I’ve been using Google Reader for about as long as I’ve been using Delicious. When it comes to finding new content I greatly prefer Google Reader over any other resource available, I also prefer Delicious over any other method for storing bookmarks. While sharing and starring items in my feed reader is convenient, it has steadily caused me to become remiss in saving items to Delicious over the years.
I love Inkscape, it’s no secret. Most of the images in my portfolio were created using Inkscape. It has a clean interface, just the right tools to do what I want, and it’s free. I prefer it over any other available vector image editing program out there so I jumped at installing the newest release when it was made available. Some great new features include timed autosaves, spell check, better PS and EPS export. Unfortunately, the Ubuntu repositories don’t contain this version yet. On the bright side, installing 0.47 is a breeze using the apt-get build-dep function to install everything needed to put you on the path to vector editing zen.
Mozilla Messaging announced on Tuesday that it had officially released Thunderbird 3 its open source mail client. I’ve written about Thunderbird 3 before. New features to the client include tabs, and an impressive search component. I’ve gotten a few emails asking how to install via apt. So I’ll post those instructions too.
Abobe AIR 2 hit the net recently, it boasts a large number of improvements since its predecessors release a few years ago. Though it’s still in beta I’ve not had any issues with it so far. Continue on below for installation instructions and a list of all the new bells and whistles.
For the past few weeks I’ve been using Google Chrome as my primary browser. I find that it performs very well compared to Firefox as well as making better use of screen real estate, even with the tweaking I wrote about last month. However, I still haven’t decided if it’s worth making the jump completely from Firefox, especially with such interesting developments in that browser’s evolution as well. It’s no shock to anyone that Firefox has been whittling away at Internet Explorer’s hegemony over the browser landscape for some time now. With the introduction of Google’s Chrome browser Internet Explorer’s fall from power continues, albeit, at somewhat of a glacial pace.
Recently I read about an interesting Mozilla feature that allows users to create custom collections of add-ons to share with other users. Essentially making this post much easier for me to write now that I don’t have to drone on and on about which add-ons I use to streamline my favorite browser’s interface. I usually have about 20 tabs open at time and a lot of these are must-haves to make sense of everything. This group of plugins is a sure fire way to trim the fat off your Firefox browser. Also, for those of you lucky enough to own a netbook, they make browsing the web much easier on the eyes by maximizing the viewable content area. See the full post for even more space saving tips.
Minimalist’s Collection – A set of add-ons to streamline your browser without compromising usability.
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Earlier this month Google unveiled yet another of it’s favicons. Though some disagree, I feel that this version is a lot nicer than any previous iteration, especially the one they released June of last year. Popular productivity blog Lifehacker recently posted instructions on how to replace the old Google icon in the search bar with the newer version. Though they didn’t provide any instructions for Linux users.
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Let’s face it. Not everyone likes orange and brown that much.
This guide will serve as a reference for future posts. Additionally, I hope that it will provide you with the framework and knowledge needed to customize your desktop in a way that reflects your personal preference. However, nothing in this post is set in stone, take as much or as little of it as you’d like. I’m open to criticism about what things you think I left off this list, so feel free to add more in the comments section. Take this as a list of ideas and suggestions to shape the feel of your desktop any way you’d like.
Update: Thunderbird 3 has moved out of testing and now has an official release. I’ve posted installation instructions here.
One of the things I’ve never really been fond of, on any computer, are desktop email clients. This is especially the case when they come preloaded on the machine. I find that using Gmail fulfills most of my needs, however, if you’re on a Linux machine and simply must have a desktop email client I highly recommend using Mozilla’s Thunderbird over Evolution.
Adobe AIR, the runtime environment I’ve written about before, has been moved out of beta and is now inline with releases for Windows and Mac. Expect apps to run more consistently with how they appear on other operating systems as well as having better integration with the Linux environment . That means apps won’t disappear when you minimize them.
Be sure to uninstall any previous releases of Adobe AIR before moving forward. Especially alpha/beta releases. This can be done in a number of ways depending on how it was initially installed.
Enter these commands to get the newest version (currently 1.5.2):
cd ~/Desktop
wget http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/latest/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
Give the .bin file execution rights:
sudo chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
Run the bin file to install/upgrade AIR:
sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
