In KDE 4 there are some great ways of managing those desktops. One of my favorite ways is using Active Edge Screen Actions to enable the Compiz Cube to switch workspaces. But the Active Edge Screen Actions can be used for much more than just switching workspaces. Let’s take a look at this feature and see just what it can do.

What are Active Edges?

To put it simply, Active Edges are locations on the screen where you can place the cursor and an action will occur. As the name implies, we’re dealing with the edges of the screen — specifically, the four corners and the center spot of each edge (center left, center top, center right, center bottom). That means there are eight different locations where an action can be set. When the cursor hovers over that location (the timing can be specified in the settings) the action configured will happen.

What actions can be configured? Any of the following:

• No Action.
• Show Dashboard.
• Show Desktop.
• Lock Screen.
• Prevent Screen Locking.
• Present Windows — All Desktops.
• Present Windows — Current Desktop.
• Desktop Grid.
• Desktop Cube.
• Desktop Cylinder.
• Desktop Sphere.
• Flip Switch — All Desktops.
• Flip Switch — Current Desktop.

For actions such as Desktop Grid/Cube/Cylinder/Spere and Flip Switch, those must be set up to work before the Action Edge can be set up. But once the action is working, it can be associated with an Action Edge.

Configuring an Action Edge

Figure 1

To do this click K > Computer > System Settings > Workspace Behavior > Screen Edges. When that new window opens (see Figure 1), right-click on one of the eight edges. When you do that a pop-up menu will appear where you can choose the action you want to associate with the edge. Select the action you want, and click Apply.

Once configured, test the Action Edge out. Remember, there is an Activation Delay for the edges. By default that delay is 150 milliseconds, so that action will not happen instantly.

A small conflict

You will notice, in this same screen, you can set edge flipping and window tiling. The Edge Flipping feature can be set up to flip to activate when either only dragging a window or always. Here’s the problem, if you have edge flipping and window tiling both set up, the window tiling will allow the edge flipping to work, but it’s a bit confusing and you could wind up with a tiled window instead of a flipped edge. I would recommend either one or the other. Also, if you configure Edge Flipping to be always on, you will lose four of your Action Edges (top/bottom center, right/left center).

Final thoughts

I’m a big fan of using multiple workspaces and Action Edges in KDE. These features do a great job of making your work more efficient and organized.

Run everything launcher

Figure 1

Of course, like every good desktop environment, Enlightenment has a “run dialog” that allows the user to run a command, without having to open up a terminal window.

The Everything Launcher is similar to GNOME Do, minus the ability to search for files. But by pressing the Alt-Esc combination a window (like that in Figure 1) will pop up allowing you to enter a command for launching. As you can see I have entered “claw” which instantly pops up both Claws Mail and clawsker. Both of these are applications. You can either click on one of the icons or finish the command and hit enter.

You can also click text and then copy whatever you have entered to the clipboard. Very handy, if you ask me.

But what if you want to make an icon or menu entry for an application? For that you have to (in E17 parlance) create a new application.

Creating new application

This actually isn’t creating a new application, but instead creates a launcher for the application, that can be added to a shelf or menu. Here’s how this is done.

Figure 2

1. Click Settings > All > Apps > New Application.
2. Fill out the basic information (The Application entry is the actual command for the application.)
3. Create an Icon for the application by clicking on the Icon tab and then entering the path to the icon in the field.
4. Add any options, if necessary.
5. Click OK.

You have now created an application. But where can you launch that application from? Let’s add it to the favorites menu. To do this, follow these steps:

Figure 3

1. Click Settings > All > Apps > Favorite Applications.
2. From this new window (see Figure 3) scroll up or down to find the new application you created.
3. Click on the application and then click Add.
4. Click OK to finish adding the application.

There is, of course, an easier way to do this. Once you have the application opened do the following:

Right-click the title bar of the application.

Select the application name and then either:

• Add to Favorites Menu
• Add to iBar.
• Create Keyboard Shortcut.

Figure 4

In order to create a Keyboard Shortcut do the following:

1. After you click Create Keyboard Shortcut the Keyboard Bindings window will open.
2. Click the keyboard shortcut combination you want to use.
3. Click on the Command entry under Launch.
4. Enter the command to be launched in the Action Params area.
5. Click OK.
6. Now test the keyboard shortcut.

If you make a mistake in the above steps, you can click the Escape key to get out of this.

Final thoughts

You will be hard pressed to find a desktop environment more flexible than E17. And with the help of tips like this, it becomes a very user-friendly desktop environment as well.

Yes, we’ve all heard the constant condemnation and kudos to Canonical for making such a bold move. I myself have even said the makers of one of the most user-friendly distributions are making a mistake. But the reality of it is — it’s just a user interface and it’s one that works well. It’s not perfect. It’s not flexible. It’s not remotely the norm. But it’s what Ubuntu is going with and there you have it. Ubuntu Unity will also not make or break Ubuntu. Why? Because users can choose from Unity or Classic GNOME. Or…users can opt for Kubuntu, or any other distribution based on Ubuntu.

And, truth be told, when you see the version of Unity that should be shipped with the full release, you might start seeing it in a bit of a different light. Even though Unity has had little time for real polishing, it has a fairly sleek look and feel. It’s solid and it works exactly as you would expect.

What is new to Unity? Here’s a list:

• Unity is now the default Ubuntu Desktop session.
• Drag and drop re-ordering of launcher icons.
• Full keyboard navigation support.
• Launch apps from keyboard shortcuts.er activation through keyboard shortcuts
• Right-click context menu quick-list support.
• Ability to switch between running applications
• Icons can be dragged and dropped from the Dash to the launcher.
• Three session types in GDM: Ubuntu (Unity, requires 3D support), Ubuntu Classic (Classic GNOME), Ubuntu Classic No Effects (Classic GNOME with visual effects turned off).
• Classic GNOME panel applets not supported in Unity.

