The release date for Ubuntu 8.04, the second Long Time Support of the arguably most popular Linux distribution is approaching. Let’s do a little overview of what we have that0s new:
The Wubi installer will let Windows users install (a pretty retarded version of) Ubuntu onto the Windows partition. Even though it’s an interesting choice, it may create a lot of confusion!
We have GNOME 2.22, the new version of the default desktop environment. It will contain the Cheese web-cam recording app, GVFS, Telepathy and a multitude of other improvements and addons.
Theme updates make the new Ubuntu a very nice OS to look at by default.
Some new apps are the Transmission BitTorrent Client (which I use on my Mac and it’s as least as good as uTorrent), Brasero burning software and of course a few Compiz updates.
Are you ready for April the 24th? I know I am 
I believe something like this would come out:
My anime addiction has made me download tons of anime this week, so I was sometimes forced to use the proprietary Realmedia .rm and .rmvb files. While the compression quality is outstanding, I tried to find a good replacement for Real Player on Linux.
On Windows I use Real Alternative and on my Mac the free Real Player (it doesn’t seem as bloated as the Windows version).
And then i stumbled upon a player called Helix. The Helix DNA is the base of Real Player, but the Helix player works only on Unix systems. I’m still testing it, but according to a few Google searches I did it should play well with Real media formats.
Off to Kanon!
SliTaz GNU/Linux is a new member of the Linux mini-distro family. This newcomer has joined the market, currently dominated by the “major” minor (pun intended) distributions, such as Puppy Linux and of course DSL. These distributions are focused on older hardware, and the main goal is to basically find a balance between low system resource usage and optimal productivity power.
Slitaz running E17Â
I’ve taken SliTaz for a spin, and I must say it is a pretty formidable OS.
Much smaller than both Puppy and DSL, SliTaz automatically detected my hardware and DHCP, booted in warp speed, and loaded the default JWM with a nifty panel in almost no-time. The only thing that bothers me was the decision to not include more keyboard maps for X, (which means no Slovenian xkbmap). Although I suppose this problem can be solved with the tazpkg package manager included in the distro, I didn’t have the time to figure it out.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for a fast, stable and small distro, SliTaz would be first on your ‘try’ list. If you like it, you can install it on your hard disk directly from the LiveCD. SliTaz’ main goal is to see what productivity can be squeezed into a 25 mb LiveCD. Evidently it’s more than I expected.
Try SliTaz now
Here are some funny (and somewhat useless) commands and Easter eggs to play with in your Linux terminal. Some of them also work in the Windows Command Line.
If you know of a funny command which I haven’t covered, please tell me in the comments.
1.) Enter “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl“ (without quotes) and watch a full Star Wars Movie in ASCII
2.)Â Enter “% man: why did you get a divorce?” and see what happens
3.) Cowsay and Cowthink
("apt-get moo")
4) For Linux distributions using Aptitude (Ubuntu’s one of them, too)
1. Type “aptitude moo” and press ENTER
2. then enter “aptitude -v moo“
3. then enter “aptitude -v -v moo“
4. Then try “aptitude -v -v -v moo“
5. Try adding a fourth -v (“aptitude -v -v -v -v moo“)
6. add a fifth -v (“aptitude -v -v -v -v -v moo“)
7. Add a sixth -v (“aptitude -v -v -v -v -v -v”)
5) An Ubuntu Fish. If you’re using GNOME, press alt+f2 and type "free the fish"
