I was just browsing Ubuntu Forums recently and someone wanted to get a second opinion to see if it were indeed true that Linux doesn’t need anti-virus software. I humbly obliged them with my own answer on the matter:
You don’t need anti-virus for Linux. Others in here will do a better job at explaining why this is, but in short, the OS has a big advantage here due to it being open source. The operating system is a product of crowd-sourcing, much in the same way as Wikipedia has been since it first showed up several years ago. And much like the highly-moderated articles of Wikipedia that require membership and an approval process for changes made to locked articles, so to is a strict moderation that goes on with the source code for Linux before it’s allowed to become part of the official distribution. Everybody is out to identify possible flaws or weaknesses or bugs in the source code and it’s much easier for any single person to make a contribution because the OS and much of the software that runs on it is open-source.
In Windows, the users don’t have the luxury of being able to dig through the source code to look for flaws. All they can do is report symptoms of problems to Microsoft, and the limited number of paid programmers that do have access to the source code then have to decide what flaws are the most important and which ones don’t merit their attention. So with Windows, a bug that affects only 500 people won’t be as important as a bug that affects 500,000 and probably won’t be fixed at all. But if it were Linux and if just one or two of those 500 people were a programmer who had access to the source code and figured out how to fix the problem on their own, the other 498 would actually stand to benefit from a patch that ends up being released thanks to the work of that one developer who had some spare time on his hands and decided to do something about a bug simply because he could.
So throughout the long life of Linux there has been this much more diversified, seasoned, multi-cultured source for development feedback that has helped to make it a much stronger, more “mature” operating system, especially in terms of the way security was designed. If there was ever a person out there who found a way to circumvent that security, there is at least one other who knows exactly how to repair the flaw. The reason viruses are able to best Windows is because their developers can only patch so many holes, and the ones they don’t have time to get around to end up being exploited the most. Third-party software developers that make Anti-Virus software make a killing because Microsoft is unable to handle this responsibility all by themselves, and even still, the best anti-virus software isn’t perfect.
The reason anti-virus software isn’t necessary in Linux is simply because the OS and its updates that patch vulnerabilities do the exact job anti-virus software in Windows is meant for: Prevent unwanted, malicious software or network activity from compromising the system. If there were a flaw in Linux found that allowed something like that, it wouldn’t be the job of some third-party software to safeguard the user against but the job of the OS itself. The reason anti-virus software even exists is simply because Microsoft is unable to handle the immense work load of patching their own source code as well as a crowd of Linux geeks can.
Am I saying Linux is perfect and invincible to viruses? Might it become more susceptible to viruses in the future if it were to ever become as popular as Windows is today? I would think that with an increase in the number of users would also come a complimentary increase in the number of clever developers that would only help to increase the number of eyes available to find flaws and fix them. Saying that Linux would get a lot of viruses down the road because more people are going to use it is like saying Wikipedia will become rife with widespread, uncontrollable vandalism because more people visit it. It hasn’t happened yet, and very likely never will happen because of the way it is designed, moderated and improved upon by the hive mind.
EDIT to add: As mentioned in the first comments below, I failed to acknowledge that while Linux is more robust in the area of security, nothing can compensate for the weakest link in this arrangement: The User. A novice user could easily be enticed by a sinister website that tells them to download a deb file which might contain malicious code and absentmindedly install it or execute a destructive command from the terminal window because they didn’t know any better (like rm -rf ~/*). Fortunately for novice users there is little if any need to actually venture out into uncharted territory like a terminal window or strange websites to get software, thanks to the official repositories that contain a HUGE collection of software which continues to grow. I’ve even heard you will soon be able to purchase proprietary Linux-based software through it. Unfortunately, little can really be done to compensate for user negligence, and trying to compensate for all possibilities would likely result in too many annoying alerts and prompts for the average user (like when Windows Vista sprang the UAC on its users).