But beyond Unity, what are we getting with 11.04 beta? Let’s dig in.

kernel

The beta release will bring little new functionality. What was in the final alpha will most like be seen in the beta. The kernel release is 2.6.38-7.39 which is based on the mainline 2.6.38 kernel. One change is that vesafb has be re-enabled as a module to help prevent GPU hangs and screen corruption on boot.

Packages

I was quite happy to find out that LibreOffice 3.3.2 is included with the beta release. If you are not familiar with LibreOffice, it is the fork of OpenOffice created after Oracle took over the reigns and starting upturning the open source community.

Also included are:

• Gcc 4.5
• Python 2.7
• dpkg 1.16.0-pre
• Upstart 0.9

Of the above list, the major update is upstart which has a number of new features (such as being chroot-aware and support for basic job/event visualization.

Overall impressions

My first impression with the 11.04 desktop was surprisingly positive. I was very much prepared to be underwhelmed, but found quite the opposite to be the case. The Unity desktop ran smooth and was very efficient. After playing with the desktop for a while it becomes quite clear the ultimate goal is that of touch screens. But even being touch-screen-centric, the desktop still works well under the current norm of mouse and keyboard.

I was also pleased to see how quickly the startup and shutdown process was. 11.04 might well be the fastest I have ever experienced.

Ultimately the decision to use Ubuntu 11.04 is going to boil down to how much you like the desktop. But even if you do not like Unity, there is always another desktop you can use instead. That is one of the best features of Linux, after all — flexibility.

I believe Ubuntu 11.04 is going to continue the tradition Ubuntu started long ago, which means 11.04 will still be one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions available. If you want to give 11.04 beta a try, download it here.

Version

The version of KDE I will be using in this article is the version shipped with openSUSE 11.4 (KDE 4.6). Anyone that has experienced this KDE release will know how well it performs. Dolphin is no exception. Under KDE 4.6, Dolphin is quite the solid file manager. And, of course, you will need not install a single piece of software, as Dolphin will be pre-installed with the KDE desktop.

Split screens

Figure 1

One of the cool features of Dolphin is the ability to split the screen in just about any way you need. As you can see, in Figure 1, the default Dolphin screen displays a single pane. But what if you want to manage files and folders from within a single window? You can easily do this by splitting the screen.

To split the current Dolphin screen simply click on the Split icon in the Dolphin window. This will then split the current working pane (see Figure 2). You can also change the view of the individual pane. Say in one pane you wanted an icon view and on one you wanted the detailed view. Simply select the pane you want to change and then select the view you want for that pane. To close the split view simply select the pane you want to close and click the Close icon.

Preview

Figure 3

Dolphin has a great way to preview files, built right into the file manager. From the main toolbar simply click the Preview button and file previews will be toggled on. Figure 3 shows Dolphin with Previews turned on.

You can adjust Preview settings from with the Dolphin Settings window. Click Settings > Dolphin Settings > General > Preview and you can then define what file types you want to show previews for as well as define the file sizes allowed for previews.

Services

Figure 4

You can add new features to Dolphin very easily. From within the Dolphin Preferences window click on Services and then click the Download New Services button.

From this new window, see Figure 4, you can add on any number of features, such as: Get Youtube videos, print selection, post image to tumblr, scan with ClamAV, DropBox service menu, and much more. To install these services, simply click the Install button associated with the service you want to install.

Adjust View properties

From within the View menu you can open the Adjust View Properties window where you can further refine the viewing modes of Dolphin. This allows you to:

• Show folders/files in groups.
• Show hidden files.
• Apply view properties to specific folders or sub-folders.
• Add additional information to be shown.
• Set the default view mode.
• And more.

Final thoughts

Many complained with Dolphin was made the default  file manager in KDE, but Dolphin is quite the powerful, and flexible file manager. Give some of these tips a try and you might find yourself not missing Konqueror as the default manager as much.

What is Ecomorph? Ecomorph is an OpenGL compositing manager that was created for the E17 desktop. Prior to this modules’ creation, E17 could not enjoy Compiz-like visual effects. Now, it can. Let’s take a look at how to get Ecomorph goodness with Bodhi Linux.

Installation

If you are using one of the latest releases of Bodhi Linux (0.1.7) you should already have Ecomorph installed. To find out if Ecomorph is one your desktop do the following:

1. Left click on the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Modules.
3. Clock on the System tab.
4. Scroll down until you see the Ecomorph listing.
5. If you see it listed, it’s installed. If there is a green dot on the right side of the Ecomorph entry, it is loaded.
6. If you do not see Ecomorph listed, it is not installed. If it is listed, but not loaded, select it and then click the Load button.

If, for whatever reason, Ecomorph is not installed I would highly recommend you not try to manually install it. I attempted this on a 0.1.4 installation and it was a miserable failure. There are dependencies that can not be met without serious work. So, if you are in this boat, backup your data and do a fresh install of the latest Bodhi Linux.

Configuring

Figure 1

Now it’s time for the configuration of Ecomorph. To get to the configuration panel left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu and click Settings > Ecomorph. In this settings window (see Figure 1) you control all aspects of Ecomorph (besides mouse and key bindings).

This panel is broken down into sections. You will certainly want to visit the General section first, as there are some crucial features to enable. Those of you who know Compiz well, you will be familiar with the Cube and the Shift switcher. To enable these items you must first do so in the General section.

Under Viewport Plugins you can enable both the Cube and Cube Rotate. Make sure they are checked and then click Apply. Under Switcher Plugins you can enable the switcher you want to use.

