Nemo file manager, power and speed in one app

While reading the Ubuntu board on Reddit, I found a rather lively discussion on what file manager was the best.

For some time Nautilus had been toppled from that list. For some reason the Nautilus team had been reducing the features of Nautilus.

"Nautilus on Ubuntu seems to be some type of hack-fork. I've seen this package regress in features since I started using Ubuntu in April of 2007." -lonniebiz

I personally use Thunar. Thunar is quite powerful, and rather fast, which is the combination I am looking for.

After reading this discussion, I think Nemo is the contender to beat though, having power, speed and beauty to boot.

Let me introduce you to Nemo.

First off, the name, as my header image implies, refers to the famous captain.

"Gwendal Le Bihan named the project “nemo” after Jules Verne’s most famous character, who also happens to be the captain of the “Nautilus”. Who else than Nemo could take the Nautilus and veer towards a different direction?" -http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/?p=198

Features

*  All the features Nautilus 3.4 had and which are missing in Nautilus 3.6 (all desktop icons, compact view, etc..)

*  Open in terminal (this is part of Nemo itself)

*  Open as root (this is also part of Nemo)

*  File operations progress information (when you copy/move files you can see the percentage and info about the operation on the window title and so also in your window list)

* Proper GTK bookmarks management

*  Full navigation options (back, forward, up, refresh)

*  Ability to toggle between the path entry and the path breadcrumb widgets

*  A lot more configuration options (This list thanks to Wikipedia)

If you are interested in Nemo you can install it in Ubuntu by typing these three commands seperately in your terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

Here is my screenshot of Nemo:

If you are "in the market" for a different file manager, give Nemo a try.

Pear Os is no more, for now

 We bid adieu to an excellent operating system. Pear Os "closed it's doors" this week, stating it was bought out by a party that wants to remain anonymous.

"Pear OS is no longer available for download. Its future is now in hands of a company who wants to remain anonymous for the moment. The concept has pleased them it and now wants to continue and improve the system for their own products. I can not give a name but it is a very large company well known ... I want to thank all users, moderators and other developers who have made Pear OS it is today, that without this adventure would not have been possible. I'm going in another direction. Pear Cloud users must recover their files on Pear Cloud servers. In 10 days, the files will be deleted and the server will be offline. Another big thank you to all and I hope to return to the scene of open source very quickly. Cordially. David" -http://pearlinux.org/

Sad to see it go, they had a decent following because of the OS's Mac OS X feel and excellent collection of apps that came "out of the box".

Here is a screenshot of what the OS looks like:

Good bye, beautiful friend.

Ubuntu 14.04 gets better Software Update tool

"Canonical has upgraded a lot of aspects of Ubuntu 14.04, and the developers are pushing updates every day. The Software Updater has also received a sizable upgrade, making it a lot more user-friendly than ever before.

More and more new users are installing Ubuntu for the first time and not everyone is ready to upgrade the system from a terminal or from a simple interface that only shows what packages will be downloaded and installed.

The new Software Updater is now a lot more user-friendly and shows more details about what you are actually installing. This is a great improvement over the previous version present in Ubuntu 13.10, but it would be nice if more features were available, like a changelog for the new version of an app." -Softpedia

P.S. Softpedia.com has been injected with the insidious IntelliTxt, of which I hate.

Entire Italian province drops Microsoft Office for LibreOffice

Not too long ago I wrote about the entire city of Munich switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux.

Now the Italian province of Umbria is switching from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.

This kind of thing is happening all over the world. Microsoft will have to lower their prices and offer better, cheaper customer service in order to continue to survive. Time is on the side of the open source community, not Microsoft in my opinion.

"According to ZDNet.com, the authorities from the province of Umbria have started a project called LibreUmbria, which aims to transition the entire regional governmental apparatus from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice." -Softpedia

“We found out that most of our users exploit just 15 percent of their productivity suite, but you are paying for the other 85 percent as well. It's just like if you owned a Ferrari and only used it to drive at 30km per hour through the middle of town,” -Alfiero Ortali, head of IT in the province of Perugia.

“Right now, along with Munich, I'd call LibreUmbria the most advanced experience of migration in the world.” -Italo Vignoli, a member of Assoli, an Italian association of Free Software advocates and member on the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation, the nonprofit organization that makes the LibreOffice Suite

For more information about LibreOffice, or to download a copy for free, go here: http://www.libreoffice.org/

Microsoft lied about Google Chrome OS today

Microsoft out and out lied on a commercial today about Google's Chrome OS/Chromebook during a commercial that aired during American Idol tonight.

The commercial out and out said there was no office options for Chrome OS.

This is not only a lie, but is a disgusting display by the aging, pedantic, even perhaps evil Microsoft.

This is just another attempt by Microsoft to "scroogle" Google. (Not my words, Microsoft's.)

Google Chrome OS has many office options, some of which I would say are better than Microsoft Office.

The first office suite on the list has to be Google Docs. It is a full office suite, period.

Live Documents is the next on my list, and touts the ability to edit MS Office docs without data loss, just beautiful.

Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show combine to provide a comprehensive and free web-based office suite. The tools are more robust than some other web applications.

SlideRocket brings measurement, sharing, and multimedia to presentations in for your Chromebook.

280Slides is an online, Chromebook-ready presentation solution aimed at helping you create beautiful presentations.

Vyew offers Chromebook users a visual collaboration and sharing solution.

Evernote is the cross platform productivity tool that helps you remember everything. Armed with a Chromebook and a scanner, this tool will help you organize your life. Evernote is available for many devices and is very popular in the Chrome Web Store.

Gravity is a web based project management tool that has both free and paid options. Gravity has a very functional, drag-and-drop interface that makes scheduling and editing tasks relatively easy. Gravity, which is available in the Chrome Web Store, would work for managing website upgrades, new inventory or warehouse projects, or more.

5pm is a web-based project and task management tool that provides fairly robust way to handle many common business, marketing, and web development tasks. Like similar solutions, 5pm is available in the Chrome Web Store, and may be easily integrated with a Chromebook.

The Deadline is a sort of combination news-feed reader and digital sticky note tool that bills itself as an online personal assistant. It is available in the Chrome Web Store.

Remember the Milk is a to-do list tool that will work on your Chromebook or mobile device. The solution has been very popular with iPhone users and with early adaptors for some time. Now Remember the Milk is available in the Chrome Web Store.

Wave Accounting is a business accounting suite that will run from a Chromebook.

Zoho Books is a simple business account tool.

This list would be exhaustive enough, if it were not for the fact that yet another office suite for the Chromebook called QuickOffice, which promises to be as good as MS Office, and even better, is coming out soon.

Microsoft's sickening out and out lies should be brought to light, and I believe I have done this.

I personally would love to see a law suit against Microsoft succeed. It seems it's the only way to get their attention, even if only for a while.

This garbage must stop, Microsoft.

*This list thanks in large part to an article that first appeared on Practical E-Commerce

Ubuntu beats Windows, Mac, and Android in security report

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS out performed Windows and Mac operating systems according to a UK security agency.

GCHQ, the UK government branch has a security group called CESG. They reviewed eleven OSes against a 12-point list of security criteria.

Among the OS's in the test were Android, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 7, 8 and RT.

Among all the OS'es tested, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was the most secure option.

Makes a Ubuntu/Linux geek proud.

Here's a pdf of the pertinent information: http://insights.ubuntu.com/wp-content/uploads/UK-Gov-Report-Summary.pdf

And here is the official release thanks to gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/end-user-devices-security-guidance--2

I also want to thank OMGUbuntu for keeping us informed on news like this. It's nice to have one more bragging point for the operating system I have grown to love.

Meet Intel's Edison, an amazing SD card sized computer

Intel showed off an impressive piece of technology at CES this year.

Edison is a complete computer, including a low-power 22nm 400MHz Intel® Quark processor with two cores, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth*, and much more.

"The unique combination of small size, power, and rich capabilities makes the Intel Edison board a game changer, lowering the barriers to entry for thousands of visionaries.

Intel Edison board-powered devices can cooperate in highly customized and sophisticated ways. These devices don't have to be hardwired one-trick ponies; they can house multiple apps that can be downloaded and installed just like we do with phones and tablets.

Let's look at a great example of the Intel Edison board in action.



Mimo Baby Monitor*


Start with a computer that really is the size of an SD card.




Attach it to a regular onesie and sensors that monitor the baby's temperature, breathing, and motion.




Then, set the Intel Edison board to trigger actions on other connected devices, like this automatic bottle warmer or this coffee cup.

Each one of these has the Intel Edison board inside, communicating with the others to deliver amazing solutions to age-old problems." -Intel.com

All of this would be impressive in a computer the size of a small book, but being that it is much smaller, and still has things like WiFi and Bluetooth is just mind boggling.