There are only a couple of circumstances that I believe anti-virus software on a Linux platform would might be worth having which involve helping to protect other Windows systems. Say you got an email from someone that contained a virus but you never knew it was there and forwarded it onto someone else who uses Windows, resulting in their day being ruined and you being blamed. So that’s one scenario. You might also have a Linux server administrating a network of Windows based workstations which you have read/write access to and use the server to conduct scans of these machines over the network, but at the expense of finite network bandwidth and CPU cycles on the server.
All good things come to an end… Fortunately, Virtual Dave isn’t one of them. I’ve recently made the decision to drop my own remote assistance software in favor of using a new open-source VNC launcher called Gitso. This launcher has a few benefits over the previous iterations of my older “Virtual Dave” software:
Lightweight: It’s written in Python and loads very fast.
Simple: Sometimes losing a couple “bells and whistles” is a good thing.
Multiple platforms: Gitso works on Windows, Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X.
Active Development Pipeline: A feature request I submitted was approved for the next version less than a half hour after I submitted it.
Open-Source: Free as in freedom.
There are a lot of features in the coming versions of this software I have been looking for in a VNC tool for a long time. And who knows, I might learn a thing or two about programming in Python with this little tool.
Every now and then I post questions on www.techguy.org when I’m having difficultly with something computer/networking related. It was a good place to get your feet wet when aspiring to become a grade A guru and occasionally pull your hair out if you wanted to get into a civil debate with someone about politics.
Recently, I posted the following in their Networking forum:
I have a new Linksys/Cisco router WRT54G2 v.1 with the latest firmware installed. I currently use port forwarding for things like VNC and SSH into my home PC. However, every time I try to set a new rule (for both TCP and UDP) up for bittorrent, the bittorrent clients I try say the port is closed. I’m using an Ubuntu Linux system, and both Transmission and Deluge will say the ports I select are closed, even if I change the port numbers and do another test. So I’m just wondering if anyone has encountered anything like this before and might have an idea of what could be causing this problem.
The thread was alive for a matter of seconds before a moderator locked the thread and replied with the following:
Please read the rules. We will not help with P2P apps.
I was surprised to see this happen, and that’s probably because I use www.ubuntuforums.org more often than any other forum for technical assistance. Linux people like me approach the controversial topic of bittorrent a little differently… I decided to send the moderator a private message to let him know what I thought about his decision:
Sorry for violating the rules. However, I would argue that I did not ask a question pertaining to P2P applications at all but a question strictly about networking problems with a Linksys router. I should also remind you that bittorrent is a common protocol used for the transfer of free, non-copyrighted information spanning from GPL licensed open-source software to free music or movies released under the creative-commons license, which is becoming more popular. There is nothing inherently illegal about using bittorrent (the protocol), but it would seem the moderators of techguy.org hold a contrary consensus that I feel they should consider revising in recognition of the legitimate and legal uses of bittorrent.
The above comment and any replies received in any form will be posted publicly on my blog. Thank you for your time.
I got a reply fairly fast. Here’s what it said:
We cannot and will not assist in the illegal downloading of software through P2P applications, and that includes any impediments offered by networking components to such downloading. Any legal uses of such software are few and will unfortunately need to be included in this prohibition.
The policy has been in place for quite some time now and will not be changed.
Thank you for your concern,
Elvandil
I like his use of the word “prohibition”; like bittorrent is some sort of drug paraphernalia. I also noticed Mr. Elvandil happens to be Microsoft MVP and a die-hard Windows user who is probably adverse to anything of value that isn’t proprietary. This is just my own opinion as he is ignoring the fact that millions of people use Linux and a large portion of us download and share our Linux ISO files (for burning to CD) via bittorrent, among many other things 100% legal to share. It is a world he is unfamiliar with or in denial about.
Fortunately in the world of Linux it’s recognized that bittorrent itself is not illegal at all and I was glad to see a helpful reply in ubuntuforums.org within minutes; a reply that made me realize that sometimes I can be a completely narrow-minded person, too. ”Did you check your host-firewall?” Why… NO! So I opened my firewall manager Firestarter and sure enough saw blocked events taking place on the port I told my bittorrent client and router to use. All I had to do with allow inbound traffic to take place on that port. Talk about overlooking the obvious!
