LTS (long-term support) release and it will ship with Linux kernel 3.2 by default, GNOME 3.2, Unity 5.4.0, LibreOffice 3.5. According to Ubuntu Kernel Release Manager, Leann Ogasawara, as soon as new stable versions of the 3.2 kernel branch will be released, they will be included in Ubuntu. “With Ubuntu 12.04 being an LTS release, our primary focus has been on stability. As such, we chose to ship with a v3.2 based kernel and will continue to rebase to the latest v3.2.y stable kernels as they become available.”

A new Unity version, 5.4.0 will also ship in, introducing the so-called HUD (Heads-Up Display), well-known from shooter games. To invoke the HUD press the Alt key.

Unity 5.4.0 features the new HUD:

In KDE applications:

The user can use the HUD to explore bookmarks and history in Firefox, search in application’s nested menus, and launch various applications. The real utility of the HUD is probably the possibility to explore menu options in a fast manner by using the keyboard only. Integration seems pretty nice, this definitely being an important addition to Unity. The video below is descriptive enough.

It looks like there are some opened bugs on HUD right now, like searching the wrong application or having to click the search field when invoking HUD, but these should be fixed by the time 12.04 gets out.

A video showing the features of HUD is available for some time now on YouTube:

According to this announcement, RC6 will be enabled by default on systems with the Sandy Bridge architecture used by Intel. RC6 is a technology which allows the system to enter in power-saving mode when the GPU is idle.

Other new stuff include a new sound theme and a new version of Transmission, 2.5, which is the default BitTorrent client in Ubuntu.

12.04 will also the first Ubuntu release to be supported five years on both desktop and server, contrary to the previous LTS releases which were supported three years on the desktop and five years on the server.

sudo apt-get install wesnoth

AssaultCube
Being based on the Cube engine, AssaultCube is a very fast-paced first-person shooter with a gameplay that changes from mode to mode. There are the usual TDM or CTF modes, but also TOSOK (Team One Shot One Kill), KTF (Keep the Flag), OSOK, LSS (Last Swiss Standing) or even PF (Pistol Frenzy). It doesn’t have high system requirements and the online servers are most of the time filled with players.

sudo apt-get install assaultcube

Neverball
Neverball is a 3D action where you control a ball and you have to collect coins. You can start with a beginner level and advance to more advanced levels. Although the concept seems pretty simple, the game is not easy to master and it becomes addictive even in the first minutes of playing. Neverball allows configuration of sound, resolution, graphics details. It can be played in fullscreen mode too, and you can choose from various ball models.

sudo apt-get install neverball

Xonotic
Xonotic is based on Nexuiz, the result of a fork which aims to keep it free and open-source. Xonotic is a shooter with a fast game style, single player and multiplayer modes, lots of maps, models and weapons to choose from.

Download

Hedgewars
This is a Worms-like game, completely free and open-source, which keeps the funny atmosphere the original Worms had. Players control the so-called “hedgehogs”, which take turns, and they have entire arsenals at their disposal to blow their enemies off the orbit. A very funny and addictive game.

sudo apt-get install hedgewars

Warzone 2100
Warzone 2100 is a real time strategy game set in a future, apocalyptic universe, and it provides single player mode, multiplayer, campaigns and lots of maps. The true thing that sets Warzone 2100 apart is the unit/building tech tree, which can be upgraded differently using over 400 technologies.

sudo apt-get install warzone2100

Shutter
This is a very powerful and feature-rich tool for taking screenshots. Written in GTK and blending well in GNOME, Shutter offers just about anything you would ask from such an application: timer, screenshots of whole screen, windows, widgets, a quick and easy-to-use editor for fast retouching or pointing out certain aspects of the image, support for plugins, exporting/importing and saving to PNG, JPG or BMP. Definitely a winner in my opinion.

GNOME Screenshot
This is the default screenshot application that comes with the GNOME desktop environment, offering a very basic graphical interface. It’s triggered by pressing Print Screen, and by default it will take the screenshot of the whole screen. Here’s how it looks:

Although it allows to take screenshots of only windows or section of the screen, unfortunately these are not available in the graphical interface, but can be triggered by running gnome-screenshot in a terminal with certain parameters. For example, gnome-screenshot -w will take the screenshot of a window, gnome-screenshot -a will take the screenshot of a screen area, while gnome-screenshot -B will take the screenshot of a window, excluding window borders. Why these don’t have a corresponding tick box in the graphical window is still a mystery to me. That being said, GNOME Screenshot is a very fast choice if you quickly want to grab the whole screen and dump it to a file.

