Snowlinux 4

Lars Torben Kremer has announced the release of Snowlinux 4, a Debian-based distribution with MATE (a desktop environment forked from GNOME 2): "The team is proud to announce the release of Snowlinux 4 'Glacier'. Snowlinux 4 is based upon Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 'Wheezy' and uses Linux kernel 3.5. MATE 1.4 is the default desktop environment and LightDM as the new default login manager that replaces GDM 3. It includes its own greeter for LightDM. Many new features have been introduced, like snowMenu, the Snowlinux menu and snowMount, the Snowlinux mount tool for drives. The Snowlinux metal theme was colored blue and the icon set was updated with the latest Faience icons. Snowlinux now uses Pidgin as the default IM client. This release comes with Firefox 17 and Thunderbird 17, LibreOffice, Rhythmbox and Shotwell." Read the rest of the release announcement which includes a screenshot and upgrade information. Download: snowlinux-4-glacier-amd64.iso (935MB, MD5).

Ultimate Edition 3.5

A new version of Ultimate Edition, an Ubuntu 12.04 remix with KDE as the default desktop, was announced earlier today: "What is Ultimate Edition 3.5? Ultimate Edition 3.5 was built off Ultimate Edition 3.4 and Ubuntu 12.04 'Precise Pangolin' release. All packages fully updated and upgraded, old kernels purged, new initrd and vmlinuz rebuilt. Ultimate Edition 3.5 is everything Ultimate Edition 3.4 has plus multiple operating environments; KDE being the default. Ultimate Edition 3.5 has a new GTK+ 3 theme and a comprehensive set of software packages. Just to bring you up to date, I have Ultimate Edition 3.6 in local testing based on Ubuntu 12.10 'Quantal Quetzal'. I am currently running Ultimate Edition 3.4 Lite based on Ubuntu 12.04 'Percise Pangolin' with a solo environment of GNOME 2 which is quite responsive." See the release announcement and the brief release notes for more information. Download: ultimate-edition-3.5-x64.iso (3,344MB, MD5).

Task Coach 1.3.21 (To-Do List Manager) Fixes Icon Size in Unity - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Task Coach has just been updated to version 1.3.21 which fixes various bugs. As reminder, Task Coach is a cross-platform to-do list manager written in Python that allows users to organize their tasks and to-do lists in a way that will help them improve their productivity.

With Task Coach, you can have these features:

• create/edit/delete tasks

• View tasks as a list/tree

• Sort tasks by subject/budget/date, etc.

• Attachments support for tasks, categories, and notes

• Track time spent on tasks, etc.

There are many features for Task Coach, you can review them in details here. Also, the app is available for some portable devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Here are some of the bugs that has been fixed in this latest release:

• Changing the percentage complete would not cause the calendar viewer to refresh.

• Performance improvement in the edit dialogs

• Fix icon size in Unity

• Toolbar icons to show/hide tasks according to status now respect appearance settings, and are overlayed with a red cross. 

• Fix wording for task statuses

•  Startup and shutdown performance improvements.

• Autosave is now on by default.

• Toolbars are now customizable.

In this tutorial, we will help you install Task Coach via PPA which is available for the following Ubuntu/Linux Mint distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 14/13/12

Task Coach Installation

Enter these commands from the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:taskcoach-developers/ppa 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install  taskcoach

You can start the app via the Unity Dash or from the terminal with this command:

 taskcoach.py

Task Coach Removal

To uninstall the application from your computer, enter these commands:

sudo apt-get remove taskcoach 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:taskcoach-developers/ppa 

sudo apt-get update

Diodon 1.0.0 Adds Support For The XFCE Desktop Environment - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Diodon is a powerful and fast clipboard manager for Gnome and Unity desktop environments that will help users store all items copied/cut in a list which can be accessed at a later time. Diodon has been updated recently to version 1.0.0 bringing support for the XFCE desktop environment and adding a new icon set.

In this article, we will help you install/upgrade to Diodon 1.0.0 from PPA that supports these Ubuntu/Linux Mint distros:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 14/13/12

Diodon 1.0.0 Installation

To install Diodon in Ubuntu/Linux Mint, enter these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diodon-team/stable 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install diodon

Start the Diodon clipboard manager from the dash or via the terminal with this command:

diodon&

For any bug encountered, report it here.

Diodon Removal

To remove Diodon from your system, enter these commands:

sudo apt-get remove diodon 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:diodon-team/stable 

sudo apt-get update

Parsix GNU/Linux 4.0r1

Happy new year! The honour of the first release announcement of 2013 goes to Parsix GNU/Linux, a distribution based on Debian's testing branch and featuring the GNOME 3 desktop: "The updated 4.0r1 version has been synchronized with Debian's testing repositories as of December 29, 2012 and brings lots of updated packages compared to Parsix 3.7 aka Raul. Parsix Gloria is project's first release with the GNOME 3 series and ships with LibreOffice productivity suite by default. Gloria has a brand-new software manager package. Highlights: GNOME 3.4.2, X.Org 7.7, GRUB 2, GNU Iceweasel 17.0.1, GParted 0.12.1, Empathy 3.4.2.3, LibreOffice 3.5.4, VirtualBox 4.1.18 and a brand-new kernel based on Linux 3.2.35 with TuxOnIce 3.3, BFS and other extra patches. The live DVD has been compressed using Squashfs and xz. Main changes are: X.Org Server 1.12.4, glibc 2.13, GIMP 2.8.2, Grisbi 0.8.9, VLC 2.0.5, xFarDic 0.11.7." See the detailed release notes for more information and upgrade instructions. Download: parsix_4.0r1-amd64.iso (1,031MB, MD5).

MediterraneanDark/FlatStudioDark: Two Amazing Dark GTK 3.6 Themes For Ubuntu 12.10/Linux Mint 14

Today, we will see two nice themes that were already ported to GTK 3.6 and are compatible with Ubuntu 12.10 or Linux Mint 14. The first theme is MediterraneanDark and the second is FlatStudioDark which will be enjoyed by fans of dark themes. You can use them with Unity or Gnome Shell.

MediterraneanDark 

----

FlatStudioDark 

 In this tutorial, we will help you install them via PPA, you can add it with these commands:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk+3.6 

 sudo apt-get update

To install MediterraneanDark, enter this command:

sudo apt-get install mediterranean-dark-gtk

For FlatStudioDark, run this command:

sudo apt-get install flatstudiodark-gtk

Use Gnome Tweak Tool to enable the two themes.

MediterraneanDark/FlatStudioDark Removal

If you want to remove these themes, enter these commands:

sudo apt-get remove flatstudiodark-gtk 

sudo apt-get remove mediterranean-dark-gtk

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk+3.6 

sudo apt-get update