In a stunning announcement made today by the most powerful commercial software giant on the planet, Microsofts’ Steve Ballmer announced what some are calling a “shocking” new marketing strategy: The next version of Windows will be 100% open-source and cost zero dollars to all members of the public on its day of release late this year. Ballmer said that this is only an amplification of another recent advertising project Microsoft created recently which is centered around criticizing the high prices of Apple’s Mac OS X, saying that Apple fans are being played as suckers by “paying $500 more to get a logo.”
Since the founding of Microsoft by Bill Gates, who stepped down as CEO effectively handing the reigns to Mr. Ballmer, the software company has refused to release its source-code; the programing used to create their popular operating system. Keeping it closed-source has been a strategy used by Microsoft to ensure they could maximize profits on sales of their product, but Steve Ballmer said he felt the time was right to go open source for a multitude of reasons. “Not only did we feel like rubbing it in Apple’s face by removing the price tag from our product entirely, but we feel it’s time to get some help from the public on refining Windows. Because let’s face it; they use Windows more than we do, so we might as well let them fix it themselves for a change.”
Ballmer went on to explain that with Microsofts’ closed-source model, the repair of bugs and security holes in their software is much more challenging. “Our studies have shown that software developers and programmers actually become less productive in direct correlation to the amount of money you pay them for their work. It’s gotten so bad that the shutdown menu in Vista took several months to create and design, and that’s pretty damned embarrassing if you ask me.”
Reactions to the unexpected change have been mostly positive to sarcastic. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical which develops and promotes their free Ubuntu Linux operating system, considered the change to be a little amusing. “You know what they say: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Apple CEO Steve Jobs responded to the move by boldly stating “So what?!” When asked if Apple would consider making a similar change in their software development model, he replied in a typical sales pitch: “It takes a lot of money to build computers as cool as ours. Buy one,” he added with a crazed, hypnotic look in his eyes. “You’ll LOVE it.”
The open-source version of Windows 7 was originally slated to be released late in 2009, but with the sudden change in development structure, Microsoft actually anticipates this date to be unusually ahead of schedule. “Now that we’ve shaken our software development department down and replaced our laziest, most expensive programmers with dedicated Microsoft Windows fans who work for us out of sheer love for the brand, we anticipate faster development in the areas of security, stability and most importantly, system performance.” Microsoft was also originally planning to release seven various editions of Windows 7 (Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate and Star Trek Collectors edition), but it has been deduced that by making the software 100% open-source, the user will be able to get any edition they want for free simply by selecting which edition they want during installation at no difference in cost. “It’s a win win for everyone,” added Ballmer.
I don’t normally pass along virus alerts because they are often outdated and obsolete, but this one is strait from my IBM inbox. You may have heard about a virus that is set to strike on April 1st in the news recently. It is called Conficker.C and you can read more about how it works by visiting these addresses:
As stated in the links above, the virus takes advantage of a buffer-overflow vulnerability of certain server services on Windows based machines. Microsoft issued an update (MS08-067) for Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2 & SP3, and Vista to patch this hole back in October of last year. So if you have installed all available Windows updates you should be fine and not need to worry. It is highly recommended you install all available updates if you have not done so lately. To force your PC to check for available updates, click Start>All Programs>Windows Update and follow the on-screen instructions.
If your computer is directly connected to the Internet it is advised that you have a quality software firewall installed and blocking unexpected inbound traffic. A comparison of free firewall software can be found here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall.htm
In addition you should also have a quality anti-virus software solution in place. Any of the following will suffice:
As much as it would probably sooth the stiffness in my neck and shoulders from doing busy work inventorying computer equipment today, I’m going to try to not turn this into a sarcastic sounding slam against Microsoft… although they damn well deserve it.
I’ll just keep this very short. Internet Explorer has once again dropped the ball in the realm of Internet security and it’s something that’s been present for over 48 hours already. You can read about the problem via BBC’s website by clicking here.
