Ubuntu Karmic!

It's here! The much anticipated 9.10 release of Ubuntu has hit the Internet by storm. Ubuntu Karmic Koala is here.

It, as with all Ubuntu releases, contains the latest version of both the Linux Kernel and GNOME, the desktop environment used on the default Ubuntu release.

There are a few differences between this version of Ubuntu and its predecessors, though. The first of which is probably the Instant Messaging client. It is not, like in previous releases, the much loved Pidgin. It is, instead, Empathy. This may be a good thing for some people, but for many, it is not. Although Pidgin cannot meet up to the many features that other messaging clients offer, it is still a very good one, and Empathy, I must say (in my opinion), is not. You may like it, if you don't however, go into the Terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type the following:

sudo apt-get install pidgin

That command installs pidgin on your system for you. Enjoy.

Another new feature is that of the login screen. I cannot find a way to change the login screen as seen in the other versions. In this version, it's a simple dialog, and I cannot find a way to use new or existing login themes with it, even once it's unlocked. If you do know, let me know in the comments, share your info :)

Now, the next new feature is quite possibly something that Canonical (the people that make Ubuntu) put in to compete with Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard, who, if you remember, were all launched recently. This feature is not really a feature, but more an improvement. It is wallpapers. As you may or may not know, Windows 7 came with LOADS of wallpapers that were all really good and artistic. Snow Leopard may have had a similar improvement. Ubuntu isn't one to go with the trends, but it's still gone and done it. There's about a dozen (possibly more) pre-included wallpapers which makes a change from the less-than-4 that have been seen in other versions.

There's a ton of other features which I'll hopefully be looking at in a video soon. I'll be taking some screenshots of 9.04 (which I'm still using) and then comparing them with 9.10 which I'll hopefully upgrade to this afternoon.

To upgrade your Ubuntu version, go to System -> Administration -> Update Manager. At the top you should see a bar similar to the one you see below...



Just click update and then it'll connect to the update server, download the iso (could be some time as the servers are completely full with the amount of people getting on and downloading) and then it will install on your computer. It'll then install this new update, keeping all your applications and documents etc. However, it is a good idea to backup just in case.

If you haven't got Ubuntu currently installed, use the usual instalation method which is detailed on the website

If you're downloading, remember to use Bittorrent as this keeps the loads off the Ubuntu servers for those upgrading.

That's some of Ubuntu Karmic's new features.

In Other news: The poll is still open for the logo competition. See the previous post for details and use the poll at the top of the blog.

For now,
Yours,

Ratscallion

A Wave and Competition Update

Hi!
Those of you on Google wave (and have been on it recently) will know that there's now a green dot on at least your own avatars.
Well, it used to be on the Dev Preview Sandbox thingy, but it was removed from a bug, but, according to Lars Rasmussen (creator of Wave, yes I had a conversation with him) said (quoting from a Wave):

"Folks, we turned back presence today, but there is still an issue to be ironed out I'm afraid. We originally turned it off because we accidentally were leaking presence to people merely in your "suggested contacts" because you had mailed with them once in a blue moon. Now we only show you presence of a user if that user has you in their "my contacts" group. Unfortunately, we have mistakenly been putting users you add to your contacts from within wave in the "all contacts" group so some presence will still be missing. We are working hard to fix it!

Happy waving..."

Meaning, hopefully, it'll be all sorted soon, so it'll be back like it was in the Sandbox!

If you want to see that Wave, you can just go here

In Other News: I've got an update for the competition for ya! As I mentioned in my previous post, we have 3 logos to vote for. You can either go to this Wave (opens Wave in a new window again, as before), or vote on the poll at the top of the blog. We're keeping the poll and voting open until 10th November 2009, giving me enough time to be able to get it sorted and whatnot (got some surprises in store) for the Blog's 1st Birthday. So get voting. On the closing date, the total votes from all the places will be totalled up and then we will have a winner. If there's a draw, the one with the next vote gets the win.

For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion

I'm back!

Oh hi there!

I've returned to the Interwebs, with 10 meg fibre optic broadband.. Just thought I'd say I'm back and pretty much online on everything. This same post is being rippled through to all my blogs, so don't worry if you see a re-post on something!

In Other News: I May be getting an external hard drive this afternoon.. If so, I'll be posting about it.

For now,
Yours,

Ratscallion

Next two Videos

First of all, as you may have realised, the embedded Wave in the last post didn't really go as planned.. I'm still looking into and playing with the Google Wave Embed APIs as much as I can to try and get it working, as soon as I do, I'll make a post with one in. If you've not a Wave account, you get, instead, an iFrame of the Google Accounts log-in page.

Right then, on with the main post. I've got the next two of my videos sorted and planned out. Firstly, there's the Ubuntu unboxing one I discussed previously, which will likely be split into a two-parter. I'll be shooting this on the 19th, though the narration for it (which may have to be done separately, may be done at another point). Then, we'll be revisiting DropBox. Now, it has an iPod Touch/iPhone app which I do think is amazing. Therefore, I'll be looking at that, and covering it along with it working with the desktop app.

Just a brief post to keep you updated, oh, and if you missed the first DropBox video, it's embedded below. By the way, here's some pointless trivia and a bit of a "did-you-know" for you: that DropBox video was my first video in HD!

Here it is:



In Other News: I'll be offline for most of Saturday morning, we're getting new Internet and while it's being installed I'll be completely disconnected. To fill the time, I'll be doing a load of C++ and podcast catching upping.

For now,
Yours,

Ratscallion

Let's try something...

So, like I said in my last post, Wave is now open to lots of people. Which is why I'm going to try something.

Google has some Embed APIs for Wave, which I'm playing around with, and I thought I could try something. Anyone who has Wave, feel free to play around with what I'm going to do, anyone who doesn't, use the official comments, or the Contact Page to comment.

So, here it is, there's a Wave embedded in this entry, and, if all goes well, I'm going to use it for comments on the posts. Seeing as the Wave will be made public (so that you don't need to be added to it to be able to see and/or post to it), it'll be accessible from within Wave itself, by simply searching for "with:public", so I'll be posting a link to the post inside it.

In other news: Don't think I've forgotten about the video and/or competition.. I'm going to be doing a judging competition for the logo soon, and we'll get a new logo in time for the blog's first birthday!

For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion