An iTunes platform like audio manager that has many advantages especially if you have unlimited internet.

1. It supports multiple types of audio.

2. Good looking

3. Shows artist information (loaded from internet)

4. Shows youtube videos related to the song that is being played now. 5. It show lyrics with album art (loaded from internet – you don’t have to save)

6. Ctrl+F : Filters for the song that you want to find.

7. Multiple playlist. 8. Connect to your audio device.

9. Cross platform : Linux, Windows & Mac.

It’s an open source media player for Linux.

It supports:
Physical media: CDs, DVDs, Video CDs
Container formats: 3GP, AVI, ASF, FLV, Matroska, MOV (QuickTime), MP4, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia
Video formats: Cinepak, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo, Sorenson, Theora, WMV
Audio formats: AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Intel Music Coder, Monkey’s Audio, MP3, Musepack, RealAudio, Shorten, Speex, Vorbis, WMA
Subtitle formats: AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, Sami, SRT, SubViewer, VOBsub, VPlayer
Mplayer can also save streamed contents into several output formats with the help of MEncoder.
From Ubuntu to download Mplayer:
Go to Applications → Add/Remove → Sound/Video → Search for Mplayer.
You may need to reload(download the latest packages available information before you’ll be able to find Mplayer).

After you’ve installed you can find more skins by searching it on google search.

Mplayer Screenshot

Are you afraid of losing all those updates that you updated on Ubuntu? Do you have limited access of internet? Don’t fret, APTonCD is here to save your time.

What is APTonCD?

A software to help you create an installation disc with all those updated packages that you have installed.

Restore all those updated packages from an .iso file or CD/DVD previously created by APTonCD.

It’s so easy and convenient. You don’t have to worry of going through the whole process again. 

GUFW or GUI for uncomplicated firewall

One of the basic and important defenses that one should have when going online is a firewall, this is needed to prevent those overly nosey people who would try to attack you computer.Or the firewall can be used to control the Data that you recieve.
Ubuntu comes with a Firewall aswell, (UFW) it is a very simple firewall and works very effectively.This firewall is basicly controlled via the terminal.Since most of the beginers are a bit cautious in using the terminal. Thanks to Marcos Alvarex Costales, Gufw was created by him.
Gufw alows you to control the firewall via this program..

The usage of this program is pretty basic and requires no explanation.. after u have installed the program, runnin it will provide you with an interface,here you need to add rules for the firewall. 3 tabs are present Simple, Preconfigured and Advanced.

Simple rule

The Simple allows you the allow or deny, data coming through a certain port. You can decide on wich method to block them or allow them, tcp, udp or both. Press the add button and the rule is added.

Preconfigured rule

Here you get to allow or deny an entire service or program.
Deniable/allowable services include : http, https, ftp, nntp, etc..

Advanced rule

Here you get to allow or deny by range of IP addresses and ports.
Simple enter the range from and to include the ports and then press add.

Hope this helps you out. with the use of this firewall.

Want your Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Xubuntu to have the same dock like OSX just install Kiba-dock, AWN, Cairo-Dock, Kool Dock & SimDock. It will not be the same but it is similar.

1. Kiba-dock : Light and customizable and uses Akamaru physics engine making every icon on the dock has its own shape, mass, inertia & gravity. To download please go to the official website. You need 3D graphics, Compiz or Beryl in order to run Kiba-dock.

2. AWN (Avant Window Manager) : A dock bar for linux that needs 3D graphics, Compiz or Beryl. It has many efects. I could install on Ubuntu and Xubuntu but my friend Inzi had problem making it work on Kubuntu. So it’s your choice. Click here for more information.

3. Cairo-Dock : Well, it’s almost the same as all the others and It is compatible with Compiz-Fusion, Beryl, Compiz, and also Xcompmgr, but it can run without a composite manager (with fake transparency). Cairo-Dock can run under GNOME, KDE, and XFCE. (That means it can run on Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu). Click here for more information.

4. KoolDock : Similar like the rest. It’s based on KDE application and it requires 3D graphics, Compiz or Beryl. Since AWN doesn’t run on Kubuntu (please tell me if I’m wrong) why not give KoolDock a try? It’s always trial and error if you want to find out which is the best. Click here for more information.

