Linux Game Review - Frozen Bubble

Since the dawn of the video game, game designers have been struggling to make the perfect puzzle-come-action video game. Of course one of the biggest success stories is Tetris, a game which I'm sure everyone has played. However, there is another game out there which I believe is just as addictive... Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move! In the original you controlled a character (of which you could choose among others, Bud or Bob from the original Bubble Bobble games) who had to aim a cannon at a set-piece pattern of balloons and by matching the colours, wipe-out the set-piece pattern when two or more colours of the same colour matched.

Frozen Bubble then takes everything from Puzzle Bobble. Its a complete clone in every sense of the word. Your objective is the same, the graphics are similar and the whole game is almost identical. The great thing is, this is not a bad thing as Frozen Bubble is a brilliant game!

Game modes include One Player Mode, Two Player Mode, LAN Game and NET Game. Each game has you doing the same thing, trying to destroy all the bubbles before your opponent or before they reach the bottom of the screen. Its simple but effective and most importantly its addictive!

Graphically the game looks cute and the sprites and graphics are all well drawn. The sound is simply superb with great arcade-like sound effects and a brilliant tune playing. The game can be played in window mode and full-screen and you have complete control on the amount of detail on show. The screen-shot to the right says everything you need to know about the game, which shows just how simple the game play is whilst playing.

So, to conclude, Frozen Puzzle is everything good about Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble, only its free! Its a time waster, and sometimes minutes can turn into hours, so be warned in advance!

Easiest Way To Experience Linux

Many people are afraid to take the step to try out a Linux variant on their PCS. To many it seems daunting and they think there is going to be a huge learning curve. However, there are two simple techniques that allow you to try out most of the benefits of a Linux distribution without having to install over their current OS.

The first method is the easiest and the best way to experience Linux, and that is with what is known as a Live CD. You simply go to the website of the Linux variant you want to try (such as the Pinguy OS website) and download the Operating Systems disc image which is available in the download section (this will usually be a .iso file). All you need to do then is burn the .iso as an image using your favourite burning software. It is highly recommended that you burn at the lowest possible speed to make sure that the copy is 100% accurate. Once copied, place in your CD drive, turn off your PC and then turn your PC back on again.

Once your PC re-starts, you will notice it running before your Operating System kicks-in. Do not panic at this point, as it is not installing anything onto your hard-drive. Usually, the disc will then bring up a menu which allows you to try the Live CD or install the Operating System plus a few other options. Simply select to try out the OS as a Live CD and let the program do its thing. Moments later you will be have a working version of your Linux distribution of choice! Feel free to play with it to your hearts content! Remember though, that it will be slightly slower due to it accessing the CD, however, it will give you a good idea of how the Linux distro works.

The second method is to download the .iso file and run it in a virtual machine. This seems to be some peoples main choice of playing with Linux distro's, however, I have rarely got it to be as reliable as using a Live CD. You will have the speed, and most of the time the general look, however I find this method of experiencing Linux to be the least reliable.

Once you have tried out your Linux distro of choice, you may not want a complete re-install and want to run it side-by-side with Windows... just in case. This is also possible, and all Ubuntu variants offer a side-by-side install. This is how I first experienced the wonders of Linux, however I soon found Linux was taking more and more of my computer time and now I solely use Pinguy OS on all my PCs and Laptops.

One final word. Whichever way you decide to try out Linux, just play around with it and have fun!

Mark Adams
19 August 2011

Using A USB Memory Stick In Linux

This is only a small article for those of you who may have noticed that a USB stick when plugged into your Linux system acts slightly different to when you used to use it in your Windows system.

The first time I ever deleted things from my USB stick and then tried to put new items onto it I was quite perplexed by the fact that I didn’t seem to have much memory on my card as I should. In one instance I deleted 4GB worth of music and films off a 4GB USB memory stick and then tried to drag and drop new contents onto it and it kept telling me I had no room on the memory stick!

At first, my solution was to format the USB stick and try again. However, this is of course not practical in any way. And then I discovered something so simple that it was staring me in the face all the time…

So, when you delete items from your USB memory stick in Linux, make sure you do not remove it! Before you unplug the memory stick, simply click on your wastebasket and delete all the contents in that. Yes, this simple thing then makes sure that you can use your USB memory stick with ease.

Its sometimes the little things that make Linux different enough to put people off using Linux Operating Systems. Hopefully this tip will make you realise that its not always that much different, just slightly different.

Mark Adams

August 16th 2011

Linux Weekly Roundup Sunday 14th August 2011

Welcome to the weekly Linux round-up for Sunday August 14th 2011. We'll start off with Distrowatch news, and I've been following Pinguy on the weekly rankings which climbed to number 18 and presently sits at number 20. I'm quite shocked it has not risen  any higher, but its still early day for the distro yet. Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Gentoo and Debian take up the top 5 spots, interestingly I have not tried Gentoo yet and will make sure I try it out for the site as soon as possible. There is a distro called dyne:bolic which is at 15, which is apparently a CD based OS able to manipulate audio and visual broadcasts. Based on Ubuntu it'd be interesting to hear more about this distro.

In other news, both Puppy OS and Ultimate Edition have new releases out this week and although they are a different end of the Linux scale in terms of content and usability, both are well worth trying out if you are looking for something different in the Linux World. Puppy is a super light-weight OS with great stability and Ultimate Edition is yet another Ubuntu based package with some very sexy tweaks.

