From time to time Ubuntu may seem somewhat buggy. It may happen in case when you want to get drivers for wireless internet. This process may appear to be a little bit difficult. However there are numerous forums on the Ubuntu website at your disposal. Thus you can ask any question concerning the Ubuntu you are interested in. It should be noted that any Linux version disposes of this issue, however Ubuntu is the best rated one. You can retain Microsoft OS, however make certain you have enough space on your hard drive disk: 1/2 for Vista & 1/2 for Linux OS.

If you make a decision on availing yourself of Ubuntu, first you should go to www.ubuntu.com. Here you can download the ISO. Thereafter you should burn it to a CD and place it into CD/DVD drive. You will be prompted to install the version in question. You will have two options: the first option presupposes installing it along side your functional OS so you will receive a dual-boot system, the second option means formatting the hard drive and installing the new OS.

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Ubuntu is distributed free of charge, including corporate versions and safety renovation. Ubuntu enjoys support of Canonical Ltd. and hundreds of companies throughout the world.
The disks with Ubuntu contain only free software. It is noteworthy that the free usage, distribution, improvement of free software has been encouraged.

At present there also Ubuntu Netbook Remix has appeared which represents a system specially designed for notebooks with small screens. The Canonical Company has announced the operating system Ubuntu Netbook Remix officially for devices with smaller screens, controlled by new processors Intel atom. As concerns Netbooks, they represent mini notebooks, such as ASUS eeePC. Such notebooks are very compact and they are mainly used for Internet browsing.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix is based on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Its main innovation is updated interface which is used for application start, which enables to obtain quick access to files located on the small screen of a notebook. Ubuntu Netbook Remix is usually accessible to OEM suppliers because the given version includes some of the proprietary codecs and technologies.

The Ubuntu packages contain the following options: go-home-applet, Window-picker-applet, maximus, human-netbook-theme, ume-launcher, desktop-switcher.

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In fact Evolution represents a very functional application which in addition to mail integrates calendar, address book, to-do list, memo tools and etc. One of the nice things about this software consists in the fact that it’s a part of GNOME desktop environment, thus there is no need to install it.

Taking into account that Gmail configuration has some distinctive features, we decided to review it in detail to help you avoid different problems, which may appear.

Configuration of Gmail using POP3

Here are the steps to follow:

1) Open the browser, login to your Gmail account and click “Settings”:

2) Choose “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” panel, make sure that POP is enabled and choose “keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox” option (2nd point of POP Download section):

3) Click on the Evolution icon (upper panel) or go to: Applications > Internet > Evolution Mail:

4) Click “Forward” button on the Welcome window:

5) Due to the fact that we configure mail for the first time, skip this option and click “Forward”:

6) Write your name, email address and Reply-to:

7) Choose “POP” from the drop-down menu, write everything as you see on the screenshot, of course, you have to type your email address (Username field):

8 ) Check “Leave messages on server” and change the update interval (“Check for new messages every … minutes”), by default it’s 10 minutes:

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1. Enabling all the repositories

Repositories represent software archives were thousands of programs for Ubuntu are stored. Repositories make it very easy to install new software onto Ubuntu using an Internet connection. In addition to that they provide a high level of security, as each program available in the repositories is thoroughly tested and built specifically for each version of Ubuntu. Thus enabling all the repositories you ensure the access to the bigger amount of applications.

It should be mentioned that Ubuntu software repositories are organized into 4 separate components, according to the level of support offered by Ubuntu. Here is the list of those components:

• Main – Officially supported software.

• Restricted – Supported software that is not available under a completely free license.

• Universe – Community maintained software, i.e. not officially supported software.

• Multiverse – Software that is not free.

There are two ways to enable/disable repositories:

a) System > Administration > Software Sources

b) System > Administration > Synaptic >> Settings >> Repositories

Here is the window you get, which gives you the opportunity to choose the repositories you need:

As soon as you’ve done which choosing enabling/disabling of repositories (we suggest you to enable all of them), click “Close” button to save your changes. A dialog box should appear, asking whether you’d like to update the list of repositories. Select “Reload” to update the list. Make sure that you click “Reload” button, because repository information will not be updated until the “Reload” is selected.

