The improved version of the software centre includes various interface improvements aimed at making the software centre that much more intuitive and an easy to use, one stop application for the various software possibilities available for Linux

Application listing seems to have been simplified but at the same time it has been designed in such a manner that software package identification is much clearer.

The package description page has been dressed up with alot more useful information such as a full application description and an application screenshot.

The categories seems to have remained largely the same.

The next release of Ubuntu will surely be a hit as the developers have gone to great lengths in sculpting an operating system that is going beyond that of what a modern operating system should be!

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Installing the PIXMA MP250 Printer

1. Head over to the Canon driver page and download the printer driver (MP250 series IJ Printer Driver Ver. 3.20 for Linux (debian Packagearchive)) for the MP250 printer series

2. The download will be a tar.gz file, extract the contents of that file, and install the two packages (cnijfilter-common_3.20-1_i386.deb and cnijfilter-mp250series_3.20-1_i386.deb) contained in the extracted folder by double clicking them and following the on screen prompts.

3. Once installed, connect and turn the printer on, Ubuntu should recognize it and suggest the correct driver.

Installing the PIXMA MP250 Scanner

This part is slightly tricky as it involves installing the Sane backends, which is the system responsibly for scanning on Ubuntu.

1. Head over to the Canon driver page and download the scanner driver (MP250 series ScanGear MP Ver. 1.40 for Linux (debian Packagearchive)) for the MP250 printer series

2. Install the two .deb packages (scangearmp-common_1.40-1_i386.deb and scangearmp-mp250series_1.40-1_i386.deb)  contained with in the tar.gz downloaded package by double clicking them and following the on screen prompts.

3. Open a terminal and roll up your sleeves, this is where it gets slightly messy. In you terminal copy the following command:

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev build-essential

This will install some required packages for the scanner

4. Now we need to get the sane backend, we will do this via git. If you don’t already have git installed on your pc, run the following command in your terminal

sudo apt-get install git-core

5. Now we will need to fetch the sane backend by running the following command:

git clone git://git.debian.org/sane/sane-backends.git

This will download the sane backend into the sane-backend folder within your home folder.

6. Once the download is finished you will notice that it is an uncompiled package, meaning that it will have to be compiled manually. Don’t worry, as it is quite a simple process to compile and install a package. Firstly move into the downloaded folder:

cd sane-backends

7. No we can run the configuration of the package with the following command:

./configure –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –localstatedir=/var

8. Once the configuration is complete we are now ready to compile the package by entering the following command into the terminal:

make

This process may take a while

9. Last step now is to install the package that was compiled in the previous step, note this last step requires the sudo (super user) command :

sudo make install

10. The scanner is now installed, however the permissions still need to be set. To set the permissions we will create a new file that will allow usage of the scanner. In the terminal, open Gedit:

sudo gedit

Onne Gedit is opened, copy and paste the following text into the empty gedit file

SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ENV{DEVTYPE}==”usb_device”, MODE:=”0666″

SUBSYSTEM==”usb_device”,MODE:=”0666″

Save the file in the /etc/udev/rules.d/ directory, titled 40-scanner-permissions.rules

Your PIXMA MP250 scanner is now installed. You may now fire up the Xsane scanning utility and scan away.

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Installing OpenOffice.org on you Ubuntu System

1. first we need to remove the previous instance of OpenOffice.Org on your system, open your terminal and copy the following command, which will remove your current OpenOffice.Org installation

sudo apt-get remove openoffice*

2. Now we are ready to download the new version of OpenOffice.Org and install it, the following command will do both in one swoop

wget http://download.services.openoffice.org/files/stable/3.2.0/OOo_3.2.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
tar -xvf OOo_3.2.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
cd OOO320_m12_native_packed-1_en-US.9483/
sudo dpkg -iR DEBS/

OpenOffice.Org 3.2 is now installed on your system.

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Wine Suggestion for .exe files.

