Use Custom Theme in GNOME Shell 3.6 (Ubuntu 12.10)

Here's a simple solution for you who use GNOME Shell desktop environment (GNOME 3.6) to make custom themes (especially metacity/window decoration themes) work on GNOME Shell 3.6 desktop in latest Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal).

Some people prefer GNOME Shell desktop environment over the default Unity desktop in latest Ubuntu 12.10. The DE comes with the default Adwaita theme from GNOME Team, which is clean and beautiful theme, but still, people want the ability to use custom themes to personalize for their own desktop.

In previous version of GNOME Shell, people can choose different themes by putting their cutom themes in user folder (~/.themes) and then easily activate them via a theme changer utility app like GNOME Tweak Tool (Advanced Settings). Unfortunately, in the latest stable realease (GNOME 3.6), this ability to use custom theme is not that easy anymore, which is I think a regression. Below is a screenshot:

Screenshot: Can not change window border theme on GNOME Shell session

Like you can see on the screenshot above, I activated custom themes (zonColor) for window border/titlebar theme, GTK theme, and GNOME Shell theme. The GTK theme and GNOME Shell theme work, but not the window (metacity/mutter) theme; it still show the default theme, despite what I choose via GNOME Tweak Tool app window.

So, how to make custom themes (especially metacity) work on latest GNOME Shell 3.6?

Install Nemo File Manager in Ubuntu

The upcoming changes in Nautilus 3.6 created controvery among desktop Linux users. The latest version of the file manager application from GNOME project has been completely redesigned so that it is much simpler in term of visual design, and also in its functionality.

Despite its better looking and consistency with other GNOME apps, removal of its features including compact view, tree view in sidebar, extra pane, and many other features available in its predecessor that are considered important features for many, has made users consider to find and use alternatives.

Ubuntu team has decided to stick with Nautilus 3.4 for its upcoming Ubuntu 12.10. Other Linux distro, Linux Mint team has had even more further move, by forking it, creating Nemo, a Nautilus 3.4 fork that keep its features, with some other useful addition.

Install Real Firefox in Debian

Mozilla Firefox is a widely used web browser in many GNU/Linux distibution, including Debian OS. But, due to the brand/name restriction, Debian use Iceweasel, a rebranded Firefox browser, as its the default web browser instead of "real" Mozilla Firefox.

Iceweasel is Firefox, only with different name and logo. It looks and performs exactly like Firefox, Firefox extensions/add-ons are 100% compatible and thus can be installed and used in Iceweasel.

But for many people, using the rebranded browser of Firefox somehow doesn't give a "real" Firefox eperience. And also, although in very rare cases, some websites reportedly can't recognize Iceweasel as Firefox, so the site can't be used smoothly on it. Another reason why some people prefer the real Firefox instead of Iceweasel, is because Iceweasel in Debian is a bit outdated, not updated to the latest Firefox (as of this writing, Iceweasel version in Debian Wheezy is Iceweasel ESR 10.0.7, while the latest Mozilla Firefox is Firefox 15.0).

For whatever reason, if you want to install the real Firefox in Debian OS, here I will show a little step-by-step tutorial/guide.

Debian doesn't provide Firefox in its official repository, so we need to install it in another way. In this method, I will show you a manual installation: how to install the real Mozilla Firefox web browser in Debian OS.

Format Junkie: Convert Multimedia Files Easily (Ubuntu)

Format Junkie is an easy to use, all-in-one application for converting media files to most popular formats today.

With its nice GUI, format Junkie comes with lots of options, and supports various multimedia files including audio, video, image, iso/cso formats, and also an advanced feature to join audio/video files or encode subtitles.

Install Non-Free Multimedia Codecs in Debian

Debian GNU/Linux is a free and open-source operating system, that brings only free software/applications by default.

For most users, although the applications included in official Debian iso release are capable to handle most everyday computing tasks, but sometimes they still need to use additional codecs especially to deal with certain types of file like mp3 audio, Java plugin, Adobe flash, or basic MS fonts that is included in an office document, or other proprietary formats.

Install Latest KDE in Ubuntu / Kubuntu

KDE SC (Software Compilation) is one of the most used desktop and application platform/environment in Linux, beside GNOME which is the default platform in Ubuntu. KDE offers high quality, slick and very nice looking, and arguably the best, highly customizable workspace and applications for its users.

KDE developers announced availabily of the latest version of KDE software, which is KDE SC 4.9 that brings many improvements, bug fixes, new features, and the best updated release yet.

Kubuntu 12.04 running the latest KDE 4.9 (with some customization)

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What's New in KDE 4.9

Install Latest WINE in Debian / Linux Mint (LMDE)

We love Linux and free/open source softwares. Unfortunately, we live in a world where most people are still using proprietary software in Windows OS, so that many applications are still only available for the Microsoft's OS. Fear not, the Linux community has a very useful application called WINE, short of Wine Is Not an Emulator, a software that can run a Windows application on Linux machine.

Most Linux distro (including Debian/Mint) have WINE in its official repository, all we have to do is running a single-line command like sudo apt-get install wine to install it. Unfortunately, at least in Debian system official repository (including Debian Squeeze (stable), Wheezy (testing), or LMDE which is based on Debian Testing, WINE package is a bit obsolate. WINE version in the repo is 1.0, while latest stable version of WINE is 1.4, let alone the beta version which currently has reached WINE 1.5. The latest version of WINE brings many features and improvements compared with previous one, supports more Windows apps/games, and also bug fixes.

According to WINE official page, we can install latest WINE on Debian system via this website. The page does not provide a repository that we can simply add it to the Debian source list, but we have to download all necessary packages of latest WINE and install them all manually.

Here I will show you how to install lates WINE in Debian.