IMPORTANT: In case you use Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) all the repositories are enabled by default, so you can skip this step.

The last thing to mention about repositories is that you can use command line instead of graphical interface to manage them. Here you get more info about this method.

2. Installing the system components

a) Adding the fonts

When you first start Ubuntu there are no decent fonts to work with, but this problem can be easily solved. Open the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts ttf-larabie-straight ttf-larabie-deco mplayer-fonts xfonts-terminus xfonts-terminus-oblique xfonts-mona tv-fonts ttf-tuffy ttf-sjfonts ttf-sil-padauk ttf-sil-ezra ttf-paktype ttf-georgewilliams ttf-fifthhorseman-dkg-handwriting ttf-farsiweb ttf-nafees ttf-mgopen ttf-freefont ttf-dustin ttf-devanagari-fonts ttf-dejavu-extra ttf-dejavu-core ttf-dejavu ttf-bpg-georgian-fonts ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-alee

b) Installing different archivers

sudo aptitude install rar unrar zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar cabextract

c) Installing themes

If you don’t like the default look of the system, you can easily install a lot of different themes. First of all you should run the following command in the Terminal:

sudo apt-get install gnome-themes-extras metacity-themes ubuntume-themes community-themes gnome-art

Of course those themes are not the only ones you can get. Probably you saw a great deal of cool themes on the screenshots of Ubuntu. Here are the things you should do to get much more themes.

Visit Gnome Look and download from GTK 2.x the themes you want. After that go to System > Preferences > Appearance > Theme and simply drag and drop the theme file you downloaded.

d) Installing CompizConfig Settings Manager to add effects

Given application brings 3D desktop visual effects that improve usability of the system and provide increased productivity. To install run the following command:

sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra emerald librsvg2-common

e) Installing file managers

In fact standard file manager is pretty decent and the majority of the users, at least at the beginning, will hardly feel the necessity to use another application instead. However you can try to install default file managers for Xfce and KDE desktop environments, just to check if they are more convenient for you. Here are the commands you need to run in order to install them:

sudo apt-get install dolphin

After installation you can find this file manager by going Applications > System Tools > Dolphin

sudo apt-get install thunar

To find this program go to Applications > Accessories > Thunar File Manager

If you like two pane design you can install EmelFM2:

sudo apt-get install emelfm2

This application as Dolphin can be found in System Tools.

Of course there are much more file manager to choose from. So check Synaptic Package Manager and install the ones you like.

f) Installing VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a free x86 virtualization solution allowing a wide range of x86 operating systems such as Windows, DOS, BSD or Linux to run on a Linux system. What for do you need it? It’s up to you. Maybe just to install Ubuntu for testing purposes. Here is the command you need to run:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-source

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What are the network interfaces? They represent devices that are used to transmit and receive packages of data. The examples of network interface devices are: Ethernet card, ISDN adapter, modem and etc. You can imagine that a network interface is a mailbox or an end of pipe, where you can send information and receive an answer. The integral attribute of network interface is address.

Generally users encounter with IP (Internet Protocol) networks. In the given review we are going to consider IPv4 (4th version of IP addresses), which are still very popular among the end users. After that we will discuss how to setup a network connection in Linux, taking as an example Ethernet card (which presents an interface allowing to connect a PC to the net with the help of copper twisted pair cable with the data transfer speed of up to 1GB/s). You can setup other interfaces in a similar way. To setup the interface in Linux the following steps should be completed:

• Physical installation of the card in the system (we suppose you’ve already done this step or the interface is in the motherboard of your computer; moreover don’t forget to plug in the cable as well)
• Installation of the proper drivers, so Linux can work with your card
• Specifying IP address and some other parameters, which are needed for IP network

In Linux OS network interfaces (as the majority of other devices) are set up with the help of text files, which can vary depending on distributions, for example:

We are going to review it by Ubuntu example.

