• Ubuntu 9.10 “karmik Koala” released in the last week of October. New feature is Ubuntu One Online Storage.

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/910features

• OpenSuse 10.2 released on Nov 12th, 2009. http://news.opensuse.org/2009/11/12/opensuse-11-2-released/

• Fedora 12 is set to release on Nov 17th , 2009.  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/12/Schedule

Setting Up VPN Server On Debian 5.0 Lenny

1. Install pptpd
apt-get install pptpd

2. Enable IP Forwarding

edit /etc/sysctl.conf, uncomment following
#net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

3. Configure pptpd
Edit /etc/pptpd.conf
Add local ip (server’s ip) and remote ips (range of ips which can be offered to clients)
e.g.
localip 10.0.0.1
remoteip 10.0.0.21-40,10.0.0.51

4. Configure DNS Servers
Edit /etc/ppp/pptpd-options
Add dns servers to ms-dns
e.g.
ms-dns 125.17.130.129
ms-dns 208.91.169.198

5. Add Users Authentication
# Secrets for authentication using CHAP
# client    server    secret            IP addresses
test        pptpd    test            *

6. Restart pptp daemon
/etc/init.d/pptpd restart

7. Open  tcp  port  1723 on your router/firewall to be able to  connect to the vpn server from the world.

8.  Test Connection

Two ways to extract a MS EXE/CAB archieves on linux,

1. cabextract <EXE_FILE>

2. unzip -a <EXE_FILE>

Open Terminal:
Applications → Accessories → Terminal

Type:
sudo nautilus
enter your password

Nautilus browser is opened….
Go to File System → boot → grub → menu.lst

This file will be opened with gedit.

You will see something like the picture below.

To change the default operating system, scroll almost towards the end until you see something like the picture below. (The menu of operating system.)

If you want for example Windows XP as your default operating system to boot, which is the 4th choice of on the menu, you will have to change the default operating system to boot. (Scroll to the beginning until you see something like the picture below.) If it is the 5th choice, then change it to number 5.
If you would like to change the seconds it takes to wait before it boots to the default operating system on the menu, change the timeout seconds.

PeaZip & 7-Zip…Both are open source file and archive manager. Both are cross platform, available as portable and can be used to compress or extract files of various types.

PeaZip
1. a) Packing : 7Z, ARC, BZ2, GZ, PAQ/LPAQ, PEA, QUAD/BALZ, TAR, UPX, ZIP;
b) Unpacking only: ACE, ARJ, CAB, DMG, ISO, LHA, RAR, UDF and many more archive types (79 file extensions supported, see full list)
2. Split/join files
3. AE256 encryption
4. Generate random passwords
5. Secure file deletion
6. Checksum and hash files
And more. Find out more from the official website.

7-Zip Main Features:
1. High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
2. Supported formats:
a. Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
b. Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
3. For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
4. Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
5. Self-extracting capability for 7z format
6. Integration with Windows Shell
7. Powerful File Manager
8. Powerful command line version
9. Plugin for FAR Manager
10. Localizations for 69 languages

Find out more from their official website.
7-zip is smaller compared to Peazip but Peazip is more beautiful looking. If you would like to change how 7-zip looks and you are willing to learn by searching on google, that’s good but if you’re the kind that likes to use after installing without any configuration and you like beauty, go for Peazip. 7-zip would be good on old computers and slow computers.

Ubuntu Studio is a tailor made  multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu aimed at audio/video, graphic editors, both enthusiasts and professionals. One could setup a decent studio, and connect midi devices, synthesizers, audio/video recording devices, additional sound cards and installing ubuntu studio on the system. Look and feel of ubuntu studio is very attractive. Folks who are not much interested in studio tools, but like the look and feel of it, can  stillinstall and use ubuntu studio theme on top of their existing ubuntu system ( sudo apt-get install -yq ubuntustudio-look ).

Ubuntu Studio comes with a kernel which is been  tweaked to allow higher priority to graphics, audio  and video applications which should give effectively better performance for these applications and reduce latency, jitter etc. Ubuntu Studio comes with Some of the tools that come with ubuntu studio are,

Graphics: Blender 3D Modeler, GIMP, InkScape, Synfig Studio, Agave, Scribus
Audio Production: Audacity, Ardour, Mixx, Muse, RoseGarden, QSynth etc. etc…
Video Production: Kino, Open Movie Editor, Stop Motion

For more information on Ubuntu Studio please visit their homepage at http://ubuntustudio.org and also have a look at the wiki article on ubuntu studio at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Studio.