Adobe has released Flash 11Beta 2 which is said to be more stable and faster than previous versions. However, if you're a Linux user experiencing difficulties with Flash websites I advise you to use Pinguy OS as it handles Flash with no problems at all. Both 32 and 64 bit versions are available and can be downloaded from Adobes website.


Finally, there have been even more changes to the up and coming Ubuntu 11.10. Its going to be slicker, sexier, quicker, more stable and more fun than ever before and I for one am really excited about trying it out. A review for the new OS will be on the site within a few days of its release.

Mark Adams
August 14th 2011

Using An iPod In Linux with Banshee

Many people are afraid you use Linux because they think that their beloved iPod may not work on the Operating System. This however could not be further from the truth, and from the oldest iPods to the newest iPads, Linux as an Operating System will handle them.

This guide is based on using your Apple machine along side Pinguy/Ubuntu/Mint and variants, and should be almost identical for any other version of Linux that you may use. The version of Banshee that we will be looking at will be 2.0 and above, and it is recommended that you are using the newest version of your Operating System.

Think of Banshee as iTunes for Linux and you can’t go wrong. The first thing that many of you will want to do is put the songs from your existing iPod onto your PC, thus also backing up all your music.

Before you plug in your iPod, make sure you go into the options in Banshee and select Edit>Preferences>General and tick all the options in “File Policies”. Plug in your iPod and let Banshee do its job. Depending on how much music you have on the iPod, and how fast your disk-drives work will depend on how long the transfer takes. For me, 40GB of music took around 40 minutes to transfer. As I said, it could be different for you when you first sync your music.

During the initial sync operation, you may think that Banshee has stopped responding. It hasn’t, it is still doing its job, so just leave it do its own thing. If for any reason that you stop Banshee from working, you can re-start Banshee and just do a re-scan and it will continue from where it left off. Once you have synced everything into Banshee, all your music will be nicely labelled in new folders and will be easy for you maintain in the future.

Ripping or downloading music and putting it into Banshee, and then putting it straight onto your iPod is a similar affair. The easiest method I find is to go into the “Media menu”, then select Media>Import Media>Folders and let Banshee add the music that way. Banshee will add the album to your Banshee music folder and it will again be nicely organised.

Make sure your iPod is plugged in and let it do its initial sync. The easiest method then is to simply drag the album you want to your iPods “Music” folder. It’s simple and very effective. Don’t forget before you do this though to add the albums cover-art if it has already not done that automatically. If Banshee fails to add cover-art, or it is the wrong cover-art, simply choose the album you want the cover-art for, and then on the bottom left hand corner where the cover-art is displayed, right click on this and choose “Choose New Cover Art”. I find Google is my friend and it has never let me down on album covers.

As far as iPods and other media players go, I have tried a couple of different versions of iPod, generic MP3 players and Android devices which all seem to work with no problems. As I said earlier, make sure that you are using the latest edition of your Operating System and the latest version of Banshee to ensure that your iPod is compatible.

Mark Adams

August 14th 2011

Bodhi Linux Review

What first strikes you about Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 Stable is how beautiful it looks. From the outset it is well crafted and pleasing on the eyes. The loading screen is nice and bright with leaves floating from the left to the right of the screen in a very calming manner. And that seems to be the focus of Bodhi, a pleasant looking, pleasant feeling distribution that uses Enlightenment to ensure even on the oldest hardware things run smoothly.

Upon loading (Bodhi, by the way is one of the fastest loading Linux distributions I have used) everything is very minimal. There is a status bar at the top of the screen which is rather huge compared to others. This includes power management, network settings, workspaces and some a couple of other items. The default items look rather large compared to what I am used to, but I'm sure that with a bit of tweaking things can be toned down a bit. At the bottom of the screen is a dock with just Midori Browser ready to use, again this can be added to at will.

The first thing I wanted to do is see what is installed, and as a Pinguy OS user I was shocked... no... stunned at the lack of included applications. This really is a bare-minimal Linux OS, so if you want a blank canvas to start with, this could be a good thing. Adding software confused me to start with, I found no Ubuntu Software Centre or similar and instead the Software link opened up a page with Midori Browser. This page presented a selection of software that you can install through the browser. It is simple enough, just click on the install button and everything is downloaded and installs. The choice of software was adequate if you don't expect too much from your Operating System, although maybe it might be because I always spoilt for choice with other Ubuntu variants and Ubuntu itself.

As I've mentioned, everything looks brilliant, and great thought has gone into the icon and theme designs. The wallpapers are all very nice and I actually prefer them to a lot of wallpapers found in Ubuntu, Mint and Pinguy. Changing the preferences and using the whole menu system is a simple affair also, which adds to the overall beauty of Bodhi.

Because of the Enlightenment environment, the whole operating system is very light on resources and is ultra-fast even on my ancient AMD PC. I came across a strange problem when using Bodhi on my laptop that made me stop using it, each time I opened up a menu (by left clicking on the desktop) I could not click on another option within the menu unless I swapped workspace and then went back to the original workspace. I have never experienced this before, and maybe it was just a one-off problem.