After you enable the plugins you can then scroll down to the individual plugin sections and configure the plugin. Although you will find most of the configuration options in Ecomorph, that you are available in Compiz, there are some that you will find missing. Most notably are the Skydome and Cube Caps for the Cube. But you can configure zoom while rotating as well as transparency.

Final thoughts

I am very happy to see Ecomorph finding its way to other distributions. For those that enjoy what Compiz brings to the desktop, the addition of Ecomorph to E17 could be considered a thing of beauty.

One of the features the more advanced user will appreciate is the Security settings available in YaST2. The amount of detail given to security in this release is stunning…but not necessarily built for the new user. I want to highlight the openSUSE security settings so you can see for yourself just how granular you can be with openSUSE security.

Where to find security?

Figure 1

By default, of the security settings you are about to see are installed in openSUSE 11.4. In order to open up the Security Settings window click on Start > Computer > Administrator Settings (YaST). Once in YaST click on the Security and Users section (see Figure 1).

From there you will find a few security features to configure:

• Firewall: Configure your firewall on your system.
• Security Center and Hardening: Configure numerous security settings.
• Sudo: Graphic interface for managing sudo.

I want to concentrate on the Security Center in YaST. Click on that entry in the Security and Users section and a new window will open.

Security and Hardening

Figure 2

From within the Security and Hardening window (see Figure 2) you will have numerous settings available to you. In the security overview you get a good idea of what is enabled/disabled on your system. From that same section you can enable, disable, or configure those options. Some of the more handy options are:

Remote access to the display manager: Allow remote access to KDM.

Remote access to X server: Enable remote access to X windows.

Use secure file permissions: You can set your file permissions from three different levels (easy, secure, paranoid).

Another section in this window that is of great interest is pre-defined security settings. From here you can select from four different settings:

• Home Workstation
• Networked Workstation
• Network Server
• Custom

If you do not want to monkey around with too many of the security settings, I highly recommend you select one of the first three options here.

If you look at the Password section you will be surprised to find you can actually configure password checks as well as password expiration. If you have multiple users on your system, and you want to make sure your users are setting solid passwords, make sure you configure these sections. Here you can set the following:

• Minimum password length.
• Number of passwords to remember.
• Password encryption method.
• Password age (min and max).
• Days before Password Expires Warning.

Finally, you should take a look at the login section. Here you can set the amount of incorrect login attempts that can occur before a delay is forced. You can also enable/disable remote graphical login.

Final thoughts

Although openSUSE is not generally consider among the most secure Linux distributions, if administered properly it can easily stand toe to toe with any distribution available. And having the YaST security options readily available makes configuring openSUSE security a simple endeavor.

Menu tips

One of the features I like most about Enlightenment (that has been available since the early days) is the mouse menu. This menu allows you to left-click anywhere on the desktop to get a main menu where you can open applications, open configuration settings, etc. Let’s take a look at some cool things you can do for that menu.

Add Favorites

To open up applications you navigate through Applications and then into the sub-categories you have in the main menu. But for those applications you frequently use you can add them to a Favorites menu, so they are much quicker to access. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Apps entry.
4. Click on Favorites.
5. Scroll through the list of applications and, when you see one you want to add, select it and click the + button.
6. Click the OK button when finished.

Now when you open up the mouse menu you will see the Favorites menu entry, at the top, housing your favorite applications.

Shorten (or lengthen) application name entries

Figure 1

If you look into your menu you will notice the application names might look like those you see in Figure 1. For my taste, those menu entries are simply too long. Fortunately, it’s very easy to shorten them. Follow these steps:

1. Left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Menus entry.
4. Click on the Menu Settings button.
5. In the Display section select if you want to display the Name (the application name), the Generic name (the category the application belongs to), and/or the Comments (a comment about the application.
6. Click OK when you’re done.

For the shortest menu entries, just enable Name.

Focus follows mouse and Autoraise windows

I was weened on Linux when the Window Manager was King. Because of this I grew used to focus follows mouse and autoraise. Focus follows mouse just means that whatever window the mouse is in will have focus. That way you don’t have to click on the window to give it focus.

To enable Focus follows mouse, follow these steps:

1. Left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Windows entry.
4. Click on the Window Focus button.
5. Select Window under mouse.
6. Click OK.

Now to enable Autoraise, follow these steps:

1. From the Settings Panel click the Windows entry.
2. Click on the Window Stacking button.
3. Select Raise windows on mouse over.
4. Click OK
5. Close the Settings panel.

Final thoughts

E17 has so many cool features, you could play around for hours and still only scratch the surface. We’ll come back and revisit this topic again, so you can enjoy E17 to its fullest.

Out of the box, some might say the E17 desktop on Bodhi is a bit lacking in the effects and eye candy department. Although that was my initial reaction, I knew my new desktop was but a few clicks away from having enough pizzazz to bring my desktop to life. So, I thought I would share those configurations.

Invisible shelves

Figure 1

By default, your E17 on Bodhi will have a solid shelf (panel) across the top (at least the Laptop configuration will). That shelf reminds me too much of a variation on the GNOME desktop, so I like to change it up (this is E17 after all, which is all about options.) Figure 1 illustrates what I am talking about. As you can see, the top shelf has been made “invisible” so the various applets appear to just sit on the desktop.

In order to make the “panel” portion of panels invisible do the following:

Figure 2

1. Right click one of the applets on the shelf and select Shelf NAME > Settings (Where NAME is the name of the name of the shelf in question.).
2. In the resulting window (see Figure 2) move to the Style tab.
3. Select Invisible.
4. Click OK.
5. The Shelf should now resemble what you saw in Figure 1.

