Want to try out some *NIX commands? But dont want to install  *NIX ? Or cab’t install *NIX ? Then This site’s for you: CB.VU

CB.VU is a Unix-like virtual shell command line interface.
See “info” for the full credentials.

Try it out! It rocks!

PS: do type weather, matrix and whereiam You’ll like it!

Some good news for Konqueror fans like me! Peter Penz reports that Tree View will be back in action in Konqueror for KDE 4.1! According to Peter, a complete rewrite of QT4′s Interview(a model-view-controller framework for tree structures )  was the reason for Tree View to be MIA.

Although they had intended to bring it out under the KDE 4.0 release, the above mentioned  rewrite meant that it had to be omitted, and will be back in action for the 4.1 release. Interestingly, as Konqueror uses Dolphin’s KPart for  file management capabilties, this would mean that Dolphin would also feature Tree View. Peter Penz however mentions that it will be turned off by default under Dolphin and will have to be turned on manually. It has to be noted that at the moment Tree View is not completely glitch-free and has few minor bugs, however you can expect it to get fixed soon.

Via – TechThrob

Unlike openSUSE 10.3, Fedora doesnt have the 1-click installers for easy install of codecs ,so you’ll have to rely on Terminal and Yum to get it up and running.

All the below operations require Root privileges, so switch to root first by opening the Terminal and typing

All commands under “code” will have to be entered at the terminal

su root

Step 1. Add Livna repo

wget rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
rpm -ivh livna-release-8.rpm

Step2. Add the Macromedia Repo

wget linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

Step 3:  Install Multimedia Applications

yum -y remove totem totem-mozplugin
yum -y install totem-xine totem-xine-mozplugin libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay livdvdnav lsdvd xine-lib-extras-nonfree libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay flash-plugin libquicktime gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-bad


Step 4: Install w32Codecs in order to play everything under the Sun.

wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm
wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm

(optional) Install VLC

yum install vlc
yum install python-vlc mozilla-vlc

That’s it! you can use Totem or VLC to play them video/audio files! Have a blast!

Consider this situation. You want to know much space is available on your hard disk. No big deal, du can tell you the stats. For this open the terminal and type du -h. You will get the required details as below

sathya@shaman:~$ du -h /home/sathya/Downloads
35M     /home/sathya/Downloads/kubuntu debs
177M    /home/sathya/Downloads
sathya@shaman:~$ du -h /home/sathya/Downloads/kubuntu\ debs/
35M     /home/sathya/Downloads/kubuntu debs

But this isn’t sufficient, and neither is it very elegant. You want to know how much space each file is occupying, or what’s the max filesize occupied by a file. And you want to achieve this with out any console commands. Sounds tough?

Not really! Konqueror comes with an inbuilt “File Size View” which allows you to do just that. And the neat thing is that this works for all mounted partitons. To open this view, open Konqueror. Right click, choose Preview in and select “File Size View”

Once this is selected, another view comes up, showing the size of each file. It may take a minute or two as the filesystem is scanned and the files begin to show up. In the end you’ll get a view like:

This is really useful if you want to free up some space on your hard disk, or if you don’t know which file is taking up all that space.

PS: I don’t know of a similar utility for GNOME, as I don’t use it. Would appreciate it if any GNOME users can comment on a similar app.

PPS: If you’re using KDE 4.x , then as of now, Dolphin doesn’t have the File Size view, so you can’t check this. There’s another program, KDirStat, which can perform the same utility, but I haven’t tested this. Any comment on this would be much appreciated as well!

After few months of server downtime, Ubuntu Live Stats is operational again! The main idea behind this project is to reflect the enormous activity Ubuntu has on all fronts. Simply put, Ubuntu Live Stats gathers data from every source they think is interesting – ie, from forum, both English as well as other languages, bugs from Launchpad, ideas from Brainstorm, new and also security updates and updated packages, all combined into a single website. You can customize the view, choose which sources you want the data from amongst others.
The site claims that they’re still in Beta, and as usual, bugs can be reported to Launchpad. Must visit site for every Ubuntu user.

Well the new wallpaper for Ubuntu Hardy Heron is out. Have a Look. What do you guys think? Personally, I like it a lot. Really striking, much better than – somewhat bland wallpapers of the previous ones. But still, nothing quite like openSUSE’s artwork.

Also, Madsrh has been working on the booklet and DVD inlay cover. here’s a little peek on that

So what’re your opinions?

Korneliusz Jarzebski, the autor polishlinux has posted a neat article on visual changes in KDE 4.1. Amongst new features include an option in the taskbar to Show tasks from the current screen only, ability to resize Kickoff menu. Kwin also gains the Coverswitch   effect, which is a visual effect similar to Cover Flow in Compiz Fusion and in MacOS and one of the neatest effects, I might add). Marble, the geography app also gains a new view & the maps can be watched using Globe, Flat and Mercator views. Amarok in particular has gone through some visual and backend changes. The default and non-changable backend is now Phonon.A new Plasma applet,  the one displaying the information obout currently performing artist basing on Wikipedia has also been added.

Watch the screenshots over at polishlinux

Here’s a much needed feature, the next version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 8.04 aka the Hardy Heron will finally feature a XRandR GUI.  This feature has been implemented under Alpha 6.

Basically this allows the user to change, amongst others, resolution, refresh rate, rotation(ie, to rotate the screen by X degrees) on-the-fly, using the RandR 1.2 extension. Previously  the user would have to change the resolution via the screen resolution applet(or worse, by directly editing xorg.conf file) , and restart the X server for the new resolution to take effect. This feature makes it easier for users to change resolutions as and when required. I’m a bit surprised that it took this long for the feature to be implemented, but nonetheless good to know that the feature is in place

Picture this. You’re fascinated by Linux. You always wanted to try it out. Now that you want to try it out, or have tried out the LiveCD but want to know more details, where do you look for? Of course Google and the Internet is always there. But that would require the right set of keywords.

Fear not, my good friend Santosh aka Gigacore has compiled an exhaustive list of Wiki’s, guides and PDF’s which will satiate your appetite & thirst for knowledge.

Some of the  topics include

• Introduction to Linux – A Hands on Guide
• The Easiest Linux Guide You’ll Ever Read – an Introduction to Linux for Windows Users
• Getting Started With Fedora
• Fundamentals
• System Administration
• Network Administration
• Shell Scripting

… and many more! So if you’re interested, head over to Teach Me Linux, and you might learn a new thing or two!