So, who is Bodhi aimed at? Due to the lack of included software and the ultra-lightweight feel to the whole Operating System I believe it would be more suited to users on very low-spec or very old PCs. I also think, due to the way it is structured and the way you add software etc, it would probably be best to avoid Bodhi as your main Operating System, especially if you are new to Linux, as there are many more user-friendly systems out there. I can see it being used on netbooks, and by people who just enjoy playing with Linux distributions, and as this is an early release, I'm sure it is only a matter of time before they take into account peoples feedback and improve on what is already a stable back-bone.

I have only spent a week or so with Bodhi, and in all honesty there is nothing seriously wrong with the distribution. It loaded and worked on all my tested PCs (except the one noted which had a strange glitch) and I believe for the purpose it has been made, it serves it very well. The Bodhi website is well laid-out and there is plenty of help on the wiki should you need it. I'm sure if I had more time with it I would have more to say, but it is not a flavour of Linux that I will be using as I feel it pales in the shadow of the mighty Pinguy 11.04 OS which I believe offers the average user a lot more bang for buck.

Find out more at their very pretty Homepage.

Mark Adams

August 11th 2011.

Top 10 audio programs for Linux Users

We all know that the ability to play and/or manipulate sound while using a PC is very important to most of us on a daily basis.  Sometimes you just want to listen to a CD that you've put in your machine, sometimes you want to rip that CD, sometimes you want to listen to the radio and sometimes you want to cut up songs and make your own mixes or ring-tones. What this article sets out to do is give you a list of the ten best programs to use for a multiple of tasks in your Linux Operating System (these examples are based on Ubuntu/Mint/Pinguy and variants).

01. Audacity - Best for sound manipulation
Audacity is available for a every conceivable Operating System, and the Linux version is as much of a beast as the rest of them. Simply put, Audacity lets you add effects to your audio files, lets you cut and paste within them and generally does everything you ever need.

You may have downloaded an MP3 file and want to cut the best part out to make a ring-tone. With Audacity it is simple. Just load in the audio file (can be one of many formats that Audacity supports), highlight the part(s) you want to cut out and then delete them. Add a fade-in or fade-out by again simply highlighting the relevant part of the audio, and then save in your favourite audio format! There are endless possibilities with Audacity, and you have unlimited tracks to play with, so you can seamlessly mix tracks, remix tracks and do what-ever your creativeness allows.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre


02. UMPlayer - Best for general music player
I have already reviewed UMPlayer and I stick to the notion that it has surpassed VLC as the best overall music and video player around. UMPlayer is simple to use, super-quick to load up and will play anything you throw at it, even if the file is damaged. It has recently been updated so anyone who may have had problems in the past should have no problems with UMPlayer now. The player is highly customisable, and will play your music collection on favourite radio stations quickly and simply.

Download>>> Visit the UMPlayer review for step-by-step instructions to download


03. CD Player - Best for simple CD playing
CD Player is a simple... erm... CD player for you to quickly enjoy your music from any CD that you insert into your machine. Its ultra lightweight and does the job it is set-out to do. It can also record the CD tracks but only has a limited amount of formats that you can choose from. This program is ideal for those of you who don't want to run heavy resource hungry programs such as Banshee and simular do-all programs.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre

04. Banshee - Best for iPod and Music Management
Think  of Banshee 2 as iTunes for Linux users and you can not go far wrong. It looks and acts in almost every way like Apples piece of software. Banshee is best used for Music Management between your devices, and has some great features including Amazon Store for downloading music.

I have tried Banshee with numerous iPods and it has worked flawlessly with everyone of them. You just plug in your iPod and the program recognises which iPod or other audio device you have. It works on a simple drag and drop interface when interacting with your iPod, and once you get used to it it is a pretty impressive piece of software. There will be a guide up soon with regards to getting the best from Banshee.

Amazon Music Store is a brilliant idea, and you can buy music and put it straight onto your PC or iPod etc. The selection of music is very good, and the overall experience is quite seamless. Again, it looks and acts like iTunes, so most people should be happy using this software.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre

05. Asunder CD Ripper - Best for ripping your CD collection
There are other programs out there that can rip your CDs, however Asunder feels the most professional and easiest to use. You can record tracks in various audio formats, and you can easily customise your settings with little or no problem. Asunder can be connected to online database's and will name the tracks for you on your CD before ripping. The quality of the ripped music is generally very impressive, and pretty quick.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre


06. Audio Recorder - Best for recording off sound-card
Once again I have reviewed Audio Recorder in quite a bit of depth on this site, and I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to record radio stations or sound off DVDs or other sources through your sound-card. Its one of those programs that once you've used once you don't realise how you lived without it.

Download>>> Visit the Audio Recorder review for step-by-step instructions to download

07. VLC Player
Many people swear by VLC. Its a nice little video and music player that plays almost everything you throw at it. Its logo is a road-cone that gives the impression that its a work in progress, and to some extent it does feel like that. VLC is not pretty, but it gets the job done and those familiar with it may be happy to know that it works perfectly in its Linux incarnation.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre

08. Clementine
Another great music player, it does everything that VLC and UMPlayer does and is one of the new players on the block. You can listen to internet radio via Last.FM, SomaFM, Magnatude, Jamendoa and Icecast. You can also use it for simple iPod management. Its well worth a look if you are after something different to play around with.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre

09. Brasero - Best for recording your MP3s to CD
Even in this day and age people want to record their music to CD. Brasero is a brilliant program that lets you record CDs and DVDS. Most importantly it allows you to choose between Audio CD or DATA CD so you can record a bog-standard music CD or a CD of music filled with MP3s.


