Tag: Linux

Windows XP Clone Built on Ubuntu 9.10

December 28, 2009 by Jason

It might look and feel like Windows XP, it might sport a similar graphical user interface and even be able to run XP software, but fact is that an operating system developed by Rain Forest Wind Guangdong Computer Technology Co., Ltd. is anything else but Windows Vista’s predecessor. Ylmf OS is designed as a Windows XP clone based on version 9.10 of the Ubuntu distribution of the Linux open source operating system.

The makers of Ylmf OS revealed that the Windows XP’s GUI was adopted in an effort to allow users of Microsoft’s proprietary platform to immediately start running Ubuntu Linux without needing to adapt to a new operating system.

An obvious downside to Ylmf OS is the fact that the release is Chinese only, at least at this point in time. Available for download localized exclusively in Chinese, Ylmf OS is bound to serve only users living in China and speaking the local language. No indications were offered by the team behind the project of future releases or support for additional languages. According to third-party reports, the people building Ylmf OS are in fact a group of Chinese pirates that were previously distributing a pirated copy of Windows XP, and which were tackled by the local authorities and Microsoft. Read More»

64-bit Google Chrome for Windows

August 27, 2009 by Jason

Google is hard at work developing a 64-bit version of its open-source browser for Windows. The Mountain View-search giant indicated that work was in progress but delivered no specific availability deadline so far. According to Chromium developers Mads Sig Ager, a 64-bit (x64) flavor of Google Chrome will be offered to Windows users “soon.” There’s no telling just what the period of time “soon” can be translated into, but testers can already run 64-bit Chrome.

At the end of the past week, Google offered the first downloads of its true 64-bit version of Chrome, tailored to the Linux open-source platform. The Mountain View is focusing on adapting x64 Chrome to Linux and Mac OS X first, and only afterwards to Windows. According to Google, the heavy lifting is focused on porting the underlining V8 JavaScript engine to 64-bit platforms.

“V8 does not yet compile in 64-bit mode on Windows. We have focused on making the 64-bit version of V8 work on Linux and Mac at first. We are currently working on making the 64-bit version compile on Windows as well. We should hopefully have that done soon,” Ager stated when x64 Chrome for Linux was launched. Read More»

Firefox databases for better performance

July 29, 2009 by Jason

Since Firefox 3.0, bookmarks, history and most storage is kept in SQLite databases. Also, the default history time span was raised from 9 to 90 days as it became more discoverable and useful thanks to the awesome bar, so depending on your browsing habits it could represent some pretty large databases.

Aas any other database, SQLite databases become fragmented over time and empty spaces appear all around. But, since there are no managing processes checking and optimizing the database, these factors eventually result in a performance hit. So, a good way to improve startup and some other bookmarks and history related tasks is to defragment and trim unused space from these databases.

To do this:

Step 1: get sqlite3, a single file command line SQLite database manager, for your platform (available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X).

Step 2: Copy the downloaded binary to your profile folder where all your .sqlite files reside.

Step 3: Close Firefox. Read More»

Fix Ubuntu Bootloader

July 19, 2009 by Jason

Have you installed Windows and Ubuntu in dual boot? If yes, you might have installed Windows First and the Ubuntu, which is a good way of doing it.

In case you have already Installed Windows on your computer, then you have another good options to install Ubuntu inside windows without formatting hard disk using Wubi Installer.

But the problem is when you have Ubuntu installed already and then you install Windows on it. On installing Windows on top of Ubuntu, Windows removes the ubuntu boot-loader called grub and replaces it with windows boot loader. In this case, you will not be able to boot into Ubuntu.

To fix this issue, we will tell you how to install the ubuntu boot-loader called grub on top of windows boot-loader so that you can boot into windows or ubuntu whenever you like.