All Linux network interfaces have unique alphanumeric identifiers. For Ethernet interfaces the identifier consists of “Eth” prefix and interface ordinal number, which is generally assigned by OS depending on the order of devices on PCI bus; however in some cases it can be changed. Linux can work (and, of course, assign an identifier) just with those devices, which have proper drivers installed. Run ifconfig command in the terminal. In case you see your network card in the list, it means that Linux installed the drivers. Here is the way a response you should get may look:

As you probably understood “eth0″ means your network card. In case there are some network cards, for each one there will be an eth section with the order number.

Using dmesg | grep -i eth command you can specify the name of network interface that corresponds to your network card. Of course, it can be useful just in case you have several cards. Here is the way it looks:

If you don’t see the card you need in the list, you will have to find and install the driver.

A driver is a small program that allows operating system to get the functionality of certain devices. Due to this fact the drivers for different operating systems differ from each other (still there are some exceptions, for instance, some drivers for Windows can be used in Linux as well).

In Linux drivers are implemented in the kernel by compilation or by installing special kernel module. Drivers are generally distributed in the same way as usual programs (in particular in the form of source code), but their installation may require some additional actions, thus it’s strongly recommended to get familiar with the README for a certain driver. The most probable sources for proper drivers are:

• Webiste of device manufacturer
• Website of your Linux distribution provider (in particular, update packages for Ubuntu, which include drivers, appear on a regular basis – drivers for some network cards you can find in the package linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic).
• Hackers or communities websites

The process of configuring network interface for working in IP networks includes defining the following parameters:

IP address of interface.  It represents 4 decimal numbers that are separated by periods. For example, 10.9.8.7. In case you connect your computer to an existing network, the address should be taken from network administrator; but if you create your own network, it’s recommended to choose IP address from special range: 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255 and 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255

Subnet mask (address mask). Given parameter is used to define the multitude of computer addresses, which are available in your network. If there is a necessity you can learn more here. In small networks the most common mask value is 255.255.255.0.

Gateway. If your network is going to have connection with other network (even with Internet), you need to define the address of routing computer (gateway), which is directly connected both with your network and the other one. All the data packages that are not masked by the above mentioned mask will be transferred to this router for redirection to the extranet.

Broadcast address. It’s used to send the data to all computers in your network at once. In most cases there is no need to specify it because the system can automatically calculate it.

DNS server address. It represents IP address of a server that transforms character names, which are convenient for users (for example, www.lampdocs.com, www.linux.com and etc), into appropriate IP addresses and vice versa. Generally such a server is maintained by your internet provider, moreover very often several servers are provided to ensure fault tolerance.

If the user wants to get rid of setting all the parameters, a special server can be created in the network – DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which will automatically configure your network interface. Get in contact with the administrator of your network or your Internet provider to find out if there is a DHCP server. In case such a server doesn’t exist, you will need to specify all the settings manually; it’s not as hard to do and the procedure is almost the same as the one in Windows. Now we are going to show how you can do that in Ubuntu.

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It’s quite an understandable fact that each of you has favorite apps for movies, music, Internet radio and so on. Moreover it can be just one single app, which you really like, thus willing to get at least comparable alternative. Fortunately there are a lot of things to choose from, so you can easily find the one corresponding to all your needs.

Here is the full list of the most popular multimedia applications to be reviewed (in alphabetical order):

1. Amarok
2. Audacious
3. Banshee Media Player
4. Dragon Player
5. Exaile Music Player
6. Juk Player
7. Kaffeine Player
8. Listen Music Player
9. Movie Player (Totem)
10. MPlayer
11. Quod Libet
12. Rhythmbox Music Player
13. SMPlayer
14. Songbird
15. VLC Media Player

As you understand the amount of programs deserving attention is much bigger, so if you encountered a nice app that wasn’t included in the list, please let us know.

Amarok (audio)

Amarok represents a very popular media player known by its great functionality and usability. One of the coolest feature of this app is Web services integration, which allows you to access music directly, significantly expanding the number of songs you can listen to. The services you can connect to are: Last.fm, Magnatune, Ampache, Librivox, MP3tunes, Shoutcast Radio, Jamendo, and OPML Podcast. Still you can easily add other services as well.

In addition to that Amarok is a cross-platform player, so you can download Windows or MacOS version to give it a try (if you’re not using Linux yet); however it should be mentioned that those versions are for testing purposes only, because there is no official support yet.