Brasero is simple to use, which is the most important thing about any software. Its easy to drag and drop the music to your CDs and everything is done with efficiency. For many Linux distributions, Brasero is the default recording software, and to be fair there is a reason for that... it does the job perfectly.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre


10. Amarok
For those who may not get-on with Banshee 2 there is Amarok. It is very similar it what it does to Banshee, however its not as pretty to look at or easy to use. It feels less resource hungry, so may suite those with lower spec systems.


Amarok is however a powerful Music Management program that should not be dismissed. It offers a lot of features for the even the most feverish music fan and computer buff. Amaroks appeal is to those who just want something different and that does the job. I can only fault it because I believe Banshee does a better job overall.

Download>>> From Ubuntu/Mint Software Centre 


If you have found this top 10 review helpful or have alternative software that you would like to highlight, then please leave comments or get in touch. Call back soon for a full guide to using Banshee 2 with an iPod.


Mark Adams
August 10th 2011

Linux Weekly Roundup Sunday 7th August 2011

Welcome to the first of the Linux Weekly Round-ups. I hope this first week has brought some interesting reviews, guides and other related Linux features. I am still looking for people to contribute, so please contact me by email of leaving a message.

Straight to the news then. Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 has been released and includes a whole host of upgrades including a revamped Alt-Tab switcher, improved Gwibber which now looks much better with added effects etc and a change to the me-menu with some interesting changes that will be looked at in the near future. Also of note, Firefox 6 and Thunderbird  will be used in 11.10. Simply visit: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/oneiric/alpha-3/ to download and install.

Google Music Manager has launched for Linux. At the moment it is at the BETA stage, but it looks promising. So far it is restricted to US users, however it is easy to get around this by using a US Proxy. Hopefully a full guide and tutorial will be up and running soon. Head on over to music.google.com for more information.

DistroWatch follows the download habits of Linux users. This week sees the top five downloaded Linux distributions as Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian and PCLinuxOS. Over the last six months, the top five looks very similar with Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian and OpenSUSE. Users of the brand-new Pinguy OS which I have been publicising the last month or so will be glad to know that its risen to number 18 in the list this week, while there are also big jumps in downloads for Ultimate (6), PureOS (9), FreeBSD (12) and Lubuntu (20). Its great to see some of these lesser known or lesser used distributions getting the recognition they deserve.

Finally, as reviewed on the blog, Ubuntu One has increased its storage from 2GB to 5GB for its free users. That is excellent news for cloud users, and really should be tried by as many people as possible as its a great feature.

During the week I'll be adding more reviews, guides and general Linux goodness, so please follow the site or add it to your bookmarks. And remember, spread the word!

Mark Adams
7th August 2011

Recording audio from sound-card in Linux

Recording sound from your PCs sound-card gives you a lot of versatility and the chance to record audio that you otherwise can not get by other means. There are a number of ways to do this in Ubuntu, Pinguy, Mint or variants, but the simplest and most effective method is to install a simple and effective sound-card audio capturing program.

As you can see from the screen-shot, Audio Recorder is a simple to use recorder that can be be very flexible in the right hands. Here is a quick run-down of the three main features.

First, it has a simple one touch record button. This will record from your audio source of your choice as soon as you press the button. You can record from your sound-card or you can set it to record from Microphone or Skype amongst others.

Secondly we have the brilliant "Timer" feature. With this you can set a start time to record, should you not be available to press the start button, and also add a "stop after" feature, which can be a length of time or a long silence. You can also set it to record upon hearing sound, which is great for capturing intermittent audio.

Thirdly of course you can select which audio format you would like to capture with. The choices are .OGG, .M4A, .FLAC, .MP2, .MP3, .WAV and .SPX. Surely this is a large enough choice for most people, and I'm sure most people will simply choose .MP3!

What can you really use Audio Recorder for?
So, it sounds like a useful feature, and it really is. You can use it to record audio in real-time from Youtube, Podcasts, DVDs, Streaming TV and anything else that has sound on your PC. It is most useful for recording streaming radio stations of course, and there's no excuse to not have the latest music or concerts off the radio in your collection again!

How do you install Audio Recorder?
It is very simple to install Audio Recorder, and can be done in a couple of easy steps.

First, open up "Terminal" which should be easy enough to find on your OS. Then simply copy and paste the following:  
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:osmoma/audio-recorder
Secondly press enter and copy and paster this: 
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install audio-recorder
Press enter again and we're all ready to go!

Audio Recorder can then be found in the sound & video section of your menus, or simply search audio recorder.

Adding Weather Indicator to Linux

The British love to talk about the weather. No matter where you are someone is always chatting about the weather, so what better opportunity to make the topic interesting... Add My-Weather-Indicator to your Ubuntu/Mint/Pinguy Operating Systems!

My-Weather-Indicator is a great app that shows the weather in your panel. Actually, it can show two different locations, which I have found really handy for tracking the weather abroad when I'm about to go away on my holidays.

My-Weather-Indicator offers a lot more than just the weather though, it also gives sunrise and sunset times (which are really accurate and handy!), tells you what kind of moon phase you can expect and has a great forecast feature giving you the next 5 days weather, moon phase and a lot more.

Simply add ppa:atareao/atareao to your software sources. Click refresh, give it a few minutes to update everything and then search the Software Centre for "my-weather-indicator". Lovely!