5. SimDock : A fast dockbar for linux and works on most desktop environments. It does not require 3D acceleration, Compiz or Beryl. In other words, it is for slow computers or if you want your computer to work at the speed of light. Click here for more information.

Here’s a program that will help u tweak your ubuntu up a bit..

It will make it easier for you to change some of your desktop settings and system Configurations.

Here are some screen shots.. Courtesy of ubuntu-tweak.com

You can get the installer for ubuntu tweak here

Having an email account on gmail was a good thing, because i could now configure evolution, to download my email straight to my desktop instead of having to log on to the website.

Although before u configure Evolution you have to log in to your gmail account and change your settings, on your settings page you have go to the Forwarding  POP/IMAP and enable it.

- after saving the changes.. log out.

- Load up evolution.. if you are loading evolution for the first time. the wizard will automatically guide you through all the steps needed to setup evolution to download you mail.
- The settings that you will need in configuring evolution are below

Incoming Mail (POP3) Server – requires SSL: pop.gmail.com
Use SSL: Yes
Port: 995
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server – requires TLS: smtp.gmail.com (use authentication)
Use Authentication: Yes
Use STARTTLS: Yes (some clients call this SSL)
Port: 465 or 587
Account Name: your Gmail username (including ‘@gmail.com’)
Email Address: your full Gmail email address (username@gmail.com)
Password: your Gmail password

Hope this Helps…

Like everyone else, I wasn’t sure which one is for me, I like graphics, I like speed and simplicity. Hmm…Well, no choice then, I just have to try out all.KDE (Kubuntu) has heavy graphics and is easier to configure to make it look like Windows Vista or XP. It has the best software based on looks and functions compared to the others. As usual good graphics comes with drawbacks, and that is you can’t install it on slow computers and even a fast computer will be not so fast when u have Kubuntu installed on it compared the other 2. As for loading at boot, it loads quite fast.

Gnome (Ubuntu) does have simplicity, it looks more like Mac and you can configure it to look like Windows. The graphics are simple and not heavy like Kubuntu. The software are not as good as KDE ones but you can install KDE, Gnome and XFCE software on all of them so it doesn’t matter so much, but KDE software look different than Gnome and XFCE so I prefer them to use their own type of software. My choice would be Ubuntu all because of its looks and simplicity.

Xubuntu (XFCE) looks the simplest but for slow computers it will work the best though not too slow computer. If you’re are going to use i486 kind of computer, please do download an alternate CD of Xubuntu and not the live CD. Not much of graphic effects but you can configure it too look much better but it takes a lot of work.

Using Gnome for the past 6months,got me bored, and with the release of Kubuntu KDE4. i decided to try it out. After checking out some screenshots online, i decided to download and install it. Expecting something really interesting and eye candy..

But What it had in store for me was just disspointment .KDE4 is bugs galore .for starters i had problems with the Oxygen icons (although the icons look really great) Further problems arose with the widgets after enabling a widget i couldn’t see it!! finally i gave up on that.
Perhaps something was wrong with my installation, i couldn’t even change certain settings. They were all just disabled so no changes could be made to them.

Although the taskbar and the menu great, with a clear clock. I think i’ll still stick to KDE 3.5.9 for the time being. I can now understand the reason behind Kubuntu 8.04 not being LTS.

Hopefully with the release of KDE 4.1 due in july, perhaps a more stable and bug free version can be expected…

But for now, i’m switching back to Ubuntu and Kubuntu 3,5,9

A few Days ago, I came across this bookmarks.xml error while closing dolphin.
There are two ways to solving this problem

1. open dolphin in root or using the terminal navigate to the specified location and delete the bookmarks.xml file

or

The most probable cause of the error is that the file does not have the correct permissions, once i provided the permissions for the file the error disappeared.

2. open up terminal and type this :

~$\> sudo chown user:user /home/.kde/share/apps/d3lphin/bookmarks.xml

*replace “user” with your current username.

*restart your com, and the error should be gone.