Posted 08 Dec 2009 — by Arun
Category Linux
Google has released a beta version of Google Chrome for Linux. The beta version comes after a long delay in introducing it in Linux while Windows has seen couple of versions released already. Google acknowledges that most engineers use Linux machines at Google, but they didn’t act quickly enough to get a Linux version out. Google Chrome for Linux now includes tight integration with native GTK themes and updates are managed by standard system package manager.
So far, about 50 developers outside Google have contributed code. Linux version embraces HTML5, like Windows.
Google has also released extensions for Google Chrome in Windows and Linux. There are around 300 extensions in the extension gallery. Extension is not yet available for Mac. It should show up soon in developer channel.
Source: Google Chrome Blog.
Technorati Tags: Google Chrome, Linux, Extension, Windows, Mac
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Posted 05 Jun 2009 — by Arun
Category Linux
Google has released the alpha version of Google Chrome for Linux and Mac. For more information, click here.
Technorati Tags: Google Chrome, Linux, Mac
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Mozilla Messaging team has released the first beta of Thunderbird 3.0. Thunderbird 3 Beta 1 includes new database technology that will make it possible to build fast new ways of navigating mail. Here are some of the new features or improvements in Thunderbird 3.0.
- Tabbed EmailEmail messages, folders, and calendars (with the Lightning extension installed) can be opened in tabs.
- Improved Message Reader ViewThis is the first stage of a series of refinements to the message reading experience. The first stage brings email controls closer to the area in which the user is operating.
- New Add-ons ManagerThe new Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins. Note that few Add-ons are compatible with this beta at the time of release, as Add-on developers need to upgrade them.
- Improved Address BookIf someone is in your address book, it is indicated by a new star icon which you can click to edit contact details inline. If they are not in your address book, you can add them with one click of the icon. A new birthday field allows you to keep track of your friends’ birthdays.
- For Windows Vista users, Thunderbird 3 Beta 1 is now integrated with Vista search results. On first start, Thunderbird will prompt to install its indexing system into Windows Vista and you can choose to see Thunderbird email and news messages in Windows search results.
- For Mac users, Thunderbird 3 Beta 1 can import from Mail.app, read your OS X address book, and use Growl for new mail alerts.
- Faster Message Loading for IMAPThunderbird will now download IMAP messages in the background to allow for faster message loading, and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis (via folder properties), or for all folders in an account, via Account Settings / Sync & Disk Space.
Source: Mozilla Messaging.
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Google has released the beta version of Google Chorme – a new open source browser. Google Chrome is based on the open source web engine called Webkit, which also powers Safari browser. Some other features of Google Chrome are:
- Tabs are independent. Each tab has it’s own location bar, navigation buttons etc. If one tab crashes, it won’t take the entire browser down.
- Tabs can be detached and move around.
- A task manager that shows memory used, bandwidth etc for each tab.
- Opening a new tab will launch a dynamic dashboard instead of the usual
blank page, presenting a search box, the nine most recently visited
pages, and links to the sites you frequently search.
- Location bar (called Omnibox) searches most visited pages, history etc. similar to Firefox.
- Privacy mode, which leaves no traces of your browsing, similar to IE8.
- All popups are blocked by default. All of them are sent to the bottom right area where you can drag them out from to restore.
- Supports Prism, Google Gears.
Chrome is currently available for Windows only. Google is working on the Mac and Linux versions. I’m going to give this a try sometime this week to see if it’s just another browser or is it worth using. We have to wait and see if Google can penetrate the non-tech user market like Google search and how soon. It took Mozilla few years to reach this level, but since Google is already famous, it should be slightly easier for them to market. We’ll know if it’s another famous product from Google or if it’s one of the many flops from Google.
Source: Mozilla Links, Google.
Update: Google Chrome vulnerable to carpet bombing flaw. Read more here.
Update: Google Chrome browser URL handler crash – Another security issue with Chrome.
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KDE team has released an alpha version of their next KDE release, KDE 4.1. KDE 4.1 brings the following news features:
- Akonadi is among the new big things in KDE 4.1. Akonadi is the desktop-independent storage engine for Personal Information Management (PIM) data. While not yet based on Akonadi, KDE 4.1 also brings a KDE 4 port of PIM applications such as KMail and KOrganizer.
- With KDE 4.0 being available for X11 platforms, KDE 4.1 will also be available on Windows, Mac OS X and OpenSolaris. The ports are not yet completely finished yet, but good for a first preview nevertheless.
- KDE 4.1 Alpha1 is based on Qt 4.4. Qt 4.4 brings improvements in performance and functionality to KDE 4.1. SVG rendering speed has vastly improved, and widgets and layouts can now be used on canvases such as the Plasma desktop and panel. Migrating the Plasma codebase to these new features is still work in progress, so some instability here is to be expected.
Source: KDE.
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Posted 05 Dec 2007 — by Arun
Category General
I wanted to watch the video of my school’s football match on ESPN 360. I logged into my desktop (I use Ubuntu), opened Firefox and went to ESPN 360 website. I was shocked to see that ESPN 360 supports only Windows and Mac OSes (Screenshot below). It sucks. The same thing happened with BBC’s iPlayer. The player was initially released only for Windows, but BBC later changed tracks after the pressure from the corporation’s (BBC) regulators. BBC Trust said that the iPlayer was approved on the condition of platform neutrality. BBC then said they would support the online video streaming for all platforms by the end of 2007 and also a downloadable player for all platforms soon. I hope ESPN will learn from BBC’s experience and offer ESPN 360 for all platforms.
Technorati Tags: ESPN 360, Linux, Ubuntu, Windows, Mac, BBC, iPlayer
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Close on the heels of launching Prism for Windows, Mozilla lab has released it for Mac and Linux. According to Mozilla lab, Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop. With Prism, you can add your favorite web apps like GMail, Google Calendar etc to the desktop environment and run them as a normal desktop. Each application will be opened in it’s own window. For more information, refer to Mozilla Lab.
(Image source: Mozilla Lab)
Technorati Tags: Mozilla Lab, Prism, Mac, Linux, GMail, Google Calendar, Windows
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AOL officially released Netscape Navigator 9 yesterday. It’s based on Firefox 2.0.0.7. It’s available for Mac and Linux too. I’m not sure if the Windows version still carry the bloated Internet Explorer also, but the Linux version was a 9 MB download. I downloaded the file and extracted it. It created a folder called Navigator. I used Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.
To run Netscape Navigator, all you have to do is, go to the navigator folder and double click Navigator and run it (Picture below). If you are using GNOME, it might give multiple options when you double click Navigator. Select Run. It’ll work.
Alternatively, you can create a launcher as shown below and add it to the menu bar (GNOME). All you have to do is, right click on the top menu bar, select Add Panel, click on Custom Application Launcher and enter as shown in the picture. Browse to the navigator folder and select navigator under the Command option.
The browser started pretty fast. The responses were as good as Firefox.
The following features were added to Netscape Navigator 9:
- The default theme was updated
- Navigator 9 will automatically correct common typos in URLs
- Link Pad – The Link Pad is a new sidebar feature that allows you to save
links/URLs that you want to visit later without cluttering your
bookmarks. I think it might be pretty useful.
- Compatible with Firefox 2 extensions
- You can restart Navigator from the file menu, preserving your tabs.
- History is preserved across tabs
- OPML support for bookmarks
- Combined stop/reload button
Technorati Tags: Nescape Navigator 9, Linux, Firefox, Ubuntu, Feisty, Fawn, GNOME
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