The article states in bold letters at the top, “Security experts recommend switching to a rival browser until the problem is fixed.” Need a rival web browser? Download Firefox at www.firefox.com. It’s free, faster and much more secure than Internet Explorer ever will be. Seriously. Why is it more secure, you ask? Because it’s open-source, just like Linux. But again… don’t wanna turn this into a “Microsoft sucks” bashing post.
Also, on the side, I should mention that I’ve see a LOT of Windows systems get hit with viruses in the last 3 weeks, a good chunk of which have come in from emails on Facebook. Which isn’t to say that Facebook is bad. It just doesn’t have much of an effective spam filter or virus scanner built into it. You would think that after a few people have recieved the same spam from their friend whose computer was compromised, they’d start filtering messages with the same links, the same stupid subject line, and all the rest that comes along with basic social engineering-based viruses. It’s what Yahoo and Google do. So to you Facebook/Myspace users out there (and everyone else who doesn’t uses these services), be VERY cautious about clicking on links to websites you’ve never visited to before in email sent to you by a friend. They may not have actually sent you something. In fact, it’s possible their account password was phished, changed, and their account used as a lauch pad for spreading the same infection to other people (like you). So be careful.
Last updated Mar 11, 2010: This post was originally intended to be used along side Ubuntu 8.10, which is over a year old now. While many aspects of it still apply to today, there are a few differences that I have made clear below by crossing out the inaccurate text and following it with a correction where necessary. It is now intended to be used with Ubuntu 9.10. Cheers!
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Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) was officially released yesterday. Boosh!! Often with each new release comes a spike in the number of people who are trying it out for the very first time. So to help the new users out, I’ve written this guide to introduce you to this popular Linux-based operating system and some of the cool software you can install on it.
Here’s what we’re going to go over:
Customize the appearance of Ubuntu (wallpaper, theme, fonts, dockbars, etc.)
Run Update Manager.
Install Flash, Java, Windows Media Codecs and MS fonts with just 4 clicks!
Install Compiz Fusion Advanced Settings Manager with one more click.
Install WINE with one more click and use it to run Windows based software.
Reveal Archive Manager in the Accessories menu and use it to create zip archives.
Install the libdvdcss2 decoder so you can watch DVD’s.
Install Skype from a *.deb file.
Install Google Earth using Terminal.
Install Virtualbox.
1.) Customize Your Ubuntu Desktop Difficultly: Very Easy
The first thing anybody should want to do with their own computer is make it look the way they want it to look. Who wants an OS that forces its users to conform to one particular layout over another? With Ubuntu, you have a lot of flexibility. You even have the option to use a different desktop environment. GNOME is the default environment for Ubuntu and it’s what we will see used in the example screenshots in this guide. KDE (which looks very similar to Windows XP/Vista/7) is the default environment for Kubuntu; xfce is the default for the lightweight Xubuntu. There are others, such as Fluxbox and IceWM, that are geared towards being minimalistic in resource usage and makes them perfect for older, slower machines.
Below is a screenshot I took of my own desktop shortly after upgrading my computer from 8.04 to 8.10.
You may or may not like the looks of the default desktop. I’ve always though this default background just looked like a bunch of coffee stains… You can modify the interface in so many different ways the possibilities are endless. Check out this small gallery of Ubuntu screenshots I put together to see some examples of what you can do to your own Ubuntu desktop.
The best way to explain how to customize your desktop is to show you a video (albeit, from an older version of Ubuntu) that demonstrates how you can modify the following things:
Changing Wallpapers
Changing Screensavers
Panel Properties (Location/Auto-hide/Background)
Changing/Adding Desktop Themes
Adding/Moving Launcher Shortcuts to your Panel/Desktop
Modifying Menu Layouts
Adding Applets to your Panels
Modifying your About Me user info
Customizing your Login screen layouts/themes
Using Multiple Workspaces
EDIT: Since the original posting of this blog, Alan Pope has removed the video below from Google and I have not yet found a comparable replacement. A very good guide about how to do all of the above can be found here.