Compositing

One of the best eye-candy features of E17 is the compositing. Not every video card will work with compositing, but if yours does, it’s worth turning on. In order to do this follow these steps:

1. Left-click on the desktop to open the main menu.
2. Select Settings > Modules.
3. In the resulting window move to the Look tab.
4. Click Composite and then Load.
5. Click Close.

Now you should be experiencing visual effects made possible by the built in compositor.

Themes

Figure 3

Of course you are going to want to theme your new installation and E17 won’t disappoint. You will find plenty of themes to download from the E17-Stuff. After you download a swell theme for your desktop, left-click on the desktop to bring up the main menu and click Settings > Theme. From the new window (see Figure 3). From within the theme window click the Import button, locate your theme, and add it to the Personal section. You can now select and apply your theme to see how it looks.

If you click on the Advanced button you can really fine tune the look of your theme by mixing and matching pieces of themes to other themes. Say, for instance, you like to borders of Theme A but all other elements of Theme B, you can use Theme B and then go to the Advanced properties and select the borders of Theme A and apply them.

Final thoughts

E17 is an outstanding desktop. Couple that with Ubuntu and you get a really nice, lightweight Linux distribution called Bodhi Linux. Although it might seem a bit plain out of the box, you can configure it to have as much eye candy as your heart desires.

What’s new?

There is a lot to be said in this category. The openSUSE 11.4 release offers the following updates:

KDE Plasma Desktop 4.6: openSUSE might well be the first distribution packaging the most recent KDE desktop by default. Although KDE 4.5 probably brought to the users the single most amount of bug fixes ever, 4.6 does a great job of upping the performance ante once again. KDE 4.6 is an incredibly solid desktop that any user would be happy to have as their default.

You will also find better KDE to Firefox integration in the 4.6 release. As well KPackageKit has become the default update applet.

Web browsers: Speaking of Firefox, openSUSE 11.4 ships with Firefox 4.0 and the latest release of Konqueror (The version of Konqueror installed is the Webkit version.)  But don’t think you are limited to those two browsers. You can now easily add Chromium to your desktop through the Add/Remove Software tool! Before you try to add Chromium, you will have to enable to community repos by following these steps:

1. Open YaST2.
2. Click on Configuration.
3. Select Repositories.
4. Click the Add button.
5. Click Community Repositories and click Next.
6. Check Main Repository (Contrib) and click OK.

Now you can search for Chromium and install it.

Office tools: I was pleasantly ssurprised to find LibreOffice pre-installed on openSUSE 11.4. I believe openSUSE might be the first of the distributions to ship with LibreOffice as the default office suite! You will also find the standard KDE office tools along side LibreOffice.

Multi-media: Banshee 2.0 has been added and is used as the default media player in openSUSE. In order to have this on your desktop by default, you will need to download the full DVD install and not the Live CD. If you do install from the Live CD you will be able to install Banshee from YaST2 by simply searching for “banshee” (no quotes) and installing. I would, however, suggest installing from the full DVD, in order to get the complete openSUSE experience.

Over all take

I have to say I was quite pleased with how well openSUSE runs. Not only is it quite stable, it’s also lightning fast. The only problem I came across was with the effects engine. The machine I tested on is able to use all visual effects in both Ubuntu and Elive, but openSUSE seemed to not be able to run KDE with visual effects running. So effects had to be turned off. Outside of that small issue, the experience with openSUSE 11.4 has been quite good.

Who’s it for?

Would I recommend openSUSE for a new Linux user? No. But if you are comfortable in the Linux environment, openSUSE and KDE 4.6 will be a welcome change. If, however, you are a new user who really wants to cut their teeth on something with a bit more power than Ubuntu, openSUSE might be just the distro you are looking for.

Update

It has been brought to my attention, by one of the GNOME contributers, that Ubuntu 11.04 will now offer a classic GNOME option in the log in menu. This will not be the default option, but it will allow new users to select the traditional GNOME desktop. Hopefully this will be enough for users who do not appreciate the changes Unity brings.

Distributions

Probably the biggest knee-jerk reaction will be users migrating to other distributions. Ubuntu Linux is probably going to see the largest amount of users jumping ship. Why? Ubuntu Unity. Although users will be able to install an alternative desktop, many users who choose Ubuntu aren’t at that level of ability. Remember, Ubuntu is the Linux of choice for most new users. And when a new user is greeted with the completely different (and less effective) desktop of Unity, they will abandon the distribution in favor of, say, Kubuntu, Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS. My guess is another option will make itself available soon after the initial release of 11.04. Someone is going to create a spin of Ubuntu with the traditional GNOME desktop.

This will, however, be prime time for other distributions to sway new users. I fully plan on offering up more Linux content geared toward those distributions as this happens.

Desktops

There is one particular desktop that will probably see more gain as a result of the migration to the new GNOME 3 and Unity desktops. That desktop is KDE. Remember, KDE went through it’s major evolution quite some time ago and has now settled into a very stable, reliable desktop that is as polished as anything GNOME has ever released. KDE will gain serious ground with the new GNOME.

Other desktops that stand to gain new users are Xfce and Enlightenment. Although Enlightenment does vary quite a bit from the standard desktop, it can be configured to look and behave in similar fashion. Xfce enjoys the same ability. Both heavily rely on panels and menus similar to the traditional desktop. Both are also very light weight and are deeply rooted in Linux’ past.

Growing pains

I don’t want to come across as being against the new desktop metaphors. I embrace change. I think GNOME 3 has a lot of potential to be something the desktop has yet to be. And when touchscreens are the standard, a new desktop aligned with the changes GNOME is bringing to the table, will be a must. Remember when KDE 4.0 first hit the desktop it was a disaster. The main reason for that was KDE 4.0 was an entire rewrite of the code base. When it was first released it was nothing but a bug hunt in the making. GNOME 3 will not suffer this same fate. The jury is still out on how Unity will fare upon first release, but it will not be on par with GNOME 3.