Having problems adding to Software Sources? 
Some newer users may have problems knowing how to add software to the Software Sources. Just follow these simple steps:
1. Open up your "Control Centre" or "System Admin"
2. Click on "Software Sources"
3. Click on "Other Software" from the tab selection (second option across)
4. Click on "Add" at the bottom of the box.
5. In the APT LINE box type in ppa:atareao/atareao
6. Click "Add Source", refresh everything and give it a few secs to update.

Linux Game Review - Gweled

There are some games that should just be on your system regardless if you use it for gaming or not. Solitaire, Mines and... Gweled, a really nice little Bejeweled clone for Ubuntu Linux systems.

Bejeweled has caught the imagination of people of all ages for many years now, and there's nothing better to take the boredom away when you have a few minutes to spare or when you are talking to people online and need to be doing something else at the same time.

Basically then, Gweled is a clone of the original Bejeweled, nothing more and nothing less. That is, however, not a bad thing as Gweled is as addictive as you would expect.

Graphically, its a nice looking game, or as nice as you would expect a Bejeweled clone to look. You have a choice of three sizes to the game too, so you can make it small and unobtrusive or a big mother taking up a huge part of the screen. The sound effects are just right and there is a nice tune very reminiscent of Bejeweled 2 theme.

This game can be downloaded from the Ubuntu or Mint Software Centres. As usual, I don't rate the games out of a number system, I just let you know if you should play them. So, go play this now! It's a great little time waster.

Mark Adams
August 3rd 2011.

UMPlayer Review

It's not often I get really excited about a piece of software, but since discovering UMPlayer I've been spreading the word about this mighty bit of media player goodness.

UMPlayer stands for Universal Media Player, and for once Universal really means Universal! It will play anything you throw at it right out of the box, and what's more, that box is a free one!

You can download UMPlayer from www.umplayer.com and find out for yourselves what a great bit of software this is. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac and I use it as the default player on both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04.

How does it perform? Well, the first thing you notice is that it is damn fast. No sooner as you click on a song or a video and it loads up instantly! This makes so much of a difference, not having to wait a second while the player loads up. Secondly, it looks really nice in its default "modern" skin and has all the buttons in all the right places.

UMPlayer will play anything, and its not let me down yet. I ripped a DVD in a wrong codec accidently and nothing would play it (I tried Windows Media Player, VLC, WinAMP, Quicktime, iTunes and Real Player) and that's when I fell in love with UMPlayer, because it played it perfectly with brilliant quality picture and the sound in sync. As far as audio codecs go, again everything is covered, even those .flac files that some people use!

Another great feature is the ability to search Youtube or Shoutcast from within the player. This is particularly useful in Ubuntu where fullscreen flash doesn't always perform well. With UMPlayer, fullscreen videos are perfect, and streaming radio stations from Shoutcast sound brilliant.

I can see no downsides to UMPlayer, other than the fact that it's little heard of at the moment. So, after reading this I'd like you to try it out and discover your media in a new, quick and reliable way that you have always wanted to.

After using it on a number of Linux distro's, I can confirm that it is stable and runs perfectly without any of the initial problems that some people have mentioned on various forums.

To download simply visit The UMPlayer website and choose your Operating System. Please spread the word of this fantastic player, it really does fill a gap in the market for a lightweight and powerful music and video player.

Mark Adams
Re-written and edited August 3rd 2011.

Ubuntu One Review

For all you users of Ubuntu and Pinguy OS (and any other OS who use this) then there has been some awesome news on the Ubuntu One front.

To celebrate One Million users, Ubuntu One Cloud based storage has now been upgraded to 5GB FREE cloud storage space! Previously this was set to 2GB which at the time seemed like a good deal anyway.

So, I know some of you will be wondering exactly what cloud storage is. Well, think of it as storing all your documents and file in space. As an Ubuntu derivative user you will automatically get an Ubuntu One account. All the files you place into the "Ubuntu One" folder get automatically synced to the Cloud, so you will always have your files available on any computer as long as you have internet access! Of course, if you've delved even slightly into cloud computing you will know that this is the future of computing, though for me its more a case of having somewhere to back up my important files and photos.

If you use your Android mobile phone then you can download an app that lets you sync your phone with all your other devices. It's a brilliant, and you can set it so that when you take a photo it automatically sends your photos to your Ubuntu One account! No excuses for not having that special photo on your PC any more.

Why should you use Ubuntu One instead of the other alternatives out there? Well, for starters 5GB is a huge amount of online storage, and its all free and seamlessly integrated into your OS and mobile device. Unlike other online storage solutions, you are not tied to the size of your files either, so you can genuinely use the whole 5GB as you wish. Its a fantastic idea and one that every Linux user should be doing.

Ubuntu One is also available to Windows users, though I am not sure how integrated it becomes. That said, you can upload and download via their web-page should you ever need to do so anyway. There are also paid options of Ubuntu One, plus you can stream your cloud music to your mobile phone, for as little as $3.99 a month, how cool is that?

Get yourselves an Ubuntu One account today by visiting https://one.ubuntu.com/

And one last thing, make sure you use it! Its free and really does add value to your Linux distribution.

Mark Adams
Re-written and edited August 2nd 2011.