There are several little applets that widgets that can be added to your panel, but you can also make changes to the panel itself such as its orientation (Bottom/Top/Left/Right edge of the screen), its background (solid color or transparent), its width and a couple other minor things like auto-hide. Be careful, it’s easy to accidentally delete a panel. If that happens, right-click on a remaining panel and click “New Panel” to create a new one. Newly created panels will be completely empty and you will have to right-click on them and select “Add to panel” in order to add things back like a task switcher.
The video makes use of http://art.gnome.org/ during it’s demonstration of changing wallpapers and themes, but another noteworthy site you should check for such things is http://www.gnome-look.org/. My personal favorite website for wallpapers is InterfaceLift Wallpapers. You should also check this site out for wallpapers, too.
You might have noticed in some screenshots of Ubuntu that some people have added a dockbar (similar to the one used in Mac OS X) to their Ubuntu installation. Below is a picture of one in action.
Check out this guide I’ve written about adding Cairo-Dock to your Ubuntu install as it is one of the best available for Ubuntu (in my opinion).
2.) Run Update Manager Difficultly: Very Easy
Typically, a fresh Ubuntu install is actually a tad bit older than the current status of the distribution (this happens with all operating systems, including Windows). So often times after a fresh install, your system might be needed a few updates to be applied. Running Update manager manually after installing can bring your system up to date with the latest security and software patches. While Update Manager does check for updates automatically, it often doesn’t do it immediately after you login for the first time. So after a fresh install it is a good idea to force it to check for updates. To do this:
Click System>Administration>Update Manager
Click on the “Check” button to check for updates
If there are updates available, you simply click “Install” to install them. It will ask you to enter your administrative password when you do this. This is the password you created for the “first” user during installation. Piece of cake.
*Note:If you’re having hardware issues (e.g., 3D video acceleration not working, wireless adapter not in use, etc.) after installing all available updates, you should check in System>Administration>Hardware Drivers to see if there are any proprietary drivers that need to be enabled. You simply check the appropriate boxes off for the driver needed, and they will be installed for you.
3.) Install Flash, Java and Extra Video Codecs in just four clicks! Difficultly: Very Easy
In order to get the best multimedia experience out of our computer, we need to install a few programs and plugins. Most of you out there are familiar with Flash, Java and multimedia file formats like Divx, Xvid, MP3, ASF, Apple Quicktime, etc. Installing decoders to open these types of files has been made simple by bundling them all together into one package. And installing it is very easy. To get started, do the following:
Click Applications>Add/Remove (now called Ubuntu Software Center). A new window will appear (see below.)
Change the “Show:” drop menu in the upper right corner to “All Available Applications” (In Ubuntu Software Center, click View>All Applications)
Search for the word “restricted”
Once the search returns its results, check off the box next to “Ubuntu Restricted Extras”
Sit tight. Don’t click the Apply Changes button just yet. We’re going to check off a few more things
Frequently Asked Question: “What does it mean by restricted extras?”
Answer:The word “restricted” in this context is used to describe these types of multimedia plugins and decoders because most of them are closed-source and proprietary. Hence, you are restricted from modifying their source code.
4.) Install Compiz Fusion Advanced Settings Manager Difficultly: Very Easy
Compiz Fusion (the program responsible for the dazzling eye-candy special effects on Ubuntu) is included by default, but its advanced control panel is not. Need of this advanced control panel comes up if you are a power user who wants to use the 3D window management features to the MAX, which means turning your desktop into a rotating cube of multiple workspaces, among other nerdy things. You can also greatly customize your special effect animations and window behaviors using this control panel. So let install it!
After you’ve checked off Ubuntu Restricted Extras in the above step, do another search for the word “compiz”
Check off “Advanced Desktop Effects Settings” (shown above)
Sit tight, and don’t click apply just yet. There’s more we’re going to search for and check off.
Once the control panel applet is installed, it can be found in System>Preferences>Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.