Fix:

For this you will need a Ubuntu live CD. Download the ubuntu live CD image from here and burn the CD. You can also order the ubuntu CDs by mail for free, but it will take a few weeks. Read More»

Download Firefox 3.5 Final

June 30, 2009 by Jason

The wait is over! Firefox 3.5 has reached the end of its development process. The gold build of the open-source browser from Mozilla, formerly codenamed Shiretoko, was finalized on June 29, 2009, and is now available for download (links are live at the bottom of this article). Mozilla is planning to ship Firefox 3.5 today, June 30, but at the time of this article the availability of Firefox 3.0’s successor hasn’t yet been announced officially. Still, the final development milestone of Firefox 3.5 has already been wrapped up and the bits went live on Mozilla’s FTP servers. It is only a matter of Firefox 3.5 being released to web, but you needn’t wait, just grab Firefox 3.5 from the links below for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

“The team here at Mozilla has been working hard on creating features, enhancing performance and adding other awesomeness to Firefox 3.5, and we’re very excited about sharing it with the world,” revealed Mozilla’s John Slater on June 29. Read More»

Internet Explorer in Ubuntu Linux

June 22, 2009 by Jason

IEs4Linux is the simpler way to have Microsoft Internet Explorer running on Linux (or any OS running Wine).

No clicks needed. No boring setup processes. No Wine complications. Just one easy script and you’ll get three IE versions to test your Sites. And it’s free and open source.This may be very helpful for software developers and web developers to test their applications.

IEs4Linux Installation in Ubuntu

You have to enable universe packages first. It is also recommended that you use the official winehq ubuntu package:

Open /etc/apt/sources.list file

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Uncomment following lines in your /etc/apt/sources.list and it may be different if you are in different country instead of UK Read More»

How To Disable Ubuntu User Login Window

June 21, 2009 by Jason

If you are are the sole user of your computer and are annoyed by the Ubuntu login window during every startup, it is better to remove it. Removing the login window will not actually remove the login password, but it will just skip the step during system startup.

Note: Make sure that you do not remove the login window on a public computer.

To remove it, first go to Login Window utility from System > Administration > Login Window.

You can also load it by pressing Alt + F2 and typing gksu /usr/sbin/gdmsetup in Run Application box.

This will open the Login Window Preferences window. Now, to enable auto login, go to Security tab and check Enable Automatic Login and enter user name for your system. You can also set delay in auto login by checking Enable Timed Login and selecting time in seconds. If you enable it, your system will wait for specified number of second before logging you. Read More»

Install Ubuntu Linux On USB Drive

February 26, 2009 by Jason

Ubuntu is one of most active group behind modifying linux and making it easy for windows users to accept and try ubuntu linux with more user acceptability.

Out of the all those Ubuntu community has taken the initiative of proving desktop edition of ubuntu linux which can be easily installed and uninstalled from windows itself. The only thing that was quite difficult till now was to install ubuntu linux on a USB portable drive.

But now with uSbuntu Live Creator which is the safest and easiest way to install ubuntu linux on your USB portable drive which enables you to install and run ubuntu directly from your USB drive.

You can install ubuntu on USB drive either from a ubuntu iso image you have, or from a ubuntu installation cd and you don’t have them then you need download the iso image of ubuntu from here. Read More»

Supercharge Firefox

January 26, 2009 by Jason

If you are a Firefox user (and if not, why not…?) then here’s possibly one of the most useful add-ons ever well, for web users like me at any rate. It’s called UrlBarExt and it’s available in Windows, Mac and Linux versions. Here’s what it can do. A set of discrete icons appears at the end of the address box and from left to right they copy the current address or URL to the clipboard, shorten the displayed web address to a Tiny URL (or the web shortening service of your choice, Bit.Ly, cli.gs etc). It will search the currently displayed site using a keyword (right-click on the icon to open a search box), go up one level to the website’s root or home page, tag or bookmark the current page from a menu of popular tags, navigate through sequential pages (really handy when web pages are numbered, like those in my Boot Camp archives), and surf anonymously, using a proxy server. It’s highly configurable and like all the best things in life, completely free, so give it a spin, it’s really impressive once you get used to it.
Read More»

Ten ways to Tweak your Linux Boot Process

January 16, 2009 by Jason

Linux rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it’s often slow to boot. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let’s take a look.

1. Disable unnecessary services

Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won’t be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won’t need sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If your server is only a Web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don’t want to start.

2. Disable unnecessary kernel modules

If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don’t need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you’re going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don’t need. Read More»