Pinguy OS 11.04 review

You may remember in April that I reviewed Ubuntu 11.04 (on my general blog) and gave it my initial impressions and thoughts. Well, since then I have really used and abused Ubuntu 11.04 like no other OS before it. It has been a real work-horse and performed really well, however it did do something I had never experienced with a Linux distribution before... it crashed! Not a blue-screen error type windows crash, but a more subtle re-set to log-in screen crash, that while not serious, was just annoying and meant that sometimes some of my work was lost.

So, the search was on for another OS. I still wanted Ubuntu, but I wanted it to be a more stable version. At first my search took me to Linux Mint 11.04, but reading through the forums and watching various reviews I noticed there was a new distro in town, something called "Pinguy OS 11.04". Based on Ubuntu 11.04, but using Gnome 2.x instead of Unity, this distro mashes up all the best parts of Ubuntu and Mint and in a meaty 1.4GB download gives you an OS that has everything you ever need straight out of the box. This time, even the codecs are included in the download, so even a Live CD runs perfectly!

So, I installed Pinguy, and the first thing that blew me away was the speed of installation. It took no more than 10 minutes for the full install, that's the quickest I have ever installed an Operating System! On using the OS for the first time, you notice that Pinguy has a huge (and I mean HUGE) selection of software installed. The only tweaking I performed was to add UMPlayer and Banshee as they are my favourite players, and Pinguy uses VLC and Clementine as the two main music players (both are great, but just not what I use). And, for those worried about Flash Video, Pinguy OS runs full-screen Flash Videos perfectly out of the box!

Talking of installed programs, "Libre Office" is the main office suite, "Shotwell" is the photo management program, "Firefox 5" is the default browser, "Skype" is installed as standard, "Ubuntu Tweak" and "Ubuntu Software Centre" are present plus "Thunderbird" and "Empathy". This list just skims the surface though, as there is so much available.

"Wine" has been built into the OS, so if you download a Windows .exe file then Pinguy will just treat it as part of the system. No configuration or anything needed, and if you're coming from windows, this makes it such a doddle to use.

Considering everything Pinguy has to offer, you'd think it may be lacking in speed due to all the software, however, nothing can be further from the truth! This OS speeds along faster than any distro I have used before it. Things open up quickly and considering the age of my system (1GB memory, 3.2Ghz AMD Athlon) Pinguy really is fast! That's the beauty of Linux, the size of the download for the Operating System really doesn't make a difference, its how well everything fits into place that matters.

The desktop of Pinguy is a little different to Ubuntu 11.04. There are two docks, one on the left of the screen and one on the bottom. Each one can be configured and added to/deleted at will and the use of "Docky" is excellent in this case.One thing I would change though is the way that Docky interacts. By default it is always on screen, a quick play with the settings and activating "auto-hide" makes them an even better product.

One brilliant thing is that anything available for Ubuntu also works in Pinguy OS, so I still visit and use the "OMG Ubuntu" website for all my Ubuntu needs. That really does make a difference, 100% compatibility with Ubuntu is such a sweetener and makes your life so much easier.

So, who is this Operating System for? Well, anyone who wants a great and easy to use Operating System with everything ready to go out of the box. Anyone experiencing problems with Ubuntus Unity interface,  or anyone just wanting a change. Pinguy OS 11.04 is a new distro, and the first version was only back in 2010. As it stands they are already climbing the way up distrowatch, so its a real distribution thats making waves as we speak!

After using Pinguy for the last month and installed on all my PCs, I am surprised that although it is based on Ubuntu it is so much more stable and user-friendly. Once more, the Pinguy forums are some of the most helpful forums around should you have any problems. The guys (and gals) on there are genuinely helpful and don't talk down to you like they do on other forums. This is another huge plus as far as I am concerned for Pinguy OS.

Mark Adams
Updated and re-written August 2nd 2011. 

Ripping DVDs in Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu and its variants such as Pinguy OS and Linux Mint are great operating systems, and one of the things I thought I would miss from windows was the ability to rip DVDs. However, not only were my expectations met, they were exceeded with the quality of the software and the quality of the results.

I have used a number of separate programs to rip DVDs to my hard drive. I wanted to make a .AVI backups of a few DVDs with as little hassle as possible. The first program I tried was a program I had used on Windows, namely "DVDx 4". I downloaded the Linux distribution from the site and straight away upon loading realised that thankfully it was identical to the Windows version!

"DVDx 4" will rip any DVD, even if it is protected (as do all the programs I mention here). You can choose the quality of the rip and the codecs it uses. You can also rip for iPod, PSP, Quicktime, 3GPP and of course Divx. On the highest quality rips the picture quality is excellent and can easily be re-ripped to DVD should you want to. The software is fast and reliable and sound keeps in sync, a problem that plagued my ripping using windows.

The second program I have used is called "OGMRip" and this also rips protected DVDs. The interface is much simpler on this one and at first glance it looks like a simplified version of other DVD ripping software. However, under the bonnet of "OGMRip" is a powerful ripping machine. You can rip to more formats than I have seen in any other ripping program, and the quality is a step up from "DVDx 4". It has various filters you can apply to make the picture better and it can rip to a specified storage amount or bitrate.

"OGMRip" is a killer app there's no doubt of that. However, it's simpler interface may put some people off. That said, because of the extra features it can be very slow... make that very very slow!  Ideal if you need a HD rip, otherwise get under the bonnet and change those settings.