Another nice thing about Amarok is its attractive design. Let’s see some screenshots so you can check it. Here is the main window of Amarok:

No doubts it’s very pleasant to use, but you will need to spend some time in order to get familiar with its most important features. Don’t forget to check Settings panel that will help you customize the app:

If you would like to get see more screenshots, please visit this page.

Now let’s take a closer look at the features of given player. Here are the ones which weren’t mentioned yet:

• creating and editing playlists
• powerful tagging, renaming and sorting abilities
• opportunity to enhance your Amarok with community developed scripts
• automatic and manual bookmarking
• multilingual support (more than 45 languages) and etc.

Unfortunately there is no way to watch movies with this app. However for justice sake it should be emphasized that this is the only drawback which prevents Amarok from being all-in-one media player.

On June 17, 2009 the latest version of Amarok — 2.1.1 «Oceania» – was released. You can download it here. Nevertheless there is an easier way to install it: Applications — Add/Remove — Search for «Amarok» – Choose it — Apply changes. To start the application go to: Applications — Sound and Video — Amarok.

Audicious (audio)

Audacious is an advanced audio player, which is focused on audio quality, supporting a great deal of audio codecs. Audacious is extendable through plugins, and contains other useful features like LIRC support and support for Last.fm. It has a nice looking design which is very similar with the one of well-known Winamp for Windows; moreover it even supports some of Winamp skins, but not the modern ones.

As it was mentioned before the nice thing of Audacious is opportunity to implement a lot of features by using plugins. If you would like to check the full list of available plugins, please visit Features and Plugins pages.

Here is a couple of screenshots for you to have an idea about the way it looks. The first one is the main window of Audacious:

As you see it’s pretty simple, so there is no need to spend a lot of time to get used to it. The only thing you should do at the very beginning is to check preference panel:

Given player, as you probably have already understood, does not support video as well. However in the other aspects it’s pretty decent, so you should check it for sure before making the final decision.

Finally it should be emphasized that Audacious can be installed from Add/Remove panel (as in previous case), but in this way you won’t be able to get the latest version. Thus if you really like to have the latest and greatest version, you should download it from the official website.

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In fact Linux installation is much easier than the majority of users may think it to be; it can hardly be considered more complex than the one of Windows. The only thing users should remember is that they need to install it on a different disk because in most cases Linux distributions are installed as a second operating system; but we will talk about it in detail a little bit later…

As regards the system requirements they are pretty the same as the ones for Windows XP, so there is no need to have a high-end computer in order to try Linux. Moreover, the installation program automatically detects your computer’s hardware and you don’t usually need to supply it with any specific details about your system; though you should make sure that your hardware meets the minimum requirements of the distribution you’ve chosen.

In addition to that it should be emphasized that generally all distributions support graphical and text-based installations. Only systems with more that 192MB of RAM or that boot from the installation DVD or Live Media can use the graphical installer. For the text-based installation you should have at least 64MB of RAM.

Before we start it should be mentioned that in this certain case we will review the installation of Fedora 11. However if you decide to install different Linux distribution (please read this post to check the most popular ones), you won’t encounter any problems, because in general the installation process is very similar. Moreover it will be much better if you choose a Live version, because you will have the opportunity to check the way system works.

The Installation Process

First of all make sure that you have a separate partition prepared for the installation of the distribution (you can use Acronis Disk Director Suite, Paragon Partition Manager and etc); however this step is not an obligatory one. Burn a CD or DVD from the distribution image. Check if the system boots from CD- or DVD-ROM. If you using a Live version of a distribution, it’s a great idea to test the system.

Live system

As soon as you boot from CD or DVD with the Linux distribution the system will be loaded, though it doesn’t mean that it’s already installed on your PC or laptop. I would strongly recommend you to spend some time checking system in action, just to make sure that you’ve made a right decision as far as the distribution is concerned. Here is the way Fedora Live version works:

a) The screen you see while the system is loading to start

b) Choosing the language of the system and keyboard

c) The desktop of the system that has just started

d) Checking the functionality and the software available without the need to be installed

Finally when you’re done with the checking and are ready to start, just double-click “Install to Hard Drive” icon in order to initialize the installation process.

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