Any Linux user is well aware of the Wine project which adds .exe application compatibility to a Linux system, ie allowing Linux to run windows applications. However to a Linux newcomer, this probably is not known. Therefore klau3 over at Ubuntu Brainstorm suggested implementing a pop up window that informs a user that .exe files are not native to Linux and that a user will have to install Wine in order to run the .exe file.

While there is a decent open source software alternative for almost every Windows application, and it would be preferable to convince a user to switch to one of those alternatives. Nevertheless this would be a great idea in dispelling the myth that Linux is incapable of running a wide verity of software

Default Software configurations during installation

“Installation process should give people the choice to select some standard programms.
Someone using Thunderbird as mail client doesn’t need Evolution…
It is not about installing all kinds of programms during the installation process, but about selecting the most common programms easily.” explains klau3 who also posted this suggestions.

Again this is a great idea, however it would have to be implemented with care and tact if it is decided to be included in future Ubuntu releases. Ubuntu prides itself as an advanced yet easy to use and understand desktop operating system. Implementing a menu like this during installation will surely induce panic and confusion for anyone’s grandmother trying to install Ubuntu.

Install a simple compiz config manager by default

A very valid suggestion as most Ubuntu users will surely be using their Ubuntu machines with compiz desktop effects enabled, therefore it would be logical to provide a pre installed method to customize the desktop effects.

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Configuring Ubuntu to print on the Lexmark x1200

1. The first step is to acquire the two packages, z600llpddk-2.0.deb and z600cups-1.0.deb, that contain the proper driver for the Lexmark x1200, you can download them here:

• z600llpddk-2.0.deb
• z600cups-1.0.deb

2. Double click on the downloaded files and install them via the Gdebi package installer

3. Open a terminal and type

sudo ldconfig

cd /usr/share/cups/model

sudo gunzip Lexmark-Z600-lxz600cj-cups.ppd.gz

4. Now we need to install libstdc++5 which is required for these drivers to operate

sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

5. Restart your computer

6. Once you have restarted your computer go to System >> Administration >> Printing and select ‘Add new printer’

7. Select the Lexmark z600 driver from the list

Your printer is now installed.

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While Gnome 3 will unfortunately not be ready in time for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, it will most probably be included in Ubuntu’s 10.10 release later on this year.

If you are an early adopter and wish to test out this radical new desktop interface you can install the development packages and try it out first hand, bearing in mind that this is a development release, so expect bugs!

To install the Gnome the Shell:

1. Open a terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get build-dep gnome-shell

This will install the required dependencies to run Gnome 3 on your desktop

2. Install Gnome

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

3. To activate Gnome 3

gnome-shell –replace

For user with an Intel graphics card, you may want to run the following to fix some issues with the Gnome 3 Interface:

export GNOME_SHELL_DISABLE_TFP=1

Remember that this a development release so it would probably be prudent to test this on a virtual machine, however it will give you a good idea of the innovation in store for mainstream Gnome based distributions.

The Gnome 3 Interface

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There are two ways of installing skype on your PC, The graphical user interface method, or a quick terminal method.

Graphical User Interface Method:

1. Head over to Skype.com and download the Skype .deb package for Ubuntu

2. Double click the downloaded package and follow the installation prompts

Via The Terminal

1. Download the Skype package

“wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-32″

2. Install the Skype package

“sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_i386.deb”

This will install the downloaded skype package onto your system

The Skype package also resides in the Medibuntu repository, if you would prefer to have the system’s software package manager deal with the skype installation and update it automatically, you may install it via the Synaptic Package Manager, you will, however, need to add the Medibuntu repository to your software sources.

1. Open a terminal and enter the following

“sudo wget –output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get –quiet update && sudo apt-get –yes –quiet –allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get –quiet update”

This will add the Medibuntu Repository to your system and also it’s required GPG key

2. Install Skype:

“sudo apt-get install skype”

The system will download and install Skype, creating a launcher under Applications > Internet

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