The third program I have used has been one of the most versatile and is called "DVD95 Converter". It seems to be the fastest ripping software I have used and has worked perfectly on all variants of Ubuntu. I now use Pinguy OS 11.04 since writing this review, and "DVD95" seems to be the most trouble free in that particular distro, making perfect copies every time.

So, combined, "DVDx 4", "OGMRip" and "DVD95 Converter" are a lethal combination and a DVD copiers dream come true! The power of Linux just blows me away each day, and my next adventure will be into the world of Video Editing. Let's see what Linux can offer us then.

Looking through the Software Centre, there are also a number of other programs such as Handbrake, Acidrip, K9Copy and DVD:Rip to name a few. I have not tried these programs out so cannot recommend them at this point, but there should be something for everyone.

Having problems?
If you are having any problems ripping DVDs, please ensure the following files are downloaded onto your PC from the software centre:
libdvdcss2 - required to rip an encrypted DVD.
dvdbackup - required for ripping to hard drive in Linux.

Mark Adams
Re-written and edited August 2nd 2011

Why Linux is now the perfect choice for an OS.

Why Linux is now a good choice.

This is an extended article that was originally on my old blog;

I've been a Windows user since Windows 95, and up until recently I owned a Windows 7  machine. Windows 7 is great, and if you're a gamer then Windows is the Operating System for you. If however you are like most people and use your system for downloading music or films, browsing the internet, writing letters or books, keeping a database of things or simply watching films or listening to music then Linux could easily replace Windows. I have taken the leap from Windows to Linux and I have not looked back since.

First question, why would I want to replace Windows? Perhaps it crashes constantly for you? Perhaps your computer has been ruined by a virus? Perhaps you just want to break free from Microsoft and save yourself some of your hard earned money. Either way, Linux is now at a place where it will make brilliant alternative to Windows, and this article will hopefully answer some of your questions that you may have regarding Operating System in general.

To many, it is perceived that Microsoft Windows is the only thing that works on computers. This a serious misconception and one that needs to be brought to the attention of the World. Windows is just something that lets you use your computer, you can do the same on a Linux system, only it doesn't cost you anything and once you pick up the basics, it's simple!

So, is Linux just a different version of Windows? No, it's different, it allows you to do the same things, but as I will show you soon, it's much more versatile than the Windows software you know and love. However, do not expect it to be exactly the same, because a lot of the time it can be totally different in the way it handles things, even though the end result is the same.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, there are only a few things that most people really do on their computers, so I will now look at each of these and show you how and why the Linux alternative is generally the better option.

Before I start, if you are the kind of person who says "I can not live without software package-A" or "I'd change but there are too many programs on Windows I need" or "I'd have to emulate all my programs in WINE so its pointless me using Linux" then you are already in the wrong mind-set to explore and experience Linux. For the general user there free alternatives of almost everything you already use in Windows, and if you really have to, you can run some windows programs, but more of that later.

There are many different versions of Linux, but this article will deal with the most popular and one of the easiest to use called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is now at version 11.04 and overall the Ubuntu experience should be as smooth as using a Windows machine, but without the cost and the threat of virus etc. (more on that soon). Since first writing this article, a new distribution of Linux called "Pinguy OS 11.04" has been discovered (a review is on the blog) and it is a highly tweaked version of Ubuntu with all the best bits of the amazing Linux Mint mixed together. If you are a first time user, it is highly recommended that you install this version on your machine.

Browsing the internet.

The one thing that everyone does is browse the internet. On Windows you will have a version of Internet Explorer, plus many people download free alternative browsers such as Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome. Also, they recommend that while using the internet you use an anti-virus program to stop your Windows machine becoming infected, plus anti-spyware and firewall software.

This is where the Ubuntu Linux (I'll refer to Pinguy and Mint as Ubuntu in the rest of this article) experience is far better than anything Windows can offer. Ubuntu and Pinguy OS come with Firefox 5 built in as standard, and the difference in speed between this build and the Windows build is quite phenomenal, Linux Firefox 5 just flies along at an unbelievable pace. Of course you can also download Ubuntu versions of Opera, Chrome and Google Chrome, plus a whole host of other browsers.

One thing that is different in Linux in general is that there is no need for any anti-virus! Because of the way the Operating System is built, Virus' are almost unheard of in Linux - in fact, Ubuntu's website say they have never had a virus on any installed system, and as such it is perfectly safe not to use one. it's also safe not to use anti-spyware and the option of using a Firewall program is up to you. This all means for the end user that no computer resources are being used elsewhere, so even on the oldest computers Linux is stupidly fast!

Those concerned about watching Youtube or streaming music can also be assured that Ubuntu (and in particular Pinguy) comes with all the codecs needed to allow you to do all this hassle free. Youtube is smooth and fast when on full-screen, even on the lowest spec computers, and you can stream any kind of music file (whatever a radio station uses etc.) with ease.

Recommended Browsers: Firefox 5 (Default), Chromium or Opera. Pinguy OS comes with a special version of Firefox 5 that has a lot of add-ons already installed to make your web-browsing experience even better.

Downloading Music or Films.

Again, just as simple in Ubuntu as it is in Windows. If you're a fan of bit torrents then Ubuntu comes with Transmission and Pinguy comes with Deluge, great little torrent client that allows you to manage your torrent downloads. I would recommend that Ubuntu users install Deluge as well, as it is even more versatile than Transmission.