Ultimately the immediate reaction will be for new users to jump ship. But I would ask that new to Linux users give these desktops a chance before they do. And, after a trial period, you do not like what you see, install a new desktop on your system and try that out. That’s the beauty of Linux – there are so many options available to you. If you don’t like Unity, try GNOME 3. If you don’t like GNOME 3, try KDE 4.6. If you don’t like KDE 4.6, try Enlightenment. Eventually you will find that desktop that really speaks to you.

With GNOME Schedule, you can create a one-time cron job, recurring cron jobs, or cron jobs from templates. Let’s dig into the installation and usage of this tool.

Installation

Installing GNOME Schedule is simple, if you follow these steps, you will have this application installed in no time.

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software utility (Such as Ubuntu Software Center).
2. Search for “jobs” (no quotes).
3. Mark the Schedule Tasks application for installation.
4. Click Appy to install.
5. Accept any dependencies that might be necessary for installation.
6. Allow the installation to complete.
7. Close the Add/Remove Software utility.

Once installed, you will find GNOME Schedule in Applications > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks.

Usage

Figure 1

The usage of GNOME Schedule is simple. When you open up the main window (see Figure 1). Let’s walk through the steps for creating a recurring cron job.

Step 1: Click the new drop-down (downward pointing arrow associated with the New button) and select Recurrent Task.

Figure 2

Step 2: In the resulting window (see Figure 2) fill out all of the information necessary to create the job. The information necessary will be: Description (a name for the job), Command (the command you want to run as the recurring task), Behavior (Do you want to suppress command output, is this an X Application, etc.), Basic (Is this task to run every minute, hour, day, week, or month), Advanced (schedule the job for a specific time).

After this information is complete, click the Add button and the job will be created and scheduled.

If you look at the bottom of the scheduled task window, you will notice the Add as Template button. You can add this job as a template if it is a job you can easily base other jobs on. If you create template jobs, you can then create a new job based on that template, by click the New drop-down and selecting From Template.

Now, if you want to create cron jobs that need root (or sudo) permissions, you will need to run the tool like so:

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo gnome-schedule (if you are using a non-sudo distribution, su to the root user and issue the command gnome-schedule).
3. Schedule the job as described above.

You will notice, when running in super user mode, you have an extra button – the change user button. This will allow you to schedule a cron job for any user on the system (so long as they have the ability to schedule jobs.)

Final thoughts

Gnome Schedule is a very easy way to allow new users to take advantage of the powerful cron tool, without having to learn the command line version. I recommend learning the command line for cron, but for those who don’t have the time or inclination, this is a good route to take.

Has it improved?

Yes. From the last time I installed Unity I have to say it has improved quite a bit. Gone are windows always opening maximized. Gone are the rampant memory leaks I found in the last release I had installed on my desktop machine. It’s smoother, it’s more refined, and it’s finally usable.

But…

What are the problems?

Although this desktop will seem very straight-forward to first-time users of GNOME and first-time users of Linux, once you get beyond “getting to know” you will find this desktop riddled with problems that will have users scrambling to either another distribution or another desktop.

No run dialog. I run a lot of programs by hitting Alt-F2 and then typing the command. That no longer works. With Ubuntu Unity there is no run dialog. You would have to have the gnome-panel running in order to get it back (you can do this if you like, but it will not be the default behavior). This strikes me as odd, because the run dialog has been a part of GNOME (and most desktops) for years. Why would this not be included?

Another HUGE problem (at least from my perspective) is the lack of “Connect To Server”. In GNOME as we know it, if you click Places you will see the Connect To Server link. That will open the tool to help you connect to a remote machine. Guess what? No Connect To Server. You can even open up Nautilus, check in the Go menu and not find the ability to connect to a server. This is bad…especially for power users.

Speaking of menus…

It looks like Unity has gone the way of Mac and placed some application menus in the panel at the top of the screen. But not all applications will adhere to this function. For example, Firefox will retain it’s menus within it’s own window. This is inconsistent and will only serve to frustrate users. Any application that is not a GTK+ application will find it’s menus stuck in the application window.

Finally…

Not a single right-click anywhere on the desktop. You can no longer right-click the desktop to change your background, you can’t right-click the panel, you can’t right-click the launcher panel. This function has become second-nature to people. When they want to configure their desktop they tend to go right-click happy. Now, from the bird’s eye view, there is no where to begin if you want to configure anything on your desktop. Sure, you’ll find it if you click Applications > System > Appearance. There you can configure your Theme, Background, Fonts, and (supposedly) Visual Effects. Of course you can’t actually configure your visual effects because, as it stands now, Mutter controls the visual effects. And guess what? There’s no way to configure Mutter.

The conclusion

From the looks of it as of right at this moment, Unity is going to tank. When I first heard of this desktop replacement I was on the side of Ubuntu. I assumed they were going to bring something user-friendly and worthwhile to the fore. They did not. Unity is going to do quite the opposite of its title for Ubuntu. 

I have covered the gnome-terminal in a few ways (see my articles “Make gnome-terminal profiles work for you” and “Get to know Linux: gnome-terminal“.) These articles either is an introduction or deals with a specific aspect of the tool. This time around, I want to highlight a few different tips and tricks that can help to make gnome-terminal even more useful and user-friendly.