The 2nd experiment that I did was install Xubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on my Pentium 3 256MB Ram. Comparatively to Vector Linux Standard Edition(XFCE), I liked Xubuntu better as to add/install softwares were easier and spiced up with graphics compared to Vector Linux which looked plain and old.

Speed was almost the same at first, but after I’ve downloaded and installed the softwares I needed to run on the computer (eg. Open Office, Mplayer and so on), it was slightly slower compared to Vector Linux. That’s the price we pay for graphics I guess. Overall, I would choose Vector Linux as it was faster but wait…. when I installed Vector Linux on my computer, I logged in using a different desktop environment which was Fluxbox. It was way faster and not bad looking. It will be hard at first to get used to it, but I do enjoy the speed and the graphics are ok. It has the AWN kind of dock or a dock like MAC, not exactly the same but almost and it is fast not slow like AWN.

I guess the nest would be Linux Mint(fluxbox) and Fluxbuntu. Why? It’s because it is based on Ubuntu so that means it would be easier to handle compared to Slackware and others which most people don’t want to learn. If you’re more into technology then you should try out something harder like downloading debian, gentoo, slackware or any other major distros and start from the basics.

Screenshot of Xubuntu:

Xubuntu File Management : Thunar

In this article I am going to provide you a simple and quick way to setup reliance data card on ubuntu hardy heron. Most of the tasks could be done with the script that I am attaching here.

1. Plugin Data Card

2. Download setup script from here. Open a terminal and run it as ” bash reliance_setup.sh “. It will ask for your data card connection number. Provide it when it does and press enter. The script will install gnome-ppp gui package, wvdial, and modify the necessary system files to setup permissions to dial the reliance connection using ppp.

3. Once set up, the script will launch gnome-ppp dialer. You need to provide following,

Username

Password (same as usrname. the connection number)

Phone Number : #777

4. Click on “Setup” option from the dialer window. From modem tab, click on “Detect” button which will automatically detect your usb modem in most cases. If not, you’ll have to choose it manually from the dropdown menu. Choose speed as 115200 from the drop down list.

5. You could leave rest of the options as it is for now. Close the setup window and click on “Connect”. You are all ready to rock. A connection window will appear, from which you could click on “Log” to see what is happening while connection is progress.

Are you tired of waiting till your favorite yououtube video stream is being buffered to avoid jitters?  Are you looking for an application to save youtube videos offline and watch them at your convenience
later? Do you want to save multiple parts of a video and watch it as a whole in one go? …. Try Miro.

Miro is an application which turns your computer into an internet TV video player. It has a concept of channels whereas viewers could browse through thousands of channels available and subscripbe to them and receive regular feeds downloaded at your desktop, some of the most popular being ‘National Geographic Video Shorts’, Discovery Channels Video Podcasts, Cartoons, Spanish Learning Channel etc.

Here are few interesting features available with Miro:

1. Watch YouTube Videos: One can search, download and watch YouTube videos and videos from maany more video streaming sites such as Google Videos, Yahoo Videos, Blogdigger, Blip.tv, DailyMotion. The application actually downloads the videos to harddisk, making it available to be watched offline. By default the video expires in 5 days, which can be changed with option to store it permanently on the drive.

2. Video Player: Miro also acts as a video player for the internet videos. It uses embedded player such as gstreamer, xine in linux and vlc on windows, and quicktime on Mac to play the videos. One could
actually watch videos in fullscreen mode, which apparently looks better than that watching it on youtube. And users could play videos, which generally come in the parts, as if it is a single video.

3. Cross Platform: Miro is a Open Source Software, released under GPL License, and is avaialble on Linux, Windows, and Mac Operating Systems.

4. Widely Supported Formats: Miro supports a wide range of video formats including MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H,264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video(Youtube Videos) and many more.

5. Channels and Automatic Video Downloads: Miro comes with an in built channel guide, which users can brows through and select thier favourite channels. Once added, users can configure miro to download videos automatically as and when added.

6. Podcasts Compatible: You could add your podcasts that you have been downloading automatically with itunes so far, to Miro as a channel. Once added, all new podcasts can be downloaded automatically.

7. Share: Users could search videos, watch them and share with friends using social sites such as del.icio, digg, reddit etc.

Even though its released as a beta, overall, Miro is a wonderful app to have on your desktop.