*Notice: You will want to make sure you have Compiz enabled in System>Preferences>Appearence>Visual Effects before using the above control panel you’ve installed. Otherwise changes you make with it will not be seen.
5.) Install WINE for running Windows-based software in Ubuntu Difficultly: Very Easy
WINE is a program that acts as a sort of emulator for Windows programs to run on top of. Instead of needing to use Windows for running that favorite application or game, you can run the program right in Ubuntu with the help of WINE. The only catch is that not all Windows program run on WINE yet. So you should search the WINE applications database to see if a program you’re wanting to use works with WINE. Below is a screenshot of Half-Life 2 running in Ubuntu, thanks to WINE!
To install WINE:
In the Add/Remove Applications applet (should still be open from the previous step), search for “wine” and then check off the box next to WINE in the results window.
Finally, click Apply in the lower right corner to install WINE, as well as the other programs you’ve already checked off in Add/Remove.
Now if you want to run a piece of Windows based software, you simply double-click on the executable (like setup.exe) and it should run just as it would in Windows (provided the WINE Application Database lists that the program you are trying to use and says it works with WINE). Shortcuts created by software installers are typically added to the Applications>Wine>Programs menu. You can read more about using WINE here.
NOTE: If double-clicking on an EXE causes the Archive Manager to open instead of WINE, it’s because your default file-association needs to be changed. To fix this, right-click on an EXE file then click Properties. A new window will pop up with a few tabs along the top, one of which says “Open With”. Click this tab, then select WINE from the list and click Close. From now on, EXE’s will always open with WINE.
6.) Enable (reveal) your Archive Manager and create zip files Difficultly: Very Easy
Some of you might be wondering: How can I create a zip file? The answer is with the included Archive Manager. This tool (for some weird reason) isn’t shown in the Applications>Accessories menu by default. But we can reveal it very easily by doing the following:
Click System>Preferences>Main Menu
Click on the Accessories menu in the left panel, then check off the Archive Manager (see below). Then click Close.
That it! Now when you open your accessories menu, you’ll be presented with a new shortcut to your Archive Manager. You can use this utility to create zip files. Keep in mind that it can also create other types of archives, such as tar.gz, and a few others (not RAR, at least not without an additional package installed to provide this option to you). To explore the possibilities, click Applications>Accessories>Archive Manager. Once open, click New in the upper left corner and take a look at the bottom of the window where you can specify archive file type, password locking and spliting. After you create a new archive, you simply drag and drop files into the archive manager and it will add them to the new archive.
One other simple way to create an archive is to select all the files you want to put into a zip file (by CTRL-Clicking or SHIFT-Clicking them) or even by clicking on a folder containing the files you want. Then once they’re selected, right-click on any one of these files or folders and a drop menu will appear. Just click “Create Archive” and a wizard will appear asking you where you want to save the new file and what format you’d like it to be in.
7.) Install the libdvdcss2 decoder for DVD playback Difficultly: Medium
Click Applications>Accessories>Terminal. This will open a new terminal window. (If you would like to know more about Terminal, check out my Terminal for Beginners guide). Copy the following command and paste it into the Terminal window and press Enter:
This will add the Medibuntu repositories to your 3rd party software sources (in other words, this tells Update manager to check one additional server when it looks for system updates). Next we’ll install the libdvdcss2 decoder for playing commercial DVD’s as well as an additional set of video/audio decoders that weren’t included with the “restricted” extras from the steps above. To do this, paste this command into Terminal:
..And press the Enter key. It will ask you to type your password (which will not produce any characters on screen while you’re typing, so don’t expect to see *****’s show up) and say “y” for yes to confirm your command. Once installed, you should be able to watch a DVD simply by inserting a disc into the computer.
NOTE: You may have heard a rumor that installing the libdvdcss2 decoder is illegal. If you live in the US and someone tells you this, refer them to 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(f). The binaries to crack the DVD video stream encryption are not illegal if you have a license to the content. In other words, if you have purchased your own legal/legit DVD, then that means you have license to watch it. After all, the content must be decrypted in order to make the content usable. However, the law is not the same in all countries so you should check your local country laws.