Change that title

When you open up gnome-terminal you usually will see the hostname and the current working directory. Sometimes this just isn’t much help. This is especially true when you have more than one terminal window open and you want to make sure you know which terminal you are working in. You can change this by clicking Terminal > Set Title. After you click this a small window will open where you can type the new terminal title. Once you save that title your gnome-terminal will display the configured title until you close and re-open the tool (upon reopening the title will revert to the default.)

Search the contents of an open file

The gnome-terminal tool includes it’s own search feature. With an open file you can search that file with a string by clicking Search a new window will appear where you can enter the conditions for your search. Those conditions are:

• Search for: This is the string you want to search for in your file.
• Mach case.
• Match entire word only.
• Match as regular expression.
• Search backwards.
• Wrap around.

This is a great way to help you work with larger configuration files such as smb.conf or httpd.conf.

Zoom in/out

There are reasons for zoom in and out. The biggest reason is accessibility. For those with vision impairments, zooming into the terminal window is a quick way to make the text in terminal large enough to see. To zoom use the following key combinations:

• Zoom in: Ctrl++
• Zoom out: Ctrl--

If you have trouble with the key combinations, click View > Zoom In or View > Zoom Out to control the zoom.

Switch dimensions

I’m not talking about switching from 2D to 3D (or d20). I’m talking about the size of your terminal. There are four pre-configured sizes you can easily switch to (for different usage.) If you click the Terminal menu entry you will see, near the bottom of the menu:

• 80×24
• 80×43
• 132×24
• 132×43

You can easily switch to one of those sizes by clicking on the size you want. When you open the terminal, it will open back to the default size.

Final thoughts

There you have just a fraction of the tips and tricks that can be pulled off with gnome-terminal. There are plenty more where that come from and we will re-visit this topic. Until then, enjoy the CLI!

One such tool allows me to blog to my various blogs quickly. I want to introduce you to this tool so that you are quickly blogging from your GNOME desktop.

Compatible blogs

Naturally you can’t expect GNOME Blog to handle every type of blog in the blogosphere. But it does handle:

• blogs.gnome.org
• Blogger
• Livejournal
• Avogato
• Self-run WordPress
• Self-run Moveable Type
• Self-run Pyblosxom

Obviously each type of blog will have different setup requirements. Let’s examine how to connect GNOME Blog to a self-run WordPress blog.

Configuring WordPress

Figure 1

In order to blog to WordPress from GNOME Blog you have to enable remote publishing via XML-RPC. Without this set, you will not be able to blog from outside of the web interface. To configure this option you must first log on to your WordPress blog (with administration rights) and then click on Settings > Writing. In that section (near the top) you will see the spot where you can enable this (see Figure 1).

Once you have checked off the box associated with XML-RPC, scroll down and click Save Changes.

Now let’s install and use GNOME Blog.

Installation

Installation is simple. I will demonstrate the installation on a Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. Follow these steps:

1. Open up the Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Search for the term “blog” (No quotes).
3. Click the Install button associated with GNOME Blog.

That’s it. You will now find the tool in Applications > Internet > Blog Entry Poster.

Using GNOME Blog

Figure 2

When you fire up GNOME Blog click on the Preferences window so you can choose the type of blog you want to write to. From this new window (see Figure 2) select “Self-Run WordPress” from the Blog Type drop-down and then fill in the rest of the information.

You will not be able to select the Blog Name from the drop-down until you have configured the URL, username, and password. Once you have done that click Lookup Blogs and select the blog you want to post to from the drop-down.

Once you have selected your blog, click the Close button, and you’re ready to begin.

Posting

Figure 3

Posting with GNOME Blog is simple. From the main window (see Figure 3) you can enter a title and the body of your blog. You can also add a link into the body of the blog by clicking the Add Link… button and entering the link title and url.

Upon completion of your blog entry, click the Post Entry button and your blog post will make its way through the ethernet to your blog.

Final thoughts

It should be obvious that you can not do much as far as formatting, adding images, and the like. But for simple text-based blog posts, you can’t beat the simplicity and ease of use of GNOME Blog.

What is Fortune?

If you are new to Ubuntu and Linux you probably have not heard of “Fortune”. If not, the Fortune application (It’s usually referred to as a game for some odd reason) uses flat text files to issue random sayings to various subsystems or applications. It is commonly used to append signatures in email clients (See my article “Add uptime and/or a daily fortune to your email signature“).

Installation

In order to install the Ubuntu Tips Applet, you will first have to install the application fortunes-ubuntu-server. Since the Ubuntu Tip Applet is not found in the repositories (it’s an installable .deb file you download), you will first need to install fortunes-ubuntu-server. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install fortunes-ubuntu-server.
3. Type your sudo password and hit Enter.
4. Accept any dependencies.
5. Allow the installation to complete.

With this dependency installed, you can move onto the installation of the tips applet. First download the .deb file from the GTK-Apps web site. Save that file in the ~/Downloads directory. Now, follow these steps to install:

Open up a terminal window.

1. Change to the ~/Downloads directory with the command cd ~/Downloads.
2. Issue the command sudo dpkg -i ubuntu-tips-applet_XXX.deb Where XXX is the release number.
3. Type your sudo password and hit Enter.
4. Allow the installation to complete.

Usage

Figure 1

After the install, you will not see any tips start up. That is because you actually  must start the app before it can serve up those handy tips. To start it click Applications > Accessories > Ubuntu Tips Applet. What you will notice immediately is a small icon in your notification area (see Figure 1).  The icon is the swirling line between the network applet and the sound applet. If you left-click that icon you can do the following:

• Set the interval for tips (by default the interval is one minute).
• Show a single tip.
• Disable auto refresh.
• Find out information about the applet.
• Quit the applet.

Really the only configuration option you have is the interval. As I said, the default is one minute. This can get a bit annoying, so I wold suggest setting it to something more like five or ten minutes.