Downloading paid for music or films can be done via the Amazon store on Banshee music player. There is no iTunes in Linux, so if you're a user of iTunes, Amazon Store is your new shopping place. Also of note, if you have an iPod, Banshee will be your new friend, and the software is much better than iTunes. When you first plug in your iPod you can rip the tracks off the machine and Banshee will transfer them to your computers hard drive. Quick and simple!

Recommended Download Software: Transmission (Default in Ubuntu) or Deluge (Default in Pinguy)

Writing Letters and Office Work.

Many people get caught in the trap thinking that they have to use Microsoft Office or Word etc. This is one of Microsoft's biggest sellers, and they'd have you believe they are something a bit special. Well, look no further than Libre Office which is bundled with Ubuntu (or Open Office on older versions – essentially the same program). It is a fully compatible software suite that includes writing, database, power-point and excel functions, and look almost identical to them.

Libre Office can read and write .docx files that the new version of Word uses. I have used the software in a work environment and shared with Microsoft users and they have never been aware I'm using different software. So many people get duped into buying Microsoft's Office programs, when there is a perfectly good free version out there.

If you use Outlook then Ubuntu comes with Evolution which looks and acts very similar to it. It's a great program that gets better with every release. In a lot of ways I prefer it to Outlook, it's faster, it's less cluttered and it just works when you need it to! Pinguy comes with Mozilla's Thunderbird client which again is versatile and I know is used by many business' around the World.

Recommended Software: Libre Office 3.x, Open Office 3.x or Abiword for general office work. Thunderbird or Evolution as email clients.

Listening to music or watching films.

Everyone has their favourite program for listening to music or watching films on their PC. Ubuntu comes with Banshee for listening to music and Totem Movie Player for watching films. Both do a brilliant job of this, and Banshee is one of the best music management programs I have ever used.

Also of course there is VLC which can be downloaded (and is installed in Pinguy by default). A favourite of many Windows users, the Ubuntu Linux version of VLC is perfect for your audio and visual needs. The cream of the crop though is the new UMPlayer. This little program plays anything you throw at it, it's super quick and is one of the slickest pieces of software you will ever use. I have written a full review of it on my blog for those of you interested in it.

Recommended Media Software: UMPlayer, Banshee 2, Totem Movie Player or VLC

Art and photograph viewing.

We'd all like to own Photoshop but it's damn expensive. We have all used Paint and now how primitive that is. Some of us have discovered the delights of Photfiltre, but sadly not enough of us. So that's the Windows side of things, but Ubuntu has a whole wealth of visual manipulation goodies that just work and are free!

Gimp is program similar to Photoshop. Many people say it's as good as Photoshop, but of course it's free and constantly updated so in my books that swings it for me! Gimp can be as complicated or easy as you want to make it, and once you get used to the way it works, it really is a cool piece of software.

For viewing your photos there is Shotwell, which is a great viewer program. And of course there is much much more...

Recommended Software: Gimp and Shotwell

Windows programs inside Linux

If push comes to a shove and you really need to run a Windows program then there is a compatibility layer called WINE ("Wine Is Not an Emulator") that you can use. It allows you to run some games and software on your Linux system almost perfectly, and sometimes perfectly.

I was a big user of Spotify on Windows, and now run Spotify under WINE in Pinguy OS. I was also a fan of Photofiltre, a great little photo editing and art package, which I also have installed in Linux.

The good thing is, in Pinguy OS you just download the Windows .exe file and the Operating System installs it all for you automatically. It really is that easy and it really does work well with a lot of problems. Even in other versions of Ubuntu and Linux it is easy to install with little or no knowledge.

And there's more...

The one thing that confuses many Windows users is where to download new software. A lot of time you can download free-trials, a lot of time the free downloads are limited use and of course there is always the threat of malicious software giving you a virus or spying on your every move.

Ubuntu (and Pinguy) has a download centre where almost every piece of software available for it is listen. It is all categorised to make it simple for you to find what you need. What's more 99.9% of the software is perfectly free and available for full use with no constraints. Think of it as an online shop, where everything can be viewed before you download, and with just one click it will be downloaded and installed on your PC.

It's not just that almost everything is free, it's that everything gets updated on a regular basis and each and every program you download has been tested by people who enjoy using computers as much as you.

You know when you want to use a printer with your Windows machine, you plug it in and it doesn't work. You then have to find the driver that allows it to work, and if you're using a Windows 7 machine it's really hard to find the driver that lets your printer work. Well, in Ubuntu Linux there are no drivers as such... you plug in your printer or camera or wi-fi stick etc and it just works as they are all built into the Linux Kernal.

In fact, the saying I like to use when talking to people about Linux in general is “it just works”, because it does. As I said, if you're a gamer then stick to your Windows, but if it's something else you are after the Linux is something you really should consider.

Mark Adam
Re-written and updated August 2nd 2011.

Welcome to the new blog.

Welcome to what is hopefully going to be a new and exciting blog dedicated to new and old Linux users. This blog came about as I realised my personal blog was starting to fill up with Linux related stuff and might not be as interesting to people in general as it would be to people looking for Linux news and reviews.

I will be transferring and updating my Linux posts from my other blog and placing them on here. I will also be doing a weekly links page to interesting Linux news around the Internet. Time willing, I will also be adding more and more original content.

I am also looking for like-minded people to help me with the blog. If you are interested, then please email scooby1970@sky.com and let me know.

:) Mark