8.) Install Skype Difficultly: Very Easy
Skype is a very popular Voice Over IP application that allows you to make cheap phone calls from your computer. They ask you for 10 bucks for your first set of calls and send special offers your way from time to time. I’ve been paying 30 bucks a year for the last 3 years to make unlimited calls to anywhere in the United States, so that’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. It also features webcam capabilities and conference calling.
Installing Skype is easy. All you have to do is download the deb file from Skype.com. Here is a direct link:
Once the deb file is finished downloading, double-click on it. An installer window will appear with a “Install Package” button in the upper right corner of the window. Click that button, and when it’s finished, you’ll find Skype in Applications>Internet.
After you agree to the license, you’ll be taken to a new page where an automatic download will begin and ask you what you want to do with a file called GoogleEarthLinux.bin. Simply save this file to your Desktop for now.
Next we’ll need to open up a terminal window. To open Terminal:
Click Applications>Accessories>Terminal
When you first open terminal you’ll be given a prompt where you can enter commands. You also will be sitting in your Home Folder. If you type in the letters “ls” (That’s ls, short for the word “list”, in lowercase), you’ll be shown the files and folders in your home folder. Notice that one of them is called “Desktop”. We need to changeour directoryso we can run our GoogleEarthLinux.bin file. To do this:
Type “cd Desktop” (no quotes) and hit enter.
In the world of Linux, everything is case-sensitive, so be sure to Capitalize the word “Desktop” in the above command. This command will bring you to your Desktop folder. If you type “ls” again and hit enter, you’ll see the files which reside on your desktop right now. Listed somewhere should be the bin file you just downloaded.
Now for the magic!
In terminal, type: “sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin” (no quotes) and hit enter.
After you press enter, the following window will appear, and begin to install Google Earth for you:
Shortly after the above screen appears, you’ll get another one that says the program successfully installed. You’ll then be given the option to run Google Earth right away. If you don’t want to, you can just click Quit, and start it later by going to Applications>Internet>Google Earth.
NOTE: Google Earth runs best on PCs that are equipped with 3D graphics acceleration cards/chipsets. Some video cards require you to have their proprietary drivers enabled in order for them to be utilized by the system. You can check to see if you need to enable any such drivers by clicking System>Administration>Hardware Drivers.
10.) Install Virtualbox Difficultly: Medium
Virtualbox is a popular application used on many different operating systems that allows you to create Virtual Machines, upon which you can install any number of operating system. So, for instance, you could be running Windows XP inside of a window on top of Ubuntu. This is good for users who are trying to migrate from Windows to Ubuntu but are not quite ready to take the big leap or are being held back by one or two applications that won’t run in Ubuntu.
So here’s what you need to do:
Download the Virtualbox deb file for your particular processor architecture (i386 or AMD64) from here.
Double-click on the the deb file you downloaded to start the installer. Click “Install Package” to install Virtualbox.
Once that is finished, you will need to add yourself to the vboxusers group. To do this quickly, open up a Terminal window (Applications>Accessories>Terminal). Once Terminal is open, paste in the exact text and press the enter key: sudo adduser $USER vboxusers
Reboot the PC.
That’s all you need to do to install Virtualbox. (NOTE: The following tip for USB access is probably not necessary, but used to be in older versions of Ubuntu. So you can probably skip the next few instructions). However, you will need to do a couple more things if you want your virtual machines to have access to your USB ports:
In terminal, type: sudo gedit /etc/fstab
Paste the following text at the bottom of the fstab file: none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=46,devmode=666 0 0
Save the changes to the fstab file and close Gnome Text Editor.
Reboot the PC.
You’ll find Virtualbox in Applications>System Tools>Sun xVM VirtualBox. (I have noticed that the shortcut for Virtualbox doesn’t always appear right away. To fix this, click System>Preferences>Main Menu. From here, select the “System” category on the left, and find the Sun Virtualbox shortcut on the right. If it’s already checked off, uncheck it, then re-check it back off and close the window). I don’t have a guide written yet about how to use Virtualbox, but you can check this one out in the mean time to help get you started.