Figure 2

When a tip appears it looks just like a standard Ubuntu notification (See Figure 2).

The tips you are shown range in level of difficulty. You will see some fairly easy tips all the way up to some significantly challenging tips. You might well be surprised at how helpful this tool will be to your Ubuntu education.

Final thoughts

Having a handy tip system at your fingertips will go a long way to aiding you in your quest to learn more about Ubuntu Linux. It’s non-intrusive, can be stopped, and offers up some fairly handy advice. What more do you want in a tip system?

You will find many distributions dedicated to Enlightenment. One of those is the new Bodhi Linux. This distribution offers the E17 desktop on top of Ubuntu 10.04, so it melds a lightweight desktop on top of an efficient operating system. As you can expect, this distro is lean and mean.

System requirements

Certainly this distribution would have some fairly low requirements. That assumption is exactly correct. The requirements are:

• 300mhz i386 Processor
• 128megs of RAM
• 1.5g HD space

Think that out of date machine you have sitting around can handle that?

Why yet another distribution?

This question is not always the easiest to answer. As there are already distributions dedicated to the Enlightenment desktop, one wonders why bother create another? The reasons the Bohdi developers set out to create yet another distribution are twofold:

• Enlightenment
• User choice

As you well know, Ubuntu will soon be making the switch to the Unity desktop. When this happens users will be happy to know they have a choice – they can go with what Canonical offers or they can opt to go a different route. For those that want to stick with Ubuntu, but aren’t happy with Unity…there is a choice and that choice is Bohdi and Ubuntu.

Features

• Ubuntu 10.04 core.
• Enlightenment E17 desktop.
• Dark and light themes.
• Kernel 2.6.35-22.
• Firefox 4 beta 10

And much more.

Why you should try Bodhi

If you have been looking for a distribution that focuses on a lightweight, feature-rich desktop that strays from the normal desktop metaphor, you need to give Bohdi a try. If you’re a fervent Ubuntu user but are unhappy with the options that will be available to you when 11.04 is released, you should give Bodhi a try. If you just want to experience something different – yes, you should give Bohdi a try.

It’s new, is it stable?

If you are concerned about stability, you should know that the melding of two very stable pieces of software (Ubuntu 10.04 and E17) should certainly result in a stable environment. I have to say, of the various Enlightenment-based distros I have tried over the years, Bohdi Linux is, by far, the most stable and usable. Even when Compositing is turned on, Bohdi still runs like a seasoned veteran distribution.

What does it look like?

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows a sample of the Bohdi Linux desktop (using the Light theme). As you can see it’s a very clean desktop with plenty of features (including the Linux pager, a handy clock and calendar widget, an included shelf and “notification area” (created by using a second shelf).

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a distribution to showcase the Enlightenment desktop environment, you can not go wrong with Bohdi Linux. With the foundation of Ubuntu 10.04 and E17, it’s made for speed, stability, and user-friendliness.

But hold on a moment…that feature is not built into your favorite file manager (at least not yet). You have to build it in. But don’t worry, the process isn’t difficult – if you know what you’re doing. Let me hip you to the process of adding this functionality to Nautilus now.

What you need

Obviously you need a working installation of Linux (I am using Ubuntu 10.10) and a GNOME desktop. You will also need a Facebook account. Outside of that, the only thing you need is the file that can be downloaded from the bottom of this page. Once you have that file, you are ready to begin.

The installation

Here are the steps for the installation:

1. Unpack the Facebook_XXX.targ.gz file (where XXX is the release number) by right-clicking it in Nautilus and selecting “Extract Here”.
2. Move into the newly created folder.
3. Double click on the install.sh file and, when prompted, select “Run in Terminal”.
4. When prompted (inside of the newly opened terminal) enter your sudo password.
5. Let the installation complete.

That’s it for the installation. Now it’s time for the authentication.

First upload

Figure 1

To upload a photo to your Facebook account you simply have to right-click a photo and select Scripts > Upload to Facebook. When you go to upload your first photo to Facebook from Nautilus you will have to authenticate to your Facebook account. This is done by a window opening requiring you to paste a URL into a text area. The URL you need to paste will be opened in your default web browser AFTER you click the Allow button in the Facebook authentication page. Once you have that URL paste into the window you see shown in Figure 1 and click OK.

Once you’ve done that click the Refresh button and you will be prompted for your Facebook username. NOTE: This is NOT your email addresss. Once you have done that all of your photo albums will be listed and you are ready to start uploading photos.

From this manager you can also add new photo albums as well as go directly to that album.

Uploading

When you have completed the setup, you can start uploading photos. The process is quite simple:

1. Open up Nautilus to the directory containing the photo you want to upload.
2. Right click the photo and select Scripts > Upload to Facebook.
3. When the FUploader opens click the Refresh button.
4. Select the specific album you want upload the photo to.
5. Click the Upload button.
6. Close the manager.

You can select multiple photos (holding down the Ctrl button as you click them) and do the same process listed above.

Pithos is a native Pandora client for the GNOME desktop. It is easy to install, has a user-friendly GUI, and won’t drag your machine into the murky waters. Let’s take a look at how to install and use this client so you can start your new year out rockin’.

Before you begin, you will need to have a Pandora account. Once you have a Pandora account you will be able to manage your stations from within Pithos (so need to bother adding/removing stations from within the Pandora site.)  In fact, it’s actually easier to manager your stations from within Pithos than it is from within the site.

Installation

Pithos is not found in the standard repositories, so you have to add the Pithos repository. Adding the repository is simple. Open up a terminal window and issue the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kevin-mehall/pithos-daily
sudo apt-get update

Once you have the repository in place, you can then install the application. This is done with the following command:

sudo apt-get install pithos

Once the application is installed you will find it located in Applications > Sound and Video.

