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Showing posts from January, 2012

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Ubuntu 11.10 is important because of one major issue: Unity. When Ubuntu 11.04 arrived, the Unity shell interface for the GNOME desktop environment seemed to be a step backwards — at least on the Ubuntu front. It was buggy, based on dated libraries, and showed little promise. But with the release of 11.10, things have taken a turn for better. Here are the 10 factors that I think have given Ubuntu a fresh impetus. Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

gPodder, a free podcast aggregator for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Maemo and MeeGo

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Not a big fan of bash-based apps? The gPodder Linux podcast software offers a GUI-ed approach to Linux podcasting. Installing the program is easy, as gPodder is in all likelihood already in your Linux distribution’s package manager. Search for gPodder and you should be good to go, but if not there are downloads over at gPodder’s home page. Start the program and you’ll be presented with a list of default podcasts to choose from, including three of my favorite shows on NPR: Car Talk , This American Life and Science Friday. Pick any podcasts here that you’re interested in and you’ve got a good start. Adding podcasts is basic: hit “ Subscription” followed by “ Subscribe to a new podcast URL.” Then you need only paste the feed and you’ll be asked which new episodes you want to download. A neat feature of this program is the ability to add any YouTube channel as a podcast. The “ Search For Podcasts “ has a YouTube tab; simply search for your favorite channel and you’ll be good to go. Lo