KSnapshot
This is the screenshot application used by KDE and provides a timer as well as possibility to take the screenshot of a particular area of the screen or only a window, include or exclude window decorations. Pretty fast and easy to use.

ImageMagick
Actually the tool is called import and it’s included in the imagemagick package. It can be used in the command-line mode and comes with various options. It can be a little hard to manipulate it and maybe not the best recommendation for a person who uses only GUI, but otherwise it’s very powerful. The easiest way to take a screenshot using it would probably be something like import image.png, and then select the region of the screen you want to capture.

scrot
Or SCReen SHot, scrot is yet another powerful tool for taking screenshots in command-line mode. The simplest way to use it would be scrot image.png, which will take a screenshot of the whole screen and save it in the current directory as image.png. To set a delay time in seconds, use the -d switch, e.g. scrot -d 3 image.png.

…And one more

GIMP
Probably well-known by most users who use to edit images on a daily basis or even occasionally, GIMP is a very powerful and feature-rich image manipulation application. One of the features it also has is the ability to take screenshots. To use it, go to File->Create->Screenshot… and select the desired options in the window that appears.

For those of you who didn’t hear about it before, it’s probably time you have a look at it. Shutter is probably the most powerful screenshot-taking application available for GNOME, including countless features and several useful tools to take screenshots and manipulate them in any way possible.

The latest release brings several new features, including:

• improved uploading by adding a bunch of new image hosting services
• improved CLI interface

Other changes include rewritten code and fixed bugs.

To install the latest Shutter release in Ubuntu, open a terminal and type in the following two lines:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shutter/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install shutter

The first command will add the Shutter repository to your sources list and the second will fetch and install the latest version.

Features

Shutter supports sessions, exporting to various Internet services, it can save in various image formats, including PNG or JPG, it supports plugins and comes bundled with a lot of them. In addition, Shutter is also highly configurable via the Edit->Preferences menu entry.

It allows you to take screenshots of the whole desktop, a window, a section of desktop, a child window, a single menu or cascading menus, only a tooltip, and it provides a timer too.

For quick editing, Shutter comes with the Shutter Drawing Tool, an application which can be launched from the menu or from the toolbar, and which includes basic painting tools like straight lines or rectangles, but also text or the pixelize effect. However the current version seems to have a bug when trying to save the image, the window closing unexpectedly. Still, exporting to a huge number of image formats works, as well as PDF or SVG.

Drawing tool

The configuration window allows to change the default image format for saving screenshots (PNG, JPEG or BMP), automatically save file, change the default file name (including the numbering style), include or exclude the cursor, include or exclude window decorations, automatically resize window, generate thumbnail, border, reduce colors, enable/disable popups, change the default keybinding in GNOME, upload images to various services.

You can start Shutter at login, hide the window on first launch and also hide the notification icon. Tray icon integration is also provided. Shutter also comes with several plugins, mostly for applying image effects.

Plugins

Behavior options

In addition to these, Shutter also includes several nice command-line switches which provide the possibility to take screenshots directly from the terminal (for example shutter -w will take the screenshot of a window while shutter -f will capture the fullscreen).

According to the official announcement, Firefox 5 includes:

• more than 1000 improvements and performance enhancements
• adds support for more modern web technologies
• now supports CSS animation standards
• Do Not Track privacy feature now available on Android too
• the new Add-on SDK allows local development of add-ons

To install it immediately in Ubuntu rather than waiting for the PPAs to update, you can follow this tutorial I wrote a few days ago. It shows how to install Firefox manually and Flash too.

Download Firefox 5

sudo apt-get install dolphin

Nautilus | Homepage
The default file manager in GNOME, Nautilus has an intuitive interface and offers features like previews, sorting, three view modes (icons, list, compact), bookmarks. Nautilus can be expanded via plugins and it also supports context menus.

sudo apt-get install nautilus

Konqueror | Homepage
Konqueror is a powerful KDE application which has been around for years. It is not only a file manager, but a web browser or image viewer too, and more. I will highlight here the main features that are brought by Konqueror as a file manager only: profiles, extensions, fullscreen mode, window splitting left/right or top/bottom, four view modes (icons, details, columns, terminal emulator), previews or sorting.