Well, that wraps up this list of things to do. There are plenty of other very cool applications out there worth installing, such as Audacity, Avidemux, VLC, Amarok, DeVeDe and many more. Most of these programs can be installed using the Add/Remove appletApplications>Ubuntu Software Center which we used to install our Ubuntu Restricted Extras package. Simply searching for the program name will produce a result that you can check off install with a couple clicks, and that sure beats the hell out of looking through a filing cabnet for a software CD or a serial number.
Seemingly by surprise to most Internet users, Google has launched a release of a new Internet web browser dubbed Google Chrome. I have been using it for about five minutes on my super slow computer at work (it only has 256 megs of ram in the damn thing) and the first thing I’ve noticed with Chrome is that it is freaking FAST! No joke. My first instinct was to take a look at the task manager in Windows to see how much memory Chrome was actually using, and what I found was a little puzzling. There was only one web browser window open, but 4 seperate instances of the Chrome.exe process running. Interesting… So I decided to start digging into why it’s so fast, and what the deal was with these multiple instances. Here’s what I learned:
If you do a search for Google Chrome, you’ll discover a little comic book that was put together by Google to help illustrate what they had in mind when they first started designing this browser and how it should function differently from other popular browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer. The most telling is on page 3: ”When we started this project, the Gears Guys were saying that one of the problems with browsers is that they’re inherently single-threaded. For example, once you have Javascript executing, it’s going to keep going, and the browser can’t do anything else until Javascript returns control to the browser. So developers write APIs that are asyncronous — and every now and then the browser locks up because Javascript is hung up on something.”
In plain english, the way other browsers currently function is about as efficient as an HR department in a hospital. The chain of programs (or people, if you continue the hospital analogy) is long and weak in that if one link fails, the whole thing snaps and everybody puts their arms in the air to say, “Not my fault. Tough shit.” The way Chrome funtions instead is to create multiple processes for all the different tabs as well as additional processes (such as Javascript, or other web plugins) that run seperately, and basicly decentralize everything. This adds a great deal of speed and stability to loading web pages and running web applications. It will also help reduce memory bloat that comes from lots of long term use of a web browser, because you can allocate different processes their own memory space.
One of my favorite features is probably something you’ll grow to take for granted: the New Tab Page, seen above. When ever you open a new tab, it is an intential act persuant to going some place on the Internet. The tab page is dynamically created based upon your browsing behavior. Your 9 favorite websites appear with thumbnail previews of each one, for instance. So after a while, it really becomes YOUR browser. Which might not sound great to someone who’s trying to keep their birthday gift shopping or porn addiction a secret. That’s why there’s Incognito Mode!
Another cool feature is the way pop-ups are managed and blocked. If something is trying to pop-up, you’ll only see a little notification at the bottom of the window, and if it’s something you want, you just drag it up and out.
Anyway, I’d love to write more about this but I’m waiting for an important call that’s going to take me a while and wanted to get something written about this exciting new web browser. I think it’s going to have a big impact on the way web browser function and we’ll likely see Firefox and eventually Internet Explorer. The only drawback about this browser that I’ve found so far (other than the fact that they can’t “sandbox” plugins to a lower security level…nobody can yet) is the fact that it’s for Windows only. There are also some websites with minor functionalities that don’t seem to work just yet (Java, not Javascript, comes to mind). I am sure that will change rapidly though, as the browser is open-source…which means it will likely be ported over to just about every OS you can imagine. Until then, I highly recommend this browser to Windows users.
After browsing the web for a little bit today, I stumbled across a something that I think many will find interesting. It is a copy of an e-mail Bill Gates sent out to many of his developers complaining about his frustrating experiences with Windows itself. The e-mail was salvaged from a stack of documents that were exhibit items in an anti-trust lawsuit Microsoft was battling at the time. Here is an excerpt of Bill Gates:
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying – where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