Usage

Figure 1

When you first start up Pithos you will be required to authenticate to your Pandora account. Once you do this Pithos will download your current list (or the default list) of stations associated with your account and open up the main window (see Figure 1). You can change the channel you want to listen to simply by clicking the channel drop-down and selecting the desired channel.

Figure 2

To create new channels to enjoy click on the Preferences button (the gear with the drop-down arrow) and select Manage Stations. In this new window (see Figure 2) click the Add Station button and then enter the name of an artist. You will then be presented by a number of choices to select from. Choose the correct artist and click OK. That artist will be added to your station list.

You can also include each station in your QuickMix list. The QuickMix list is like a shuffle for Pandora. Select which stations you want to include in your QuickMix and then, from the Station drop-down (in the main window), select QuickMix to get a mix of music from all of your stations.

Other features

One of the nicer features of Pithos is the inclusion of a notification icon. From this icon you can left-click and quickly “Love”, skip, play, pause, “Ban”, or “Tired” a currently playing song and you can quickly quit Pithos.

Pithos also includes:

• Cover Art.
• Notification popup with song info.
• Launching pandora.com song info/station page.
• Reconnecting when pandora session times out
• Media Key support
• Proxy support
• Last.fm scrobbling

Final thoughts

At last Linux has a worthy client for the enormously popular Pandora Music service. Make this your go-to application for Music listening in Linux and you won’t be sorry.

To that end, I offer up five tips that will ensure that Ubuntu Linux desktop is safe and secure. These tips are all such that any level of end user can undertake them without having to take classes in PCs or Linux administration.

Use solid passwords

As of 2010, the most common passwords used are:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

It should be obvious that anyone and everyone must avoid using the above passwords. What is not so obvious is how most users ignore the pleas of software manufacturers, administrators, and everyone in between to use secure, unique passwords. Even though the Linux operating system is a solid environment, you are not exempt from this. Because Linux is a multi-user OS every user should have a very unique password. These passwords should follow the standard requirements:

• Upper and lowercase letters.
• Include a number.
• Include special characters such as #,!,$.

Use more than one username

Linux is a mult-user OS. If you have more than one user on your system, make sure that each and every user has a log in. Unless dictated by need, do not have a general user account that everyone uses. If you use a single account, everyone will have access to each users’ data. To set up new user accounts click on System > Adminster > Users And Groups to take advantage of the user-friendly GUI tool.

Update your software

There is a reason updates occur. In many instances, those updates are often security driven. Because of this, you will not want to make a habit of ignoring updates. You will know, right away, when an update is available as it will appear in your notification area. When this happens, click on the icon, enter your sudo password, and allow the updates to complete.

Install a firewall

Just because you are using the Linux operating system, doesn’t mean you are immune to hacks and attacks. It’s always better to err on the side of safety by adding a firewall on top of your system. To do this, open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for “firewall” (no quotes), and install the firewall tool that best suits your needs (GUFW is a good choice).

Lock your screen/no auto login

This is something I always set. When your screensaver starts up, by default the behavior is to lock the screen. Do not disable this behavior as it opens up your desktop to nefarious behavior when you are away from your desktop. In the same vein, you should also not enable the auto login feature. Yes, it is quicker when starting up your machine and less of a hassle than having to enter a password – but auto-login is nothing more than inviting users other than you to get into your files and view files they shouldn’t view.

Add ‘em up

If you follow those simple tips your Ubuntu (or any Linux desktop) will be much safer than it would be if you ignored them. These tips can also, for the most part, apply to just about any operating system. The key is to use your computer intelligently to help avoid attacks of various types.

The server OSes justifiably make this task a bit more challenging to keep administrators from inadvertently sharing out folders that shouldn’t be shared or causing security holes to pop up on their servers. But that does not mean the task is impossible…in fact it’s not that much more difficult than it is on their brethren desktop. Let’s take a look at how this is done on CentOS.

The tool

Figure 1

Fortunately, there is a GUI tool for just about everything. This too goes for configuring Samba. In the CentOS distribution, the task of administering Samba shares is handled by system-config-samba. This tool is easy to use, but must be run as the root user. If you do not have access to the root user, you will have no luck starting the tool. But with that coveted root user password you can start up the Samba admin tool with the command system-config-samba.

Once the tool has started you will find a very user-friendly GUI (see Figure 1). By default nothing has been shared out…and before you do share anything, you will need to configure Samba. To do this click Preferences > Server Settings. This new window has two tabs:

• Basic: Configure the name of your workgroup and a description of said workgroup.
• Security: Configure the security of your Samba server.

NOTE: The more important tab is the security tab. Here  you will configure the authentication mode.

Figure 2

Once you have the server configured click on Preferences > Users. You must add users here before anyone can authenticate (if you select Security = users). Figure 2 shows how users are added. Make sure you select the correct Unix username from the dropdown. After you add that username click OK to be returned to the original window.

You are now ready to connect to your newly added share. You might, however find that you can not connect to that share. If so, the most likely reason is the firewall. Click on System > Administration > Security Level and Firewall. In this window (see Figure 3) you will need to make sure that Samba is checked, but also add ports 137 – 139 and 445.

Figure 3

After you have added all the necessary ports you should be able to connect to that share without a problem. Although you may be tempted to drop your firewall all together (in order to let Samba connections through) it is imperative that you do not simply drop your firewall. Remember, CentOS is a server OS and should be protected.

Final thoughts

It’s nice to see that even on the server distributions that Samba has become an incredibly easy system to administer. The system-config-samba tool makes sharing out server directories as easy as if you were on the desktop. Kudos to CentOS, Red Hat, and GNOME!