sudo apt-get install konqueror

PCManFM | Homepage
PCManFM is a fast and lightweight GTK file manager with features like tabs, file/folder sorting, four view modes (icon view, thumbnail view, compact view and detailed list view), File-Roller archiver integration, bookmarks.

sudo apt-get install pcmanfm

Thunar | Homepage
Written in GTK, this is the default file manager in the Xfce desktop environment, which has the goal of staying simplistic and only offering basic features. Tab support is missing, however Thunar features a left sidebar for fast access to common places, sorting, zooming, three view modes.

sudo apt-get install thunar

ROX-Filer | Homepage
ROX-Filer is yet another GTK file manager, starting by default with a compact interface, that is only a toolbar at the top and the space for displaying files and folders occupying the rest of the window.

sudo apt-get install rox-filer

Xfe | Homepage
Xfe is a great file manager written using the FOX toolkit, and although it doesn’t blend very well with neither KDE or GNOME, it has some cool features and a somewhat different way of using it, which can please certain users.

sudo apt-get install xfe

GNOME-Commander | Homepage
As its name suggests, GNOME Commander is a twin-panel file manager for GNOME, with an interface that resembles the one of Midnight Commander.

sudo apt-get install gnome-commander

Krusader | Homepage
I think this is *the* twin-panel file manager for KDE. Krusader brings any feature possible, and can be configured to behave differently depending on the user’s needs.

sudo apt-get install krusader

Midnight Commander | Homepage
Midnight Commander is a popular twin-panel file manager for the terminal, based on ncurses library and therefore using a text-user interface.

sudo apt-get install mc

Vifm | Homepage
Vifm is yet another twin-panel file manager for the console, also built using ncurses, including Vim-style keyboard shortcuts.

sudo apt-get install vifm

emelFM2 | Homepage
This is yet another GTK2-based file manager with a twin-panel interface, and comes with functions to perform basic file management functions, an output panel, run as root.

sudo apt-get install emelfm2

Dired | Homepage
Dired is the default file manager in the powerful Emacs application and it can be started pressing Ctrl+X and then pressing D. Dired has support for file operations, including creating symlinks or hard links, change permissions, encrypt/decrypt files, diff and integration with many other tools. Dired also features an embedded image viewer.

sudo apt-get install emacs # start it with ^X-D

Tux Commander | Homepage
Yet another twin-panel file manager, Tux Commander offers simple file manipulation functions, bookmarks, network support, plugins support, configuration of external applications.

sudo apt-get install tuxcmd

Double Commander | Homepage
Double Commander is not included by default in Ubuntu’s 11.04 repositories, but I included instructions on how to install it from a PPA. Double Commander offers both GTK and Qt interfaces (so the first one blends well in GNOME while I recommend the second one for KDE), comes with a twin-panel style and includes a big number of configuration options.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexx2000/doublecmd
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install doublecmd-gtk # for the GTK (GNOME) version
sudo apt-get install doublecmd-qt # for the Qt (KDE) interface

Gentoo | Homepage
This is not the Linux distro although it has the same name. Gentoo is another GTK two-panel file manager with functional buttons at bottom. Although Gentoo seems a pretty decent file manager and provides enough configuration options, its interface design is kind of cluttered.

sudo apt-get install gentoo

Worker | Homepage
Worker is a simple file manager which doesn’t have a top notch interface, however it has features like twin-panels and shortcut buttons to file management functions.

sudo apt-get install worker

FileRunner | Homepage
FileRunner is an older twin-panel file manager (it hasn’t been updated since 1999) written in Tcl/Tk which provides a simple yet pretty powerful interface. One of the big downsides of FileRunner is that when you click a file it will automatically try to display it. I did it by mistake with an ISO image and FileRunner rendered by computer almost completely unresponsive, so I had to kill it in the console. Although I do not believe FileRunner is fit as a 2011 file manager, some might prefer it since it’s really light on resources.

sudo apt-get install filerunner

Lfm | Homepage
Last File Manager, or Lfm for short is an ncurses file manager for the terminal which follows the model used by Midnight Commander.

sudo apt-get install lfm

muCommander | Homepage
muCommander is a typical twin-panel file manager written in Java with features like window splitting, bookmarks, sorting, quick buttons for various functions.

To install in Ubuntu, download the DEB file from here, then make sure you have Java installed and type sudo dpkg -i mucommander_0.8.5_all.deb in a terminal.

