Ubuntu Tutorials

For those that are fans of the Free Software Office Suite, Open Office, a release candidate has been made available for version 3.2. This version improves a number of features in all areas of the tool. Some of the highlights are:

• Faster startup times: both Calc and Writer have cold-boot start times improved by 46%!
• Improved ODF standards support
• Improved proprietary file support including MS Excel, MS Word, MS Powerpoint, OLE Objects, Encryption support, and much more
• Support for Postscript based OpenType fonts
• Improved autocorrect word completion
• Mediawiki support moved to extension
• A number of Calc improvements including: improved sort, better merged cell handling, complex copy/paste,
• much more!

If you’d like to see the complete list, visit: http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.2/rc1.html

For those wanting to upgrade to the Release Candidate (Final release is scheduled for January), you can download the latest packages at the link below. It should be noted that 3.2 final release should be included in the next Ubuntu release, 10.04, due this April.

http://download.openoffice.org/all_rc.html

You’ll want to select the .deb package from your preferred language. Enjoy.

I’m really enjoying the latest additions in GNOME 2.28, but one thing that has been bugging me is the rewrite of the GDM login screen. Historically it has been possible to customize a number of options, including features such as activating or deactivating the user list. With this latest upgrade it seems that GDM has been completely rewritten and those previously accessible customizations are now gone or well hidden. I have, however, been able to find a way to disable the user list and, again, require a username to login.

I’m curious to see further improvements to the new GDM system, but until that time I prefer to require username and password to login, not just a password.

Disable User List

In order to disable the user list you’ll need to open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true

Enable User List

If you’d like to re-enable the user list you can revert the above command using:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list false

I don’t think I’ve blogged much about it here, but I have become a huge fan of Google Chrome (or Chromium) on Linux. Anytime I’ve found the need to use Firefox of late it feels *dog* slow and clunky. Chrome is absolutely faster and I have really enjoyed using it.

You’ve probably heard by now that Google has released a Beta version for Linux as well as Mac, both of which are available on the download site. For the longest time I had been using the PPA or manual builds of Chromium, but now I’m using the Beta and life has become simpler.

Installing Chrome Beta

For those that haven’t tried Chrome yet, I’d invite you to give the Beta a shot. This version has support for user scripts (such as Adblock) as well as bookmark sync. To install the Beta version, visit http://google.com/chrome.

Click on the “Get Google Chrome (Beta)” in the upper-right.

Select the 32bit or 64bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu)

Click “Accept and Install”

This will download the .deb package, which you should be able to install without requiring any additional dependencies, using the GtkDebi installer (this should be the default “Open With…” application.

Keeping Updated

In doing some research the other day I found that installing the package above automagically installs the Google repository as well. This will ensure that your package stays updated as Google releases new version of the Beta, and eventually final browser. You don’t need to do anything else to remain updated, simply apply updates as you are prompted and this will also include the Google Chrome Beta browser!