Category Archives: Linux

Xubuntu 12.04, Lubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin review

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Ubuntu-12.04-LTSLong term release of Ubuntu with version number 12.04 and code name Precise Pangolin has been released a few days ago. It brings the evolution of Canonicals Unity desktop environment as well as Linux Kernel version 3.2 and fresh set of applications in official repository. At the beginning of this article I must point out that at the time Ubuntu 12.04 had been released all machines I use were powered by Gnome 2 operating systems like Ubuntu 10.04 or CentOS 6.2. The reason for this conservative approach is that I choose my software based on the level of productivity it allows me to reach. From my experience using current Linux desktop environments like Unity and Gnome 3 could be considered as productivity suicide. In this article I will review latest offering from Canonical in the form of Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity, Xubuntu 12.04 with Xfce and Lubuntu 12.04 with LXDE. I'll leave KDE Ubuntu flavor Kubuntu out of this review because although feature packed it is usually too buggy to be taken seriously.

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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Java applications menu bar font color

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Java LogoUbuntu 12.04 LTS named Precise Pangolin has been released few days ago. I did some testing and I can't really say I'm disappointed because that happened a while ago when Canonical released first Unity powered Ubuntu version. But lets be fair and ignore Unity for a moment and focus on something else. Latest Ubuntu is full of bugs. For example if you had an idea to do some coding using NetBeans Java IDE on your shiny new Ubuntu 12.04 LTS think again. To be honest you can try to do some coding if you don't mind not seeing your menu bar due to bug where Java applications use wrong menu bar font color. Also the latest version of Ubuntu light themes exposes an old bug where Java applications loose menu border. This bug first appeared with default Gnome 2 GTK+ theme Clearlooks, if you need workaround for that one here it is. It isn't clear is this Java Swing API bug or Ubuntu light themes bug but fortunately there is a workaround. In this article I will present PPA with modified version of Ubuntu light-themes package that works around this issue.

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Fix ugly Qt4 apps on Lubuntu and Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

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Lubuntu LogoSo far Lubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin turned out really great. But there's always that one thing, my VLC media player looks strange and doesn't fit in with the rest of my operating system. Apparently Qt4 apps in Lubuntu doesn't pick up correct GTK theme. To fix this issue you just need to install libgnome2-common package and restart your Qt4 application.

You can do something like this from terminal:

sudo apt-get install libgnome2-common

This command will install library necessary to fix this issue. Have fun!

Edit: The same thing applies to Xfce desktop from Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. I've forgot to point out that you need to logout/login into your desktop environment to notice changes.

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin officially released

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For all you Ubuntu guys out there Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin has been officially released. Here are the download links:

For the list of all available releases you can go to official Ubuntu releases download pages:

Have fun testing Ubuntu 12.04, I'll probably drop some of my experiences on you shortly!

Fix Clearlooks GTK+ 2 theme missing menu borders on Java applications

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ClearlooksDue to current Gnome 3 and Unity madness I still use good old GNOME 2 based Linux operating systems like Centos 6 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on all my machines. When I need productivity I put on my Clearlooks theme. Clearlooks is simple and elegant theme engine for GTK+ used by default by GNOME desktop environment version 2. This is theme that has been around for years and if you have GNOME 2 on your machine you most likely have Clearlooks theme. A few years ago I've noticed a little bug with Java based applications. Basically when you switch to Clearlooks theme your Java applications loose menu borders. In this article I'm bringing workaround for missing menu borders on Java applications with Clearlooks GTK+ 2 theme.

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