The table of contents for 2011 Edition:

• Part I: Installing and Configuration
  • Installing Ubuntu
  • Post-Installation Configuration
  • Working with GNOME
  • Command Line Quickstart
• Part II: Desktop Ubuntu
  • On the Internet
  • Productivity Applications
  • Multimedia Applications
  • Other Ubuntu Desktops
  • Games
• Part III: System Administration
  • Managing Users
  • Automating Tasks
  • System-Monitoring Tools
  • Backing Up
  • Networking
  • Remote Access with SSH and Telnet
• Part IV: Ubuntu as a Server
  • File and Print
  • Apache Web Server Management
  • Remote File Serving with FTP
  • Handling Email
  • Proxying and Reverse Proxying
  • Administering Database Services
  • LDAP
  • Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)
  • Ubuntu in the Cloud
• Part V: Programming Linux
  • Opportunistic Development
  • Helping with Ubuntu Testing and QA
  • Using Perl
  • Working with Python
  • Writing PHP Scripts
  • C/C++ Programming Tools for Ubuntu
  • Mono
• Part VI: Ubuntu Housekeeping
  • Managing Software
  • Securing Your Machines
  • Performance Tuning
  • Command Line Masterclass
  • Kernel and Module Management
• Part VII: Appendixes
  • A. Ubuntu Under the Hood
  • B. Ubuntu and Linux Internet Resources

You can buy it from Amazon.com using the link below for $29.99:

According to the description in the book:

• Matthew Helmke is an active member of the Ubuntu community, an administrator for UbuntuForums.org, and chariman of the UbuntuForums council.
• Andrew Hudson is a freelance journalist who specializes in writing about Linux, with significant experience in Red Hat and Debian-based Linux distributions
• Paul Hudson is a recognized expert in open-source technologies. He is a professional developer and full-time journalist for Future Publishing, with articles that appeared in Mac Format, PC Answers, PC Format, PC Plus and Linux Format.

The book also ships with the Ubuntu 10.10 DVD.

Here are some of the main features provided by PeaZip, according to the official website:

• easy to use GUI, powerful integration with scripts
• portable version for running it from removable devices
• it can work with all the popular archive formats
• tools to extract, compress, convert, encrypt, secure delete and save backup scripts
• fast, with a high compression ratio, stable and secure
• comes with packages for various distributions, also generic Linux packages
• it has both GTK and Qt interfaces (GTK interface is the recommended one)

To install it in Ubuntu 11.04, download the DEB package from
here then open a terminal, make sure the current working directory is the one where you saved the .deb file, and type in the following command:

sudo dpkg -i peazip_3.8.LINUX.GTK2-2_all.deb 

To run it type in the terminal peazip or press Alt+F2 and type peazip in the run box. Here’s how it looks like:

And the configuration window:

Gnac is a GUI frontend to various audio converters, with a very minimalist and clear interface. It allows to edit the tags, change the path and filenames of the output files, and use custom parameters for audio encoding. For example, the Ogg Vorbis format profile
can be configured to use variable or constant encoding bitrate, change the quality settings on a scale of -0.1 to 1.0 (~ 45 kbps up to ~ 500 kbps), use mono or stereo audio channels, or set a minimum and maximum bitrate.

The Ogg profile settings

The MP3 profile settings

The Preferences window will let you enable or disable a conversion notification icon, set custom output folder, strip special characters, or delete original files after the conversion. Here you can also customize the folder hierarchy and the information to be included in the output filenames (e.g. %n_%a _%b_%t for Number_Artist_Album_Title).

Ubuntu Installation

To install it in Ubuntu from the official Launchpad PPA, run the following commands in a terminal:

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

To start it type gnac in a terminal or press Alt+F2 and type gnac in the run box that appears.

MegaGlest is based upon the original Glest engine, but offers a lot of new features and capabilities, extending the original Glest (which is rather poor in options in my opinion) to a whole new game, including support for graphical resolutions, new factions, tech trees, tilesets and maps. It is available for Linux and Windows and it’s licensed under the GPL v3, while the game data is licensed under another permissive license, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

Minimum system requirements

• 1.5 GHz CPU
• 1 GB RAM
• OpenGL 1.4 supporting graphics card
• OpenAL compatible audio card

Features

MegaGlest has support for single player (custom game or scenario) and multiplayer over Internet or LAN. Chatting is also supported.

The 3D graphics engine allows to zoom in/out, rotate camera and change the 3D view angle by pressing the mouse wheel.

MegaGlest runs by default in fullscreen mode, but you can switch between fullscreen and windowed mode with the Alt+Enter keyboard shortcut.

The in-game interface will show you available mods (including custom tech trees, maps, tilesets and scenarios) and offer you a button to download them directly without any hustle.

The sound part is done pretty well, including ambient sounds, unit sounds and background music.

However, one major drawback is that MegaGlest cannot save games. This shouldn’t even be called a feature, since it surely should be a must-have for any RTS game.

Installation in Ubuntu

Go to the official website and download the installation script, which is called MegaGlest-Installer-3.5.2_i386_linux.run for the current version. Make it executable (chmod 755 MegaGlest-Installer-3.5.2_i386_linux.run) and run it. The graphical installer allows you to install the game as normal user in a location of your choice.

The next step is to install OpenAL. Open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install libopenal1

Now all you need to do is create a symlink (shortcut) to point to the libopenal.so.1 file. To do this, type in a terminal:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libopenal.so.1 /usr/lib/libopenal.so.0

You will need to provide your password. Now just run MegaGlest by changing the working directory to where you installed it and typing ./megaglest.

Settings menu

Graphical installer

Features at a glance

• files/folders zoom in/out
• three view modes: icons, details, columns
• files/folders sorting by: name, size, date, type and more; invert sorting and show folders first options are also available
• show additional information for each file or folder, like size, permissions or file path
• enable/disable previews for media or text files
• split the view vertically to get a twin-panel style view
• detachable panels (sidebars):
  • places – shortcuts to places like Home or partitions
  • information – detailed information about the selected file or folder
  • folders – tree-view panel showing the file browser
  • terminal – integrated terminal
  • filters – files filtering checkboxes
• adjustable view properties
• 5-star rating system and tags

Dolphin in Kubuntu 11.04 – all the panels enabled (except the filters) – notice the terminal, tree-view navigation sidebar and the vertical split view mode:

User interface

Let’s see what Dolphin offers, how it compares to Nautilus and how good it fits in Kubuntu.
The user interface is typical:

• left sidebar with shortcuts to the usual places (Home, Network, Root, Trash, partitions) – this also allows you to drag and drop items in order to create new links
• configurable toolbar with buttons for back, forward, view modes, find, preview, split
• location toolbar, can be set to either display a location bar or display folders as clickable buttons
• the actual workspace, where all folders and files reside

Below is a screenshot of the usual Dolphin in Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal:

Configuration

Dolphin can be configured from Settings-Configure Dolphin, but most of the aspects can be set in the View menu. The configuration window allows to set a custom location to open at start-up (default being the home folder), start with split view mode, editable location bar, or show the full file path in the location bar. The View Modes configuration tab allows to set a custom size for file/folder icons and change font properties for each of the three view modes. In addition the icon view mode allows you to change the grid arrangement (rows or columns). The Navigation tab with let you change the default single-click to open files to double-click. The next configuration tab is very useful in my opinion, since it lets your customize service menus directly from within Dolphin (called context menus in Nautilus), rather then editing manually a configuration file. Here is how the service menus configuration window looks like:

The Trash tab allows you to set a specific period of days after which to automatically delete files inside the Trash directory. The General tab will let you remember view properties for all files/folders, or set a different view mode for each of them. Here you can also select which file types should appear in previews, and set a maximum size limit for disabling previews.

Usability

Just one thing here. I must say, I’ve never agreed with the already in(famous) simplicity of default GNOME applications, which still continue to keep valuable options stripped down (no flame war intended, just a personal opinion). As a usability difference compared to Nautilus, you can switch from location bar to navigation bar just by clicking on the right corner of the toolbar, not only by pressing Ctrl+L. This may seem not important at first, but it’s actually those little things that make using an interface faster, especially since moving your hand from the mouse to the keyboard and then back can waste a second or two.

Installation

If you’re using Ubuntu and you don’t have Dolphin installed but want to try it, to install it type in a terminal sudo apt-get install dolphin. However for a pleasant experience I would suggest trying it inside KDE, by installing at least the core KDE plasma module, log out and log back selecting KDE Plasma Workspace instead of Ubuntu.

To install only the core plasma (which is enough to try KDE), type in a terminal:

Or, to install Kubuntu Desktop:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Alternately you can use Applications->Ubuntu Software Center. Notice that the last command will install everything that comes with Kubuntu.